In this week’s parsha, twelve men were sent to spy the land of Israel before the Jewish people would cross in and conquer it. Instead of returning with a report that would strengthen their trust in Hashem’s promise to give them the land of Israel, they came back with a frightening report about the land that caused them to break down in despair.
At the end of last week’s parsha. Moshe’s sister Miriam inappropriately speaks negatively about her brother and is punished with the skin affliction called Tzara’as. The people would not continue their travels to the Promised Land until she was healed.
Rashi (on 13:2) asks the following question:
:לָמָּה נִסְמְכָה פָרָשַׁת מְרַגְּלִים לְפָרָשַׁת מִרְיָם? לְפִי שֶׁלָּקְתָה עַל עִסְקֵי דִבָּה, שֶׁדִּבְּרָה בְאָחִיהָ, וּרְשָׁעִים הַלָּלוּ רָאוּ וְלֹא לָקְחוּ מוּסָר (תנחומא)
Why is the section dealing with the spies put in juxtaposition with the section dealing with Miriam’s punishment? The answer is because Miriam was punished for slandering her brother Moshe and these evil men saw what happened to her and took no lesson from it.
Meaning, that were they to have taken the lesson from what happened to Miriam they would have internalized the seriousness of wrongful speech and they would not have spoken negatively about the Land of Israel. If they would have taken that lesson all the tragedies brought about through the sin of the spies’ negative report (those between twenty and sixty years old dying in the desert, the nation as a whole remaining in the desert for a total of forty years, and planting the seeds of the future tragedies of Tisha B”av) would never have happened.
But how were these men supposed to know that they should learn a lesson from this event? Maybe this was personal to Miriam and had nothing to do with them? The answer is that it’s not a coincidence when an event grabs your attention. It’s a message from Hashem. What happened to Miriam grabbed everyone’s attention. She was a prophetess, Moshe’s sister, and source of guidance and inspiration to the people. And, the Jewish people didn’t continue travelling until she healed! Therefore it was something not just to notice but to study and learn from.
Rabbi Yissocher Frand writes that one Kol Nidrei night in Portland, Oregon as the Torahs were being taken out of the Ark, one of the men holding a Torah collapsed and the Torah fell to the ground. The congregation was shocked by this event. One congregant suggested that there was a message being delivered to them. “If the Torah falls to the ground that means that we’re not supporting the Torah.” The result of this was the hiring of the first Orthodox rabbi in forty years.
These men, the future spies, didn’t realize it but Hashem was equipping them to perform their task properly with a lesson in the severity of Lashon Horah (wrongful speech). Actually, he was giving them a chance to save themselves.
It doesn’t have to be something as attention grabbing as Miriam’s punishment or a Torah falling to the ground to learn from. It can be something that gives us a personal jolt.
Rabbi Frand tells of how he was helping his mother in Seattle, Washington ship boxes of Passover dishes to Baltimore. Before they arrived at the post office he told her not to carry out any of the boxes from the car because it was not good for her. Sure enough when they arrived and Rabbi Frand went to open the trunk, his mother went to open the rear door of the car to take out a box. He pleaded with her not to. As he went to the back seat of the car to take out a box, she went to the trunk to get a box from there! Rabbi Frand again frustratingly asked her not to take out any boxes.
As this was going on, a man watched with an amused look on his face. He gave Rabbi Frand a wink, rolled his eyes, and said, “Mothers!”
“Isn’t that the truth,” he responded.
“Well,” the man said, ”be glad you still have one.”
Ouch. That’s a message.
The lesson for us is that when something grabs our attention we shouldn’t let it pass us by. Just look at the difference it made for the spies. Who knows what difference it can make for us.
Shabbat Shalom!
Yitzchak