PARSHAT SHELACH & THE SPIES, PART 1

 

PARSHAT SHELACH, NUMBERS 13:1–15:41, AND THE SPIES, PART 1

Rachav and the two spies, James Tissot, 1896-1902

In the Haftorah portion for Parshat Shelach, two anonymous Israelite spies are housed in the house of a woman named Rachav, who is described as a זונה:

"And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men out of Shittim to spy secretly, saying, Go see the land and Jericho. And they went, and came to the house of an innkeeper named Rachav, and they lay there".

וַיִּשְׁלַח יְהוֹשֻׁעַ-בִּן-נוּן מִן-הַשִּׁטִּים שְׁנַיִם-אֲנָשִׁים מְרַגְּלִים, חֶרֶשׁ לֵאמֹר, לְכוּ רְאוּ אֶת-הָאָרֶץ, וְאֶת-יְרִיחוֹ; וַיֵּלְכוּ וַיָּבֹאוּ בֵּית-אִשָּׁה זוֹנָה, וּשְׁמָהּ רָחָב--וַיִּשְׁכְּבוּ-שָׁמָּה.

In this translation, a זונה is described as an innkeeper, but in many other translations the word זונה is commonly described as a whore. While it is understandable why a translator would want Rachav to run a bed and breakfast instead of turning tricks, the problem is how do you transition from being a whore to being an innkeeper and remain loyal to the text?

The answer lies in taking the root of זונה to be the letters zion-nun or זן  .   Remember the first blessing in the Grace after Meals where Hashem is described as the הזן את הכול, the nourisher of everyone. There you have it, plain as day in the ברכת המזון.

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In Parshat Shelach at 14:8, Joshua and Caleb, the two dissident spies,  counter the arguments posed by the ten other leaders of the Bnai Yisrael:

אִם-חָפֵץ בָּנוּ, יְהוָה--וְהֵבִיא אֹתָנוּ אֶל-הָאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת, וּנְתָנָהּ לָנוּ

“If the Lord desires us, He will bring us to this land and give it to us…”

This is an argument that calls upon us to have faith in Hashem.

Years later, despite the Bnai Yisrael being battle hardened, our faith in Hashem is reciprocated when He brings down the walls of Jericho.

That was over three thousand years ago.  However in today’s times, it takes more than faith alone.  In the battle for Jerusalem in 1967, Ammunition Hill was the Jordanian strong point.  In just a few hours time, half of the IDF paratroopers involved in the battle were either killed or wounded before overcoming the enemy.  

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I don’t claim to be an expert on espionage.  But my favorite genre of film and reading material happens to be mystery & thrillers, many of which involve spying.  I’ve seen or read a hundred of them.  In 2009 I read “A Most Wanted Man” written by David Cornwell, better known as  John LeCarre´.  He is a master of espionage fiction, and incidentally a person who worked for MI6.  I saw a connection between that book  and this week’s Parshah.  This is the letter that I wrote to LeCarre´: 

Nahariya, Israel

August 27, 2009

Dear Mr. Cornwell:

I just had the sublime pleasure of reading “A Most Wanted Man”. In it there is a curious convergence of a theme found in your contemporary tale of intrigue with that of another espionage tale which is found in a most unlikely place, the Book of Numbers. The theme as I see it is: committees do not make for successful espionage.

In the Book of Numbers there is a tale of intelligence gathering, one that took place some 3300 years ago. It is the story of the “m’ragleem”, the spies (Numbers 13:01-14:39).  What is interesting to me is the structural similarity between the Joint Steering Committee in “The Most Wanted Man” and the biblical m’ragleem. They are espiocrats all and the eventual outcome of both tales is comparable

The m’ragleem are a joint steering committee of sorts.  They are a select assemblage; some say men of distinction, one from each of the 12 tribes of Israel, who are chosen to reconnoiter the Land of Canaan.  Ultimately, 10 of the 12 committee members give into their collective fear. These majority members issue an “evil” report for which they are punished.  The mission ends in failure and the Israelites are destined to wander in the wilderness for a total of 40 years.

One message presented in both narratives is that spying by committee does not work.  That lesson seems to have been learned by Joshua, one of the two dissident biblical committee members.  Years later when the mantle of leadership falls upon Joshua, one of his first acts is to mount a surveillance operation against the stronghold of Jericho. This is done not by committee of distinguished men, but by a 2-person infiltration team who spy out Jericho’s defenses.  There is stealth, detection, recruitment of a female operative, tradecraft, deception, concealment and escape (Joshua 02:01-02:24). Ultimately, there is victory. 

In “A Most Wanted Man”, the reader feels a sense of revulsion towards the Joint Steering Committee.  The same is true how Scripture and biblical commentators treat the m’ragleem. They die at the hand of heaven, and some say because of their wickedness are denied a portion in the world to come.  I hope Bachmann would have some consolation with that outcome.

Thank you for having once more treating this reader to a tale most current, but in a certain sense timeless.

Yours truly,

Michael Jaron

LeCarre´ graciously thanked me, and among other things wrote “in matters of intelligence there is no such thing as a joint committee!".

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