This week's Torah reading is Shelach Lecha, Numbers 13 through 15. The haftarah is Joshua 2. Both are stories of scouts being sent into the land of Canaan to bring back word of what the Israelites will meet when they enter the promised land. The Torah reading explains why two expeditions were necessary.
Things have changed. The Israelites are preparing to enter the land promised to Abraham and to become a political entity. Last week we saw Aaron and Miriam begin to question Moses' leadership - hadn't God also spoken to them? They spread gossip about Moses and his wife. Miriam is punished with a skin disease; at Moses' intervention, she is cured but must undergo ritual purification outside the camp. Next week we will see the rebellion of Korach, Dathan and Abiram.
This is a time of great turmoil for the Israelites. Not so long ago they were slaves in Egypt. Since they were freed, they have been regretting the security they left behind, and been timid and fearful of everything new. Now they are about to enter a new phase of being: independence. How could they not be afraid?
So Moses sends 12 scouts, one from each tribe, into the land to report on the state of things and bring back samples of its produce. Once again, Joseph and Judah are preeminent, since Caleb is from the tribe of Judah, and Hosea (whose name is here changed by Moses to Joshua) from the tribe of Ephraim, one of the tribes named for Joseph's sons. Caleb and Joshua are the only ones who report favorably.
The other spies bring back a cluster of grapes that requires two men to carry it, and some other fruits, but in front of Moses and Aaron and all the people tell of fortified cities and a race of giants, the Nephilim, descended from the sons of God who married the daughters of men. "We looked like grasshoppers to ourselves - and we must have looked like grasshoppers to them."
The people can't hear the confidence of Caleb and Joshua, and panic, wanting to return to Egypt yet one more time. God decides that the generation that came from being slaves had to die out before the people can enter and conquer the promised land.
What is going on here?
I think this is one of a series of rebellions against the primacy of Moses. The leadership is about to be divided between the religious (the priestly class, led by Aaron, the High Priest), and the political (the system of judges headed by Moses). If they enter the land, these are the men who will have power. The spies exploit the fears of the Israelites, because they will lead any retreat as leaders of their respective tribes. A retreat would defeat the purpose of unity.
I don't believe that the spies were acting out of fear; I think their report was calculated to wrest power from the Levites Moses and Aaron. (The Levites are no longer counted among the tribes since they will own no land, and the number is made up by splitting Joseph into two tribes descended from his sons.)
I have been fascinated for several years by the Deuteronomic histories - the books of Joshua, Judges, I and II Samuel, and I and II Kings. History was written with a purpose, and until the past couple of hundred years, that purpose was not the accurate recording of facts. These books probably date from the last years of the kingdom when the scroll of some form of Deuteronomy was found during Josiah's reign, and these histories date from the same time. Their purpose was to restore traditional Temple worship and to justify the kingship of the Davidic (house of Judah) line.
I think it is possible that this story is part of the redaction of the Deuteronomists, justifying the political power of the tribe of Judah. In the same way, the book of Judges attempts to justify this concentration of power by showing the horrors the years of tribal rule "when there was no king in Israel."
Shabbat shalom.
UPDATE: Please note that I will not be reading any more comments.