After concluding the episode of Miriam’s punishment for speaking loshen hara, the Torah now relates the story of the spies (meraglim). Moses was commanded by G-d to select twelve men, one form each tribe, to spy out the land of Canaan. Included in this group was Hoshea ben Nun whose name was later changed to Yehoshua (Joshua). The spies departed and returned forty days later, bringing produce from the land. The described the land as “flowing with milk and honey”. Ten of them gave a false report that the inhabitants were well fortified, strong, and heavily armed. They feared that the Israelites would be no match for them. The people became afraid and started to speak out against Moses. Only Yehoshua and Calev, displaying faith in G-d, refuted the majority report. They tried to convince the people to maintain their faith and trust in G-d. They did not succeed and were nearly stoned to death.

G-d subsequently punishes the rebels and Moses prays on their behalf. G-d relents, but the ten spies are killed in a plague and the Israelites are condemned to wander the desert for forty years (one year for each of the days the spies were gone). Anyone over the age of twenty, with the exception of Yehoshua and Calev, would not be permitted to the land of Canaan. Some people tried to get to Canaan on their own, but were defeated by Amalek in a battle. Lastly, G-d commands Moses about additional offerings including challah and the tzitzits.

It is interesting that the story of the meraglim occurs right after the incident with Miriam. The sages state that this was to teach us that even with the explicit lesson in loshen hara (Miriam), the people did not learn anything. Uttering a false report about someone or someplace is another form of loshen hara! Unlike the seventy elders chosen by Moses who displayed unity in judgment (achdus), the twelve spies were divided. Only Yehoshua and Calev displayed their unswerving allegiance to G-d.

Compare this episode with the one Joshua would face forty years later. After having crossed the Jordan River, the conquest of Canaan had begun. Joshua sends out two men to spy over the city of Jericho. The results, which form the basis of the haftorah for this parsha, are much different. The two men report that even though the city was fortified (the famous walls of Jericho), the city can be taken with the help of an insider. There is no ambiguity about their report and the city is taken.

The concept of achdus, or unity, is very important for the survival of the Jewish community. The Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Chassidic movement, told the following story about the meaning of achdus:

“A king was riding in a forest with his aides, when he sighted an unusually beautiful bird perched on the top of a nearby tree, He ordered that the bird be caught so that he could study it in more detail. Unfortunately, no ladder was available. He then ordered his aides form a human ladder, with one man on top of another man’s shoulders. Each man climbed up and the last man was about to reach for the bird when the bottom most man became impatient, shifted slightly, and the whole chain collapsed. All the men spilled onto the ground, without having caught the bird.”
The lesson, says the Baal Shem Tov, is that just as each man was needed to fulfill his obligation to support the ladder, so too must we do all we can to support each other and our community.

In Physics, the study of non-linear dynamics is known as “chaos theory.” Chaos occurs because a dynamical system is sensitive to the initial or starting conditions. One small change, in one seemingly insignificant variable, can balloon into an enormous error in predictions and calculations. Chaotic vibrations occur sometimes unpredictably in buildings and aircraft wings. A good example of a chaotic system is the weather. In fact, the study of chaos theory began in 1962 when a Harvard Professor of Meteorology, Ed Lorenz, was studying some mathematical models of the weather. He found that a small variable change in one parameter (say temperature or barometric pressure) forecasted a different version of the weather. Lorenz dubbed it the “Butterfly effect”. The reason is, that the a small minute change, even perhaps due to the flapping of a butterfly’s wings, may produce gross changes in the calculation.

We have our own version of the “butterfly effect” in Judaism. Everyone has a role to play. Any small change in faith and trust in G-d can have unforeseen effects. What may appear to be harmless or meaningless in the performance of a mitzvah can have dramatic effects. In The torah, the result of the false report of the spies, did not lead the people to return to Egypt as they might have wished. The leadership was not changed and the people were condemned to wander around the desert for forty years. Loshen hara has a similar effect. One small “white lie” or untruth, can mushroom into a disaster that can hurt many more people than intended. This is why the sages emphasize the sin of rechilus or tale bearing as one similar to murder!

Unity and achdus are important for survival in the diaspora or golus. Now the word redemption is “geulah” which is similar to exile (“gola”) except for an extra alef. This “alef” refers to the alef of “achdus”. Only if the Jewish people, in the diaspora and Eretz Yisroel are unified, can the exile of the gola be transformed into the redemption of geulah by the Moshiach ben Dovid!
Why should the episode of the meraglim, be followed by the additional laws of offerings? This follows a central theme of the torah. The antidote for a sin is always available. As it says in the Talmud, G-d said, ‘I created the yetzer hara, but I also created the Torah as its antidote.’ The juxtaposition of these two separate subjects is linked by the concept that the study of Torah and the performance of mitzvos are the antidote for the sin of loshen hara.

We are commanded, at the end of the parsha, to put fringes on the corners of our garments. The tzitzits cannot be placed on just any garment. Only one that has four corners on it needs tzitzits. These four corners correspond to the four statements of redemption mentioned in Sefer Shemot and the Pesach Haggadah. These, in turn, correspond to the four cups of wine. The four corners also remind us G-d’s continued presence throughout “the four corners of the world.” This verse, commanding the wearing of tzitzits, is read by Jews twice a day when we read the Shema at the Shacharis and Maariv services.

The tzitzits are a reminder of the 613 commandments contained in the Torah. When we look at them, we are to be reminded of all that G-d has done for us. The sages deduce the number 613 from the following argument. The gematria of the word “tzitzits” is six hundred. There are eight strands on a given corner with five knots. Eight plus five equals thirteen. Together, all of the numbers add up to six hundred and thirteen. Before the Shema, at the prayer “ahava rabah ahavtanu…” (deep is Your love for us…), we gather the tzitzits that are attached to our tallis and hold them close. During the recitation of the verse commanding the tzitzits, it is customary to kiss them when reciting the explicit word “tzitzits.”

Let us pray that the spirit of achdus and bitachon enters us as it did Yehoshua and Calev. May we keep far from loshen hara and the evil it brings. Remember, united, we stand; divided; we fall.

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