The spies misunderstood the nature of their mission.
“How can we conquer such a fearsome people?” the spies asked.
Their question seems reasonable. What chance did the Jewish nation stand against the giants that roamed the Land of Canaan?
But the spies should never have asked this question, writes Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch. For G-d never intended for the Jews to conquer the Promised Land by strength of arms alone. They would conquer it by dint of the Almighty.
“Let them be the mightiest giants with castles and fortresses of solid granite, you should have no fear of them,” Kalev told the Jewish people (in Rav Hirsch’s rendering and exposition of Numbers 14:9). “Before the consciousness of your strong spiritual and moral power in G-d and with G-d, [these giants] should dissolve into their nothingness. You should be ashamed to be afraid of them!”
True, the Canaanites were strong, but they were also morally decadent. And “all power and greatness, however gigantic it may be, cannot protect a nation from ruin if it neglects to pay homage first and foremost in everything and with everything to G-d’s laws of morality.”
Indeed, that’s why G-d wanted the spies to report on the strength of the Canaanite nations – not to give the Jewish people vital military information but to impress upon the Jews of all future generations the ultimate futility of military might when allied with moral depravity.
In short, the lesson of the spies’ saga is simple: With G-d, we’re invincible. Without Him, we don’t stand a chance.
Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888) – head of the Jewish community in Frankfurt, Germany for over 35 years – was a prolific writer whose ideas, passion, and brilliance helped save German Jewry from the onslaught of modernity.
Elliot Resnick, PhD, is the host of “The Elliot Resnick Show” and the editor of “The Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch Dictionary.”
