Readings for Saturday, June 21, 2025

Readings for Saturday, June 21, 2025

Shelach-Lecha (Send forth)

13:1-15:41 Bamidbar (Numbers)

Shelach-Lecha is the fourth sedrah in Bamidbar (Numbers).  The Sedrah takes its name from the first words of the second sentence in the sedrah, “Send forth (Shelach-Lecha) men, if you please and let them spy out the Land Of Canaan.”  The sedrah divides into three parts:  The Story of the Spies; The Response to the Spies; and Laws of Hope, Penitence and Protection.

The Story of the Spies (13:1-31) The story is a simple one with a conventional interpretation.  Moshe chooses a leader from each of the twelve tribes to reconnoiter Canaan.  He tells them how to enter the land and gives them a list of questions to answer when they return.  The spies return after forty days and report to Moshe, Aaron and the whole House of Israel.  They begin with a glowing report about the land itself, describing it as a place flowing with milk and honey.  But then they exceed their mission by announcing that the Israelites will not be able to conquer the land.  The inhabitants are too strong and too numerous.  Only Joshua and Caleb disagree.  Caleb assures the people that the conquest is possible.  But the other ten leaders drown him out saying the inhabitants are like giants and the Israelites are like grasshoppers by comparison.  Based on conventional interpretation, the leaders erred in at least two ways.  First, they did more than what was required.  They were told to gather specific information.  Instead, they not only gathered the information, they also gave their opinion.  This is another instance where we are reminded that we are required to do what the Torah commands, no less, but also, no more.  It is hard enough to get what is commanded right, without adding anything else to the list.  Second, they forgot that God had said He would deliver the land to the Israelites.  The spies were really saying that God was not strong enough to deliver on His promise.

The Response to the Spies (14:1-45) The spies have spoken.  Now the people respond.  They ignore Joshua and Caleb and accept the judgment of the Ten.  As has happened before, the Israelites yearn for Egypt.  They rebel against God and Moshe.  "Let us appoint a leader and let us return to Egypt."  In a re-play of the Golden Calf, God threatens to exterminate the people but Moshe placates Him by appealing to God’s vanity.  God agrees to spare the nation, but He will punish the generation that doubted Him.  God will make their prophecy come true.  They keep saying that He brought them out of Egypt so that they might perish in the Wilderness.  Well, perish they will.  Instead, their children (those under the age of twenty) will go into the land promised them by God.  As for the ten spies, they are to die immediately from a special plague.  Only Joshua and Caleb are to be spared.  The rewards of leadership are great.  The penalty for leading the people astray is also great.  As if to show how totally they misunderstood their special relationship with God, the Israelites now decide that they will in fact go into the land.  They go out to fight the Amalekites and the Canaanites without the symbols of God’s presence i.e., the Holy Ark or Moshe.  Of course they suffer a disastrous defeat.  The key to understanding this episode may lie in the first verse of Chapter 14, “The entire assembly rose up and issued its voice; the people wept that night.”  The people had all night to consider their response.  They had all night to remember all of the miracles that God had performed and they still rebelled.  And as if that were not enough, Caleb and Joshua gave them one more reminder, “…do not rebel against God!  God is with us.  Do not fear them.” (14:10).  In other words, the Israelites had plenty of time to consider their course of action and they made the wrong choice.  To the extent that one reads the Torah as history, the events in chapters 13 and 14 are a calamity for the Israelites.  The fulfillment of God’s promise about the Promised Land is delayed for a generation.  The Israelites will struggle and suffer many unfortunate events during their extended sojourn.  This is a classic case of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Laws of Hope, Penitence and Protection (15:1-40)  Just when the Israelites are at their lowest ebb, God sends a message of hope.  He begins describing a series of commandments with the words, “Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them:  When you will come to the Land of your dwelling places that I give you.”  In other words, here is a set of commandments that you will follow once you arrive in Canaan.  By giving laws at this point in the narrative that can only be fulfilled once the Israelites enter Canaan, God is reassuring them that He will keep His word and that the next generation will inherit the Promised Land.  In verses 1 through 16, God provides rules concerning Grain Offerings and Wine Libations.  From the point of view of the modern reader these ancient commands provide a reminder that from the earliest time in our history the same of rules were to apply to the proselyte as well as to the rest of the congregation.  In other words, regardless of how one becomes a Jew, once you are Jew you are treated the same as everybody else.  Next come the rules of Challah, the portion of dough to be given to the Kohanim when making bread (15:17-21).  Like the commandments concerning Grain Offerings and Wine Libations, the ritual of Challah is also to be performed only when the next generation enters the Promised Land.  The practice has carried over to our own times.  (See Themes below)

The Story of the Spies could have conveyed the notion that God did not forgive sinners.  Such is not the case.  So the text continues with methods for atoning for unintentional sin (defined here as Idol Worship) whether it be by the whole community or the individual (15:22-29).  But just as there was no forgiveness for the arrogant ten spies, so is there no forgiveness for the arrogant sinner, the person “who acts defiantly” (15:30-31).  To drive home this theme of the arrogant sinner, the sedrah follows with the story of the Israelite gathering wood on Shabbat (15:32-36).  Having heard the Revelation at Sinai, the miscreant knew that violating Shabbat was a capital crime.  In gathering wood, he seemed to be showing utter contempt for the law since he was twice violating the Shabbat (working by gathering wood) so he could violate it again (kindling a fire).  The death penalty imposed here met the later Halachic rules for its implementation - the offender was warned that what he was doing carried the death penalty and that there were at least two witnesses to the crime.  The Bible has no problem in naming sinners.  So why does the wood gather remain unnamed?   Possibly as a way of carrying out the second part of the punishment for violating Shabbat - the cutting off of the soul from among the people (Shemot 31:14).  What better way to “cut off” the soul than to blot out a person’s name?  At the end of the sedrah, God commands the Israelites to wear fringes or tzitzit on the corners of their garments (15:37-40).  When the Israelites look upon the tzitzit, they are to remember all of the commandments and remember that they are supposed to abide by them.  In so doing, they will also remember not to follow their inclinations.  If the wood gatherer had worn tzitzit, he might have remembered the rules of Shabbat and that he was to observe them.  And if the spies had had tzitzit they might have remembered that they were to trust in God and not follow their own inclinations concerning entering the Promised Land.

Themes

Commandments
385.         The obligation to set aside a portion of Challah (dough) for the priest (15:18-21).
386.         The commandment to wear tzitzit (fringes) on a four-cornered garment (15:37-38).
387.         The prohibition against going astray after the desires of one’s heart and eyes (15:39).
Biblical Literacy by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin

The Spies

Usually, the Story of the Spies portrays the Ten as cowards who are afraid to fight for the land; as leaders lacking in faith in God.  The story may be viewed in another way.  Possibly the Ten were afraid that they would lose their ability to follow the teachings of the Torah if they left the Wilderness and entered Canaan.  In the Wilderness, God provided everything - manna to eat, water on demand, even clothes that did not wear out.  In the Wilderness the Israelites were close to God with a Cloud by day and a Pillar of Fire by night.  Of course there were the Tabernacle and Moshe as well, further cementing the Israelites to God and the Torah.  But once they entered the land, they “were like grasshopper” i.e., they would have to work to survive.  Yes, the grapes were huge and there was an abundance of milk and honey.  But this meant labor and labor would take time away from Torah.  Therefore, the Ten brought back their report so that the Israelites would stay in the Wilderness and be close to God.  What they had failed to see was that the Israelites would misinterpret their report and use it as an excuse to return to Egypt.  When Caleb says, “The Lord is with us.  Do not fear them”, he is thought to be saying that the Lord is with us do not fear that being in the land will separate us from Him.  The Ten did not understand that the challenge of the Jew then, as now, is to take the Torah from Sinai and make it a part of the world.  This cannot be done in the Wilderness.  It can only be done in the real world, in this case the Promised Land.  “Rabban Gamliel, the son of Yehudah haNasi, says:  “The study of Torah combined with a worldly occupation is an excellent thing…any study of torah when not accompanied by a trade must fail in the end and become the cause of sin.”  (Pirke Avot 2:2)  For a more lucid treatment of this, I suggest you read Torah Studies by Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, pages 239 through 245.

Overstepping Their Bounds

In “The Facts, Just the Facts,” journalist, linguist and author Hillel Halkin questions the harsh treatment of the Spies.  In the end, all ten die because of their role played out in this week’s Torah portion.  Moses tells them to go and see what the land is like; see whether the people living there are weak or strong and see if the cities are undefended or fortified.  In a manner that would have made a CIA handler proud, they come back and describe the territory (a land of milk and honey), described the inhabitants (tall and strong) and describe the urban areas (large and fortified).  Although the Torah does not say so directly, the Israelites must have been scared by what they heard, for as Halkin points out the text goes from the negative report of the spies to Caleb’s angry rebuttal.  “But Caleb quieted the people…’Let us go up at once and occupy it (the land).…’”  Caleb would only have uttered such words if the people had responded to the report of the spies with fear.  And here is where the spies go beyond their mission.  Halkin contends that they shift from reporting the facts - the assigned mission of spies - to shaping public opinion.  First the spies tell the people that the inhabitants of the land are stronger than the Israelites and therefore the Israelites cannot go up against them.  Then they really step over the line by declaring the Promised Land is “a land that devours its inhabitants.”  If the spies were telling the truth when they said it was a land of milk and honey, then how did it all of a sudden become a land that would devour the Israelites?  They have made the same mistake that some modern intelligence services have made when they have massaged the data to fit somebody else’s notion of reality.  The CIA or Mossad would fire such people.  The spies got the death penalty because in massaging the data they were saying that God was wrong, that God had lied to the people - blasphemy.

Spies - Who Sent Them

“And the Lord spoke unto Moses saying:  Send thou men that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel…” (Numbers 13:1&2).  A literal reading would seem to indicate that God was the one who was responsible for sending the spies; that he told Moses to send them.  But according to tradition, as can be seen from the notes in three Chumashim - Hertz, Stone & Etz Hayim - this was not the case.  According to Etz Hayim, the Hebrew שלח לכה Shelach Lecha literally means “‘send for yourself.’  That is for your own purposes (not Mine).  God seems to be saying ‘I have told you already that the land is good and that I will give it to you.  If you need human confirmation of that, go ahead and send scouts.”  Hertz follows the same line of reasoning.  Stone goes one better and cites “the Sages and Rashi” who contend that “the people came to Moses and asked him to dispatch spies to reconnoiter Canaan and report to them.” (This would explain why the spies gave their report to the entire nation instead of just to Moses.)  “Moses consulted God who said,  ‘I have told them the Land is good.  (But since they question Me), I will let them test my veracity at the risk of being misled and losing their chance to enter the Land.’  Although Moses apparently approved the demand, he actually hoped that his agreeing would dissuade the people from pressing their request….Moses thought that his willingness to let the people have their way would convince them that they had nothing to fear.  He was mistaken; they wanted to hear about the land” from their fellow Israelites.  However, Meir Shalev, in his book Beginnings does not let God off the hook.  He reads the text literally and blames the whole misadventure on the Lord.  There is not room here to explain his line of thought, but it is worth the read.  In fact, the chapter entitled “The First Spies” would seem to be a davar torah that covers both the Torah portion and the haftarah which deals with another spy story.

Spies - Who Sent Them II

In Chapter 1, verse 22 of Devarim, Moses gives his version of who sent the spies.  “And you came near unto me and you said; Let us send men before us that they may search out for us the land and bring us word again (concerning) the way by which we must go up and the cities unto which we shall come.”  The reason for the mission of the spies is described differently here than in this weekly portion.  The version in Devarim does not sound like a challenge to God but a reasonable request to send out scouts to provide a line of march as the Israelites enter enemy territory.  This raises even more questions, not the least of which is, was there more than one episode with spies; are we seeing an attempt to harmonize two different events?’  I haven’t an answer, but if you do, please let me know.

Spies - Modern Lessons

Why did the spies overstep the bounds of their mission?  Why did they go from gatherers of intelligence to molders of public opinion?  Maybe we can answer these questions if we ask a couple of others first.  Who were the spies?  Why were they chosen for the mission?  One can safely assume that they were prominent members of their respective tribes.  Based on what we known about Joshua, we can assume that they were younger men.  This means that being chosen as spies might have been their first big assignment.  And they handled it well; bringing back the kind of facts which they had been asked to gather.  But when they saw the reaction of the people and saw that the people were listening to them and not Moses, it “went to their heads.”  Could it have been that these ten young guys were just impressed with themselves, impressed with the fact that Israelites were paying attention to them and not to the Big Guy who talked to God; that they just couldn’t give up the limelight?  Instead they just kept right on talking, loving all of that attention until it was too late.  Maybe if Moses had chosen more mature men for the role, or mixed the group so it would include the young as well as the more mature, the outcome might have been different.  Could this be one more example of what we now call a bad hiring decision?  The Bible offers many examples of this.  For example, Saul failed because he was the wrong man for the job.  David succeeded because Samuel hired the right man for the job the second time around.  And of course, as we will see with the Haftarah, Joshua does what Moses did not - he hired the right men to be spies the second time around.

Minyan

Why is “ten” considered the minimum number for a Minyan?  God asks, “How much longer shall that wicked congregation (edah) keep muttering against me?” (14:26).  In using the term “edah” which means congregation or community, God is referring to the Ten Spies.  As Rabbi Leo Trepp points out, “In this typical example of rabbinical interpretation of a Torah text (Mishnah Sanhedrin 1: 6), the biblical congregation of scouts who defeated God’s plan is replaced by the true congregation of worshipers who promote God’s plan.”

Challah

The Challah referred to here is not the loaf of bread we eat on Shabbat.  Rather, it is the small portion, usually about an ounce, removed from the dough and burned when baking bread.  If the dough is made from one of five grains and the flour weighs more than three pounds a blessing is recited:  “Baruch atah adonoi elohainu melech haolom asher kidshanu b’mitzvotav vtzivanu l’hafrish challah.  (Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to separate challah).”  There are many texts that give a fuller explanation of this topic.  One you might consider is a cookbook par excellence called Spice and Spirit.  The mitzvah of Challah is one of three that is assigned to women.  Just as the woman shapes the Challah, so does she shape the home and the home is the Jew’s spiritual fortress.

Tzitzit

The verses concerning Tzitzit (15:37-41) were considered so important by the Rabbis, that they were made the third paragraph of the Shema.  These verses gave rise to the wearing of the tallit or prayer shawl, which is donned before praying in the morning.  Observant Jews also wear a fringed under garment called a tallit katan (little tallit).  The exposed fringes help them to better observe the injunction to wear the fringes and look upon them so that one does not go astray.  In its formative period, the Reform Movement attempted to do away with the Tallit.  Today, the tallit is reappearing in many Reform Congregations thanks in no small part to the effect of the feminist movement on Judaism.  The feminists made the wearing of the tallit an outward sign of the changes they were seeking in 20^th century Judaism.  Should women wear tallit?  That is an interesting question worthy of discussion.  Rashi’s daughters were reported to have worn tefillin.  Since one usually puts on a tallit before putting on tefillin, did Rashi’s daughters each wear a tallit?  An even more interesting questions might be, what about women who seek the tallit as they flee the Challah?

Women and Tzitzit - Part II

Maggie Anton, the author of three books about Rashi’s daughters, www.rashisdaughters.com, was kind enough to respond to the question posed in my commentary above about women and Tzitzit.  “The tallit or prayer shawl as we know it today did not exists in Rashi's time. I believe it came into use in the 13th century.  What Rashi's community had then were tzitzit that were attached to the 4-cornered garments they already had, cloaks and mantles, which were worn outdoors and could be used by men and/or women.  Machzor Vitry states that if a woman wore tzitzit, she was required to make the blessing.  However it appears that most Jews did not attach tzitzit to their garments.”  The Machzor Vitry she refers to is a work by Rav Simcha of Vitri, France, who died in 1105 and was student of Rashi.  “This halachic work focuses mainly around the daily and Shabbat prayer services, and includes halachic decisions from his teacher Rashi or from other early scholars.  It also includes halachic decisions on issues of kashrut, family purity, tefillin, mezuzah, and ethics.”  Why do we study this each year?  We study because there is always something more to learn.

Tisha B’Av

According to some, the spies gave their report on Tisha B’Av.  This is supposedly why this date marked the advent of other calamities including the destruction of both of the Temples, the expulsion from Spain and the start of World War I.  I am not saying I believe this; merely passing along a little more food for thought.

Ancient Profession

Based on Meir Shalev’s reading of the Bible, spies and the work of espionage are very ancient endeavors.  The first mention comes in Beresihit (Genesis) when Joseph declares that his brothers are spies who “have come to see the nakedness of the land.”  Joseph knew the accusation was false but in making the charge it is obvious that ancient world already knew what spies were and held their work in contempt.  For more on the early Biblical view of spying from Joseph to Moses, to Joshua, to King David read “The First Spies,” one of the many fascinating chapters in Beginnings by Meir Shalev.

Lech Lecha versus Shelach Lecha

Earlier in the year we read Lech Lecha - Go to yourself.  This week read Shelach Lecha - Send for yourself.  The second word in each reading is the same.  But the first word for each reading and the outcomes are so very different. In “Go for yourself” Abraham heeds the call of the Lord and arrives in the Promised Land where the Covenant is created.  In “Send for yourself” the Israelite deny the call of the Lord and refused to move forward to the Promised Land.  “Yourself” reminds us of the importance of human action.  But the variation on the first word reminds us that when “yourself” acts, “yourself” acts in a way that is consistent with the Divine Will.

Ephraim and Judah Together - For Once

For most of Jewish history, Ephraim and Judah were opposed to each other.  The most famous instance came when Jeroboam, the son of King Solomon, met with the tribal leaders from the north led by Ephraim which resulted in the split into the Southern and Northern Kingdoms.  Ironically in this week’s reading we find Caleb from the tribe of Judah and Joshua from the tribe of Ephraim standing against the other ten spies and calling for the Jewish people to have faith in the Lord and not be afraid to enter the Promised Land.  Yet the people ignored them and the rest is, as they say, history.  The lesson in leadership that we can take from this might be that no matter how strong the words of the leaders are, it takes the support of followers to make things happen.

Haftarah

2:1-24 Joshua

The Man:  The Book of Joshua is the first book in the second part of the TaNaCh called Neviim or Prophets.  Along with Judges, Samuel and Kings, Joshua makes up the section of Neviim known as the Former Prophets.  Together these books provide a historic narrative that runs from the death of Moshe to the destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C.E.  Authorship of the book is ascribed to different individuals including Joshua, Eleazar (the son of Aaron) and Pinchas (the grandson of Aaron).  The Book of Joshua follows logically from the material read at the end of Devarim.  Basically, the book of Joshua describes the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites.  There are those who contend that the instead of the Pentateuch we should have the Hexateuch made up of the Five Books of Moshe and Joshua.  While Moshe may have died before the opening lines of Joshua are read, the constant use of his name gives this concept a philosophic as well as historic basis for consideration.  Joshua is a book of completion.  The book ends with death of Joshua who dies at the age of 110.  The text then references the burial of Joseph’s bones.  Joseph also died at age 110.  In other words, the book ends with a reference to the man who started the cycle by taking us out of Canaan (Joseph) and to the man who completed the cycle by conquering Canaan (Joshua).  The book also marks the completion of Moshe’s work.  Moshe took us to the borders of the Promised Land.  But it was Joshua who completed the work of Moshe by conquering the Promised Land.  Hence it is a book of completions in the plural.

We know little about the personal life of Joshua.  He is the son of Nun and a member of the tribe of Ephraim.  The text gives him no family.  It is only in legend that he marries Rahab, the reformed harlot who provides him with daughters, but no sons.  Actually, Joshua first appears in the Torah as the one whom Moshe commands to select men to fight against the Amalekites.  In other words, from the start, Joshua appears as a warrior and as Moshe’s first lieutenant or aid de camp.  It is Joshua who ascends part of the way to the top of Sinai with Moshe and Joshua who comes back down with him at the time of the Golden Calf.  It is Joshua, along with Caleb, who disputes the claims of the other spies and urges the Israelites to enter the Promised Land.  Despite all of this, when it comes time to choose Moshe’s successor, Moshe only asks God to choose a worthy person.  He does not ask that Joshua get the job.  Rather, Joshua is chosen by God as Moshe’s successor.  Moshe is the sun.  Joshua is the Moon.  Moshe is called the servant of the Lord.  Joshua is called the disciple of Moshe.  It is an interesting contrast in the roles and personae of the two men.

 

Joshua is an enigmatic, troubling figure.  He has drawn the attention of writers as diverse as Elie Wiesel and Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz whose monographs are the source of much of the material you read here.  Joshua is portrayed as a man of the Torah.  He is the second link in the tradition cited in Pirke Avot.  In the opening chapter of his book, God tells him that his success will be dependent on faithfully adhering to the Torah.  Joshua is the political/military leader.  But in the Torah, he is told that he will consult with the High Priest before he takes action.  The reality is that Joshua and his book are about war; bloody nasty war.  This is his claim to fame.  He is so good at it that modern Israeli military leaders looked to Joshua for advice on tactics and leadership.  He was the original “follow me” commander.  Joshua is a masterful military leader.  But from the modern perspective, is warfare something that we Jews want to be good at doing?  Since waging war means a suspension of our normal moral values, how do we as modern Jews justify it?  Moreover, why did Joshua not protest against it?  Just as Abraham challenged God to spare Sodom and Gomorrah, why didn’t Joshua challenge God to give the Israelites the Promised Land without slaughtering the inhabitants?  If you believe some of the Midrash, the ancient Israelites may have felt some of this same ambivalence since he died alone.  At the end of his life, Joshua showed himself to be a gambler and a leader confident in the success of his life’s work.  He seems to be giving the Israelites a chance to back out on the covenant.  “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served…or the gods of the Amorites; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (25:15).  The people promise to cast out other gods and reaffirm their loyalty to God.  While our forefathers committed us to the Torah at Sinai, the episode here reminds us that each generation must actively re-commit itself to the Torah and all that goes with it.

 

There is yet one more mystery about the Book of Joshua.  The Book of Joshua describes a violent invasion of Canaan in which the Israelite nation seized the land.  The Book of Judges would seem to contradict this and provides for a more gradual conquest of the land, much of it done on a tribal basis.  This contradiction is not the product of some modern day Bible-bashers.  After all, no less a traditional authority than the editors of the Soncino TaNaCh felt compelled to address this issue.  There is no easy answer to this one.  The archeologist William G. Dever is an enemy of the minimalist view and a believer in the historicity of the Jews’ Biblical claims to an ancient presence in Israel.  He finds a strong convergence between the archeological data and the narrative in Judges and Samuel.  “The parallel account in Joshua, however, is now seen to be based largely on the folktales glorifying Joshua, which although perhaps of early date are mostly fictitious.”  (What Did the Biblical Writers Knows & When Did They Know It?).  At the same time, Abraham Malamat of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem finds ample archeological evidence to support the basic story found in the Book of Joshua.  Despite some divergences, “the continuation of the biblical narrative is generally corroborated by discoveries from the excavations.”  (See A History of the Jewish People by Ben-Sasson).  One traditional attempt to harmonize the two books contends that the Israelites did conquer land under Joshua.  However, after his death, the surviving native inhabitants reasserted themselves and the Israelites were forced to re-claim what they had already won.  (For a modern, although imperfect analogy, consider the initial American military victories in Afghanistan and Iraq and the situation these forces face as the local population regroups for further action.)  Regardless of how one resolves the question about the historicity of the Book of Joshua, many modern readers are bothered by the apparent “genocide” described in the text.  Such a taking of life seems to run contrary to the spirit of the laws found in the Torah.  Telushkin, citing the great biblical scholar Yehezkel Kaufman, “argues that only because of the wars Israel fought against Cananite nations did ‘Israel…not assimilate into the indigenous population…It provided Israel’s new religious idea with an environment in which to grow free of the influence of a popular pagan culture.’”  Monotheism began as a small, minority movement living side by side with paganism that was so immoral it practiced child-sacrifice.  Warfare of this nature was the only way that the religion of our ancestors had a chance to survive.  As Judaism developed, it recognized that non-Jews could enjoy a portion in “the World to Come.”  But these inheritors had to be righteous gentiles, not child-sacrificing pagans.

 

The Message:  Unlike the Haftarot of the last few weeks with angels and magical menorahs, this week’s reading is pretty straightforward.  It is the Story of the Spies.  It reminds me of one of those World War Two movies where the brave Allied spies are parachuted behind German lines just before D-Day.  They are always on the verge of capture and are always saved by some damsel (or a guy with a good-looking sister or daughter).  In the end, they make it back to England with that valuable piece of intelligence that leads to victory.  In the haftarah, the Israelites are ready to invade Canaan under Joshua’s leadership.  He sends two spies to “reconnoiter the region of Jericho.”  While carrying out their mission, the two spies are saved from capture by Rahab, a prostitute in Jericho.  The price of the protection is a promise that when the Israelites take Jericho, they will spare her and her family.  The spies agree and provide her with a sign so that the Israelites will know who she is.  More importantly, from the point of view of a reconnaissance mission, she lets them know that the inhabitants of Jericho have heard about the miracles and might of God and His people.  They have lost heart and will not be able to resist.  The reading ends with the spies telling Joshua, "The Lord has delivered the whole land into our power, in fact all the inhabitants of the land are quaking before us” (2:22).

 

Theme-Link:  The sedrah and the haftarah both tell the stories of spies sent to bring reports about conditions in the Land of Canaan.  Of course, the outcome of the two stories is entirely different.  The spies of the Torah come back with a negative report, telling the people that there is no way that they can conquer Canaan.  The spies in the Book of Joshua come back with a positive report, predicting victory.  But there are several other differences.  The Torah goes into great detail as to who the Twelve Spies are.  The haftarah never mentions the names of the Two Spies.  The mission of the spies in the Torah sounds like a Cook’s Tour, not an intelligence mission.  In fact, they are supposed to be confirming the richness of the Land of Milk and Honey. The spies in the haftarah are sent to Jericho to make sure that the city is ripe for capture.  The differences highlight the difference between the roles and missions of Moshe and Joshua.  The differences highlight the change in the generations.  One story is about the last generation of slaves. The other is a story about the first generation of men born free.  In his commentary on this haftarah, Rabbi Edward Romm offers an additional insight.  In the 18th century, the civil authorities in Austria asked Yehezkel Landau, the Chief Rabbi of Bohemia, if “a Jew could legitimately swear falsely if the Torah he held when he took his oath was “pasul” or “ritually defective.”  Rabbi Landau responded that a Jew is never allowed to swear falsely and offers the story of Rahab and the Two Spies as one of his proof-texts for this bold statement.