Perashat Shelah 5776

Perashat Shelah 5776

Friday, July 01, 2016 Author: Rabbi Daniel Greenwald

This week's perasha, Shelah, is bookended by the story of the "Sin of the Spies" at the beginning, and the missva of sissit, the command to tie special tassels to a four-cornered garment, at the end of the perasha.  Rabbi Amnon Bazak of Yeshivat Har Etzion, explains that the missva of sissit is directly connected to the episode of the spies, who returned with a negative report on the Land of Canaan. Furthermore, he asserts, that the missva of sissit is prescribed as a way of repairing the damage caused by their sin.  How is the subject of sissit related to the story of the spies?

Rabbi Bazak maintains that several expressions that appear in the section of the sissit are closely reminiscent of the story of the spies.  We can make several comparisons as follows:

1. The purpose of dispatching the spies was "to EXPLORE (la-tur) the land... TO EXPLORE the land of Canaan" (13:16-17). This expression is repeated over and over throughout the perasha. We read, for example, "AND THEY EXPLORED (va-yaturu) the land" (13:21); "They returned from EXPLORING (mi-tur) the land" (13:25). This unusual expression occurs also in the section of the sissit: "You shall not EXPLORE AFTER your hearts ...", (ve-lo taturu aharei lebabkhem). (15:39; this is the only time in the Torah that the word is used metaphorically).
2. The spies are commanded, "YOU SHALL SEE the land" (13:18). This expression is also repeated several times in this perasha. This too, reminds us of the same expression as it appears in the section of sissit: "YOU SHALL SEE IT..." (15:39).
3. The command, "You shall not explore after YOUR HEARTS nor after YOUR EYES" (15:39) mentions the same two symbolic organs that appear in the story of the spies. In our perasha, we read, "We were IN OUR EYES like grasshoppers, and so we were IN THEIR EYES" (13:33); and in the description of the sin in perashat Debarim we find: "Our brethren melted OUR HEARTS" (Debarim 1:28).
4. The prohibition mentioned in the section of sissit concerns exploring after the heart and the eyes, "after which you STRAY" (15:39). G-d uses the same expression to define the sin of the spies: "Your children will wander in the desert for forty years and will bear [the consequences of] your STRAYING" (14:33).

In light of these parallels, Rabbi Bazak argues that it appears that the missva of sissit was given to the Nation of Israel as a tikkun, repair, for the sin of the spies. What, in fact, was the sin of the spies? Clearly, they cannot be held guilty for conveying the facts, for that was precisely the purpose of dispatching them. The crux of their sin lay, rather, in their "editorializing" - in the non-objective judgment of their "heart" concerning that which their "eyes" had seen. Facts are clear to everyone, but their assessment is subject to human interpretation.

It seems, then, that it was in response to this sin that the Nation of Israel was given the missva of sissit. Sissit are meant to serve as a reminder in daily life of all the 613 missvot commanded by G-d, Who took the Nation of Israel out of Egypt, and of the fact that we are to be a, "kingdom of priests and a holy nation".

A Jew is commanded to place a petil tekhelet, a blue thread, upon the corners of his garment, which accompanies him wherever he goes. What is the significance of this thread? The closest that B'nei Yisrael came to perceiving a vision of G-d is described in Sefer Shemot (24:10): "They saw the Lord of Israel, and beneath His feet was like sapphire work, and like the very heaven for clearness." On this our sages comment:
Thus, the blue thread is meant to remind a person, each and every moment of his life, of G-d and the missvot, as it says in the section of the sissit:  "AND YOU SHALL SEE IT AND YOU SHALL REMEMBER all of G-d's missvot and you shall perform them, and you shall not explore after your hearts and after YOUR EYES, after which you stray; in order that YOU MAY REMEMBER and perform all of My commands, and that you may be holy to your G-d."

It is the contemplation of the sissit that is meant to make a person cognizant of G-d and the missvot we are commanded to follow, at every moment -  which will, in turn, prevent him from sinning, i.e., exploring after his eyes and from leading his heart astray. Contemplation of the sissit therefore symbolizes the complete opposite of the circumstances that brought about the sin of the spies, and thereby will serve as a tikkun, a rectification of their sin, as well as a preventative measure of repeating this type of sin moving forward. 
Rashi seems to make note of this connection. In Midrash Tanhuma (Shelah 15), we read: "'You shall not explore after your hearts' - the heart and the eyes are the agents of the body; they lead the body astray." But when Rashi quotes this midrash, he alters its language slightly: "The heart and the eyes are SPIES (!) of the body; they introduce the person to sin: the eye sees, the heart desires, and the body performs the transgressions."

Indeed, it was going after the heart and the eyes that led to the sin of the spies. And although the missva of sissit serves at a tikkun for the sins of the spies after the fact and going forward, the obvious question that begs itself to be asked is:  Would the spies have sinned in this way had they gone off to the Land wearing sissit? We can only imagine what the outcome would have been...