How do we explain the mistake of the Meraglim? How could such chashuv people, "kulam anashim," have been so mistaken in their calculations and speak badly about Eretz Yisrael? R' Tzadok HaKohen says an amazing pshat in Likueti Ma'amarim (p.85 -- link). The Meraglim were telling the truth! The Meraglim had great neshomos and were therefore able to sense the future. They saw that life in Eretz Yisrael would eventually lead to a churban, would end in a tragic and painful to galus. Midrashim already in Parshas Braishis predict 4 galiyos; Midrashim tell us the galiyos were revealed to Avraham; 9 Av was revealed already to Ya'akov. The "bechiya l'doros" of the Mergalim was a cry in advance of what they knew was inevitably coming.
So what did they get wrong?
Because "b'shuv Hashem es shivas Tziyon hayinu k'cholmim" means that all that sorrow and pain is just a passing dream and not reality. It may look real, it may even feel real as it occurs, but it is not eternal truth. (R' Tzadok here is echoing a torah of the Ishbitzer in Sefer Braishin in which he distinguishes between emes and emes l'amito. The Meraglim spoke truth, but it was not the emes l'amito, eternal truth of Torah.)
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"then our mouths will be filled
ReplyDeletewith s'chok", Tehillim 126:2*-- then our testimony will be like Yitzchak's, who NEVER LEFT Eretz Yisrael {nor did we ever 'truly' leave}...
*the pasuk that follows "b'shuv
Hashem..."
Sifra, Parshat Kedoshim, end of last chapter:
ReplyDeleteThe land of Israel is not like other lands, it does not tolerate people who commit sins, like a prince who vomits out food that he ate because it disagrees with his stomach.
NOTE: This is quoted by Rashi on Vayikra / Leviticus, chapter 18, verse 28.
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Boy, you must be busy....
ReplyDeleteThanks to my job I have no yishuv ha'adas all day and am exhausted once quitting time arrives. I can spend the few minutes a day I have either trying to learn or trying to write, but unfortunately not both : ( I'm still trying to post now and then, but it's getting difficult.
ReplyDelete>>>no yishuv ha'adas [homeless
ReplyDeletedaas] all day and am exhausted...
zachor "the existential sukkah"
(October 06, 2006), especially the
comment posted thereat by a certain "Chaim B."...
My advice is to learn something that is calming. Don't worry about the blog, or the Shmaitsa, or whatever. Find something kalla unekiyah.
ReplyDelete