Shelach Lecha: Bring Them Home!

Rav Johnny's original thoughts on the weekly parsha

While learning Parshat Shelach Lecha, I was shocked by a particular verse where the people, having just heard the negative report of the spies, complain: “Why is the Lord bringing us as far as this land only to fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be made plunder (la-baz)” (Bemidbar 14:3).

Of course, it takes little imagination to understand why this verse shocked and pained me as I am reminded of October 7th where so many Jews were brutally murdered & when so many men, women and children were taken as plunder, and it also reminds me of the current heartbreaking situation while so many hostages continue to be cruelly held captive by Hamas.

However, the Netziv (Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, 1816-1893) in his HaEmek Davar commentary to this verse does not explain this verse quite as I have done. Instead, he explains that:

‘If the intention of this verse was to express the fear that women and children would be taken as captives to serve as slaves and maidservants, then the verse should have made this explicit. Instead, my understanding of the word ‘la-baz’ is that they were fearful that the locals would take the possessions of the women and children as plunder. And why do I think this [and not that they were fearful that the women and children be taken as captive]? Because even the spies were unprepared to deny the fact that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, desires to give the land to the Jewish people, and that He wishes to uphold the oath that He swore to the Patriarchs, and that He wants the [Jewish] people to uphold the Torah and mitzvot [in the land of Israel]. Still, they thought that their generation was hated by God (see Devarim 1:28, and Ha’Emek Davar there and on Bemidbar 14:2 & 14:9) and that their generation would be the one who is killed by the sword [while conquering the land], and that the children and women would be protected by God, they would not be taken as slaves and maidservants, and instead, they would grow older and eventually enable the full conquest of the land. Given all this, they cried out, “Why is the Lord bringing us as far as this land only to fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be made plunder.”’

According to the Netziv, the spies believed that they would be killed in battle and that this would lay the foundation for the next generation to safely conquer the land. Yet despite their fear of death, Netziv claims that even they did not believe that God would allow Jewish women and children to be taken captive as part of the mission to conquer the holy land.

Having read this piece I cried and I then sternly challenged God:

‘According to this reading, even the Meraglim (spies) did not believe that women and children would be taken captive from the land of Israel. Instead, they believed that by giving us the land of Israel, You would not make it so difficult for us to live in the land of Israel.’

I then added,

‘God! Our nation is not hated by You, yet our men and women have fallen by the sword for their country, evil people have taken our men, women and children captive, and while we’ve done what we can to help release many of them, still so many remain in captivity. So please God, for the sake of those people, for the sake of the Jewish people, and for the sake of this petition of the spies, help us bring the hostages home!”

May we hear good news soon.

Shabbat Shalom!

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