Shlach

📜 The Story

Moshe our teacher sends twelve spies, one leader from each tribe, to scout the land of Canaan before the people of Israel enter it. Among the spies were Yehoshua son of Nun and Calev son of Yefuneh, who turned out to be different from all the rest.

The spies traveled through the land for forty days. They saw that the land was very good, and they returned carrying a huge cluster of grapes, along with pomegranates and figs, to show the people how fruitful and wonderful the land was.

But ten of the spies were afraid of the strong nations living in the land, and they brought back a scary report that frightened the whole nation. Only Yehoshua and Calev stayed strong in their faith and said confidently that Hashem would help them conquer the land, and that the land was very, very good.

The people of Israel cried all that night and did not trust in Hashem. Because of this, that generation was decreed to wander in the desert for forty years, one year for each of the forty days of scouting, until that whole generation passed away and only their children would enter the land.

Later in the parsha come important mitzvot: separating challah from dough, the story of a man who gathered wood on Shabbat, and at the end of the parsha the mitzvah of tzitzit, with the famous verse that you shall see it and remember all the commandments of Hashem.