These divrei Torah were adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissocher Frand’s Commuter Chavrusah Series on the weekly portion: #1341 – A Beautiful Talis: Is That Called Hidur Mitzvah and Other Talis Issues. Good Shabbos!

Parshas Shelach contains the seminal event in Jewish history of the sending of spies and their subsequent negative report about Eretz Yisrael, and the resulting crying that night. Literally, Jewish history as we know it was set in motion because of this ill-fated mission. One of the famous questions that many commentaries focus on is that the Ribono shel Olam told Moshe Rabbeinu “Send out for yourself men who will spy out the Land of Canaan that I am giving to Bnei Yisrael” (Bamidbar 13:2). Apparently, the Ribono shel Olam not only acquiesced to this mission, He told Moshe to send out the meraglim (spies). Clearly, had the Ribono shel Olam wanted to stop the mission, He could have emphatically told Moshe not to send the meraglim. He didn’t do that.

So, what is the meaning of this? How could the Ribono shel Olam make sending the meraglim into a mitzvah, and then it turns into such a tragedy?

A famous and beautiful Medrash – the first first Medrash Rabbah in Parshas Shelach – cites the pasuk in Yehoshua whereby Yehoshua sent out meraglim: “And Yehoshua bin Nun dispatched two men – spies – from Shittim, secretly saying ‘Go, observe the land and Yericho.'” (Yehosha 2:1) History repeats itself. This is the Haftorah of Parshas Shelach. When Bnei Yisroel were on the threshold of entering Eretz Yisrael, Yehosuha also sent out meraglim. He sent out two rather than twelve meraglim. They stayed in the house of Rachav Hazonah and they returned with their report about Yericho.

It is reasonable to assume that Yehoshua would have been very hesitant about sending out meraglim, based on what happened forty years earlier with the first group of meraglim. Nevertheless, Yehoshua proceeded with this mission. Not only that, but it turned out well. Not only did it turn out well, but the Medrash says about the two meraglim whom Yehoshua sent out, “There is no one dearer before the Almighty than a messenger sent out to perform a mitzvah-mission who risks his life to successfully accomplish his mission.” The Medrash cites the two messengers that Yehoshua bin Nun sent as a prime quintessential example of shluchei mitzvah who risked their lives to successfully carry out their mitzvah-mission. The Medrash further records a Rabbinic tradition that those two meraglim were Pinchas and Kalev.

The Medrash continues: The pasuk says that Yehoshua sent out two meraglim “cheresh” (‘secretly’) which the Medrash takes to mean that the two spies disguised themselves as pottery salesmen so no one would realize they were meraglim. They would shout “Anyone who needs an earthenware pot (a play on the word ‘cheres‘ as the letters ‘shin‘ and ‘sin‘ can be interchanged), come purchase from us.”

The Gerer Rebbe, in his famous work Sefas Emes, writes that the Ribono shel Olam knew that the mission of the original meraglim sent by Moshe was fraught with danger. He saw the pitfalls and He realized what could happen. But the people wanted it and therefore He said, “I will give guidance so that they should be protected and not fall prey to the various temptations that they will face.” What was this guidance and protection provided by the Ribono shel Olam? He made it into a mitzvah — Shelach lecha anashim!

The people wanted a spy mission. It could be done in one of two ways: They could do it on their own and the risk would be very high. But, instead, the Ribono shel Olam said “I will make it into a mitzvah. When people do something l’shem mitzvah, then the mitzvah protects them. Therefore, the potential danger associated with the sending of the meraglim would be mitigated.

The only problem was that in order to achieve that protection, the mitzvah must be done l’shem mitzvah! You need to do it because the Ribono shel Olam said so. However, these meraglim had their own agenda. They were not doing it because the Ribono shel Olam so commanded. They were doing it for their own purposes. On a basic level, perhaps it was the strategic thing to do. They were not “mevatel their da’as to the Da’as of the Ribono shel Olam” (negate their opinions to the Almighty’s opinion). They did it because this was Military 101. You want to capture a city? You go scout it out and figure out the best place to attack.

Since they didn’t do it for the sake of the mitzvah they did not receive the protection of that mitzvah. Thus, the Ribono shel Olam’s “plan” “did not work.” The Medrash contrasts this failed mission with the successful mission of Yehoshua’s meraglim – that was performed by faithful messengers who were acting l’shem mitzvah and with mesiras nefesh l’shem mitzvah. The result was a successful mission.

The Sefas Emes makes a further observation. The Medrash comments on the word cheresh as teaching that Yehoshua’s meraglim disguised themselves as pottery salesmen (selling klei cheres). One might ask why they were specifically selling pottery. Why not metal utensils? Why weren’t they shoe salesmen? The Sefas Emes answers beautifully that klei cheres are unique in that they have no intrinsic value. They are made out of pottery. They break. They don’t look good. They are porous. The whole purpose of an earthenware vessel is its mission. That is why the mefarshim say that klei cheres only become tameh from the inside. The outside of the earthenware vessel is valueless. Its whole purpose is to perform its function, which is to hold things.

This, according to the Medrash, is the symbolism of Pinchas and Kalev being pottery salesmen – they nullified themselves. There was no “me”. There was no personal agenda of why they were doing this. “We are doing this only because the Ribono shel Olam sent us. This is our mission.” Therefore, they were successful. There is nothing as dear to the Almighty as shluchei mitzvah who are moser nefesh strictly and only for the sake of Hashem. In such cases, the inherent dangers are warded off by the fulfillment of the mitzvah and its associated zechus (merit).

The Sefas Emes concludes with a beautiful practical lesson: We are all shluchei mitzvah. We are sent down to this earth with a mission. The Ribono shel Olam takes this neshama – this holy soul, which is a chelek Elo-ka mi’ma’al (portion of the L-rd above) and puts it into a body and says ‘Here, go do your mission!’ We come down to this world, which is fraught with all sorts of danger and all sorts of temptations and pitfalls. It is very difficult for a person to maintain his kedusha and to maintain the status of being an erliche Yid (a Jew with integrity). Our challenge is to fulfill our mission, whatever that may be – whether butcher or baker or candlestick maker or lawyer or accountant or doctor or computer programmer or real estate broker or whatever – and to fulfill that mission completely l’shem shamayim. No matter what your mission may be, you will then have the protection of knowing that you are doing what the Ribono shel Olam wants you to do, and you are doing it solely for His sake.

Not everyone is cut out to sit and learn all the time, but everyone is put here with a mission. If part of your mission is that you need to earn a living and you need to support your family and give tzedaka, etc., etc. – and you are doing that because it is what you perceive as your mission from the Ribono shel Olam, then “There is no one dearer before the Almighty than those who are shluchei mitzvah – who faithfully, l’shem shamayim, carry out their mission.”

In this way, the most mundane and quotidian activity in this world can be turned l’shem shamayim. Once you do this, you will gain the protection that the meraglim of Yehoshua merited. On the other hand, when the mission becomes “your mission” – whether it is to make money or to acquire power or whatever it may be – then the l’shem shamayim aspect will be lost, as was the case with the meraglim of Moshe, and the protection that the shlichus of the mitzvah should afford will be lost as well.

That is unfortunately what happens so often to so much of mankind. They forget the mission and the l’shem mitzvah of that mission and therefore they need to deal with the vagaries and the pitfalls that are inevitable in almost every person’s life.

Glass Half Full/Glass Half Empty

One of the lessons of the meraglim is that there are only two kinds of people in this world: The person who sees the glass half full and the person who sees the glass half empty. The ten meraglim who came back with the negative report were unfortunately people who saw the glass half empty. They brought back an extraordinarily large cluster of grapes, which could be viewed in one of two ways: What a lush land this is! It is going to be easy to farm. It is going to be easy to make a living here. Look at this wonderful place! Or, “The people must be giants because why on earth would the fruit be so big?”

When the Ribono shel Olam made it happen that the locals were busy burying the dead so that they would be preoccupied and not notice the meraglim, that too could be viewed in one of two ways: Look at the favor the Ribono shel Olam did for us!” Or, “Everyone drops dead over here. What kind of land is this?” This is the classic “glass half empty/glass half full” dichotomy.

I saw a famous story in the sefer Me’orei Ohr, describing an incident that occurred post-World War II, in one of the Displaced Persons camps. Rabbi Eliezer Silver, zt”l, who as part of the Vaad Hatzalah went around Europe in his U.S. Army uniform, came to Mauthausen, where there were Jewish Holocaust survivors. He wanted to make a minyan and had nine people.

There was one Jewish survivor, who refused to join the minyan. Rabbi Silver tried to convince him to help make the prayer quorum. The fellow told Rabbi Silver “I will never again in my life daven or pick up a siddur.”

He explained his bitterness to the Rabbi: When he was in the concentration camp, there was a Jew who smuggled in a siddur, from which he would daven. He would then “rent” his siddur to the other prisoners of the concentration camp. The “rent” he charged to use his siddur was that those who wanted to daven had to give him their bread rations for the day. This bitter Jew told Rabbi Silver “When I saw a Jew that could stoop so low that he would make others forgo their meager rations in order to use his siddur, I decided that I don’t want to have anything to do with davening or with a siddur or with such a religion for the rest of my life.”

Rav Eliezer Silver said to this Jew: Why do you look at the Jew that rented out the siddur for a ration of bread? Why do you not, instead, look at the Jews who were willing to give up their rations of bread in order to daven? The bitter Jew conceded that Rav Silver was right. He decided to help complete the minyan.

Years later, this story was told over by the famous Nazi hunter, Simon Wiesenthal, at a conference of European rabbis, at which the rabbinical group presented Simon Wiesenthal with an award upon reaching his 91^st birthday. When Wiesenthal finished the story, he delivered the punchline: “I was that bitter Jew whom Rabbi Silver convinced to join the minyan.”

This is one of the many lessons of the meraglim: The glass is either half full or half empty. In general, people who have the capacity to look at the glass as half full live happier lives. Other people don’t live as happy lives. This lesson is summed up by the pasuk: “…And you shall see the good of Yerushalayim all the days of your life.” (Tehillim 128:5)

Transcribed by David Twersky; Jerusalem [email protected]

Edited by Dovid Hoffman; Baltimore, MD [email protected]

This week’s write-up is adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissochar Frand’s Commuter Chavrusah Series on the weekly Torah portion. A listing of the halachic portions for Parshas Sh’lach is provided below:

• 016 Mixed Seating at Weddings
• 061 – The Minyan: Who Counts?
• 105 – Tallis: Does it Cover Only Married Men?
• 150 – Tzitzis: Must They Be Worn?
• 197 – Carrying Medicine on Shabbos
• 243 – The Concept of Prison in Jewish Law
• 287 – Women and Tzitzis
• 333 – Techeiles Today
• 377 – Tzitzis: Must They Be Seen?
• 421 – The Issur of Histaklus
• 465 – Donning a Tallis for The Amud
• 509 – Ain Ma’averin Al Hamitzvos
• 553 – Women and Tzitzis Revisited
• 597 – Davening at the Graves of Tzadikim
• 641 – K’rias Shema and K’eil Melech Ne’eman
• 685 – Art Museums
• 729 – Making Tzitzis
• 773 – Kavanah When Wearing Tzitzis
• 817 – Davening for a Rasha to Change – Does It Work?
• 861 – Do We Knead Challah in America?
• 905 – The Tallis Over Your Head
• 949 – The Shul’s Tallis−Bracha or No Bracha?
• 992 – Your Talis Katan: Is it Big Enough?
• 1036 – Our Tallis – Should It Be Beautiful? Is It Really Chayav in Tzitzis?
• 1080 – Doing An Aveira for the Best Reasons?
• 1123 – Taking Off Your Tallis – Must You Make A New Bracha?
• 1165 – Tallis Falling off During Davening / Cleaning Glasses With Your Tallis?
• 1208 – Going to Daven at a Cemetery – Not As Simple As You Think.
• 1253 – Carrying Nitroglycerin on Shabbos for Heart Patient / Candy for Diabetic? Mutar or Asur
• 1297 – Oh Oh Some-one Took My Tallis by Accident and Left His; Can I Use His Tallis
• 1341 – A Beautiful Talis: Is That Called Hidur Mitzvah and Other Talis Issues
• 1385 – Techeiles Today-Why Not?
• 1429 – Must You Wear Tzitzis When Exercising or Playing Sports?
• 1473 – Must You Check the Tzitzis of Your Talis Every Morning?
• 1517 – Should You Wear a Wool Talis Katan in the Summer?
• 1559 – A Silver Atara for Your Talis: Is It a Good Idea?
• 1601 – Visiting a Cemetery to Daven – Not As Simple As You May Think

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