This week’s Torah portion is about the spies that went to check out the Land of Israel while the Jewish People were in the desert. Then we read the Haftorah (a portion from the books of Prophets that has a connection to the Torah portion) about the spies that Yehoshua (Joshua) sent just before the Jews entered the Land.
There are several differences between the spies that Moshe sent and the spies that Yehoshua sent:
Moshe’s SpiesYehoshua’s SpiesG-d left it up to Moshe to decide whether to send spiesG-d commanded him to send spiesThey were called “men” in the verseThey were called “spies” in the verseThey were to “tour” the LandThey “spied out” the Land12 spies, one for each tribe2 spiesThe verses tell us their names and that they were leadersThe verse does not specify who they wereThey were sent in public and did not try to hide themselvesThey were sent quietly and tried to hide themselvesThey walked through and toured the entire LandThey only came to Yericho, and only for a short timeThe spies of Moshe were sent just to see the great qualities of the Land of Israel. G-d had already told them that the Land is good, but Moshe felt that the people needed to hear it from people who saw it with physical eyes. In Moshe’s time, if the spies would not have sinned by adding that they would not be able to conquer the people living there, G-d would have conquered the entire Land for them miraculously, so they didn’t need to “spy out” the Land in preparation for war. They didn’t need to hide themselves and they were sent publicly because the whole point was for all the Jews to hear about how great the Land is. Moshe sent the leader of each tribe and they all toured the entire Land, so each one saw that his tribe’s portion was good. They all united and looked at all the other tribes’ portions as well, out of love for a fellow Jew, for all the Jewish People are intertwined with each other. Their unity also brought the level of unity above division into the refinement of the land in the level of division to twelve tribes.
Yehoshua’s spies were more like regular spies in preparation for war; that’s why it was more secretive. Moshe’s spies had already accomplished the mission of reporting the greatness of the Land (“flowing with milk and honey”). In Yehoshua’s time, they had to do things more in the natural way (although also in his time G-d made great miracles in the conquering of the Land, but not as much as what would have been with Moshe). But Yehoshua’s spies also emphasize the level of unity above division – they were only two, not twelve; they went quietly; and the verse does not specify who they were. This represents the simplicity, modesty, self-nullification and obedience to G-d of the level of oneness that all Jews share equally.
(See talk of the Lubavitcher Rebbe King Moshiach Shlita, Shelach 5751 (1991))
