The Sunburned Daughter and the Long Patience That Sent the Spies

Scripture says, "Do not gaze at me because I am swarthy, because the sun has scorched me; my mother's sons were angry with me" (Song of Songs 1:6). The Congregation of Israel said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the universe, no creature has sinned against me except my own mother's sons. Know that this is so, for a tree is uprooted only by one of its own kind, and meat goes foul only from within itself. Rabbi Ishmael would offer a parable. To what may the matter be compared? To a king's daughter whose brothers grew angry with her and drove her into the field to gather grain. The sun seized her and her face was blackened like the bottom of a pot, and her companions mocked her, saying, "Is this the king's daughter you call lovely and praiseworthy?" She answered, "Because my brothers grew angry with me and sent me into the field to gather grain, the sun seized me and my face was blackened like the bottom of a pot." So the Congregation of Israel said: Master of all worlds, who brought me to this state? The sons of my own nation caused it. Therefore it says, "my mother's sons were angry with me" - do not read "my mother's sons" [benei immi] but "the sons of my nation" [benei ummati]. From within mercy, how so? Just as the Holy One, blessed be He - may His great Name be blessed forever and ever - shows His mercy to Israel in all their dwellings, and His mercy to the poor and the needy and the lowly and the destitute, to orphans in their season and to widows everywhere, so should a person be merciful to Israel and to all these, so that his own wife not become a widow and his children orphans, as it says, "You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. If you afflict them..." and "your wives shall become widows and your children orphans" (Exodus 22:21-23). From here they said: let a person perform the commandments of the Torah with joy, and it will be reckoned to him as charity, as it says, "For I said, the world is built on lovingkindness; in the heavens You establish Your faithfulness" (Psalms 89:3) - just as the world grows and is built only through charity, as it says, "In righteousness you shall be established" (Isaiah 54:14). Of these David, king of Israel, peace be upon him, said, "I beseech You, O LORD, deliver my soul" (Psalms 116:4); and it says, "For the LORD your God is a merciful God" (Deuteronomy 4:31); and it says, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger" (Exodus 34:6). Moses asked before the Holy One, blessed be He, and said before Him: Master of the universe, by what standard do You judge the world? The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: With long patience. Moses said to Him: But they eat and drink and kick against You and Your Torah out of their well-being. The Holy One, blessed be He, was silent and said nothing to him, until a great matter came upon Israel through the spies. The Holy One said, "How long will this people spurn Me, and how long will they refuse to believe in Me? I will strike them with pestilence and dispossess them, and make of you a nation greater and mightier than they" (Numbers 14:11-12). Moses said before the Holy One, blessed be He, "The Egyptians will hear... and now, let the power of my Lord be great, as You have spoken, saying, the LORD is slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness" (Numbers 14:13, 17). The Holy One said to Moses: Now you have recourse to the very words I spoke to you at first. Moses said: It is true, I have recourse to Your first words - "and now let the power of the LORD be great... pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, and as You have forgiven this people from Egypt until now." At once, "the LORD said, I have pardoned according to your word" (Numbers 14:19-20). What is "according to your word"? The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: Even though I have pardoned, nonetheless the decree still stands in its place. From here they said: anyone who recognizes words of Torah and transgresses them is a complete wicked person, for Israel should have said to their leaders, "We will not listen to you, for from Egypt He brought us up in peace; He gave us the silver and gold and all the good treasures of the Egyptians, and He even killed their firstborn while we lay down in peace." But they did not do so. Rather, once they came up from the Sea they pressed Moses with words, and afterward they said, "Let us send men ahead of us to spy out [the land]" (Deuteronomy 1:22). Moses was afraid before the LORD and said: Perhaps it is not the will of the Holy One in this matter, for He Himself in His own glory goes before them, as it says, "And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them on the way, and by night in a pillar of fire" (Exodus 13:21). Were Scripture not written it would be impossible to say it. And they sought to send spies to search out the land, as it says, "And you all approached me and said, Let us send men ahead of us to search out the land for us" (Deuteronomy 1:22). At that moment the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses, "Send for yourself men, that they may scout the land of Canaan" (Numbers 13:2). What is "Send for yourself"? Send by your own knowledge and not by Mine. Another interpretation: "Send for yourself" - you need to send and I do not need to send; you need to scout and I do not need to scout. Moses sent ten of their princes, with Joshua and Caleb among them. Moses said to them: Do not enter like thieves. If they ask you, "Why have you come upon us?" tell them, "We have come for five figs and five pomegranates and one cluster of grapes." And if they say, "Perhaps you have come to cut down the trees of idolatry and to chop down the sacred tree," tell them, "No." They entered as messengers and went out as donkeys. They reached Hebron and took from there five figs and five pomegranates and one cluster of grapes. Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of the giant [Anak], heard of them and came out toward them. Sheshai let out a single shout at them and they fell on their faces to the ground, and the giants began blowing into their nostrils and fanning their faces until their minds were settled again. Afterward they said to them, "Why have you come upon us? Perhaps to cut down our trees and the sacred tree of idolatry? But the whole world belongs to your God; to whom He wishes He gives it." They answered, "No." [The giants] sent them off in peace and did not kill them, for the Holy One left over some of the Canaanites until the destruction of the latter Temple. Some say, until that very hour - and there is no need to speak of the Gibeonites who remained there. When Moses and Israel heard that the spies had come, he entered and sat in his great study hall, and all Israel sat before him over twelve mil, and on every side Israel heard the voice of Moses up to the boundary of twelve mil. When the spies came they made room for them and they sat among them. Israel said to the spies, "Why are you sitting? Tell us what you have in hand." At once they opened their mouths and said, "The land through which we passed to scout it is a land that devours its inhabitants... and there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak" (Numbers 13:32-33). Immediately, "the whole community raised their voices and the people wept that night" (Numbers 14:1) and complained against Moses and Aaron, and they said one to another, "Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt" (Numbers 14:4).