The Miraglim: Understanding the perspective of the ten bad spies
We’ve all heard and or read the story of the Miraglim. We’ve all understood the situation that was going on with the twelve spies being sent into ארץ כנען, ten come back with bad news and two -the supposed ‘heroes’ in this story- come back with good news. We can learn just so many things from this story, using the ideas of lack of faith, fear, and selfishness. But when reading the story over again, something in my mind just clicked and everything made sense. Everything just… worked. And I’m not sure if everyone knows but I tend to have some controversial opinions about the people in תנ׳ך, so it didn’t come to me as a surprise when I realised that now I may or may not have shifted my affection from the two ‘heroes’ to the ten ‘villains.’
The ten men begin their telling of what happened by stating the good that happened, in במדבר י’ג:כז
“ויספרו־לו ויאמרו באנו אל־הארץ אשר שלחתנו וגם זבת חלב ודבש הוא וזה־פריה” ⁦This is what they told him: “We came to the land you sent us to; it does indeed flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.”
That seems good right??? And skipping a few more פסוקים after that we then get in, (י׳ד: ג)
“‎ולמה ה’ מביא אתנו אל־הארץ הזאת לנפל בחרב נשינו וטפנו יהיו לבז הלוא טוב לנו שוב מצרימה” ⁦Why is the LORD taking us to that land to fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be carried off! It would be better for us to go back to Egypt!”
Okay wow. Go BACK to Egypt…. That’s definitely an issue. But then they further it by saying, (יד:ד)
"ויאמרו איש אל־אחיו נתנה ראש ונשובה מצרימה” ⁦And they said to one another, “Let us head back for Egypt.”
Strong words from בנ״י. Especially since these were the people who were slaves for hundreds of years. And suddenly they want to go back??? This doesn’t make a lot of sense. How could it? These people experienced many many many horrific events themselves, and also witnessed the ten plagues that happened to the Egyptians. I soon realized that that is exactly why they want to go back. My main understanding contained two points: trauma and fear. We’ll start with trauma just for kicks. The Jewish people had to have had massive amounts of trauma just from their lifetime so far. Think about it: they were slaves. They had to work all day every single day-no breaks! And then this Moses guy says he’s with Hashem but wasn’t he just recently a prince? It’s no wonder they have a little bit of anxiety about Moshe. He hasn’t been in the same situation that they have. He’s never been a slave. He’s never understood being born into slavery and knowing nothing else. So sure, when this guy and God are all buddy buddy they may have some concerns. Then a little bit later they were freed!!! But only after they had to watch their slave masters suffer and suffer the ten plagues. Don’t get me wrong, the Egyptians deserved it and the Ten Plagues were obviously necessary to get Bnei Yisrael out of Egypt and into the safety of forty years in the desert. Wait… they had to watch the people in charge of them, the stronger people who ruled over them, the King himself lose water, crops, their children? And who did this? Hashem. Well, Hashem and Moshe. But Moshe happened to be the physical representation at that moment of God. So when they go somewhere after YEARS and YEARS in the desert and they see any threat of course they’re going to be scared. These were the people who God split the sea for. These people know what Hashem was capable of. Maybe- and this might be a stretch- but maybe they didn’t want to have to go through all that trauma of watching bigger people, stronger people be destroyed. And in a pretty gruesome way.
But the second subject of why they were so scared is the fear imbedded into them. As previously noted, these people were slaves who were born slaves, whose parents were slaves, whose children and siblings were slaves, whose entire family were slaves!!! They were born slaves. So after wandering in the desert with this guy (who’s best friends with God of all things) who asks you to go to this ‘promised’ land with huge people and no way that these slaves would make it out alive, they were scared of the change and they wanted to go back to the land that they knew. They would wake up and know every morning that they were going to be mistreated. This was such a massive change to their daily lives, what with all the plagues, a new leader and all, that there’s no wonder they wanted to run back to their homeland.
Change is really really scary and sometimes we don’t talk about the sudden fear we have about being in a new environment and being scared of where you are heading and wanting to run away to completely falling in love with where you turn out. The same thing happened to me once I got here to Drisha. Suddenly a pit was forming in my stomach and I couldn’t fathom just walking into a new building not knowing where I was, who I was going to meet, or even who I was going to be. But thankfully I got out of the car (with some encouragement from my mother) and I took a leap of faith. I took a chance from my day to day normal life and put myself in a new place, met new people, and even became a different person altogether. It wasn’t that I knew that it was only going to be temporary, and at the end of the month I would go home (which did help) but the fact that I not only had faith in myself, but I also had faith in the fact that I knew that nothing horrific could happen when I’m on Hashem’s side. And wow am I glad that I came here and met my new friends because I’ve changed myself throughout the entire month with the people who make me love love love Gemara, make me laugh so much I get cramps in my stomach, and the people who better my life every single day- whether we are in Drisha or out. Just a little bit of faith, and the knowledge that you have people to back you up can go a long way.