Follow ChabadInfo & Never Miss an Update!

Follow us on Instagram Subscribe to our WhatsApp status and broadcast Follow us on Tiktok Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on Google News Subscribe on YouTube

BEGIN WITH A GRIN

Three spies, one German, one French, and one Israeli, are caught in a hostile country. They are jailed together in a small cell in an isolated prison and are taken out, one by one, for interrogation by local security forces. First, they take out the French spy and drag him on the ground to the interrogation room where they tie his hands to the chair and torture him for two hours. He finally breaks and tells them whatever they want to know. Then they take the German and do the same thing, though he breaks after four hours.

Finally, it’s the turn of the Israeli. They tie his hands to the chair and torture him for two hours but he doesn’t say a word. Four hours go by and he remains silent. Eight tortuous hours and nothing.

Finally, after a full day of brutal interrogation, the interrogators throw him back into the cell beaten and broken. The French and German spies are stunned. They ask him, “How did you manage to hold out under torture? Is it some spiritual thing?”

Said the Israeli, “What kind of spiritual? After an hour I wanted to tell them all but I couldn’t talk because I couldn’t move my hands!”

GOOD SPY, BAD SPY

Parshas Shelach is mostly about the sin of the spies. The fate of the spies, along with their generation whom they led to sin, is known. Nobody survived. None of them entered the Land except for Yehoshua and Kalev.

The question that needs to be asked is, what will happen to them in the future? What will be the fate of the generation of the desert and the spies themselves in the era of Geula? Will they arise in the resurrection of the dead and merit the World to Come?

This is not a new question but a talmudic discussion in Meseches Sanhedrin. In the mishna, Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Eliezer disagree. Rabbi Akiva maintains that the spies have no portion in the World to Come as it says, “the men who spread an evil report about the Land died in the plague, before the Lord.” “They died” in this world, “in the plague” – in the World to Come. The generation of the desert has no share in the World to Come as it says, “In this desert they will end, there they will die.”

Rabbi Eliezer’s approach seems more forgiving and he maintains that they will be resurrected, as it says (Tehillim 50), “Gather to Me My devoted ones, who made a covenant with Me over a sacrifice.”

It sounds a bit strange that Rabbi Akiva, the great lover of Jews, is so harsh about the generation of the desert and even sentences them to such a far-reaching punishment. The Gemara itself expresses surprise over Rabbi Akiva’s psak and says, “Rabbi Akiva abandoned his usual middas chassidus,” i.e. that this harsh judgment of the generation of ‘the generation of the desert’ is out of character for him. What is the rationale for his position? Why not give them another chance?

In Chassidus there is a very logical explanation that explains Rabbi Akiva’s way of thinking, an explanation that teaches us what the World to Come and resurrection of the dead is. Resurrection is a reward for fulfilling mitzvos (while “Gan Eden” is, primarily, a reward for Torah study). The basic premise behind resurrection is built on the principle of measure-for-measure. What you did, you get back. Or more accurately, “whoever did will receive.” Hashem will revive our physical body from the dust and breathe a neshama into it as a reward for the mitzvos we did. Since the body and soul were equal partners when we did a mitzva, both deserve a reward. The body carried out the action while the neshama ‘breathed’ thought and intent into the action. But not the generation of the desert…

According to Chassidus, the sin of the generation of the desert was wanting to remain in a spiritual existence. They spurned the physical and did not want to enter the Land because they didn’t want to live a life of action! They preferred a life of spiritual cleaving to G-d, a life of clouds of glory, of pillars of cloud and fire; they wanted a life of the neshama!

If so, how can their bodies be given life again? Why should the body receive a reward for something it never did and didn’t want to do? That is the logic that guided Rabbi Akiva, which is why he paskened what he paskened. But what about Rabbi Eliezer?

The Tzemach Tzedek addresses this very question and explains at the end of his maamar that the generation of the desert did keep the prohibitions of the Torah which are loftier than the positive mitzvos. They also did some positive mitzvos, particularly “Torah study which is equal to everything,” learning Torah with the physical mouth, tongue and teeth. This is why Rabbi Eliezer maintains that their bodies too, deserve to take part in the resurrection of the dead.

What is the halacha? Like whom do we pasken?

The Rebbe proves, from the Gemara’s approach, that the halacha is like Rabbi Eliezer, since the Gemara itself expresses surprise over Rabbi Akiva’s tough position. Furthermore, in Bava Basra (73b) it tells of an Amora, Rabba bar Bar Chona who saw the dead of the desert and they were lying there with happy faces as though ‘intoxicated from wine.’ What were they happy about? From here, Tosafos prove that the halacha is like Rabbi Eliezer and the joy was about their upcoming resurrection.

As for wine, maybe that’s a kabbalistic hint to the revelation of the secrets of the Torah in the future, which are alluded to as wine – when wine enters, the secret emerges. If that’s not enough, the Rebbe adds that we find many Medrashim which say that Moshe remained (and was buried!) in the desert so that he can bring the generation of the desert into Eretz Yisrael following the resurrection. The rule is that when there is a dispute in the Gemara, and in the Medrash (or other sources) it appears as a single undisputed view, the halacha is like the Medrash!

TO SAVE A SPY

What about the spies themselves, the ones who led everyone to sin which caused an entire generation to die in the desert? It would seem that regarding the spies there is no difference of opinion and no reason to defend them. The Mishna on the subject states clearly, “The spies have no portion in the World to Come as it says, ‘and the men who spread an evil report about the Land died in the plague, before the Lord.’ They died – in this world; in a plague – in the World to Come.”

But the Rebbe does not give up on any Jew. The Rebbe quotes the Zohar which says that even the spies will merit resurrection. Not only that but the Rebbe reconciles the view of the Zohar with the Mishna despite the obvious contradiction between them. With the Rebbe’s positive perspective it’s possible that the words of Rabbi Eliezer (quoted earlier about the generation of the desert) also apply to the spies themselves! The Rebbe proves this novel perspective (which is not in the commentaries) from the verse in Tehillim (50:5) which Rabbi Eliezer quotes: “Gather to Me My devoted ones, who made a covenant with Me over a sacrifice.” Who are these devoted ones? What covenant is this talking about?

Rashi explains there that this is a covenant that the Jewish people made with G-d at the Giving of the Torah. The spies were part of that covenant and so, the verse refers to them too!

In general, we know the Chassidic understanding of a covenant, that it’s “like two friends who make a covenant between them that their love will never cease… and by making the covenant their love will be eternal, never faltering, so that nothing, externally or internally will ever separate them and (even in difficult situations when one of the sides did something very wrong and that would) cause any hatred, nevertheless, because of the covenant, their love must be forever” (Likutei Torah Nitzavim 44b).

So if the spies were part of the covenant, they will be resurrected despite their serious sin! From this we learn a powerful moral lesson, how to look at a Jew, even someone who looks like a “spy” or worse. He needs to be viewed with the Rebbe’s outlook and a place needs to be found in the heart and soul to see him in a positive light and to help him become worthy of that perspective.

TO CONCLUDE WITH A STORY

We will end with a story about the Rebbe’s special perspective about every Jew, even a child. In 5742, two ten-year-olds from Yerushalayim opened a gemach to lend pencils to their classmates. They called it “Keren Dovid” for one of their grandfathers. It was important to them to report this to the Rebbe and they sent him a letter and asked for a bracha.

The Rebbe responded to the children with the utmost seriousness, “To the hanhala of the gemach Keren Dovid, Yerushalayim.” [Do you see that? “Hanhala” – two kids!] After words of blessing and encouragement, the Rebbe added in his own handwriting, “Enclosed is my participation.” The Rebbe sent them some money for the gemach.

The message from this sweet and moving story is, if only we would be as attentive and sensitive to every Jew, and especially our children, the way the Rebbe listened to two ten-year-olds whom he never met.

Good Shabbos!

25