There is a book that ranks with Mein Kamp and the Protocols
of the Elders of Zion in its disparagement of Jewish people. It constantly
threatens the entire Jewish people, sometimes destroys the morally weak ones, and
always highlights their shortcomings. I am talking about the Torah itself, of
course. Perhaps, the greatest testament
of its veracity is through the brutal honesty with which it scours the Jewish
people; there is no sugar coating. It is
the way of the world to aggrandize victories and conveniently forget defeats,
but not so here. In the book of Bamidbar, it is parsha after parsha of Jewish
mishaps. And none was quite as bad as
the spies, where G-d is seemingly ready to give up on these people and start
anew with Moses.[1]
But, what went wrong and what was so bad about calling it the way they saw it?
A hint
to an aspect of the problem is found in what is taught after the episode. We are taught about the wine offering for a
sacrifice when we get to Israel. It is a strange to bring this up now as this
mitzvah is relevant to the land and no one is actually going to make it to the
land outside of Joshua and Caleb. The
general rule is that the order of the Torah is significant. Meaning, in some
way this teaching is a rectification of the sin. So what is the importance of wine and why is
it taught now?
Wine makes its way to many Jewish events:
Shabbat, Marriage, Bris etc. Why is wine
always present? Wine’s function is to make us happy and happiness is not a goal
of Judaism but a very important tool that helps us connect. When a person is happy he expands and opens
up. On the other hand, a lack of
happiness usually means that a person contracts. A sign of depression is when people
stop speaking to others. The Zohar states that a holiday meal without guests is
worthless. Why? Because a holiday is a time of joy so naturally there is an
expansion of one’s social circles.
This same principle applies to our relationship
with the land of Israel and G-d. The
land of Israel is called ‘eretz chemda’, the
land of desire. Prior to connection, one
needs a desire to connect and that requires joy. A person without joy doesn’t have a desire and
that was part of the issue with the spies.
Behind their foul speech was a lack of desire and joy, and hence, the ability to
expand their relationship with G-d which was the purpose of getting to the
land.
