The Land is Very, Very Good

CHIDUSHIM ON THE WEEKLY PARASHA – SHELACH LECHA – BY MOREINU HARAV ELIEZER BERLAND SHLIT”A

“TO SPY OUT THE LAND”

“These are the names of the men whom Moshe sent to spy out the Land” (Bamidbar 13:16); “to spy out the Land” [is written] four times, corresponding to the four worlds.  Moshe said to them to explore the four worlds – Asiyah, Yetzirah, Beriyah, Atzilut.  “To spy out the Land,” “to spy out the Land” – the four worlds.  Rachel is the initial letters of “Rechov Levo Chamat – to the expanse at the approach to Chamath” (Bamidbar 13:21), that most importantly, they intended [the Divine persona of] Rachel, because after the sin of the Golden Calf, they descended to the level of Rachel, the initial letters of “Rechov Levo Chamat,” because “for the crown of the elect of his brothers” (Bereishit 49:26).  You need to ascend to the crown [Keter] [it appears that it should be added: of Rachel, which is the heels of Leah]].  The Rebbe explains in [Likutey Moharan] Section 2, Lesson 85 that Leah is the highest aspect in the world, “the knot of the Tefillin was shown to the humble one,” that the sole of Leah’s shoe becomes the Tefillin of Rachel.

When the Rebbe came back from the Land [of Israel], a sage asked him with which aspect of Tefillin does one enter the Land – the aspects of four passages.  Every aspect is a letter in the Tefillin.  Rabbeinu was asked in Sichot HaRan [in the note there] about the aspect of Tefillin, the head Tefillin.  Moshe only saw the knot.  Rabbeinu saw the Shin.  It is written in Megaleh Amukot, Ofen 71, that Yaakov Avinu merited to the “Shin.”

And the secret of Tefillin is in Adam Kadmon of Adam Kadmon, that a person should merit to be in Adam Kadmon, that a person will know that there is no world at all, that the world doesn’t exist, “Behold, the nations are as a drop from a bucket, considered like the dust rubbing off a scale” (Yeshaya 40:15).  All the nations are like a drop of a bucket; all the nations are like the dust rubbing off a scale.  They never were, were never created.  So will be revealed in the future when Mashiach comes, that all the nations were never created.  They were never even created.  They are only like the dust rubbing off a scale.  What is “shachak – dust rubbing off a scale”?  That a person cleans the scales every time; every second, he cleans the scales, and the dust accumulates during those seconds between each cleaning – this is the nations.  All the nations are considered like the dust rubbing off a scale.

“MOSHE CALLED HOSHEA BIN NUN YEHOSHUA”

The Yud of Sarai does not relent, because originally, she was called Sarai, and in order for her to be able to give birth, Hashem changed her name from Sarai to Sarah (Bereishit 17:15), and replaced the Yud with a Heh.  The Yud did not give up on the merit of being in the name of a Tzaddik.  The Yud of Sarai says, “I will come to blows, I will not give up.”  It was violent, it was a very violent Yud.  It waited 402 years until it merited to return to the Tzaddik, to Yehoshua.  From the birth of Yitzchak until the exodus from Egypt is 400 years.  The year before Yitzchak’s birth, Hashem switched Sarah’s name, and another year after this [after the exodus], that then Moshe Rabbeinu gave to Yehoshua the Heh.  This is 402 years.  The Yud said, “I am not leaving until Hashem returns me to the name of a Tzaddik, until ‘Moshe called Hoshea bin Nun Yehoshua’” (Bamidbar 13:16).  We see that it’s forbidden for a person to give up.

The whole point is that we see that we don’t give up.  The Yud doesn’t give up.  There was Amrami (ibid 3:27); that is, his name was Amram, and the Torah also added a Yud for him, but this is not the Yud of Sarai.  There was Yitzhari, [so] why not put the Yud by Amram.   However, Yehoshua, when Moshe saw his humility (Targum Yehonatan, Bamidbar 13:16), he “called Hoshea bin Nun Yehoshua.”

Yehoshua bin Nun received the Yud of Sarah because he was willing to die.  He didn’t say anything.  If Moshe is sending, I am going!  Binyamin said, “If Moshe said to go, we go!  It makes no difference.  We don’t see anything.  There’s no sea.”  So when Moshe saw Yehoshua’s humility – because everyone wanted to kill Yehoshua, because the moment that Eldad and Medad prophesized that Moshe would die, everyone resolved not to enter the Land of Israel.  If Moshe dies, without Moshe, we aren’t entering; we’ll hold protests.  They said, “We are not ascending to the Land of Israel without Moshe; there’s no such thing.”  Therefore, Eldad and Medad had to come in reincarnation as deaf-mutes, because it’s forbidden for a prophet to tell the prophecy that he hears.  When a prophet receives a prophecy, he needs to be quiet.  If he speaks, he is punished.

It is written that when he saw Yehoshua’s humility… what is “humility.”  The Targum says “his humility.”  What humility?  Rather, Rabbi Shmuel, the son of Rabbi Chaim Vital, says in Sha’ar HaPesukim that the spies, every second, wanted to kill him.  [They said:] “We want Moshe to live, and we want to remain in the desert so that Moshe will live.  You want Moshe to die, [you want] to be the leader.”  Because everyone heard the prophecy that Moshe would die and that Yehoshua would bring them in.  This is what caused all the confusion of the spies, of everyone.  The spies said, “We don’t want to enter, because Moshe will die if we enter.  Therefore, we will remain in the desert” – as if they were protecting Moshe.  Yehoshua was in mortal danger every second.  This was his humility.  He could have said to Moshe: “Don’t send me.  They will kill me.  They heard the prophecy, ‘Moshe will die, Yehoshua will bring them in.’  They understood that I want to be the leader.”  He didn’t even want to enter the Land, and Yehoshua said: “Even if they kill me, I will not dispute Moshe.  I will not say a single word to Moshe.  I don’t speak against Moshe.  I will not say a single word to Moshe.  Moshe will do whatever he wants.  Moshe sees everything.  He sees from one end of the world to the other.  Moshe is eternal.  He wants for me to go, I will go.  If they kill, they kill me.  This isn’t my business.  I do whatever the Tzaddik says to me.”

“FOR THEY ARE STRONGER THAN US”

Therefore, the Rebbe says that the Temple will be rebuilt speedily in our days, because the main thing is the rectification of brazenness, and the rectification of brazenness is only possible through nullifying oneself to the true Tzaddik.  And this is what is written in the Gemara in Arachin about the claim made by the spies about the nations that were in the Land: “For they are stronger than us” (Bamidbar 13:31), that the spies also did not believe in Moshe Rabbeinu.  They didn’t want to believe.  They said that Pharoah all-in-all was a midget, the height of an arm and a little finger’s length – it’s all written (in Moed Katan 18a).  Nebuchadnetzar was half of Pharaoh.  Nebuchadnetzar was the size of a jug, around 25 centimeters.  A hundred years ago there was one who was two and a half meters and a midget who was 25 centimeters.  They would appear in all the circuses, until one day, the tall one got a sprain in some muscle in his shoulder from so much pride.  So they made billions and would appear in all the circuses.  They measured one and he was exactly 25 centimeters.  Nebuchadnetzar was tiny, 25 centimeters.  Pharaoh was 50-60 centimeters.  The spies said that he could fight against Pharaoh, because Moshe was ten cubits, but against the children of the giants and Og, King of the Bashan, and Sichon King of the Amorites, he could not fight.

“A LAND THAT DEVOURS ITS INHABITANTS”

It is written what the spies said: “A land that devours its inhabitants” (Bamidbar 13:32), because the Land opened its jaws.  The spies did not understand how to enter the Land.  Here, the evil inclination becomes twice as strong.  Hashem said, “But you must have the Land.”  A person becomes holy of holies.  A person comes to the world to be holy of holies, and for forty days their contamination [from the primordial serpent] ceased.  For forty days, they didn’t have this desire at all.  The desire was totally erased.  Already before the giving of the Torah, the desire was erased.

“OUR WIVES AND CHILDREN WILL BE SPOILS”

Therefore, the entire redemption will be in the merit of righteous women, because women go in simplicity.  They don’t understand schemes.  Therefore, women did not sin with the Golden Calf, nor did they sin with the spies.  [The men said], “Our wives and children will be spoils” (Bamidbar 14:3), but they [the women] did not cry a baseless cry.  Every moment, people cry anew a baseless cry.  Every time that a person cries, it is a baseless cry.  If they’re not cutting off your limb, then what are you crying about?  You lost money?  Money goes, money comes.  Money is called “zuzei.”  Why zuzei?  Because it moves [zaz].  Today you lose, tomorrow you profit.  If today you lost a hundred dollars, tomorrow you will make 200 dollars.  If you lost a million, tomorrow you will make two million.  [The loss] is only to make a vessel.  Every moment that you lose, it is in order to make a vessel to receive a larger sum, because they want to test your faith.  If you know that it all comes from Hashem, then the spoils at the sea are greater than the spoils of Egypt.

All the parashas now are parallel to the seven Sefirot (Divine emanations), seven Shabbatot which all come to rectify the sin of the spies.  It is written that after the spies returned and spoke badly about the Land, and the Jewish people cried all night, Hashem said to Moshe that the Jewish people will enter the Land only after forty years.  Immediately, it was said, “They rose early in the morning and ascended the peak of the mountain saying, ‘Behold, we will ascend to the place that Hashem has said, for we have sinned’” (Bamidbar 14:40).  Moshe told them not to go up after the decree was issued, but they did not listen to him and stubbornly went up to the Land.  The Amalekites and Canaanites came down upon them and killed them, because without Moshe, it’s impossible to do anything.

When they cried without reason, when everyone was walking in the Clouds of Glory, the Sforno says that the ten spies could have conquered all the Land of Israel, because the moment that the Seven Nations saw the ten spies, they understood that the Jewish people are entering the Land with 600,000, with the Clouds of Glory.  Everyone put everything on wagons and they all left the Land, and in this way, all of them began to go.  Instead of the spies being ecstatic and allowing them to flee, and the Land would have been empty, so that the Jewish people would have entered into an empty land mamash; the spies did the opposite and said that there is a plague here and that’s why they are fleeing.  Therefore, Hashem cannot forgive them, because everything was prepared so that the Jewish people would enter without a single Canaanite or Amorite remaining here.

Rabbi Shmuel, the son of Rabbi Chaim Vital, explains that after the spies heard the prophecy of Eldad and Medad that Moshe would die and Yehoshua would bring them in, they – Eldad and Medad – went throughout the entire camp and shouted this, and this was forbidden for them.  Therefore, they came in reincarnation as deaf-mutes.  It is written in Chagigah (3a) that the sons of the daughter of Rabbi Yochanan ben Gudgeda were mutes, and when Rebbe prayed for them, it was revealed that they knew the entire Torah – Sifri, Sifra Torat Kohanim.   There was nothing that they didn’t know.  They were reincarnations of Eldad and Medad, who spoke without permission.  For it is written “leimor – saying.”  If a person receives a prophecy, it is forbidden for him to tell the prophecy to anyone until they tell him in the prophecy “leimor,” which is to say that the prophecy was stated in order to tell others.  To tell a prophecy is a most serious matter.

For they – Eldad and Medad – thought that they were doing good, but they did bad, for because of this, the spies said, “We are not entering the Land.”  They had an excuse, to say, “We are faithful to Moshe, and without Moshe, we are not entering the Land.”  But Moshe said to enter.  All of this is brought in the Asarah Ma’amarot of the Rama of Pano.  The entire prophecy was concerning the revival of the dead, because the words of a prophecy are exactly the opposite of what people understand.  All that they heard that “Moshe dies, Yehoshua brings in,” the intention was that Moshe would enter the Land, build the Temple, and it would never be destroyed.  Then there would be the revival of the dead immediately.  And if there would be the revival of dead, everyone would return to dust, even if he was the greatest Tzaddik.  However, the spies, because they did not know the simple meaning of the prophecy, because you cannot rule in Halachah according to words of prophecy.  Since Moshe said to enter, this was the Halachah – you need to enter!  A person cannot move so much as the apex of a Yud.  Moshe said to enter, then we must enter, even if our livestock with be for spoils, “our wives and children will be for spoils” (Bamidbar 14:3), until they said, “in Hashem’s hate for us” (Devarim 1:27).  It’s written twice, also in Devarim, in Parashat VaEtchanan, “in Hashem’s hate for us,” “in Hashem’s hate for us,” that all the manna, the quail, splitting of the Red Sea, the Ten Commandments, everything was a temptation, because Hashem wants to kill us.  The Jewish people turned over everything, and there is no forgiveness for this, so forty years in the desert were decreed on them, as well as the destruction of the two Temples.

Therefore, now during these weeks of the Three Weeks, now this is Keter, Chochmah, Binah.  Now we are rectifying the sin of the spies, the sin of the generation of the desert, the baseless crying, that they did not believe in Moshe literally and the words of the Tzaddik literally.  Because the test is in every generation, at every moment, every second, to believe in the words of the Tzaddik literally, without any “commentaries,” and then there will be the complete redemption, speedily in our days, Amen.

“THE LAND IS VERY, VERY GOOD”

All the gold in the world, because Hashem makes everything, all the gold in the world.  You don’t need to travel, not to Ghana, not to Cameroon, not to Togo.  Everything begins here.  Here is the source of gold, “It is a place whose stones are sapphires, and it has dust of gold” (Iyov 28:6).  Here all the gold is found, “whose stones are sapphires,” all the diamonds.  In the future, we will see that all the stones are diamonds.  “your entire boundary of precious stones” (Yeshaya 54:12).  All the buildings are buildings of diamonds.  Every stone is made of diamond.

And this is what the emissary said to the “Bat Ayin”: “In the Land of Israel, everything is diamonds.”  Immediately, he packed his belongings.  He said to his wife and children: Let’s ascend to the Land of Israel.  It is a land with diamonds.  Here everything is “your entire boundary of precious stones,” “I will set your window [frames] with ruby,” “and lay your foundation with sapphires,” “your entire boundary of precious stones” (ibid 11).  He sat for three years and looked for the diamonds.  He didn’t give up.  It’s forbidden to give up.  He looked for the diamonds.  After three years, the emissary arrived in Tzfat.  He said to him, “Because of you, I moved to the Land of Israel.  Because of you, I packed by belongings, abandoned my home.  Where are the diamonds?”  He said: It is written, “The Land is very, very good” (Bamidbar 14:7), and “Be very, very humble of spirit” (Avot 4:4).  If a person will be humble of spirit, he will see that everything is diamonds.  Everything that happens to a person, he should be humble of spirit.  The entire Land is diamonds.  “Your entire boundary of precious stones” – not only diamonds, but diamonds of fire.

The shiur underwent some editing, and if an error occurred, it should be attributed to the writer and not, chas v’shalom, to Moreinu HaRav shlit”a.

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