Shelach: Whose Eyes?

By Eric Lenefsky

After the horrific, tragic event that is חטא המרגלים and its impact on כלל ישראל in that generation, and frankly all future generations, our פרשה seamlessly switches to a different topic and starts listing some מצוות. 

This is a common theme in ספר במדבר, where the Torah switches from the narrative to the normative, from the story to the command, and we see it again here in פרשת שלח. After the story of מרגלים, the Torah informs us of the מצוה of נסכים - when you bring a קרבן, you are meant to bring certain wine libations on the מזבח as well. Then we're told about the מצוה of חלה, followed by certain קרבנות that need to be brought when one sins by doing עבודה זרה accidentally, whether on the national or individual level, and we have the מצוה of ציצית. 

The שפת אמת has a beautiful idea(which I’ve shared in the past) about why these מצוות specifically were the ones presented to כלל ישראל immediately  after the חטא המרגלים, but I'd like to approach this section from a different angle this time. Time and time again, an idea appears in these מצוות somewhat superfluously. That is, חוקה אחת יהיה לכם ולגר הגר אתכם. The Torah tells us that the “גר” has the same law as the regular member of כלל ישראל. And if you look, the Torah, specifically in פרשת נסכים, has at least three פסוקים dedicated to repeating this idea. 

Why? Why is that so? Why do we focus on this idea in this area so much? I believe we can explain as follows. The זוהר הקדוש explains that one of the reasons for the sin of the מרגלים, one of the reasons why the מרגלים intentionally skewed the perception about ארץ ישראל, was that they knew that upon entering the land of Israel, they would lose their leadership position. Whatever made them חשוב in the מדבר would not apply in ארץ ישראל. In the מדבר, they were spiritual leaders. They were giants of the nation, so to say. But in ארץ ישראל, they would just be regular people. Everyone would go off to work their land. New leaders would be appointed. And the מרגלם were going to lose their חשיבות. They were going to lose their influence. They believed their influence in guiding the nation in a spiritual manner is very important, more important than going into ארץ ישראל, as God told them. 

Perhaps the Torah comes here and tells us that that mindset is wrong and it's contradictory to the Torah. Essentially, Hashem says the following to the members of כלל ישראל. 

“You might care about your status. You might care about your influence and power in society, but frankly, I don't. What I care about is that you do my רצון. And I'll show you. When you go into the land, you're going to have a מצוה of bringing נסכים with קרבנות, bringing wine libations with your sacrifice. But this isn't something that only applies to you. It applies to the lowest strata of society, to the הגר הגר אתכם. Because תורה אחת יהיה לכם, you should have one Torah. משפט אחד יהיה לכם, you should have one law. You are all equal before me in this matter. Your status in society, your level of influence, none of that matters. What matters is that you are an עבד השם who does what I want. Follow my רצון!”

Perhaps that is why the Torah places these specific מצוות with this specific instruction here. To stress this idea that after חטא המרגלים, after the sin where people cared too much about their personal status, we should realize that חוקה אחת יהיה לכם, ולגר הגר אתכם, you have the same laws as the גר. It doesn't matter if you're the highest member of society or the lowest member of society. What matters is to do the מצוות in the way that God wants you to.

First of all, I believe it's just a nice פשט, a nice explanation of why we have this juxtaposition, why this מצוה is specifically chosen to follow after the מרגלים. But of course, I think there's also an eternal message to gain from the פסוקים, and there's something we could take from this as well. Many times we're concerned about our status. We think look at me, I have to be this person who does this, who does x, y, and z to make myself look good in the eyes of other people. But it's not about making ourselves look good in the eyes of other people. It's about making ourselves look good in the eyes of השם. It is looking at the Torah, looking at the הלכה, our best guide of what השם's will is, and implementing it into our lives. Sometimes that may be hard,  sometimes it may be easy. I'm not going to give any specific examples, because I don't need to offend anyone in this area. But we need to look at what the expressed רצון השם is and do it, regardless of how it affects our status, regardless of where it puts us in life. And so, may we merit, to know this ideal, to remember this ideal, and to implement it into our lives. Im Yirtzeh Hashem by doing so, we'll all be able to go back into ארץ ישראל, we'll be able to have נסכים on the מזבח once again, with a unified nation, תורה אחת יהיה לכם, ולגר הגר אתכם. Have a great שבת.