The Torah says it reflects whether the land possess riches and surpluses. He continues, וְ הִ תְ חַ זַּ קְ תּ ֶ ם וּ לְ קַ חְ תּ ֶ ם מִ פּ ְ רִ י הָ אָ רֶ ץ signals Moshe telling the group not to be afraid the local inhabitants will notice them taking produce and attack. Various additional commentaries are available regarding the precise meaning of each specific question posed, including Rashi's commentary, which points to the final question – ה ֲ י ֵ שׁ ?בָּ הּ עֵ ץ – as bring the primary one. Namely, a goal of determining if any tzaddikim (א ָ דָ ם כ ּ ָ שׁ ֵ ר – referred to as a tree) were present, as they would be the only ones able to defend the land, through their merit.
Regarding Rashi’s explanation, it makes perfect sense, as if the spies were to determine all sorts of fruit trees and a bounty of food was present in the land, what need is there to then ask if any trees (or singular עֵץ) were found! The only question is, since when is a righteous individual referred to as a tree? The Gemara (Bava Batra 15a) examines when Iyov lived:
רבא אמר: איוב בימי מרגלים היה – כתיב הכא: ״איש היה בארץ עוץ, איוב שמו״, וכתיב התם: ״היש בה עץ״. מי דמי?! הכא ״עוץ״, התם ״עץ״! הכי קאמר להו משה לישראל: ישנו לאותו אדם ששנותיו ארוכות כעץ, ומגין על דורו כעץ?
According to the opinion of Rava, Iyov lived at the time of the spies, proven by the word עוּץ, the land in which Iyov lived and the word עֵץ, the tree referenced in our spies’ questions. The Gemara asks how these two unrelated words are comparable, and answers: Moshe told the spies to seek out whether Iyov – the man whose years were as long as the years of a tree and who protected his generation like a tree – was still alive. Their answer is found in the words of Yehoshua and Kalev following the mission: אִ תּ ָ נוּ אַ ל־תִּ ירָ אֻ ם 'ָם מֵעֲלֵיהֶם וַהּ סָ ר צִל – their protection is removed, and Hashem is with us; do not be afraid. Iyov had died. When the spies reported the land as being one who eats its inhabitants – אֶרֶ ץ אֹכֶלֶת יוֹשׁ ְ בֶיהָ – it was in reference to the funeral procession of Iyov they witnessed.
The Chida explains, when an ordinary person died, the practice was to temporarily bury them in the yard. Whenever a gadol died, a large funeral procession was held, and coinciding with their burial, everyone would bring their dead to be permanently buried in the cemetery. This is what the spies witnessed during their mission – Iyov’s funeral with millions of people and an endless flow of dead bodies. The numerical value of ָםּ צִ ל (160) equals that of עֵץ. The local inhabitants’ protection – i.e., Iyov, the tree – was removed.
There are very interesting ideas with regard to the fruit the spies brought back with them. Rashi quotes the Gemara, that one spy took a date, one spy took a pomegranate, and eight spies carried clusters of grapes. These were tremendously large fruits, with the Midrash saying all twelve spies were able to shelter themselves from the sun or go to sleep inside the shell of a pomegranate after one of the giants discarded it! And the grapes weighed between eight and eleven tons, producing enough wine for forty years in the desert: נַחַ ל אֶ שׁ ְ כּ וֹל – a cluster of grapes from which wine flowed like a stream! Of note, neither Yehoshua nor Kalev brought back anything, knowing it would be used as a prop while speaking negatively about the land. There is a different calculation found in Tanna debei Eliyahu (29), whereby five dates, five pomegranates, and a cluster of grapes were carried back. A long explanation, based on different interpretations of the Pesukim, is available to explain the variance in accounting practices.
There is a very beautiful idea, originating from the Chatam Sofer (2:375), which I would like to turn our attention to. There is a Gemara (Sotah 49a) that speaks about the עִ קְ בְ תָ א דְּ מְ שׁ ִ יחָ א – the times of the approach of Mashiach. These are the times we are currently in, and the Gemara says, amongst other phenomenon, the Galilee will be destroyed, and costs – including that of wine – will rise dramatically. Everything found in that Gemara can be seen today. Additionally, it says, when Bnei Yisrael were exiled from Eretz Yisrael, purity was lost, and as a result, the taste and fragrance from fruit was also lost: בָּטְלָה טַעַם וְרֵ יחַ. I will say, despite having lost most of their taste and fragrance, the fruit of Eretz Yisrael are exponentially tastier than anything found outside of the land. Nothing compares to the fruit of Israel. Not even close! The watermelon of chutz la’aretz may have the correct red color but nothing in its taste resembles ours!
The Gemara continues on to a story of Rav Huna, who found a תומרתא דחינוניתא – which Rashi explains as being a large plump date with a heavy fragrance: שׁ ְ מ ֵ י נ ָ ה ו ְ י ֵ שׁ ב ּ ָ ה ּ רֵ י ח ַ ט ו ֹ ב. I personally don’t possess a strong sense of smell, but to the best of my knowledge, and please correct me if I’m wrong, I do not believe dates have a strong fragrance. But, once again, we find a connection between שׁ ְ מ ֵ י נ ָ ה – the exact question posed to the spies – and the fragrance of fruit. Rav Huna took the date and placed it in his pocket. Rabba, his son, came and said to him: “I smell the aroma of a fragrant date.” Rav Huna replied: “My son, there is clearly purity in you, as you were able to notice the fragrance.” He then gave the date to his son. Meanwhile, Rabba’s son arrived and Rabba took the date he received from his father and gave it to his own son. Rav Huna said to Rabba: “My son, made my heart rejoice with your purity, but you blunted my teeth by showing a preference for your own son (rather than giving the date back to me).”
The Maharsha asks a question on this Gemara: How does one smell a חִינוּנִיתאָ? He answers, one whose Neshama remains pure is able to smell such a date. The Gemara (Berachot 43b) says, we know one recites a bracha on fragrance from the pasuk הּ -הּ הַ לְ לוּ יָ -ֵל יָּ כֹּל הַנְּשׁ ָמָה תְּהַל. The source of smell is the Neshama. As we say when we awake each morning: לֹהַי נְשׁ ָמָה שׁ ֶנָּתַתָּ בִּי טְהוֹרָ ה הִיא-אֱ – the purity in the Neshama is what gives us the ability to smell fragrances. When Yitzchak Avinu gave his bracha to Yaacov Avinu, fragrance played a role. We’re told: ֹאמֶ ר רְ אֵה רֵ יחַ בְּנִיּ ָרַ ח אֶת־רֵ יחַ בְּ גָדָ יו וַיְבָרֲ כֵהוּ וַיִּשַּׁ ק־לוֹ וַיַּשׁ וַיִּגּוַּשׁ וַיִּשַּׁ ק־לוֹ וַיַּשׁ וַיִּגּוַּשׁ כְּרֵ יחַ שָׂדֶה אֲשׁ ֶר בֵּרֲכוֹ ה'׃ He came close and kissed him. He smelled the fragrance of his garments, and he blessed him. He said, See, my son’s fragrance is like the fragrance of a field blessed by Hashem.
Why did Yitzchak Avinu smell Yaacov’s garments and then comment on the fragrance of his son himself? Was it the clothes or the person who gave off a fragrance? The answer is quite simple and just like the חִ ינוּ נִ יתאָ date. One’s fragrance does not stem from their clothing. What sits within the clothing is what emits the fragrance. One’s purity emits a fragrance that permeates all garments.
Rabbotai, we’re in the final days of our exile and all that is left is for us to let out that final cry, “Father, come save us!” Do you know how the Mashiach will recognize us? Chazal say he will smell us. He will know the speakers of truth from the liars by way of their smell. We will emit a fragrance of purity that will be unmistakable and unduplicatable. All those surrounding us will be tossed aside, together with their foul stench of sheker and falsehood!
We’ll learn one final Gemara together (Ta’anit 23a). In the days of Shimon ben Shetacḥ, rain invariably fell every week on the evening of Yom Revi’ii and Yom Shishi, until “wheat grew as big as kidneys, and barley as big as olive pits, and lentils as golden dinars”. They hung up some of these crops as an example for future generations, to convey how much reward can be given, and how much damage sin causes. We learn here, as soon as one sees a ripe and delicious fruit, it means there are tzaddikim around. Righteous individuals live in that generation. The tzaddik is the sign of purity of a generation, just as Moshe Rabbeinu instructed the spies to seek out.
The spies may have found the largest fruit, but it meant nothing when that fruit had no fragrance. רָ זָ ה הַשְּׁמֵנָה הִוא אִם on its own has no meaning. Only coupled with בָּ הּ עֵ ץ ה ֲ י ֵ שׁ does that fruit carry significance. The spies arrived on the scene and misjudged the eight-ton grapevines they discovered, concluding the land must be filled with the greatest of tzaddikim. They then relayed those false and misleading assumptions to Bnei Yisrael, along with the assessment that the local inhabitants could never be conquered. Kalev knew better, however. He knew the merits of Bnei Yisrael were high – עָלֹה נַעֲלֶה – and those of the local inhabitants non-existent. Alas, an episode for us to witness, internalize, and learn from. כׇּל דְּ עָבֵיד רַ חֲמָ נָא לְטָ ב עָבֵיד – Everything that the Merciful One does, He does for the best. ◊
