Instead of a dvar torah this week, here's something odd in Tanakh to consider.
This week's parsha is Shlach, which describes the sending of the 12 spies into the land of Canaan by Moshe and the subsequent disaster and punishment when they returned and scared the people. (There's also a description of the sacrifices and atonement rituals to be done once they arrive in the land of Canaan)
Oddly enough, there's a story that in general seems unrelated, but in specific details parallels the story in Shlach: the stories of the prophet Elisha immediately following the ascendance of the prophet Eliyahu to heaven.
Immediately after Elisha returns from the scene where Eliyahu was swept up in a fiery chariot (Kings II, Chapter 2), the disciples of the prophets in Jericho ran up to him, asking to look for Eliyahu who must certainly just be lost in the mountains or valleys. While Elisha insists that they shouldn't go looking, they push him until he acquiesces and they return after three days without any luck. Elisha responds "I told you not to go." (Insert shrugging emoji here)
Right after that, the people of Jericho complain to Elisha that, while their town is a "pleasant place to live," the "water is bad and the land causes bereavement." Elisha proceeds to fix the water.
Let's take a look at the story in Shlach. G-d tells Moshe to send people to tour the land. They go to see how things are and collect information about the area and its inhabitants. When they return to the camp, they tell Moshe what they saw, but add that the inhabitants are too strong to conquer and then proceed to panic the Israelites, telling them that the land "devours its inhabitants."
The people sent by Moshe, commonly referred to as The Spies, along with the rest of the nation were punished for the incident by being banned from entering the land. Despite this, they insisted on trying to enter the land and failed.
So, what's the comparison I'm talking about here?
The case of Elisha was also a case of scouts being sent out, albeit by insistence of the people and not by G-d. That story is followed by an incident in which somewhat similar language was used by the people of Jericho as the spies. "The water is bad and the land causes bereavement" vs. "The land is one that devours its settlers"
It's also interesting to note that Jericho was the site where the Jews eventually entered the land of Canaan.
But there are also clearly differences between the two stories. While the spies led with the fact that the land was great, but devoured its residents as a reason to not go to the land, the residents of Jericho used similar language to explain why they actually very much liked where they lived and simply wanted to make it more livable.
Also, the sending of the scouts to look for Eliyahu was human-initiated and was warned against failure, while the spies were the opposite.
So, are the two cases really similar? Is there some meaning to their similarity? Some good questions to think about at the Shabbos table.
Good Shabbos
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