(from Emet L’Yaakov on Devarim)
Why Did Moshe Agree to Send the Spies?
Moshe, when he recounts the story of the sending of the spies, says, “All of you came close to me . . .” Rashi explains that they came to Moshe as a disorganized group, young people pushing aside the elderly, and old people pushing aside the leaders. What was Moshe trying to get across through this? It is difficult to assume that he wanted to teach them the need for respectfulness, derech eretz. How is that related to the sin of the spies?
Rav Yaakov zt”l suggests that Moshe’s critique was that they came to him frantically, with confused fear bred of a lack of trust in G-d. If they trusted in G-d, but had some positive reason to request sending spies, they would not have been disorganized. They would have used the standard channels and had their leaders present their case to Moshe. Moshe thus showed them, as he recounted the story in Devarim, that the source of their sin was a lack of trust in G-d and His abilities.
However, this raises another, more powerful question. If the source of their request was lack of trust, why did Moshe assent? He should have stopped the process at that point and refused.
The answer lies in a principle the Ramban sets down in his commentary on Vayikra (26:11). The amount of human initiative a person should put into his practical, this-worldly life is directly proportional to his degree of trust in G-d. Because we are not on the level of total and absolute trust in G-d, we use, for instance, doctors and this-worldly medicine. There is an ideal (for some great tzadikim or in some historical periods), though, to have such a high level of trust that one places everything in G-d’s hands, even on the practical level.
Once Moshe saw that the nation was on a lower level of bitachon (trust) than he had thought, he realized that the conquering of the land of Israel would also have to work differently than planned. Originally, the land was to be conquered in a Divine-centered, highly miraculous way. Now, though, it was clear that they would not succeed unless they acted in the way armies usually do. That would include scouting out the territory, planning a military strategy, and the like. Therefore, Moshe agreed to send the spies, for now they really needed them.
[prepared by Eliezer Kwass]
