Shelach: Crime and Punishment

Most of the narrative of the Torah is motivated by Gd's promise to Abraham. Gd would eventually bring Abraham's descendants, a great nation that would emerge from bondage in Egypt, to the land Abraham had explored, Canaan.  This week's parsha describes a crucial point in the process. Gd will now delay the entry into that land by 40 years. Over those four decades, the generations that left Egypt, and stood at Sinai, and witnessed the most overt miracles, would die out; their children would settle the Promised Land - a story told in another book. 

 In last week's parsha, there was a transition in the style of the narrative. The book of Bamidbar ( Numbers) had begun with a census, followed by a description of tribal assignments for the defensive array  and Levitical assignments for the transport of the Temple. The enduring significance of these details is esoteric.  Now we are in a section of the Torah that tells stories that carry palpable complex, eternal messaging.

The story of the spies is the context of the diaspora Jew. It contains the reason(s) for the diaspora and comes to shame the wealthy Jew who remains in the diaspora. The story encompasses much more. 

This week's chapter chooses to start with Gd's permission, possibly instruction, to Moshe to send the spies:

שְׁלַח־לְךָ֣

"send for yourself"

In the Deuteronomy, Dvarim, the next book of the Torah, Moshe  tells a back story: 

וַתִּקְרְב֣וּן אֵלַי֮ כֻּלְּכֶם֒ וַתֹּאמְר֗וּ נִשְׁלְחָ֤ה אֲנָשִׁים֙ לְפָנֵ֔ינוּ וְיַחְפְּרוּ־לָ֖נוּ אֶת־הָאָ֑רֶץ וְיָשִׁ֤בוּ אֹתָ֙נוּ֙ דָּבָ֔ר אֶת־הַדֶּ֙רֶךְ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר נַעֲלֶה־בָּ֔הּ וְאֵת֙ הֶֽעָרִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר נָבֹ֖א אֲלֵיהֶֽן׃ 

Then all of you came to me and said, “Let us send agents ahead to reconnoiter the land for us and bring back word on the route we shall follow and the cities we shall come to.”

The spy idea was an acceptance of public demand. It seemed harmless. It was practical. It made sense. Moshe underestimated the power of propaganda: the available versions of truth, the range of interpretation and manipulation. 

I would have thought that the reaction to the spies needed correction by education. A death sentence to a generation seems excessive. Even the golden calf, an act of idolatry 40 days after the people heard of its prohibition directly from Heaven, had a less severe (immediate) punishment. 

The popular rebellion catalyzed by the report of the spies was very different. The people were declaring their own defeat inevitable. The punishment  is expressed as a fulfillment of the people's vision:

 וְטַ֨פְּכֶ֔ם אֲשֶׁ֥ר אֲמַרְתֶּ֖ם לָבַ֣ז יִהְיֶ֑ה וְהֵבֵיאתִ֣י אֹתָ֔ם וְיָֽדְעוּ֙ אֶת־הָאָ֔רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר מְאַסְתֶּ֖ם בָּֽהּ׃ 

Your children who, you said, would be carried off—these will I allow to enter; they shall know the land that you have rejected.

The pronouncement of the punishment: the first diaspora: the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, is followed by passages that describe the meal (grain) offering and (wine) libation rituals. These were parts of the sacrificial rite that could only be performed once a land was settled.  They required ingredients that were not available in the desert. The service would be incomplete until the land was settled  making grain and oil and wine available. The expiation might not be obtained until then. 

The next passage describes the offerings given for expiation from error. It is a reassurance that mistakes do not necessitate severe, potentially lethal punishment, there is a road back. 

 But the person that acts presumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, that person dishonours the Lord; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 

Forgiveness begins with the admission of error. The presumptuous, the defiant, do not have this option. 

There is a spectrum of defiance. The tzitzit, the fringes, that end the parsha, the paragraph repeated  ( at least) twice daily in the prayer service as a reminder  that our Gd brought our people out of bondage in Egypt, are a deterrent from the road of temptation that leads to rebellion. 

The warriors who rose to try to conquer the land after the 40 year exile had been pronounced demonstrated another kind of desperate, nothing to lose, defiance. Moshe tells them they are in error. Their adventure ends in defeat. But their story is told... to be interpreted by the generations that follow.