Self-Sacrifice for the Mission: Lessons from Canaan

1“Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying: Send men for yourself, and let them scout the land of Canaan which I am giving to Bnei Yisrael.”¹ The holy Ohr HaChaim asks about the word “saying,” leimor, here.² Wherever leimor appears, it means that the words are to be passed on and taught to Bnei Yisrael. As is well known, Chazal learned from it: “How do we know that when someone tells his fellow something, the fellow may not repeat it until he is told, ‘Go, say it’? As it says, ‘Hashem spoke … saying.’”³ That is why, as the Ritva and the Meiri explain, the Holy One, blessed be He, needed to say “saying” each time, for otherwise Moshe would have been forbidden to repeat His words.⁴ If so, why does the verse say “saying” here? Why did Moshe Rabbeinu need to pass this command on to Bnei Yisrael, when it was plainly addressed to him alone?

2In this parshah the Midrash says: “There is nothing as beloved before the Holy One, blessed be He, as an emissary sent to do a mitzvah who gives his soul for it so that he will succeed in his mission … But the emissaries whom Moshe sent were wicked. How do we know? From what we read in the passage: ‘Send men for yourself.’”⁵ But how does the verse “Send men for yourself” show that Moshe's emissaries were wicked? The Etz Yosef, a commentary on the Midrash, explains that the proof is from the word lecha, “for yourself”: Hashem did not want them called by His name, only by Moshe's.⁶ But this seems hard to understand. Even if they are called by Moshe's name, they still cannot be called wicked at this point, for at that time they were still upright and righteous, as the Midrash itself says;⁷ otherwise Moshe Rabbeinu would not have sent them.

3Notice, too, the doubled wording in “let them scout the land of Canaan which I am giving to Bnei Yisrael.” Once the verse says “which I am giving to Bnei Yisrael,” why mention “the land of Canaan”? It could simply have said, “let them scout the land.”

4It seems that all this can be explained by something we find several times in the Gemara. A student asked his teacher about a point of halachah, and the teacher said he would answer once the student had done him some service. In one place the teacher said, “When you serve me,” and the student took his scarf and folded it for him.⁸ Elsewhere the teacher said, “When you measure out a kor of salt for it,”⁹ [meaning: when you measure out a kor of salt for this matter and give it to me, I will tell you its reason]. The simple explanation is that a student who wants to receive and learn from his teacher must set himself aside and submit to him. But this can be explained more deeply. Only when a student shows how dear the Torah is to him and how he longs for it, ready to exert himself so greatly to gain it, does he become a vessel fit to receive it. In this way the Torah is engraved in his soul and endures there, and it becomes his own possession.

5On this basis, it seems, we can explain the Midrash: “There is nothing as beloved before the Holy One, blessed be He, as an emissary sent to do a mitzvah who gives his soul for it …” For success in Torah and mitzvos depends above all on a person's giving his soul and all his longing to the Torah and the mitzvos. The emissaries Moshe sent lacked this power, and so they were wicked. “How do we know? From what we read in the passage: ‘Send men for yourself.’” In other words: what led them to become wicked later, in the course of this mission? It grew out of what we read in the passage, “Send men for yourself,” for here there was no explicit command from Hashem, blessed be He.¹⁰ In such a case a person's own wishes and personal interests easily creep in. Giving all one's will and soul and subjecting them to Hashem's will is a middah, a trait of character, and the spies lacked it. That is what made them stumble and become wicked in their mission.

6aThis answers our question about the words “Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying.” Hashem commanded Moshe to tell this to Bnei Yisrael, so that they would take it to heart and always teach themselves how great is the power of devotion, of giving one's soul to carry out a mission for Hashem, blessed be He. They must also take great care in such a mission not to be drawn after their own wishes and interests. That is also why the verse mentions “the land of Canaan”: so that they would learn from Canaan, after whom the land is named, how precious it is to long to fulfill Hashem's will and to hold it dear, and how great the reward is.

6bWe find this in the Midrash on this parshah, on the verse “When you come into the land of your dwellings.”¹¹ “Bnei Yisrael said before the Holy One, blessed be He: ‘Everywhere You call it “the land of Canaan,” and here You call it “the land of your dwellings”?’ He said to them: ‘By your lives, I gave it to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov …’” The Midrash proves each of these from a verse, and goes on: “And the son inherits from the father. That is why it is written ‘the land of your dwellings.’ And why was Canaan privileged to have the land called by his name? When he heard that Israel was coming, he cleared the place [he made the place of Eretz Yisrael beautiful and swept it clean to receive Bnei Yisrael]. Hashem said to him: ‘You cleared the place; the land will be called by your name, and I will give you a beautiful land.’ Which is that? It is the land of Afriki.”¹² So Canaan, by showing his fondness for the land and holding it dear, was privileged to become a vessel to receive an equally beautiful land.

7May Hashem, blessed be He, grant that we attain the level of mesirus nefesh, the readiness to give one's life, and that through it we be privileged to see the Chosen House, the Beis HaMikdash, built soon, in our days. Amen.