With so many things to talk about in Parshas Shelach, there is an incident in the parsha that is often overlooked: The day after the Divine decree that this generation would not enter Eretz Yisrael and that they would die out in the wilderness, there was a group that decided on their own to make an abortive attempt to enter the land in an ostensible show of remorse and repentance for having accepted the negative report of the meraglim. Moshe immediately chastised them and warned them that their efforts would not be successful. This group of rebels did not listen to Moshe Rabbeinu.
The pasuk says, “va’ya’apilu” (They defiantly ascended...to the mountaintop...) (Bamidbar 14:44). On this basis, this group was known as the m’apilim. The Torah says that Amalek and the Canaanim who dwelt on the mountain descended and beat them back to Charmah. (Bamidbar 14:45). The m’apilim were wiped out for refusing to accept the Divine decree.
The Baal HaTurim notes that the Gematria value of va’ya’apilu is Tzelafchad, implying that Tzelafchad was one of the m’apilim (as mentioned in Maseches Shabbos 96b). It is interesting that despite being wrong, Tzelafchad had his heart in the right place. Of course, when Hashem says “Don’t go,” you don’t go. When Moshe Rabbeinu says “Don’t go,” you don’t go. However, Tzelafchad had his heart in the right place in that he loved Eretz Yisrael. He wanted to go into Eretz Yisrael. In this particular instance, his chibas ha’aretz caused him to make a misguided, bad decision, but it was still chibas ha’aretz.
Later on, at the end of Sefer Bamidbar, who came to Moshe Rabbeinu manifesting a love for Eretz Yisrael? It is none other than Tzelafchad’s daughters! They protest “Our father died in the dessert! What is going to be with us? We want a portion in Eretz Yisrael!” Where did they get that love of the land? Obviously, it came from their father. Tzelafchad had a chibas ha’aretz. He must have talked about Eretz Yisrael with his family. His daughters were raised hearing about the beauty and richness of the land and were instilled with a love of Eretz Yisrael.
The lesson is that our values trickle down to our children. Children pick these things up. If we have ahavas haTorah, they see that. If we have ahavas Eretz Yisrael, they see that. If we have a sense of kavod for rabbonim and Torah scholars, they see that. But if we have a love of money and things like that, they see that as well. If we perpetually have an attitude of cynicism, they see that too. It all trickles down. So, although Tzelafchad did something which was obviously wrong, his love of the land trickled down to his children to the extent that they later said, “We want our portion in the Land of Israel!”
