Sefer Devarim begins with Bnei Yisrael
about to enter Eretz Yisrael after forty years of wandering through the desert.
Moshe Rabbeinu however, was not going with them. This sefer is his “farewell address”
to the nation, in which he gives the nation Mussar and guidance to take with
them into the Land. The first way he gives Mussar is through telling over the
history of their journey through the desert.
Moshe spends a significant amount of
time talking about the sin of the Meraglim (Spies). He tells over that that
entire generation was not allowed to enter Eretz Yisrael and died in the
desert. All except two people, Calev and Yehoshua, since they were the only two
spies to bring back a favorable report about Eretz Yisrael. The pesukim read
like this: “זוּלָתִי
כָּלֵב בֶּן יְפֻנֶּה הוּא יִרְאֶנָּה וְלוֹ אֶתֵּן אֶת הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר דָּרַךְ
בָּהּ וּלְבָנָיו יַעַן אֲשֶׁר מִלֵּא אַחֲרֵי יְהוָה. גַּם בִּי הִתְאַנַּף יְהוָה בִּגְלַלְכֶם לֵאמֹר
גַּם אַתָּה לֹא תָבֹא שָׁם. …
יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בִּן נוּן הָעֹמֵד לְפָנֶיךָ הוּא יָבֹא שָׁמָּה” “Except Calev the son of Yephuneh,
he will see it, and I will give him the land that he trod upon, and to his
children, because he has completely followed Hashem. Hashem was also angry with
me because of you,
saying, ‘Neither will you go there’. But Yehoshua the son of Nun, who stands
before you he will go there…”
(Devarim 1:36-39).
Snuck in between the pesukim about Calev
and Yehoshua is a statement from Moshe that he too cannot enter Eretz Yisrael,
and blames Bnei Yisrael for Hashem’s anger against him. Moshe’s blame here is
puzzling. It is well known that the reason Moshe could not enter Eretz Yisrael
was because of an incident back in Parshas Chukas where he was supposed to draw
water from a rock by speaking to it. Instead, Moshe did not follow Hashem’s
instructions and hit the rock which caused a Chilul Hashem, a desecration of
God’s name. As a result, Moshe was not allowed to enter Eretz Yisrael. So why does
Moshe mention here, right in the middle of him saying who the two people
are that can enter Eretz Yisrael, that he cannot go in? And furthermore,
the reason Moshe couldn’t go in wasn’t connected to the spies, so why mention
it here?
To answer this question, we must reexamine
the story in Parshas Chukas. There are many varying opinions as to what Moshe’s
exact sin was. The pasuk says, “וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל מֹשֶׁה וְאֶל אַהֲרֹן יַעַן לֹא
הֶאֱמַנְתֶּם בִּי לְהַקְדִּישֵׁנִי לְעֵינֵי בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לָכֵן לֹא
תָבִיאוּ אֶת הַקָּהָל הַזֶּה אֶל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר נָתַתִּי לָהֶם” “And Hashem said to Moshe and to Aharon, ‘Since you did not
have faith in Me to sanctify Me in the eyes of the Bnei Yisrael, therefore you
shall not bring this assembly to the Land which I have given them”
(Bamidbar 20:12). The Kli Yakar explains that Moshe was supposed to raise the
Bnei Yisrael’s level of faith in Hashem by speaking to the rock and having the
water flow from it. By hitting it, he did nothing to raise their faith and was
punished for it. This seems to indicate that if the Nation’s level of faith had
already been high, it would have been unnecessary to hit the rock and Moshe
would not have been punished.
So what caused Bnei Yisrael’s faith in
Hashem to drop? The Torah tells us after the Splitting of the Red Sea that the
Bnei Yisrael’s faith in both Hashem and Moshe as his messenger was complete. But
all that changed with the episode of the Spies. At that moment, their level of
faith declined to new lows, making it necessary for Moshe to perform a miracle
in front of them; a miracle which ended up costing him his entrance into Eretz Yisrael.
So in reality, the sin of the Spies did indeed cause Moshe to not be
able to enter the Land. Perhaps this is also why he slips it in between talking
about Calev and Yehoshua; really, Moshe was supposed to be the third
person from that generation to enter Eretz Yisrael together with Calev and Yehoshua,
however, due to the sin, he was unable to.
This week’s parshah is always read the
week before Tisha B’Av, the anniversary of the destruction of both Batei Mikdash.
Chazal teach us that the Spies returned with their evil report on Tisha B’Av as
well, and when the nation cried that night over the fact that they were
inheriting such a “terrible” country, Hashem decreed that we would be given a real
reason to cry on this day. We must work this week on repairing the damage done
and work towards rebuilding the Beis Hamikdash.
However, as with all tragedies, Hashem
does it all for our good. Chazal also tell us that a Beis Hamikdash built by
Moshe could not have been destroyed. If Moshe had ended up building the Beis
Hamikdash, instead of punishing us for our sins with the destruction of a
building (albeit a holy one), we would have been destroyed instead. So
as we mourn this week and pray for better times, remember that even in the
darkness of destruction, the light of redemption is right around the corner.
Shabbat Shalom!
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