Shabbos Parashas Shelach - 5775

Shabbos Parashas Shelach - 5775

Rabbi Hal Miller

They awoke early in the morning and ascended toward the mountaintop saying,

"We are ready, and we shall ascend to the place of which Hashem has spoken, for

we have sinned." [Bamidbar 14:40]

After listening to the report of the spies sent into the land, the people displayed a serious

lack of faith. They demanded a return to Egypt, not because life was good there, but

because they were more afraid of the perils they didn't know than of the perils they did.

Hashem, disgusted with their lack of backbone, told Moshe that He'd had enough.

Although Moshe's prayers gained much in the way of repentance for the people, Hashem

still decreed that they were unfit to inherit the land, and declared that He would not be with

them if they fought for that land now.

Our verse shows the people attempting to get back on the right road. They accepted

that they had done wrong in refusing to go up into the land based on the report of the

spies, and now, belatedly, accepted the report. They were prepared to attack, yet Hashem,

through Moshe, tells them not to do so, that they're going to lose.

What happened to repentance here? If the people accepted that they were wrong, were

truly sorry, and tried to take action to put things to right, why did their attempt to conquer

the land at this point fail?

On the next verse, Rashi says, "'Why do you transgress the word of Hashem?' For He

commanded me that you are not to ascend at all." This may explain why they lost their

battle--Hashem had given them a separate command here not to continue, and they

violated that command. But it does not explain why Hashem gave the command in the

first place. What was wrong with the people's attempt at teshuvah and getting back on

track?

In verse 44 we read,, "They hardened their hearts to ascend to the mountaintop".

Sound familiar? As in Pharaoh hardening his heart against letting the people go from

Egypt, just a few weeks ago? Sforno notes that there [Shemos 6:13], the verse says,

"The heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not listen to them." Where Pharaoh

did not listen there, here we see that the people were not listening either. They were so

set in their intention that they did not bother to step back and determine whether their

intention made any sense or not.

In this way, Abarbanel says that their teshuvah was just lip service. As Nachshoni

puts it, "Had they been sincere, after confessing they would have asked Moshe to pray

for them. Instead they trusted to their might." He cites Meshech Chochmah, who says

that "such repentance gains atonement for sin, but does not earn one the merit to have

supernatural deeds done for their sake."

Thus, the repentance of the people did have an effect. It purged the sin. It just was not

done well enough to warrant anything more than clearing that slate. The conquering of

the land required much more than that. Since the people were still too far away from

real faith, they did not merit the additional miracles required to get them into the land.

There is more than one level of repentance.