II
Parashas Shelach (15:38) concludes with the section of tzitzis (fringes):
דַבֵּר אֶל־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם וְעָשׂוּ לָהֶם צִיצִת...
“Speak to Bnei Yisrael and say to them that they shall make for themselves tzitzis..."
The verse opens with “daber” (“speak"), an expression of firm speech, and concludes with ve'amarta (“say”), an expression of gentle speech. What is the significance of this change from a firm expression to a gentle one? It seems to me that the mitzvah of tzitzis comes to rectify the sin of the spies that preceded it in our parashah. Therefore, the passage begins with a firm expression because of the rebuke and moral instruction it contains, but concludes with “ve'amarta," a gentle expression, to draw them close and give them hope for rectification. This idea is further reinforced by the Torah's inclusion of the word aleihem, "to them," indicating that these words should penetrate deeply within their hearts..
The hope for rectification lies in the mitzvah of tzitzis. The mitzvah of tzitzis causes a person to remember all the mitzvos of Hashem and "not straying after your hearts and after your eyes." In truth, the spies sinned in both of these faculties: the heart and the eyes. They harbored thoughts of personal bias and heresy in their hearts, and this affected their eyes, causing them not to perceive correctly all that they saw in the Land of Israel. The sin of Bnei Yisrael was that they believed the words of the spies, thereby becoming partners in those same corruptions of the heart and the eyes. The rectification of the eyes comes through the proper seeing implied by "and you shall see it and remember all the mitzvos of Hashem" (see below), and also through the fact that “the techeles (blue string of the tzitzis) resembles the sea, the sea resembles the sky, and the sky resembles the Kisei HaKavod (Throne of Glory)." Through proper vision one rectifies the heart and brings himself to the state of "you shall not stray after your hearts and after your eyes," the exact opposite of the sin of the spies. However, Bnei Yisrael added yet another sin to the transgression of the spies, the nature and rectification of which will be explained later, G-d willing. (See below, the idea we bring from the Sfas Emes on “daber... veʼamarta.”)
