Shabbos Parashas Shelach - 5778

Shabbos Parashas Shelach - 5778

Rabbi Hal Miller

For the tribe of Yosef, for the tribe of Menashe, Gadi son of Susi [Bamidbar 13:11]

Nearly all commentaries on our parsha go into depth about the sin of the spies, but very

few look at who they were, other than to list their names and say they were important men,

leaders of their tribes. Yehoshua and Caleiv are discussed, but our verse says something

about one of the others.

For eleven tribes, the Torah lists the name of the leader chosen as one of Moshe's spies,

in the format of "for the tribe of X, ploni son of ploni". Even in verse 8 we see, "For the

tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun." Why does only Yosef's elder son's tribe get the

additional naming phrase, referring to Yosef himself?

The reason given by a few commentators is that Gadi ben Susi, along with his brother

spies, slandered the land by returning gossip about it, and Yosef had slandered his

brothers by returning gossip about them to Yaacov when he was young. Therefore, goes

this argument, Gadi ben Susi, who represented Menashe, was more like Yosef than

was Hoshea (Yehoshua), who represented Ephraim, and did not speak gossip.

Chizkuni brings this reason, with an "even though", where he mentions that most of the

time, Yosef is more closely equated with Ephraim, both having been elevated to a

higher status than their elder brothers by Yaacov.

Haamek Davar explains that Ephraim was the greater in spirituality, thus his tribe was

the inheritor of greatness, including producing Yehoshua. Menashe, who was Yosef's

assistant in the Egyptian court, was the greater in materialism, as in the Zevulun-

Yissachar arrangement. Since Israel was in the process of making a transition from

the desert into the land, or at least was looking into that at this point, the miraculous

life in the desert would give way to a more natural and material life in the land. Thus

the entire tribe of Yosef would in the future be more closely identified with Menashe

until the full redemption.