the connection between the meraglim and the humility of Moshe

Rashi writes that the connection between parshas shlach and the previous parsha's concluding story of Miriam speaking against Moshe is that the spies failed to learn the dangers of lashon ha'ra from what happened to Miriam: למה נסמכה פרשת מרגלים לפרשת מרים? שלקת על עסקי דיבה שדיברה באחיה, ורשעים הללו ראו ולא לקחו מוסר.  I want to suggest a slightly differnt connection between the two.  To get there, I want to start with a different question, one raised by R' Noson Gestetner.  The Rambam paskens at the end of hil rotzeiach (12:14):

וכן כל המכשיל עור בדבר והשיאו עצה שאינה הוגנת או שחיזק ידי עוברי עבירה שהוא עור ואינו רואה דרך האמת מפני תאות לבו הרי זה עובר בלא תעשה שנאמר ולפני עור לא תתן מכשול הבא ליטול ממך עצה תן לו עצה ההוגנת לו:

 Rashi tells us that Moshe asked Hashem whether he should send meraglim or not.  Hashem responded, "I'm not going to tell you what to do -- it's up to you."  לדעתך, אני איני מצוה לך, אם תרצה שלח  Why did Hashem not tell Moshe that this was a bad idea?  What happened to the principle of הבא ליטול ממך עצה תן לו עצה ההוגנת לו? 

 

R' Gestetner answers that the catch in this case, as in many other cases, is that  עצה ההוגנת לו really depends on the free choice of a person.  By way to analogy, if a person is sick and asked what they should do, we would almost without thinking say to go to a doctor.  However, that's not really always true.  Rambam writes in Bechukosai (26:11)

 

והכלל: כי בהיות ישראל שלמים והם רבים לא יתנהג ענינם בטבע כלל, לא בגופם ולא בארצם, לא בכללם ולא ביחיד מהם, כי יברך השם לחמם ומימם ויסיר השם מחלה מקרבם עד שלא יצטרכו לרופא ולהשתמר בדרך מדרכי הרפואות כלל,

 

If our spiritual level is high enough, Ramban says that we don't need doctors.  What the עצה ההוגנת לו for a person is very much depends on where they choose to be holding in ruchniyus (if you want to be nitpicky, Ramban is speaking about where the entire nation lives up to that level, not just individuals, but you get the idea.)

 

Hashem therefore could not answer Moshe, because the answer really depended on where the people chose to be holding in their ruchniyus.  If the people chose to live with full bitachon, then there was no need for meraglim.  There was no need for war.  If the people chose to go about things b'derech ha'teva, then the proper course of action was indeed to send the spies.   Hashem could not answer without interfering with free choice, and so Moshe was left to his own thoughts.

 

Here is where I would like to part ways a bit with Rav Gestetner.  Perhaps Hashem did in fact answer Moshe.  Unlike Rashi who because of that extra word לְךָ reads שְׁלַח לְךָ as Hashem merely allowing Moshe to do as he pleases, Ramban sees it as a command.  I'll take the best of both worlds.  Maybe it was a command, but it was a command only לְךָ, for "you," for Moshe.  Meaning, on the spiritual level of Moshe Rabeinu, sending spies would have been a mitzvah -- the mitzvah of kibush ha'aretz, as that is the normal way to set out to co   a land.  There would be no danger involved.  However, if the project is carried out by those with less bitachon, then the project will lead to failure and tragedy.

 

Rashi tells us that when the spies were sent, כלם אנשים – כל אנשים לשון חשיבות הוא, ואותה שעה כשירין היו, yet later in that same perek (13:26) Rashi himself tells us להקיש הליכתן לביאתן, מה ביאתן בעיצה רעה, אף הליכתן בעצה רעה.  Sounds like a contradiction.  Maharal answers:

 

אבל משנשלחו, והיו שלוחיהם של רשעים, למדו ממעשיהם, ונעשים כמו המשלחים עצמם. לפיכך כאשר נתמנו – כשרים היו, ואחר המינוי מיד – רשעים היו.

 

The spies were כשירין , but as soon as they becamed agents of the people, they absorbed and took on the character and midos of those sending them, and became corrupted.

 

That's what Hashem was telling Moshe.  שְׁלַח לְךָ  For YOU, Moshe, there is a ttzivuy to send spies, to make them your agents, because in that case nothing bad will happen.  However, what happened is that Moshe appointed the spies to be agents of the people, not just his own shluchim.  Because of that, as Maharal tells us, we ended up with a different story entirely.

 

So why didn't Moshe make the spies his and only his shluchim?  We read in last week's parsha, and I think this is the connection between the parshiyos:  וְהָאִישׁ מֹשֶׁה עָנָו מְאֹד מִכֹּל הָאָדָם אֲשֶׁר עַל פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה.  Moshe did not view himself as special.  It was Hashem, not Moshe himself, who told Miriam and Aharon that Moshe was head and shoulders above them, but those words would never have come out of Moshe's own mouth.  When Moshe heard  שְׁלַח לְךָ he understood the YOU not as referring to himself alone -- after all, was he better than anyone else? -- but as referring to the collective YOU of the nation as a whole.  And so he sent the spies not as his personal agents, but as agents of the people, and that led to tragedy.