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Parsha Perspectives by Ozer Alport

(וישכמו בבקר ויעלו אל ראש ההר לאמר הננו ועלינו אל המקום אשר אמר ד' כי חטאנו (14:40

“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.’”

Parshas Shelach begins with the Jewish people planning to enter and conquer the land of Israel. Upon hearing the negative report of the spies, they abandoned their plans, despairing of the possibility of ever conquering the fierce inhabitants of the land. They expressed their desire to die in the wilderness or even return to Egypt rather than attempt to enter Israel.

Yet, upon hearing Hashem’s decree that they would be forced to wander and die in the wilderness without ever entering Israel, they immediately changed their attitude and expressed their desire to go there. They were so strong in their new convictions that they attempted to do so over the warnings of Moses, ultimately paying the price for their efforts with their lives when the Canaanite inhabitants attacked and killed them. This abrubt about-face is difficult to comprehend. How can their radical change in attitude be understood?

Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv, known as the Alter of Kelm (1824-1898), explains that human nature is to rebel against authority. Rabbi Yaakov Emden suggests that it is for this reason that the Talmud (Kiddushin 31a) teaches that a person who performs a mitzvah that he is obligated to do will receive more reward than somebody who performs the same mitzvah but isn’t required to do so. While this may seem counter-intuitive, the person obligated to do the mitzvah will encounter more internal resistance than someone who has the option not to do it. The former is rewarded for overcoming his internal opposition.

Similarly, Hashem gently asked Moses (Exodus 11:2) to “please” instruct the Jewish people to borrow gold and silver from their Egyptian neighbors prior to the Exodus. Although they would be getting rich in the process, Hashem merely requested it of Moses to teach that even an action which is clearly in a person’s best interest may cause him to rebel if it becomes an obligation.

With this introduction, we can now understand that in the beginning of the Parsha, the Jewish people knew that they were commanded to enter and conquer the land of Israel. As excited as they were for the ultimate conclusion to their redemption from Egypt, they developed a resistance to the fact that they were commanded to do so. As soon as they had an excuse to believe the spies’ negative report and rebel against their instructions, they were only too eager to do so.

Upon hearing that Hashem not only wouldn’t make them go to Israel but in fact decreed that they must die in the wilderness, effectively forbidding them from entering the land, the exact dynamic which had caused them to rebel against the command to go there now caused them to want to defy the new instructions and enter Israel immediately.

Many people limit the story of the spies in Parshas Shelach to a lesson on the need to appreciate the land of Israel. While this is indeed appropriate, Rabbi Ziv teaches us that the lesson is much larger. Many times in life we logically recognize the value of a certain action, but our resistance goes up when anyone – be it G-d, our spouse, or our boss – makes it mandatory. Recognizing and being aware of this phenomenon can allow us to overcome our innate resistance and do what we know is right, for which the Talmud teaches we will be greatly rewarded. return to top
Ozer Alpert can be reached at ozer@partnersintorah.org  

talking points - parshas Shelach
Rabbi Elazar Meisels

1. Heads and Tales

“And Moses sent them from the desert of Paran, by the word of Hashem, all of them men, heads of the Children of Israel, were they.” 13:3

• All of them men – Anytime the verse uses the term “men,” it implies that they were prominent persons. Although they later sinned, at that moment, they were still upstanding men. – Rashi
• “One who guards [i.e. meticulously performs] a mitzvah will not know [encounter] evil.” – Ecclesiastes 8:5

If one who performs a mitzvah is protected from evil, how could these eminent men become corrupted so quickly? Chasam Sofer (Rabbi Moshe Sofer, 1762-1838) explains that indeed, had their intent been solely to travel “by the word of Hashem,” as Moses had intended, they would have been safe from the yetzer harah (evil inclination). The problem was that in their eyes, they were prominent men, “heads of the Children of Israel,” and they feared that they would lose their prominence once the people crossed into the land. Their exaggerated self-worth, coupled with their fear of losing their standing, corrupted their intentions and sabotaged their mission. In a similar vein, Degel Machaneh Ephraim points out that the word, “Nassi”[tribal leader] contains the letters Nun, Sin, Yud, Aleph. These letters spell the words, “yesh” [there is] and “ein”[there isn’t]. This symbolizes that a tribal leader who thinks of himself as a “yesh” - something important, is really “ein” – non-existent. Conversely, the less he thinks of himself, the more important he really is.

2. I Can’t Hear You

“And they returned from spying out the land at the end of forty days.” 13:25

• And they returned – There was no natural way that they could have returned so quickly given the great distance they traveled. However, Hashem knew that He would end up punishing us by delaying us in the desert at a ratio of one year per day that they traveled. Seeking to minimize the length of time we’d be forced to spend in the desert, Hashem performed a miracle and helped them return in record time, in order to reduce the time they spent on the mission. - Rashi

Wouldn’t the fact that they merited such a miracle in returning have opened their eyes to the fact that nothing is beyond Hashem’s ability, and that conquering the land would have been effortless for Him? Why didn’t that realization occur to them and cause them to reconsider their sinister plot? The mystics explain that miracles are only effective in bolstering the strength of a “maamin” [believer]. They’re useless, however, for the purpose of convincing an agnostic. A non-believer is deaf to the message of the miracle and utterly impervious to its message.

3. Challah All Week Long

“The first [i.e. before you eat of it] of your dough, you shall separate one Challah as a terumah [an offering]...” 15:20

• You shall separate Challah – The size of the dough should be the volume of 43 eggs of flour. – Rashi – The numerical value of the word Challah is 43 [Ches=8, Lamed=30, Hey=5]
• The one who separates this Challah must recite a special blessing at the time of separation
• Challah is separated only from the five primary grains: wheat, spelt, rye, barley, and oats
• The primary obligation is only for grain grown in the Land of Israel. Nevertheless, our sages obligated us to do so even in the Diaspora, and even nowadays, as a means of remembering the original obligation.
• During the times of the Temple, the piece of Challah was given to a Kohen for consumption. Nowadays, it is not eaten, but burned instead.
• Although a minimal amount of Challah would suffice, our sages insisted that a householder remove 1/24th of the dough. Nowadays, we only remove an olive size piece of dough.
• Although the term “Challah” essentially describes the portion removed from the larger dough, today it has become traditional to refer to the loaves of bread eaten on Shabbat as Challah. This may be due to the widespread custom that women bake these loaves specifically in honor of Shabbat and fulfill the mitzvah of removing Challah.

The mitzvah of Challah was taught to them only after the sin of the spies. Sforno ( explains that this is symbolic of the fact that since they’d spoken negatively of the Land of Israel and its produce, they now needed added merits in order to enjoy the bounty of the Land. No longer could they take the Land’s bounty for granted. Through the mitzvah of separating Challah, they’d bring blessing to their dough and ensure that it would suffice for their needs. This explains why a significant portion of Birchat HaMazon (The Grace after Meals which is recited only after eating bread) is devoted to expressing our thanks to the Almighty for granting us the Land of Israel. return to top
Rabbi Elazar Meisels can be reached at rabbimeisels@partnersintorah.org 

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Is Junior A Jewish Name? Rabbi Elazar Meisels

Dear Rabbi,
Our daughter is expecting a baby in mid-August, and the subject of baby-naming came up at dinner the other night. She’s expecting a boy and my son-in-law expressed a desire to name the child after his own father, whom he loves deeply and wants to honor. In our circles this is not done because we’ve always waited until a person passed on before naming a child after them. We’re not the meddling type and I’m not sure it’s wise to get involved, but I was curious to hear what you think about this question, if you wouldn’t mind sharing it with me.
Thank you,
Name withheld by request

Dear NWBR,
Mazal Tov on your upcoming Simcha! May the child be born in a “mazaldige shaah” and live a healthy and fulfilling life, and may you and your husband merit to dance at his wedding!

I’m generally a big fan of in-laws who withhold their opinions and offer them only upon request, and I think you’re wise to adopt that tact especially in a situation as sensitive as baby-naming. For some reason, this issue often ends up sparking a power struggle where noone emerges happy, and the joy of the birth is overshadowed by the pettiness of the arguments. Now that I’m done pontificating, let us examine the real issue at hand. The question of whether to name a person after a living person has a long history, and to my knowledge, there are two predominant customs on the matter. People of Ashkenazic descent usually do not name their children after a person who is still alive. Those of Sephardic ancestry, on the other hand, consider it an act of respect to name a child after a living relative.

Various explanations are offered to justify the Ashkenazic reticence to do so. Some point to the obvious unwieldiness of a situation in which a child who carries the same name as his grandfather cannot be referred to by name - by his parents - in the presence of his grandfather, as one may not utter a parents’ name in their presence. Others explain that naming a child after a living person indicates a subtle desire to see that person depart from this earth already. Obviously that’s not a feeling you want to convey, even in a subtle way.

Sephardim feel quite the opposite about this point, and maintain that naming a child after a living person demonstrates the high regard in which that person is held and a desire to perpetuate that person’s legacy. Sefer HaBris [316] writes that in Jerusalem, it was believed among Sephardim that naming a child after a living grandparent was a segulah [merit] for long life.

Therefore, if your son-in-law is of Sephardic origin, he is well within his rights to feel as he does. Otherwise, your daughter may want to ask him to speak to a knowledgeable rabbi who can explain to him why this might not be a good idea.

It is interesting to note that this entire question revolves around naming a child after a living relative such as a grandparent or uncle. As far as naming a boy after his own father or a girl after her mother, the Chidah (Rabbi Chaim David Azulai) writes that there are none who are accustomed to do so, and he refers to it as a “bizarre practice.” There may be a number of reasons for this, but foremost among them is the fact that none of his siblings will be allowed to refer to this child by name, since it is identical to the name of their own father or mother. This would explain why we don’t see many boys named Chaim Jr.

And while I’m on the subject, I’ll share with you a little beef I’ve always had with folks who make too big a deal over a name although I’m certain that this is of little relevance to you. I have long maintained that the name given a child, while certainly a matter of spiritual significance, is not nearly as important as what is done later to ensure that the child grow up to be a loyal and proud Jew. Too many people place an inordinate amount of emphasis on ensuring that the child bear a specific name, but make little effort to ensure that the spiritual energy contained in that name be cultivated to produce meaningful results.

I once met a woman who introduced me to her son who clearly had not had the benefit of a religious education. She proudly shared with me that he was named after his grandfather who had been, “a very great rabbi!” I congratulated her on providing such a positive role model for her son to emulate, but gently inquired whether she thought he could grow into his grandfathers’ shoes alone, or if he needed some assistance from his folks? To her credit, the woman did not excuse herself and resolved to reconsider her feeble commitment to providing her precious son with a more comprehensive Jewish education.

I hope that when your grandchild comes of age, he’ll be given every opportunity to unleash the spiritual energy contained in his name and be a source of great nachas to your entire family!

Regards
Rabbi Elazar Meisels
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Rabbi Elazar Meisels can be reached at rabbimeisels@partnersintorah.org

Although the spies were held in great esteem before the terrible sin they committed, there were already deeply concealed evil roots that were heading in the wrong direction.

The truth is that every person, even the greatest of tzaddikim (righteous individuals), faces endless battles with his yetzer hara (evil inclination). As the Talmud tells us in Berachos (61a), the yetzer sits at the opening of the heart, like a fly waiting to enter at the slightest opportunity.

The Torah writes in Bereishis (4:7) that Hashem told Kayin, who was upset that his offering (of inferior portions of the crop) was not accepted, while his brother Hevel's offering (containing the finest portion) was accepted: הֲלוֹא אִם-תֵּיטִיב שְׂאֵת וְאִם לֹא תֵיטִיב לַפֶּתַח חַטָּאת רֹבֵץ, Surely, if you improve yourself you will be forgiven, but if you do not improve yourself, sin rests at the door.

The Gra (Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman) comments that this verse teaches us the character of the yetzer hara — it waits by the front door for entrance. As long as the door is closed and one is involved solely in the service of Hashem, there is no entrance for the yetzer hara. But it waits with patience for a time when the person will relax and allow himself the time to think about personal pleasures and enjoyments — that is when it can capture him. Nevertheless, a person has the power to rule over and conquer the yetzer hara. So the fact that the spies had a hidden tilt toward this sin does not diminish their greatness. On the contrary, the Talmud in Succah (52a) tells us that the greater a person is, the greater is his yetzer hara. Thus, Hashem arranges for every person to be tested according to his level. It is when a person allows the yetzer hara to enter and penetrate his domain that he loses all control and falls down the slippery slope of sin. return to top

Hey, I never knew that! By Ozer Alport

Amazing Insights About the Weekly Parsha   

Q:The tragic episode of the spies is immediately followed by the section (15:1-16) detailing the laws of the meal-offerings and wine libations which accompany certain sacrifices. This section begins by stating clearly (15:2) that it is only applicable after entering the land of Israel. Immediately after decreeing that they will die in the wilderness and never merit entering the land of Israel, wasn’t it tantamount to rubbing salt in their wounds to give them a mitzvah which may only be performed there?

A:Rabbi Moshe Shmuel Shapiro derives from here an inspiring lesson. The Jews of that generation were so intense in their love for Torah that any new topic which was presented for them to study was so valuable that they were able to “lose themselves” to the point that they were able to completely forget their own personal suffering! They became so involved in their attempts to fully comprehend this new mitzvah that it didn’t even occur to them that it would never be applicable in their lifetimes. It mattered not what the content of the subject at hand was, but the mere fact that they were now able to engage themselves in a new Torah topic! return to top

Ozer Alport can be reached at ozer@partnersintorah.org return to top

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