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Shlach (שלח) Numbers 13:1–15:41 The Weekly Torah portion in synagogues on Shabbat, Saturday, 18 Sivan, 5768; June 21, 2008 “The land that we traversed and scouted is an exceedingly good land.” (Numbers 14:7.) God told Moses to send one chieftain from each of the 12 tribes of Israel to scout the land of Canaan, and Moses sent them out from the wilderness of Paran. Among the scouts were Caleb son of Jephunneh from the Tribe of Judah and Hosea son of Nun from the Tribe of Ephraim. Moses changed Hosea’s name to Joshua. They scouted the land as far as Hebron. At the wadi Eshcol, they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes so large that it had to be borne on a carrying frame by two of them, as well as some pomegranates and figs.

At the end of 40 days, they returned and reported to Moses, Aaron, and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh saying that the land did indeed flow with milk and honey, but that the people who inhabited it were powerful, the cities were fortified and very large, and that they saw the Anakites there. Caleb hushed the people and urged the people to go up and take the land. But the other scouts spread calumnies about the land, calling it “one that devours its settlers.” They reported that the land’s people were giants and stronger than the Israelites. The whole community broke into crying, railed against Moses and Aaron, and shouted: “If only we might die in this wilderness!”

Moses and Aaron fell on their faces, and Joshua and Caleb rent their clothes and exhorted the Israelites not to fear, and not to rebel against God. Just as the community threatened to pelt them with stones, God’s Presence appeared in the Tabernacle. God complained to Moses: “How long will this people spurn Me,” and threatened to strike them with pestilence and make of Moses a nation more numerous than they. But Moses told God to think of what the Egyptians would think when they heard the news, and how they would think God powerless to bring the Israelites to the Promised Land. Moses asked God to forbear, quoting God’s self-description as “slow to anger and abounding in kindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression.” (Num. 14:17–18.) In response, God pardoned, but also swore that none of the men who had seen God’s signs would see the Promised Land, except Caleb and Joshua, and that all the rest 20 years old and up would die in the wilderness. God said that the Israelites’ children would enter the Promised Land after roaming the wilderness, suffering for the faithlessness of the present generation, for 40 years, corresponding to the number of days that the scouts scouted the land. The scouts other than Caleb and Joshua died of plague.

Early the next morning, the Israelites set out to the Promised Land, but Moses told them that they would not succeed without God in their midst. But they marched forward anyway, and the Amalekites and the Canaanites dealt them a shattering blow at Hormah.

God told Moses to tell Israelites that when they entered the Promised Land and would present an offering to God, the person presenting the offering was also to bring flour mixed with oil and wine. And when a resident alien wanted to present an offering, the same law would apply. When the Israelites ate bread of the land, they were to set the first loaf aside as a gift to God.

If the community unwittingly failed to observe any commandment, the community was to present one bull as a burnt offering with its proper meal offering and wine, and one he-goat as a sin offering, and the priest would make expiation for the whole community and they would be forgiven. And if an individual sinned unwittingly, the individual was to offer a she-goat in its first year as a sin offering, and the priest would make expiation that the individual might be forgiven. But the person who violated a commandment defiantly was to be cut off from among his people.

Once the Israelites came upon a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day, and they brought him before Moses, Aaron, and the community and placed him in custody. God told Moses that the whole community was to pelt him with stones outside the camp, so they did so.

God told Moses to instruct the Israelites to make for themselves fringes (in Hebrew, ציצת or tzitzit) on each of the corners of their garments. They were to look at the fringes, recall the commandments, and observe them.

Hebrew and English Text Hear the parshah chanted Commentary from Conservative Judaism by the Jewish Theological Seminary Commentary from Conservative Judaism by the American Jewish University Commentary from Reform Judaism Commentaries from Orthodox Judaism by Project Genesis Commentaries from Orthodox Judaism by Chabad.org Commentaries from Aish.com Commentaries from Reconstructionist Judaism