Shabbat Parashat Shelach - 5782

Shabbat Parashat Shelach - 5782

Rabbi Hal Miller

For the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun [Bamidbar 13:8]

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

God commanded Moshe to send spies, one man per tribe, all prominent men. Moshe

made his choices, and knowing he would not be sending one from Levi, selected one

from Ephraim and one from Menasheh. When the Torah gives us the names, it splits

Yosef, listing Binyamin and Zevulun between Ephraim and Menasheh, plus for the

latter gives the only mention of Yosef. Why did it mention Yosef here and not for Ephraim?

Why mention Yosef at all?

First we need to understand the purpose of the mission. God told Moshe that the land

was excellent and that the Israelites would succeed in conquering it. There was really

no need to send an advance party other than for the people to do the "natural" thing

rather than rely only on God providing for them as He had been doing, a big lesson for us

in all times. Although there was no military requirement since God would do the fighting,

Israel was to act as if the fight depended upon their own efforts, therefore a scouting

expedition made military sense. This explains why Levi was left out, since that tribe is

not part of the army. When Levi is not counted, Yosef is split into Ephraim and Menashe.

Why were the tribes of Yosef mentioned with two others between them? Ramban

compares the order in various parts of the Torah and gives a reason for each. Here he

says the order is by the personal eminence of the individuals selected, not anything to

do with the tribe each is from. Thus Shamua ben Zacor, Shafat ben Hori, Caleiv ben

Yefuneh and Yigal ben Yosef all precede Yehoshua bin Nun, at least until they returned.

That leaves us with the mention of Yosef for Menashe but not for Ephraim. What is

different that this mention is made for only one? As boys, Menashe and Ephraim do

not seem to have been problem-children. In fact, Menashe was Yosef's primary

assistant and manager of his household while they were in Egypt, playing a prominent

role in the story of the other sons of Yaakov meeting Yosef. Neither son seems to have

required extra supervision. In fact, perhaps Menashe earned this extra tie to Yosef by

exemplary deeds.

Looking then at the two tribes, we see some greater differences. Menashe was divided

by Moshe, half assigned to join Reuven and Gad on the eastern side of the Yarden

River, and half on the western side. Ephraim became a very large and powerful tribe.

But looking at them closely, we see that Ephraim would become antagonistic to the

rest of the nation in the future. Moshe's choice of Menashe to divide was not random,

as he was able to trust them to keep the two sides of the river in close contact. It would

seem that Menashe did not require Yosef's extra supervision, rather earned the extra

honor of carrying his father's name.

But of the twelve tribal representatives who went on the mission, only two came back as

honorable, Caleiv from the tribe of Yehudah, and Yehoshua from Ephraim. Moshe gave

Yehoshua an extra blessing to protect him. Perhaps the Torah here gave Yosef's name

as an extra "blessing" to Gadi ben Susi of Menashe in hopes that he too would stand

up for right. If so, it wasn't enough.