וַתִּשָּׂא כָּׂל-הָּׂעֵדָּׂה וַיִּתְּנוּ אֶת -קוֹלָּׂם וַיִּבְּכוּ הָּׂעָּׂם בַלַיְּלָּׂה הַהוּא (במדבר יד, א)
Sotah 35a; Taanis 29a: “The whole Tzibur raised their voices and cried" (BaMidbar 14:1) – Rabbah said in the name of Rav Yochanan: That night was the eve of the Tishah b'Av. HaShem said 'they cried for no reason. I will fix the day to be a day of crying for generations.'
Sanhendrin 104b - The ominous night was the ninth of Av. Hakodesh Baruch Hu said to Klal Yisrael that because they wept without cause, it will be established as a day of weeping for generations to come. The first and second Batei Mikdashos were destroyed on that day. They cried at night; when one weeps at night his voice is heard more easily than by day. When one weeps at night, others who hear his sobs weep along with him.
WHO CRIED? WHY DID THEY CRY?
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE “העדה” (the assembly) AND “העם” (the people)?
Rashi - “העדה” refers to the members of Sanhedrin. The Beer Yitzchak explains that the העדה at the beginning of the pasuk refers to the Sanhedrin and the העם at the end of the pasuk refers to the rest of Klal Yisrael.
אמרי שפר - All of Klal Yisrael wept during the day. “העם”, which refers to the Eirev Rav, wept at night. Klal Yisrael had no choice but to leave Mitzrayim. Those that did not want to leave were killed in Mitzrayim. On the other hand, the Eirev Rav did not have to go with Klal Yisrael. Therefore, they wept at night for they brought this predicament upon themselves.
מלאכת הקודש - The Gedolim העדה wept during the day and continued crying until the night when the rest of Klal Yisrael joined the crying.
רבינו בחיי – The Meraglim returned to Klal Yisrael at the end of the day and raised their voices weeping very loudly. When evening came, the entire Klal Yisrael wept along with the Meraglim and brought darkness to the world.
מלבי"ם Klal Yisrael are only called an “עדה ” when the elders are at the helm guiding and leading them.
מהר"ל – Chiddushei Agados – Sanhedrin 104b – Why did Klal Yisrael’s reaction to the Meraglim’s report have such far reaching ramifications? It was through Klal Yisrael being taken out of Mitzrayim that they became the Ribbono Shel Olam’s people. Had the entry into the Land been one smooth continuous process, then just as Klal Yisrael is eternally the nation of the Ribbono Shel Olam, it would have followed that their entry into Eretz Yisrael would have been eternal. However, because Klal Yisrael wept, they demonstrated that they were not spiritually ready, and that generation did not enter the Land. This severed the connection of their leaving Mitzrayim to entering Eretz Yisrael, thereby causing the entry of their children into the Land to be temporary.
ירושלמי – תענית – 4:5 – “They (Meraglim) went and came back to Moshe and Aharon.” The Meraglim found them toiling in the Halachos of Challah and Orlah. The Meraglim said to them that they are not entering the Land, and therefore there is no need to learn those Halachos. The entire assembly of Klal Yisrael wept that night. Hakodesh Baruch Hu told them that because they are weeping insipidly, they would weep in the future for a purpose.
מעין בית השואבה - What is the meaning of the Gemara that the Meraglim spoke of that which they did not see? What they repeated, they did in fact see. They saw many people dead, and they saw giants. However, what a person sees depends on what he is seeking, through what type of “lenses” he is gazing. וַיַרְ א אֶת-הַמָּקוֹם מ רָּחֹק (Vayeira 22,4) – “And he (Avrohom Avinu) saw the place from afar.” What place did Avrohom Avinu see? It says in Pirka D’Rebbe Eliezer that he saw a pillar of fire rising from the ground reaching all the way to the heavens. Avrohom was wearing his “Ruchniyos lenses”. Avrohom asked Yitzchak if he saw this, and Yitzchak answered affirmatively. Then Avrohom asked Eliezer and Yishmael and they answered that they did not see anything. Avrohom therefore told them to stay behind with the donkey for it too did not see anything. There was Kedusha there, but a spiritual seeing was necessary to see it. The Meraglim should have seen the Kedusha in the Land, and they would have, had they put on their spiritual lenses. Unfortunately, they went just to see the physical attributes of the Land, and they reported as they saw. The Meraglim are faulted for not seeing the Kedusha; therefore, it says that they spoke that which they did not see – they spoke because they did not see the Kedusha and goodness of the Land.
קרבן העדה – Yerushalmi Tanis 4:5– The Meraglim came and found Klal Yisrael learning Challah and Orlah, Mitzvos that were dependant on the Land of Eretz Yisrael, a Land that the Meraglim said they would not enter.
Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch –They first broke out in a great cry and then continued without letting up.
העמק דבר– Initially it was only the heads of the nation that cried. Afterwards, all the leaders went back to their tents crying. The rest of the nation heard the leaders, and they began to cry along in unison.
סנהדרין – 104b– “Why in Eicha does the Posuk that begins with the letter “פ” precede the Posuk which begins with the letter “ע”? The rest of Megilas Eicha follows the order of the Aleph Bais. The reason is because the Meraglim spoke with their mouths, פיהם, that which they did not see with their eyes, עיניהם.
ילקוט שמעני – When the Meraglim returned from their mission, they spread out – each one amongst his Shevet. Each one began to pace the floor of his home, with a distressed look upon his face. Each family questioned why they looked as they did. They pretended to fall from shock and looked up at their family saying that they are in pain over how the Emoriyim will subjugate them and rule mercilessly over them. All of them immediately burst into loud weeping. It was so loud that all of their neighbors heard, and they as well began to weep, until all of Klal Yisrael were weeping.
במדבר רבה – “The entire assembly arose and raised their voices, that is what it says in Yirmiyah, ‘She raised up her voice against Me, therefore I hated her’.”
מהר"ם שיק– What is the connection between this pasuk and the pasuk in Yirmiyah quoted in the Medrash? Klal Yisrael sent the Meraglim to search the Land to see if they would be able to conquer it through natural means. When the Meraglim returned and said that they would not be able to conquer the Land through natural means, Klal Yisrael feared that perhaps they sinned and were not worthy of being taken into the Land miraculously. However, if this were true, then Klal Yisrael should have cried within their hearts that they were not worthy, and not cried aloud. Their crying out loud constituted a lack of faith in the Ribbono Shel Olam, they cried out against the Ribbono Shel Olam.
של"ה– The Zohar Hakodosh says that the Meraglim wept that night for they knew that once they would enter the Land they would no longer be Nesi’im. Rather there would be other Nesi’im and they would revert back to being commoners. Therefore, they wanted to remain in the Midbar so that they could maintain their status.
ר בונים"הר– Chazal tell us that the gates of tears in Shamayim are never closed. In other words, if one cries out to HaShem, he will always be answered. If so, why are gates needed at all for the path of tears? The gates are needed for the fools who cry for no reason. The gates are in fact closed for those tears and are not answered.
WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT CRYING?
Crying is something internal, an expression of a deep feeling in a person's heart. A person who cries expresses deep sadness about something that occurred to him. "The nation cried that night" – The nation cries out of lack of faith in the cherished land, a lack of faith in HaShem.
Malbim explains that the sin of the nation was their lack of faith in G-d but then explains how the nation developed this lack of faith. It was not a rational lack of faith. Of course, they knew that G-d could ensure victory, the desired conclusion. Malbim implies that the problem was that the nation itself did not feel deserving of this positive intervention by G-d; herein lied their lack of faith. He writes that the nation saw that G-d sometimes brought great benefit to one deserving punishment so that when the penalty was finally given, the fall would be greater. The nation sadly believed that G-d had taken them out of Egypt and protected them in the desert so that they could face greater punishment in the defeat upon entering the land.
Rabbi Tzvi Haskell explains that the failure of trusting in HaShem to overcome the nations in Canaan expressed a basic shortcoming, therefore making it so inviting. One who fully accepts HaShem’s control must totally dedicate oneself to accepting that every action must be consistent with HaShem's constant presence. The inverse is also true for those who wish to avoid HaShem at times. If so, the Jews at least had a subconscious drive to question the extent of HaShem’s control in order to allow this slight lenience in the intensity of their constant awareness of HaShem's omnipresence. This was an act of facilitating an immature outlook of the good and easy approach to life. As a response to this, HaShem shows us what our lives would look like without His constant protection over us.
