THE FAULTY MIDOS OF A FEW INDIVIDUALS CAN BRING TRAGEDY TO THE ENTIRE KLAL YISROEL

"שלח לך אנשים ויתרו את ארץ כנען"(במדבר י"ג – ב)

“Send out men [אנשים] and let them spy out the land of Canaan” (Bamidbar 13:2).

In this Parasha the Torah speaks of the spies who were sent to explore Eretz Yisrael to see if it can be conquered. The Torah describes how very extraordinary these spies were. They were all "Anashim” people, Rashi explains this to mean “distinguished” people. Among them were people even greater than Kalev and Yehoshua[1]. They were the leaders and holiest people of the Dor Deah, “"דור דעה, the greatest generation that ever lived. They were of the generation that was privileged to stand at Mount Sinai when Hashem gave us the Torah. They were of the generation that was privileged to hear the voice of Hashem when He spoke the first two commandments. Such were the great people who were chosen to explore Eretz Yisrael.

They returned from exploring the land at the end of forty days and delivered
Dibas Haaretz הארץ" דיבת ” – an evil report – about the Holy land. “We will never be able to conquer it because the people in Eretz Yisrael are stronger "ממנו" than us. Chazal[2] interpret the word "ממנו" to means stronger than Him, meaning Hashem. They were saying that the inhabitants of Eretz Yisrael were even stronger than Hashem. To make such a statement, claiming that Hashem was incapable of helping them, means that they were "כופרים בעיקר", Kofrim Baikar, they failed to believe in Hashem’s Omnipotence.

This is mystifying. How was it possible that such great and holy people, leaders of a "דור דעה", “knowledgeable generation,” could sink to such a low level, not even believing in Hashem? How was it possible that such great people could sink to such a low level in a mere forty days?

The Mesilas Yesharim[3] brings from the Zohar Hakadosh that the spies had a tremendous temptation for "כבוד" – honor. They were afraid that the high positions they had attained, being princes of Israel, was only temporary, enduring only while they were in the wilderness. At the time, they would enter Eretz Yisrael – fully comprehending its holiness – they were afraid that they would be unable to retain their high positions anymore and they would be replaced by others. This pursuit of honor was so much a focus of their lives that anything jeopardizing this end, namely their entering Eretz Yisrael, had to be prevented from becoming a reality. This desire for honor distorted their vision. They did not want to enter Eretz Yisrael, nor did they even want to believe that Hashem had the ability to help them enter into the holy land.

We see here the devastation caused by people motivated by the desire for honor. Uppermost in their minds was the thought – “we must retain our positions of leadership.” All other thoughts, such as that Eretz Yisrael could be conquered and that Hashem could bring them into the Holy Land, fell by the wayside. These thoughts detracted from the focus of their lives, which was to retain their leadership positions. This desire for honor totally clouded their ability to see the truth.

Furthermore, exactly which position of leadership did these princes hold, which they so much wanted to retain? Simply we understand that each and every one of them was the leader of his entire tribe, a very high position indeed. According to the Baal Haturim, they were not leaders of tribes; rather each of the spies was actually a leader of a mere fifty people. This is derived from the word “Hayma” "המה", which has the numerical value of fifty. Even that small honor which they had garnered, and wanted so much to retain, distorted their vision.

Perhaps we can see here yet another of the spies imperfections. Not only did they have the desire for honor, but they also had another bad trait – jealousy. This is implied from the words of the Zohar Hakadosh, that says, they were afraid they would lose their positions of leadership and that Moshe would appoint others in their stead when they enter Eretz Yisrael. This implies that, if they would just lose their positions and not be replaced by others, they might have been capable of overcoming their desire for honor. However, for someone else to take their place, this they could not tolerate. Such is the evil trait of jealousy.

In summation, we had very great and holy leaders in the “Dor De’ah,” the knowledgeable generation, who had only small positions of leadership – congregations of fifty people each. However, they were guilty of faulty character traits – seeking honor and being jealous. This brought them to give an evil report about Eretz Yisrael. It made them, "כופרים בעיקר", Kofrim Baikar, deniers of the very existence of Hashem. This also caused a rebellion in Klal Yisrael that brought about the death of these leaders as well as the deaths of their entire generation.       

We see from here that even such great and holy people are not immune from serious character flaws. They can have faults – being guilty of coveting honor and being jealous – which can bring about much destruction. Even the greatest people have to guard themselves, because they can fall into such a trap.

We must work on eradicating our faulty character traits. No one is immune from their pull.

May we devote time and effort to remove any bad middos- faulty character traits – which we may have within ourselves. May Hashem help us overcome any negative traits that we may possess.

In this merit may we be capable of thinking clearly, without any distortions, and may we be able to worship Hashem with truth. וטהר לבנו לעבדך באמת. Amen.