Parsha for Kids: Shelach 2023
Below is the transcript for the past week’s episode of Parsha for Kids, Shelach 2023.
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Season 4 Episode 4:
Hello! My name is Chana and this is Parsha for Kids. The parsha of the week is “Shelach,” which means “Send.”
But who is sending? What are they sending? And where to?
It is God. He tells Moshe, “Send for yourself spies to scout out the land of Israel. Send one man from each tribe, and each one of them must be the Nasi, or leader, of the tribe.” You see, at this point in time Bnei Yisrael were merely a few days away from entering Eretz Yisrael.
Later on, when we read the story of the spies in Sefer Devarim, it will seem as though Bnei Yisrael were the ones who came up with the idea to spy out the land of Israel. How can that make sense with what we are reading now in Shelach, where it seems like God is the one who is sending the spies?
Rashi addresses this question by focusing on the peculiar wording in the pasuk. God doesn’t just say “Send out the spies.” Instead, he says, “Send for yourself spies.” Rashi explains that indeed, Bnei Yisrael came to Moshe and requested that they send out spies to learn more about the land of Israel. Moshe asked God about this and God said that if Bnei Yisrael wanted to, they were permitted to send spies.
TRANSITION
Let’s think about why someone would send spies to check out a land.
There are two main reasons. The first is as a military reconnaissance mission. The focus of this mission would be to figure out the best strategy to enter the land, and the best methods through which to conquer it. Someone going on such a mission will be focused on any weak spots, and determining whether the nations who currently possess the land will be difficult to conquer.
Alternatively, one could spend spies in order to have a better understanding of what exactly Bnei Yisrael stands to inherit. Rather than being a military situation, it’s simply a fact-finding mission. What kind of soil is there? What kind of produce do they grow? Will Bnei Yisrael be able to live there in health, happiness and prosperity?
The question is: Why did Bnei Yisrael want to send spies? Were they concerned about strategies to conquer the land? Or did they want to see if it was even worth conquering?
Additionally, was this move on Bnei Yisrael’s part a justifiable one or one that would showcase a lack of emunah, faith? After all, God had already taken them out of Egypt, given them water in the desert, fed them manna, and helped them against the Amalekites. Did they really need a military strategy when God would be fighting for them? And wouldn’t verifying that the land itself was good just demonstrate that Bnei Yisrael hadn’t believed God until they saw the land with their own eyes?
What do YOU think?
TRANSITION
Moshe selected the twelve men to spy out the land. Each one of them was important, the head of a tribe. Shammua represented the tribe of Reuven. Shaphat represented the tribe of Shimon. Kaleiv represented the tribe of Yehuda. Yigal represented the tribe of Yissachar. Hoshea bin Nun represented the tribe of Ephraim. Palti represented the tribe of Binyamin. Gaddiel represented the tribe of Zevulun. Gaddi represented the tribe of Menashe. Ammiel represented the tribe of Dan. Setur represented the tribe of Asher. Nachbi represented the tribe of Naftali. Geuel represented the tribe of Gad. Shevet Levi did not send a spy, perhaps because they would not end up owning a specific portion of the land of Israel.
Did you notice a familiar name in this list? Hoshea bin Nun sounds similar to someone we’ve already met- Yehoshua bin Nun. Yehoshua, as you may remember, was Moshe’s helper. We have seen him in multiple places in the Torah before this. For example, he camped at the foot of Har Sinai while Moshe went up the mountain. Additionally, he chose the men to fight against Amalek and led them in that fight. Most recently, he was concerned about Moshe’s honor when Eldad and Medad were prophesying in the camp.
It turns out Hoshea bin Nun IS Yehoshua. Rashi explains that Moshe added the letter Yud to Hoshea’s name because he was worried about the motivations of the spies. Moshe thought that they might have evil intentions where they planned to bring back a bad report about the land of Israel. By adding the letter yud, which is part of God’s name, to Hosehaa’s name, Moshe hoped to give him the strength to evade the evil counsel of the spies.
TRANSITION
Moshe gave the spies instructions. He told them to go to the South, to the hill country. He then gave them a list of items to bring back a report about.
What kind of land is it?
Are the people who live in the land strong or weak?
Are there only a few people who live in the land or are there many?
Is the land good or bad?
Do the people live in walled cities or in open areas that don’t have walls?
Is the land itself fat or lean (meaning, what kinds of crops does it produce)?
Are there trees in the land or not?
Take some of the fruits of the land and bring them back.
As you can see, these instructions seem to combine both of the types of spy missions we mentioned before. Questions that focus on whether the inhabitants of the land of Canaan are strong or weak, few or many and whether they live in open areas or walled cities would be important so Bnei Yisrael could craft a strategic military attack. But the other questions that focus on the land itself would simply let Bnei Yisrael understand what kind of place they were approaching.
TRANSITION
The spies traveled through the land of Israel for forty days. They then came back to Moshe, Aharon and the entire Bnei Yisrael and gave their report.
They began with positive remarks, stating, “We came to the land to which you sent us, and it is flowing with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.”
They then said EFES, a Hebrew word that means ‘But.’
“Efes,” they said, “the people who live in the land are mighty, the cities are extremely huge and fortified, and we saw the children of giants. The Amalekites dwell in the south land, while the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountainous region. The Canaanites dwell on the coast and alongside the Jordan."
How do you think Bnei Yisrael would have reacted to hearing this? If you said panicking, you would be right. The way Bnei Yisrael are interpreting these statements, it will be impossible to conquer these enemies. These people are strong and mighty, tall and intimidating, and no matter which area of the land you enter- the south, the hill country, or the coast by the water- there are strong nations standing ready to fight.
Kaleiv spoke up, silencing the spies. He said, “We can surely go up and take possession of it; we are able to overcome it.”
However, the other spies said, “We are unable to go up against the people. They are stronger than us. The land we passed through is a land that eats its people. We saw giants there. In our eyes, we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we were in their eyes.”
The Torah refers to this segment of what the spies said as “Dibah,” an evil report and kind of Lashon Hara. Who were the spies to claim they could not go up against these people? Hadn’t God helped Bnei Yisrael win against the entire Egyptian army when He drowned them in the Red Sea? Surely God could and would fight for Bnei Yisrael again. Moreover, Rashi explains that God had made a miracle where there was a plague that resulted in the deaths of many people. Since people in Canaan were so busy burying their dead, they failed to notice the spies in their midst. The spies were ungrateful and did not consider that God had done this on their behalf. Instead, they simply claimed the land “eats its people,” a way of saying that it kills its people.
As you can imagine, the people were panicked and terrified at this point. For those of you who have seen the animated version of Beauty and the Beast, this always reminds me of the mob scene. Gaston is whipping the townspeople into a frenzy, telling all of them that there is an evil Beast who lives not too far away from them. He claims the Beast will steal their children and their wives, and so people start chanting “Kill the Beast.” Belle and her father protest, explaining that the Beast is gentle and kind and not a threat to the townspeople. But the townspeople are so riled up that they don’t listen to Belle, only to Gaston.
Unfortunately, this is similar to what happened here. Despite Kaleiv’s assurances that Bnei Yisrael WOULD be capable of conquering the land, the nation panicked. They complained to Moshe and Aharon that they wished they had died in the land of Egypt or even in the Midbar rather than being brought to the land of Israel, where they would die by the sword. Moreover, their wives and children would be taken as spoils of war.
Bnei Yisrael’s fear of the unknown was so powerful that they decided they would rather return to Egypt. They wanted to appoint a leader to lead them back there.
Moshe and Aharon fell on their faces in alarm. Yehoshua and Calev spoke up. They clarified that the land they had scouted was a very good land. Then they brought God into the conversation. They stated that if God wanted, they would be able to enter the land and conquer it. They also warned that Bnei Yisrael should not rebel against God.
The nation was in no mood to hear it. They wanted to stone Yehoshua and Calev. This didn’t happen because God’s cloud suddenly descended. It seems like God’s sudden appearance stopped the nation from going forward with the stoning.
TRANSITION
God spoke to Moshe and indicated he was very angry with Bnei Yisrael and their lack of faith. He offered Moshe an option. He, God, was willing to kill off all of Bnei Yisrael and start again from Moshe. Moshe declined this offer, explaining to God exactly why Bnei Yisrael should be spared. Moshe explained that the Egyptians would say God wasn’t powerful enough to take Bnei Yisrael into the land of Canaan after all, which is why the nation had all died out instead. This would undermine God’s reputation. Moshe also used the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy to ask God not to do this.
God decided He would not kill out all of Bnei Yisrael on that day. However, he was going to punish them for their lack of faith and trust in Him. Calev and Yehoshua would be permitted to enter the land of Israel. However, the other people and members of the nation would die in the desert. They would be doomed to wander for a period of forty years- matching up to the forty days the spies had spent in the land- and over that time period, they would all die out. The children they had worried would be left for spoils would instead be the ones to enter the land.
Remember when Bnei Yisrael had said they wished they had died in the desert or in Egypt because they feared death by the sword? Well, now God was granting that wish. They wuld indeed die in the desert.
There was a separate plague that killed all the spies except for Caleiv and Yehoshua. Rashi says that since these spies had sinned with their tongues, they were punished with their tongues. Their tongues became very long, reaching their belly buttons. Worms came out of their tongues and went inside of their belly buttons. Then they died.
Bnei Yisrael were upset to learn of the punishment they would receive. Some felt regret and decided that now they were ready to go up to the land of Canaan after all. Moshe cautioned them against doing this but they were adamant. This group, called the Maapilim, went up to Israel, and sure enough, since they did it against the will of God, they were all killed.
TRANSITION
What can we learn from the episode of the spies? There are many possible lessons.
First, perhaps some of this could have been prevented. If Moshe had only asked the spies to report on the quality of the land, and had NOT asked them to report on military information like the size of the land’s inhabitants, and whether they were strong or weak, perhaps that information would not have come up and Bnei Yisreal would not have become so terrified.
Second, the spies made some assumptions. For example, they said they felt like grasshoppers and therefore they were also like grasshoppers in the eyes of the people of the land. They had no way of knowing this was true. Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski zt”l wrote about this concept and suggested that this was the true sin of the spies. They projected their own feelings of insecurity and inadequacy onto the people of the land, assuming that these giants could have only seen them as grasshoppers. They had no way of knowing if that were true, but they stated their assumption as though it was a fact, and thus terrified Bnei Yisrael.
Third, it’s always important to be Dan L’Kaf Zechut, in this case, even on a land. The spies said the land ate its inhabintanns, but actually that was a miracle that God had performed especially for them so that the inhabitants of the land would not notice the spies in their midst.
Fourth, Bnei Yisrael should not have listened to and believed all the Lashon Hara. They could have hearkened to Caleiv and Yehoshua but did not.
Tradition teaches us that the episode with the spies, or Meraglim, occurred on the ninth of Av. Nowadays, we mourn, cry and adults don’t eat and drink on that day. The ninth of Av, or Tisha B’av, is the saddest day in the entire Jewish calendar.
TRANSITION
The nation was very sad about all that had happened. To cheer them up, God taught Moshe laws that would be applicable in the land of Israel. One of these laws is what we now call Hafrashat Challah, separating the dough. Every time a Jew bakes five pounds of dough, he must separate a portion of it and give it too the Kohen. This portion is called Challah. In the Torah She’Biktav, the Written Torah, this law really only applies in the land of Israel, but our sages decreed we must take off a portion of challah, even today, including those of us who do not live in Israel. Nowadays we do not give the dough to the Kohanim, because they are impure, tamei, and cannot eat it. Instead, we burn the dough.
Separating a portion of dough to give to the kohen before we bake the dough and turn it into bread that we consume ourselves teaches us to think of others. In this way, we are constantly practicing chesed when we are preparing meals. We are training ourselves to be aware of others and of their needs, not only our own needs.
TRANSITION
We now transition to the story of the Mekoshesh Etzim, gatherer of sticks. A man was gathering wood on Shabbat, which is a forbidden melacha. He was warned not to do this but did it anyway. This was the first time Shabbat was publicly violated, and Bnei Yisrael did not know what to do. They brought the man to Moshe, and the man was placed under guard. God told Moshe that for his crime, the man required the death penalty, sekilah, which means being stoned to death. Bnei Yisrael witnessed this punishment and this would have made them very careful to keep Shabbos properly in future.
According to one opinion of our sages, the man who desecrated Shabbos was named Tzelafchad. We will learn more about Tzelafchad in a future parsha.
TRANSITION
We conclude the parsha with the mitzva of tzitzit. Tzitzit are ritual fringes, or twisted threads, that we attach to four cornered garments that Jewish boys and men wear. The tzitzit are like a badge or uniform. They are meant to remind men and boys that they are God’s servants. Someone who sees the tzitzit will be reminded they are a servant of God and that might prevent them from committing a sin. It is possible that the reason tzitzit was given as a mitzvah for men and boys but not for women is because men and boys are considered more impulsive and thus more prone to committing certain types of sins than women are.
TRANSITION
So here’s what we learned this week!
Even high officials in the nation can sin or become corrupt. Even though Moshe sent the Nasi of each tribe, all of them except for Calev and Yehoshua ended up slandering the land of Israel.
Moshe was an extraordinarily patient leader. Even after Bnei Yisrael had once again done the wrong thing, Moshe defended them to God and made sure they would not all die immediately. Instead, their deaths would take place over forty years.
It is important to think of others, and not only of ourselves, something which the mitzvah of Hafrashat Challah teaches us.
Tzitzit are like a soldier’s uniform- a protective garment that helps boys and men remember that they are servants of God and should conduct themselves like those servants.
If you have any questions or comments on this week’s episode, please email me at parsha4kids@gmail.com. That’s parsha the number 4 kids at gmail.com. Good Shabbos!