Beha'aloscha: When Fantasy Meets Fact

By Josh Appel

The Jews traveled the desert for forty years before they finally entered ארץ ישראל. Generally, we say that the חטא העגל and/or the חטא המרגלים were responsible for this long delay. However, it is in fact this פרשה which is the first breaking point.

In a critical exchange, Moshe tells Yisro נוסעים אנחנו אל המקום אל המקום אשר אמר ה׳, we are traveling now to ארץ ישראל. Rashi informs us that at this point בנ"י were supposed to enter Israel in three days’ time, along with Moshe and Aharon. However, they sinned just a few פסוקים later. The episode Rashi is referring to is that of the מתאוננים who complained to Moshe before a plague was sent from heaven to punish them. The מתאוננים was the turning point which delayed the entry into ארץ ישראל. Why? Prior to the complaints of בנ"י there are well-known “upside-down Nuns.” One explanation is that at this point the entire tone of ספר במדבר transforms – from one of victory and destiny, to one of plague and calamity. Why should this be the case?

Moreover, the entire episode of the מתאוננים is prefaced with a strange interaction between Moshe and Yisro. This is only the second time we hear from Yisro, and after this cryptic פרשה, it is also the last. In this conversation Moshe asks Yisro to come with them to ארץ ישראל while Yisro instead wishes to return home. Why is this story mentioned right before the מתאוננים, especially given the fact that some מפרשים say that this conversation actually took place before מתן תורה in ספר שמות (see העמק דבר י:כט)?!

There is something very difficult about this Yisro story. How can it be that the man who left everything behind to join the Jewish people, the man who we name the פרשה of מתן תורה after, would leave? Some מפרשים explain that there must have been a very reasonable explanation for Yisro’s decision to leave, such as a wish to be מקרב others. However, there are those who believe that there was something about ארץ ישראל that worried Yisro and thus he did not join Moshe and the Jewish people. Predominantly, the מפורשים say that Yisro was worried that he would not receive a share of the נחלה in ארץ ישראל and therefore went home to where he knew he had secure land.

I think this provides insight into all of our questions. Initial excitement inevitably wanes. The nature of humanity is that enthusiasm evaporates. When such happens there is a tendency to renege on our commitment and revert to old habits. When our starry eyes sober, we run back. Instead of allowing the excitement to be the initial spark to a new stage, we fear that the excitement was all a trick to begin with. It was our naivety or juvenile tendency but that’s not really “us.”

This is what Yisro and the מתאוננים share in common and it is this worldview which is incompatible with ארץ ישראל. Yisro heard the miracles of יציאת מצרים and dropped everything to join the Jews in the desert. But when that motivation was gone, so was he. He rationalized why it didn’t make sense for him to go ארץ ישראל. The same is true for the מתאוננים. After the fanfare of leaving Egypt, Har Sinai, the Mishkan and finally the trumpets and march to ארץ ישראל, the Jews complained. We are not even told what they complained about and in fact, the Torah doesn’t say that they complained, but rather that they were like complainers. Their essence had changed, their mood diminished. After the thrill had gone, the Jews, just as Yisro, wished to go back to Egypt. They too rationalized; that the food was better there and thus they were better off in Egypt (this complaint emerges again and again in ספר במדבר).

This is the attitude which is not fit for ארץ ישראל. Life in ארץ ישראל, unlike the מדבר, is not defined by miraculous events, but instead regular life (to an extent). We know that the קדושה ראשונה of ארץ ישראל was מתבטל whereas the קדושה שנייה endures to this day. The רמב"ם famously notes that the קדושה ראשונה was ע"י כיבוש whereas the קדושה שנייה was ע"י חזקה. Rav Rosensweig explains that it is specifically the קדושה ע"י חזקה which lasts. כיבוש, the fanfare of military victory, was quashed by the כיבוש of the Babylonians. However, the חזקה – the steady, day-to-day living and constant presence – lasts forever.