10r1 Worksheet 8 Source Sheet Tents Spies

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ElM HABANIM SEMEICHAH

Yisrael joined them. the eternal redemption would have ensued, as I demonstrated above'" from the words of Chazal. In any event. we see that they successfully reestablished the House of our Lives [the Beit HaMikdash] only by joining together as one man with one heart for the purpose of building the Land. Therefore, we must do the same, for this is the only way to successfully fulfill HaShem's desire'" (may His name be blessed and exalted forever). By virtue of this. HaShem will be a light for us. and His glory will shine upon us, speedily in our days. Amen.

x The sin of the spies: propa-

ganda against Eret.

Yiarael

Our Age-Old Debt

:lC My brothers, in addition to what I have written above.... know that we are obligated to unite all of Klal Yisrael by way of this mitzvah because of an age-old debt that was loaded upon us at the inception of our nation. We were exiled. we have suffered harsh oppression for thousands of years, and we have wept profusely while dwelling on foreign soil, all in order to pay oft' this debt. I will preface with the following Midrash:

The entire congregation lifted up their voice, and the people wept that night (B.Midbor 14:1): This is the meaning of the verse The words of the talebearer are like blows (t1'~:I"n~:l) (Mishlry 18:8, 26:22)... R. Eliezer son of R. Yosi HaGalili said, "The words of the talebearer are t1'~:I"n~:l (t1:1" n~:l - as if a relative had died)... So too. when the spies returned from spying out' the Land. they spread themselves out among all the tribes of Israel. Each one went to his respective tribe and threw himself down in every comer of his house. His sons and daughters came to him and said. 'What happened my master?' Then. while standing up. he pretended to fall [again]. and he said, 'Woe unto me because of you, my sons. daughters. and daughters-in-law. Oh, how the Amorites will mock and rule over you. Who will be able to look at you? .. I know what I saw.' All at once, his sons. daughters, and daughters-in-law broke out in tears, until the neighbors heard what had happened. and they, too, began to cry. One family heard from the next until the entire tribe was crying. Each of the spies did the same and caused his tribe

550 Pp. 161. 252-56. 551 Based on Yeshayah 53:10.

CHAPTER THREE - SETTLEMENT &: REBUILDING

897

to weep. Finally, all 600,000 [Jews] became one group, and they cried bitterly, lifting their voices towards the heavens. From where do we derive this? From the verse The entire congregation lifted up their voice." + Another explanation: Lifted up (K1tInl): The Holy One Blessed be He said to them, "You took a bad loan." K1I1nl [is understood here like the word :l1I1n in the verse] When you lend (:l1I1n) your friend (D'lJ4rim 24:10). "By your lives. you will eventually pay [for this]." The Holy One Blessed be He said, "You wept in vain; I will establish for you weeping for all generations." At that moment it was decreed that the Temple would be destroyed and that the Jews would be exiled among the nations ofthe world. Thus, it says, [They despised the desirable Land...]; therefore, He lifted up (K1I1"1) His hand against them (T.hillim 106:24-26): a lifting of the hand parallel to a lifting of the voice. (Yalkut Shimoni 1:748) The Yalkut explains another verse in a similar way. You murmured (,mnl) in your tents and said, "Because the Lord hates us, He brought

us out of the Land ofEgypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorite to destroy us. To where shall we ascend? Our brethren have melted our hearts, saying, 'The people are greater and taller than we..., and we have seen the sons of the giants there'" (Druarim 1:27-28). (Rashi comments: ",mnl denotes slander, just like, The words of the tale. bearer (P"U). i.e.• a person who brings an evil report."): This teaches that they sat in their houses and spoke as if a relative had died, as it says. The words of the talebearer are like blows (t1'~:I"n~:l)... They cried and made others cry as if a relative had died (t1:1" n~:l). They took their sons and said, "Woe unto you, 0 aftlicted ones. Tomorrow. they will crucify you." They took their daughters and said, "Woe unto you, 0 mournful ones. woe unto you, 0 aftlicted ones. Tomorrow, they will murder you, take you captive, and shame you. (Yalkut Shinwni 1:805)

Thus, the spies. who were the leaders of Israel. abused and + The Midrash is bothered by the words The entire congregation.

Therefore, it explains that the entire congregation became like one group which wept together because of the dread and fear that each of the spies generated within his tribe...

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REBUILDING

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This all happened because of the "bad loan" we took back then, as the Midrash terms the sin of the spies. The Holy One Blessed be He said, "By your lives, you will eventually pay [for this]," but we have yet to pay up this debt. Therefore, we must endure all [the affiictions] that befall us. Furthermore, Midrash Eichah states, "Israel left a 'bad debt' to the future generations with this crying of theirs" (Ekhah RaMah 1:23). Thus, as long as this debt has not been paid off, we cannot expect any improvement in our situation, God forbid. Behold, the Magen Avraham explains that we stay awake on the night of ShalJuot in order to rectify the sin that our ancestors committed by sleeping through the night prior to the giving of the Torah.... Now, if our Rabbis introduced a custom to rectify such a minor infraction, then we must certainly rectify a major infraction like [the sin of the spies]. Our entire existence and honor depends on thiSj as does the honor of: HaShem, our holy Torah, the Davidic Dynasty, and our Holy Land. Therefore, it is as' clear as day, to anyone who wants to admit the truth, that the only way to free ourselves from the horrible predicament in which we have been for close to 2,000 years is to rectify and payoff the "bad debt" that we incurred long ago. Then, when we tear up this bill of debt, we will leave this bitter exile with an uplifted hand, dwell honorably in our Holy Land, and the children will return to theiIil>orders,'" speedily in our days. Amen. Now, on the night of ShalJuot we rectify our sin by fulfilling now what we should have done then. We should have stayed awake all night preparing ourselves with bridal ornaments for the designated day when the Holy One Blessed be He would enter into a nuptial covenant with the Assembly ofIsrael under the canopy ofMt. Sinai.... Since we were remiss back then, we make up for it now, each and every year. Similarly, in order to rectify the sin of the spies, which caused us this "bad debt" (for which we pay until this very day) we must fulfill what was lacking then. When we do this, our debt will be paid off, our bill of debt torn up, and we will (God willing) achieve the great and wondrous salvation which all of Israel awaits with great anticipation.

betrayed the trust that Klal Yisrael gave them. The entire nation trusted them and sent them to spy out the Land, in order to discover the most effective way to enter, conquer, and settle their forefathers' Land. This explains Moshe's reproof: And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-Barne'a, saying, "Go up and possess the Land that I have given you" (that is to say, the whole purpose of sending the spies was to go up and possess the Land), you rebelled against the word of the Lord your God W.uarim 9:23). Notice, my brothers, that the spies used the same modern technique that people use today when they want to capture the hearts of the masseSj it is called propaganda. The spies used this technique so extensively that each prince entered his house and pretended to fall... (as the Midrash recounts). Is there any greater propaganda than this? Even nowadays you will have a hard time finding anything like it. They achieved their goal because they did not spare the trouble of entering (by way of their messengers) the houses of each of the 600,000 Jews and scaring the family members, until the entire con~egation, as one group, broke down and cried bitterly. Thus, Israel said, Our brethren have melted our hearts W.uarim 1:28), by murmuring in each man's tent. This also explains Moshe's statement You murmured in your tents (ibid. 1:27). Similarly, David said, They despised the desirable Land...and murmured in their tents (T.hillim 106:24-25). [Both verses say] in their tents to teach that they succeeded in making the desirable Land despicable in the eyes of the entire congregation by murmuring in everyone's tent.

JC

Now, my brother, notice that they did not hesitate to use various deceptive and shrewd methods, and that they spared no trouble propa- to mislead the entire nation and arouse them to hate and detest the ganda for desirable Land. Their intense propaganda helped them achieve all Ere" Yisrael of this and enabled them to unite the entire nation against our desirable Land. These princes and leaders of the congregation did all of this for their own selfish goals (as I cited above'" from the holy Zohar and the Shelah HaKadosh...). They caused the bitter affiictions which we suffered during these past two thousand years and which we continue to suffer to this very day. We see no end to our exilej on the contrary, it intensifies day by day, culminating in our current predicament.

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this sin:

Magen Avraham, Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 494 (introduction). 564 Bued on Yirmiyah 31:16. 556 See Pirkei DeRebbe Eliezer, chap. 41.

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CHAPTER THREE - SETI'LEMENT 8& REBUILDING

As I already mentioned.... the angel of the holy volume. Maggid Meisharim. told our master. the Beit Yosef. that Moshe Rabbeinu sent the spies expecting that they would return and extol Eretz Yisrael and its special qualities. This would arouse within the hearts of Israel a burning desire and an intense yearning to enter Eretz Yisrael as soon as possible. This burning desire would make the Jews worthy of inheriting the Land. even though they were not worthy of it on their own merit. However. because of their selfish motives. the spies did exactly the opposite. Using various methods and expending much effort. they caused the nation to hate and abhor Eretz Yisrael, as I explained above. Thus. if we want to rectify this sin, we must strive to arouse the Children of Israel. wherever they may be. to love and desire the desirable Land of our forefathers. Then. a fire will burn within them to come and inherit the Holy Land. and they will desire it more than anything in the world. This will be the complete rectification of the great sin mentioned above. In this way. we will payoff the ancient debt that we incurred at the inception of our nation. the debt which causes us. to this very day. such diverse and frequent troubles that we have practically perished. God forbid. When we complete this rectification, our bill of debt will be tom up and the day of salvation will arrive with great wonders and grandeur. This is the day for which we have waited, let us exult and rejoice in His salvation..... speedily in our days. Amen. However. my dear brother. you must be aware of what Chazal say in the Midrash: Righteous people rectify their sins in the same manner that they commit them (Tanchuma, BeShalach 24). Therefore. we must inspire the hearts of Israel and kindle within them the fire of desire for Eretz Yisrael using the same methods that our ancestors used to undermine Israel's desire for the Land. The generation of the spies united the entire congregation against Eretz Yisrael and put a great deal of effort into propaganda They established an entire propaganda organization - what we would call today a propaganda department - which organized people to convince others to oppose Eretz Yisrael. Similarly. we must establish a propaganda apparatus which will permeate every Jewish home and try to convince every Jewish soul to support Eretz Yisrael. With God's help. if we do so we will succeed in uniting all of Klal

Yisrael behind Eretz Yisrael. Then. the "bad debt" will be paid off; the bill will be tom up; the sin will be rectified; the prosecutor will withdraw; the defender will grow strong; the day of salvation will arrive; and the verse. Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice (I Diurei HaYcmim 16:81). will be fulfilled through us. For. the joy will be in both the upper and lower [worlds]. Amen. so may it be God's will.

400

556 P.258. 557 Based on

Yeshayah 25:9.

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'0 Beit Rebbe. a book about the Ba'al HaTanya. recounts various lessons that the Rebbe learned from the war between Napoleon and Russia (which he lived through).... We, too. must learn from today's war. The warring kingdoms have established propaganda departments whose sole purpose is to promulgate their doctrine and capture the hearts of the masses. Similarly. we must appoint great men. blessed with true wisdom and abounding insight. imbued with fear of God and talent. to convince the masses of the importance of this sacred and lofty ideal. These men must be able to enlighten the holy nation of their obligation towards settling Eretz Yisrael and arouse within them the desire to elevate the pride of the Land and raise it from the dust. Tana DeVei Eliyahu also states that we are permitted to learn this kind of lesson from gentile practices. The Midrash explains that Elkanah instructed the Jews to ascend [to Shilo~ for the festivals en masse and with great enthusiasm. in order to' fulfill the verse A multitude ofpeople is the King's glory lMishky 14:28). He said to them: Learn the way of worship from the Canaanites and the idolatrous nations. They created an orderly system of worship for their gods, even though these gods are vanity and nothingness. Certainly, then, you must worship HaShem in an orderly fashion and ascend to the ark of the covenant. for HaShem is a living God, blessed be His name for ever and ever. [Then]. Elkanah told them to ascend with him. (Eliyahu Rabbah S:8-9) In order to publicize the matter, they lodged in the main square of each city through which they passed. The Midrash describes at length how Elkanah persuaded Israel to ascend with him en masse and joyfully. in order to glorify the King of the Universe. The Holy One Blessed be He was grateful for this and rewarded him with 558 Beit Rebbe (Brooklyn: Kabat, 5713 [1953). vol. 1, p. 110; vol. 2. pp. 162-156. 559 [The site of the Mishkan before the Temple was built in Jerusalem.]

We must use propa-

gandajust like the Gentiles do

ElM HABANIM SEMEICHAH

CHAPTER THREE - SETTLEMENT & REBUILDING

Shmuel the prophet [as a son]. Tana DeVei Eliyahu concludes: "From here you learn that Shmuel was a reward for Elkanah's deed." Thus, Elkanah learned from the Gentiles how to utilize organization and propaganda for sacred matters. Therefore, what I said above that we should learn from them to use propaganda to generate a love for the Land - is not far-fetched. However, for our purposes, we do not need to learn this from the Gentiles, for the spies employed these exact same methods against HaShem and the Land. Therefore, we are obligated to rectify their sin and use these very methods to glorify HaShem and the Land. I am certain that had we done this from time immemorial - that is, enlighten the nation of the great virtue of cherishing the Land'" - then, we would not have reached the point in which there are innocent, pure-hearted people, even Torah Jews, who think that it is forbidden to preach or hear public sermons about cherishing the Land.'" Furthermore, there would not be people who make such ear-splitting statements like, "The reason the Jews of other countries were punished is because they engaged in settling the Land, and the reason the Hungarian Jews were spared is because they stayed far away from this endeavor."'" I heard this distorted judgment with my own ears. Innocent, simple, God-fearing Jews, and even learned chassidim, aroused themselves to speak against those who cherish the Land They do not realize that they have fallen into the sin of the spies, thereby increasing our age-old debt. Unwittingly, they enkindle HaShem's wrath (God forbid). May the good God forgive them for this, for they speak out of ignorance and do not realize how far-reaching are their words. This all happened because they do not know enough about this important issue. Therefore, we must teach them this great principle, in order to rectify the age-old sin of the spies. We must teach them to desire and yearn for our Land and refrain from arousing hatred against its inhabitants. By doing this, we will appease the Master, HaShem, and merit to see the complete redemption, speedily in our days. Amen.

that time, the leaders of the congregation spread evil propaganda against Eretz Yisrael. Therefore, today, as well, the leaders of the congregation must propagandize for the sake of Eretz Yisrael, in order to payoff their "bad loan." They must be the first ones to open the nation's eyes. They must explain that there is no reason for us to remain in the foreign, impure, and polluted atmosphere of exile, nor to expend our energies in vain while the Gentiles rob the fruits of our labor from before our very eyes. The leaders must speak to the people in this fashion and arouse within them a fire and a spark of love for our desirable Land. This alone will make us worthy of redemption, as I cited above from the Beit Yosefs Maggid.... The Maharsha also writes that when the people of Israel cherish the stones and dust of Eretz Yisrael they bring the appointed time of redemption closer. 1M Thus, the leaders will unite all of Klal Yisrael together for the sake of Eretz Yisrael, and then our ''bad debt" will be paid off. However, if the leaders neglect this matter, there is a danger that they themselves will have to pay for the bad loan that they took back then. The halachah states that if two partners borrow money from someone, the lender can collect the entire debt from whichever partner he wishes, because each partner becomes a guarantor for his friend.... The same applies to the "bad debt" that the spies and their entire generation incurred. Since they all joined together [against Eretz Yisrael],'" they became like partners who borrowed from the Holy One Blessed be He. Therefore, if HaShem wants He can collect the debt - which Klal Yisrael incurred by causing the exile - entirely from Israel's leaders. Moreover, the leaders have a greater obligation to payoff this debt, because they were the primary cause of this "loan" to begin with. This explains the words of our mentor, the Or HaChayim. He writes that Israel's leaders throughout the generations will be held responsible for the fact that we are still in exile, because they should have inspired the Children of Israel to love Eretz Yisrael. /WI Even though he explains [this to mean] that the leaders must uplift the

402

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Furthermore, my brother, know that in order to rectify our ancestors' sin, everything must be exactly as it was then. At

propagandize 560 + Which is the only way we can achieve redemption, as the angel told our for Eretl& mentor, the Beit Yosef. See above, p. 258. Yisrael 561 See above, p. 355ft'. 562 See above, pp. 349, 355.

403

See p. 258. Maharsha, Ta'cmit 15a, s.v. baruch ata HaShem merachem. + I cited this above (pp. 277-78, 302). 565 See Shulchan Aroch, Choshen Mishpat 77:3. 566 + See the Midrash I cited above (pp. 396-97). 567 Or HaChayim, VaYikra 25:25. 563

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ElM ilABANIM SEMEICHAH

Jews spiritually and make them worthy ofredemption, he also asserts that the aftlictions of the birthpangs of Mashiach will complete the repentance.- Now, in our days we have already suffered more than our share of the birthpangs of Mashiach. In all of Jewish history there has never been such calamity. Therefore, we do not lack the element of repentance. The only thing we lack is a desire and a love for the Land which will make us worthy of entering it. Furthermore, the Or HaChayim writes that if Israel does not repent, the redemption will occur naturally." Therefore, now that it is impossible to bring the world to repentance, as we [clearly] see, • we expect only a natural redemption. Thus, the leaders of the generation must inspire the Children of Israel to help bring the redemption closer using the natural means that HaShem has prepared for us. We are not worthy enough for it to occur with manifest miracles, only with miracles disguised in nature, as in the days of Cyrus. Our mentor, the Kedushat Levi expounds on this in his work.... Hence, the generation's leaders must encourage all of Israel to help payoff the loan that they took as partners at the time of the spies. They are considered partners who become guarantors (:ml) for one another... Now too, every Jew is responsible (:1'37) for our bitter and lengthy exile. The leaders are even more responsible, because they caused this bad loan, and they have the ability to exhort and arouse the nation to cherish and desire the Land. The brilliant prince of the Torah from Dvinsk concurs in his pamphlet, Yeshivat Eretz Yisrael: The gaonim who sit in the tents of Torah and wisdom and upon the seats of the Rabbinate (may HaShem grant them long life) have a foremost obligation to publicize this beloved, lofty, and profound mitzvah, which affects the overall existence and character of our nation.'" For, the great length of the exile made many people practically forget about this mitzvah. There are even those who are stubborn enough to oppose it publicly. ~

Also, R. Yehudah states that Israel will not repent until Eliyahu comes (Yalkut Shimoni 2:595).

588 Ibid., ibid., 25:26. 569 Ibid., BeMidbar 24:17. 570 KJ!dushat Levi, First KJ!dushah, p. 337.

571 See above, pp. 233-35.

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This error cannot be uprooted easily, unless our brilliant rabbis., who sit in judgment, arouse themselves to reform these stubborn people. m But,· if the leaders fail to do this, they will delay the payment of this age-old debt and, consequently, delay the redemption. Then, the Holy One Blessed be He will collect the entire debt from them (God forbid), in accordance with the law that a lender may collect an entire loan from one of the partners, especially from the partner who causes the delay in payment. This is what the Or HaChayim HaKadosh means when he says that the leaders will be held responsible for this. I demonstrated that this idea is built on a law in Choshen Mishpat. * • In the introduction to the second volume of my responsa, Mishneh Sachir,·... I explain a verse in Yechezkel: I have made you a watchman for the House of Israel... When I say to a wicked person, «0 wicked one, you shall surely die," and you do not speak to warn the wicked one concerning his way, that wicked one will die in his iniquity, but I will demand his blood (1/:),) from your hand (33:7-8). I assert that the word ,/:), can mean either blood or money, as I will explain with God's help. The Midrash says: "And her tear is upon her cheek (;rn'1) (EU:h4h 1:2), [meaning] upon her kohanim (priests), as it says, They shall give the priest the shoulder, the cheeks (D"n'1l'1), and the maw [of the sacrifices] (Devarim 18:3)" (Eichah&bbah 1:25). This is extremely puzzling. . Were these trivial priestly gifts the only thing they had to cry about when the Land was destroyed? The brilliant author of Matta DeYerushalayim of Pressburg elucidates this Midrash beautifully in the introduction to his work, To'ar Moshe (on the laws of Shechitah): The verse says, This shall be the priest's due (tI!lll1~)"" from the 572 Yeshivat Eretz Yisrael, p. 58a. 573 • I printed this book in 5699-5700 [1939-1940], and it is still sitting in the

Katzburg Printing House in Tirna. May HaShem grant me the privilege to promptly retrieve it amidst Israel's salvation. I am very distressed about this work, for I took great pains to have it printed, and it is a considerable work both quantitatively (it consists of 150 pages) and qualitatively (it contains 214 responsas on practical halachic issues in all four sections of the Shulchan Aruch). 57. [In the following selection, the word "1lIllPD" is used in different ways: due, right, and judgment (or claim). Therefore, we placed the word "1lIllPl:l" in parentheses next to the translation.]

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