Torah Dialogue

From the Text

1. Whose idea was it to send spies to the Promised Land? (13:2 and Devarim 1:22)
2. Where in the Text does Yehoshua regain his first name of Hoshea?
3. How long was the Spy Mission in the Land? (13:25)
4. Who was the one spy who confronted the other spies on the mission? (13:30)
5. Noting the inferiority the spies considered themselves to be, how did they view themselves in the eyes of the Canaanites? (13:33)

From Rashi

6. Why is the story of the Spies positioned immediately following the narrative of Miriam’s speaking Lashon HaRa? (13:2)
7. (This question is ON Rashi). Rashi, on 13:20, defines Moshe’s charge for the Spy Mission: See if there are trees in the Land. Rashi says on this that Moshe was asking them to see if there was a righteous man in Canaan who could defend the Canaanites in the presence of Hashem. Why doesn’t Rashi define the “Eitz” as a tree?
8. Why did the Spies feel that the “Land devours its inhabitants”? (13:32)
9. How did the ten Spies die at that moment? (14:37)
10. What was the essential message in the law of the offerings and libations that were immediately given to Bnei Yisrael after the failed Spy Mission? (15:2)

From the Rabbis

11. Why was the tribe of Levi not represented in the Spy Mission? (Da’at Zkeinim)
12. Why did the people not listen to Calev?
13. Why did Moshe and Aharon fall on their faces when they heard the report of the Spies? (Hirsch)

Haftorah. Joshua

14. What was the mission of the two spies that Yehoshua sent into Yericho?

Relationships

a) Yefuneh - Miriam
b) Yefuneh - Chur
c) Rachav - Yehoshua
d) Moshe - Gershon
e) Amram - Merari (two answers)

Answers

1. According to our Parshah, it was Hashem’s idea. According to Devarim, it was the idea of the people.
2. In Ha’azinu, see Devarim 32:44.
3. Forty days.
4. Calev
5. They saw themselves as grasshoppers.
6. The spies didn’t learn from Miriam’s sin of speaking Lashon HaRa when they spoke Lashon HaRa about Eretz Yisrael,
7. Because at the end of the verse, it showed that they should take from the fruits of the Land. And it was the season of ripe grapes. Clearly there were trees in the Land!
8. Everywhere they went, they saw Canaanites burying their dead. Hashem caused many Canaanites to die to divert the Canaanites’ attention from noticing the spies.
9. Measure for measure. They spoke evil. Therefore their tongues extended to their belly buttons. And worms emanated from their tongues and entered their bodies through their belly buttons.
10. Hashem was telling them that the nation of Israel will definitely enter Eretz Yisrael.
11. Because Levi did not receive a territorial heritage in the Promised Land.
12. Because the people knew that he was Moshe’s brother-in-law.
13. They were giving up their positions of national leadership.
14. They went to see the mood of the people, to see if it was the right time to attack Yericho.
Relationships
a) Father-in-law Yefuneh
b) Grandfather Yefuneh
c) Husband-Wife
d) Uncle Gershon
e) Brothers-in-law, and Uncle Merari