Leadership Without Self-Interest: Moshe's Prayer for Yehoshua

1“And Moshe called Hoshea son of Nun ‘Yehoshua.’”¹ Rashi cites Chazal: “He prayed for him: May Kah save you from the counsel of the spies.”² But why did Moshe pray only for him? And the Targum Yonasan ben Uziel says: “When Moshe saw the humility of Hoshea …”³ What connection is there between humility and the letter yud that Moshe added to his name because of it?

2The holy Zohar says: “Why did they take up this counsel? They said: If Israel enters the land, we will no longer be heads, and Moshe will appoint other heads. For we were privileged to be heads in the wilderness, but in the land we will not be.”⁴ But why did they think they would lose their position as princes in Eretz Yisrael?

3aWe may explain this as follows. The early Midrash Tanna Devei Eliyahu says: “Why was Moshe privileged to have a radiant face in this world …? Because he did the will of the Holy One, blessed be He, and would sigh over the honor of Hashem and of Israel, and all his days he longed, yearned and hoped that there be peace between Israel and its Father in Heaven.”⁵ The holy sefer Tiferes Shlomo asks: what is so remarkable about Moshe Rabbeinu in this?⁶ Does not every Jew hope that Hashem's Name be magnified and sanctified in the world, and that Israel, Hashem's people, always have only good? He answers that the Midrash is telling us how great Moshe Rabbeinu was. In his righteousness he raised Israel's stature to levels of holiness beyond measure or telling, and yet he asked nothing for himself from all this good. He wanted no distinction or merit of any kind for himself. He wanted only to bestow everything with love on his people Israel, keeping nothing for himself and securing nothing for his sons after him.

3bFor the tzaddik of the generation who wishes to bring blessing down to the people of Israel must be entirely free of any personal interest. He must not want any distinction or merit for himself, but everything for the good of Israel. That is what the Gemara says about R' Chanina ben Dosa: “The whole world is sustained for the sake of Chanina My son, and for Chanina My son a kav of carobs is enough …”⁷ In other words, because he made do with a kav of carobs and wanted no benefit at all for himself, the whole world was sustained for his sake. He was the clean channel through which every good blessing came down; had he intended anything for himself, he would not have been fit to be such a channel. Those are the holy words of the Tiferes Shlomo.

4This lets us explain what happened here. When the spies came to the land of Canaan, they saw how much impurity and how many kelipos, forces of evil, dwelt there. We know that the seven nations were the most debased of all the nations. So the spies reasoned that since the place was so coarse and material, “we cannot go up”:⁸ they would not be able to carry out the task placed on them as princes, which was to raise Bnei Yisrael up and bind them to Hashem, blessed be He. They could not stand up, they thought, against the growing strength of the kelipos of the nations living in the land. This was the spies' blemish: they should have kept to the principle “It is not upon you to complete the work.”⁹ Had they not been concerned with their own standing, wanting to remain at their lofty levels, Hashem would have shone His face upon them. He would have brought the matter to a good end for them and poured an abundance of holiness upon them, as we saw in the Tiferes Shlomo's words about the clean channel. This is what Yehoshua and Kalev told them: “We shall surely go up.” Rashi explains: “Even if it were in heaven and he said, ‘Make ladders and go up there,’ we would succeed in everything he says.”¹⁰ That is, we must make the effort to begin going up, and the Holy One, blessed be He, will help us complete it, even in matters that are in heaven.

5This is what Moshe Rabbeinu feared for Yehoshua, and it answers our questions about him. Moshe knew that Yehoshua was exceedingly humble and lowly of spirit. He feared that when Yehoshua saw the great and growing strength of the seven nations, he would become afraid and lose heart, thinking that the task was too great for his level. So Moshe prayed for him and added the letter yud to his name. The yud alludes to the honor of Heaven,¹¹ for it is the first letter of Havayah, the four-letter Name, blessed be He. In this way Moshe strengthened Yehoshua to act in the spirit of “his heart was lifted up in the ways of Hashem,”¹² so that his heart would be firm and confident that Hashem, blessed be He, would surely give him the strength to go up to the land. And Moshe's prayer did help: Yehoshua stood up against the spies and said, “We shall surely go up,” as we saw in his and Kalev's answer.

6May we, too, be privileged to succeed in our avodah and to bring the redemption near. Amen, may it be His will.