Strong When United...But Troubled When Divided

The Parashat Shelach opens with interesting words, Shelach Lecha Anashim - Rashi and many commentators translate it as Send for yourself, meaning - Hashem has said that the Land is good, so just go in and take the land, but that generation wanted to see it for themselves, kind of like they wanted to make sure it is a good land.

To me, it seems like there's some other meaning hiding behind this word. So, let's look at it closer.

So, Shelach Lecha means - Send for yourself, but if you pay close attention, Lecha is in the singular tense, but it is directed to Moshe and affects 12 people, that are being sent out in this expedition. So, how is the singular tense being used for this group of people, why not just use the plural?

In Parashat Bereshit, right after Chava and Adam ate from the Tree of Knowledge, and after Hashem has punished them, it says that Hashem banished them from Gan Eden, but it uses an interesting word for it, in Bereshit 3:23 it says: וַֽיְשַׁלְּחֵ֛הוּ  - And Hashem banished him or sent him out from Gan Eden... Sent him out? Why him? Aren't there two people that were sent out from the Garden of Eden - Adam and Chava, why does Hashem only refer to Adam - sent him out? I believe this is where Hashem is giving us an important message - that Adam and Chava are one, a union, a single entity - a Father and a Mother of all of humanity - The Parents.

But let's go further into the Parashat Lech Lecha. When Hashem tells Avraham Avinu, Lech Lecha - Go for yourself from your land... Again, in this case, it uses the word Lecha, which again affects many people who came out with Avraham Avinu - his wife Sarah, his nephew Lot, all the souls that they have made in Haran, along with their shepherds. 

So, we have 3 places where a singular tense was used, that has affected the group - the many. And this teaches us, that Hashem wants a group to achieve unity, and while in their journey to stay as a group - and get from point A to point B as one single entity, with no one left behind. 

But it doesn't happen so.

Later, in the Parashat Lech Lecha 13:5-12 we are told a story of how their shepherds argued, and Avraham Avinu offered to Lot to go left while he goes right or go right while he goes left, and Lot agreed. They both went different ways - but as you remember Hashem said Lech Lecha, which means that Hashem wanted him to go as one single unit without separation, thus the word Lecha is used. 

Since at that point in time Avraham Avinu, Sarah Imenu, and Lot - were the Jewish nation, and Hashem wanted them to stick together and together get to Point B or the Promised Land, which unfortunately did not happen.

The Parashat Toldot, tells us about Yitzchak Avinu and his two sons - Esav and Yaakov. Yaakov gets the birthright and the beracha, and Rivkah Imenu worried about the safety of Yaakov, tells him to leave for Charan since his brother Esav might kill him. Yakov leaves, and this is when the family breaks up - the unity is lost once again. 

The Parashat Vayishlach tells us, that 22 years later Yaakov Avinu is coming back from the house of his father-in-law with his family, four wives, twelve sons, and a daughter Dina. Knowing fully well his brother Esav, Yaakov Avinu hides his daughter in the chest so Esav should not see her. When the brothers meet up, Esav never sees Dina, and the brothers go their own ways. The Chachamim tell us that Yaakov Avinu has made a mistake by hiding Dina. Since Dina should have married Esav - since only she could of bring him back to Teshuva. And then Yaakov with his kids and four wives, and Esav with Dina would have come back to Israel together as one unit - but it didn't happen. The family has broken up once again, Esav went totally off the derech, and billions of his descendants were forever lost to Judaism.

In Parashat Vayeshev, the nation of Israel is now Yaakov Avinu and his twelve sons. Everything seems to be going well, but suddenly there's a conflict between the brothers and the younger one - Yosef. So, the brothers end up selling him to Egypt, which breaks the family once again. Later on, the whole family moves to Egypt to join Yosef due to the famine in the Land of Israel. 

210 years later comes Moshe Rabbeinu in Parashat Shemot. He is sent by Hashem, who tells him to take His nation out. Three million people came out with Moshe Rabbeinu after all the punishments brought by G-d upon Egypt.

And in Parashat Yitro, we finally got it - the nation stood as one body and one soul - we have achieved complete unity. The Jewish Nation received the Torah on Mount Sinai and officially was married to G-d.

Then the nation traveled closer to the Land of Israel, and suddenly in Parashat Shelach, the people approached Moshe Rabbeinu. They wanted to scout out the land, but in actuality - they wanted to fix what Adam, Avraham Avinu, Yaakov Avinu, and the brothers could not - achieve unity. So, the twelve spies wanted to go to the Land of Israel and come back with one opinion on the strategy and goodness of the Land. But, as you know, for whatever reason they came back with two opinions - 10 people’s opinion versus 2 people’s opinion. Hashem did what He did - males of that generation 20-60 years old lost their lives in the desert.

Thirty-nine years later, in the Parashat Matot and Masei, when the nation is standing on the banks of the Jordan River, tribes of Reuven, Gad, and part of the tribe of Menashe approached Moshe Rabbeinu and asked to remain in the east of the Jordan due to an abundance of green pastures for their livestock. Moshe agreed, and in return, they promised him to go out and help other tribes to conquer Eretz Yisrael.

And this is where I believe a mistake was made.

The word Lecha in the Shelach Lecha does not only mean send for yourself, but it means to go from point A which is Egypt to point B - Eretz Yisrael - as one unit, a single entity - all 3 million people, all 12 tribes with no one left behind or anyone left outside of The Land of Israel. This is where Hashem is telling Moshe Rabbeinu or obligates him to make sure that all 12 tribes make it to the Land of Israel, no matter how appealing it may look outside of it. Since, if only they would have done so, Moshe Rabbeinu would of pass away, but Yehoshua Bin Nun would have taken the nation into the Land of Israel and would have become a Mashiach, and the Geulah or Redemption would have started at that moment, followed by the Tehiyat Hametim - the Resurrection of the Dead, where Moshe Rabbeinu and everyone left behind in the desert would have come back to join the rest of the nation in the Land of Israel.

But this did not happen. And because of this, we have had our First Bet Hamikdash and its destruction, Second Bet Hamikdash and its destruction, and today this.... current long exile with all its hardships - still going on for almost 2,000 years. But we are still hopeful and waiting for our own Lecha Moment - Mashiach, to unite us and ingather all 12 tribes together in Israel, and to kick off other prophecies, as it says in the Book of the Prophet Yeshayahu and in the books of other prophets.

Since just like Adam and Chava were sent out from the Garden of Eden as one entity, so are we - all 12 tribes of Israel, have to re-enter our physical Gan Eden - The Land of Israel, as one, united, strong nation. May this happen speedily in our days, Amen.

Shmuel Katanov