There are two sets of spies mentioned in this week’s parsha. Each set is influenced by their heart.

First, we have the spies sent to spy out the land for the Jewish people. They return with a negative report which causes the Jewish people to reject the land of Israel. As a punishment Hashem decrees that the Jewish people will remain in the desert corresponding to the amount of days that the spies spent spying out the land.

בְּמִסְפַּר הַיָּמִים אֲשֶׁר־תַּרְתֶּם אֶת־הָאָרֶץ אַרְבָּעִים יוֹם יוֹם לַשָּׁנָה יוֹם לַשָּׁנָה תִּשְׂאוּ אֶת־עֲוֺנֹתֵיכֶם אַרְבָּעִים שָׁנָה

ou shall bear your punishment for forty years, corresponding to the number of days—forty days—that you scouted the land: a year for each day. (14:34)

Seemingly, the sin of the spies was the negative report they delivered. Spying was what they were supposed to do. Why then did the years of their punishment correspond to those forty days? The answer is that the commenteries teach us that even before setting out on their mission the spies had a bias against entering the Land of Israel. Therefore everything they saw was perceived in a negative light even though it could have been seen in a positive one. Thus every day of spying was another day of gathering negative information about Eretz Yisrael. Therefore each day of spying was a day of sin. It is important to be aware that biases greatly influence the way we perceive the world around us.

The second set of spies are mentioned at the end of the parsha.

וְהָיָה לָכֶם לְצִיצִת וּרְאִיתֶם אֹתוֹ וּזְכַרְתֶּם אֶת־כׇּל־מִצְוֺת ה' וַעֲשִׂיתֶם אֹתָם וְלֹא־תָתוּרוּ אַחֲרֵי לְבַבְכֶם וְאַחֲרֵי עֵינֵיכֶם אֲשֶׁר־אַתֶּם זֹנִים אַחֲרֵיהֶם

That shall be your fringe; look at it and recall all the commandments of Hashem and observe them, so that you do not search after your heart and eyes in your straying after them. (15:39)

Rashi comments that the words וְלֹא־תָתוּרוּ (so that you do not search after) is related to similar words mentioned earlier in this week’s parsha:

וַיָּשֻׁבוּ מִתּוּר הָאָרֶץ מִקֵּץ אַרְבָּעִים יוֹם׃

They returned from spying out the land at the end of forty days. (13:25)

Thus וְלֹא־תָתוּרוּ אַחֲרֵי לְבַבְכֶם וְאַחֲרֵי עֵינֵיכֶם means and do not spy (i.e search) after your hearts and eyes. Rashi continues that the heart and the eyes are the “spies” of the body — they act as its agents for sinning: the eye sees, the heart covets and the body commits the sin (Midrash Tanchuma). Here are our second set of spies. They are the eye spies.

There seems to be a discrepancy between Rashi’s comment and the verse itself. Rashi writes that the eye sees and (then) the heart covets. But the verse that states, “you shall not spy after your heart and eyes” reverses the order – the heart comes before the eyes!

The answer is that both are true. Initially it is the heart that begins the process because it is the desires of the heart that push a person to look for the forbidden fruit. True, it can happen that those forbidden fruits spring up on a person. But quite often it is our heart pushing us to look for or at forbidden things that we desire. Once the eyes find what they are looking for, the heart becomes inflamed with desire and that brings the body to commit the sin.

What we view can leave a terrible effect on us. What our children view can leave a terrible effect on them. Being aware of this drive within us to look where we shouldn’t is the first step to avoiding these pitfalls.

Then the eye spies of the end of the parsha won’t bring upon us catastrophes as did the human spies of the beginning of the parsha.

Shabbat Shalom,
Yitzchak