A woman's place is in... Eretz Yisrael. Of course, men belong here, too, but our rabbis tell us that "the women in particular loved Eretz Yisrael." How this began, and how it manifested itself, lead to some fascinating insights into the relationships of Jewish men and women and Eretz Yisrael.



Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin, in Aznayim L'Torah, explains the connection between the end of last week's parsha, in which Miriam became leprous, and this week's story of the spies. It seems that midrashim show that the women of that generation represented the biggest block of Moshe Rabbeinu's supporters. They refused to join in the rebellion of the Golden Calf , for instance. This support, though, weakened with Miriam's leprosy.



Miriam and Aharon had complained about Moshe's being celibate since climbing Mount Sinai, thereby implying that perhaps future prophets would separate from their wives as Moshe had from his. Despite the Almighty's telling Miriam and Aharon that Moshe was a unique case, of a "once in history" closeness of relationship to G-d that would not be repeated, the women of Israel still harbored their fears of abandonment. This led to a weakening of their support for Moshe just when he needed it most, against the spies.



Rabbi Sorotzkin proceeds to discuss the changing of Hoshea's name to Yehoshua. The Jerusalem Talmud says that the letter yud taken from the name of foremother Sarai, when her name was changed to Sarah, stood up in protest and screamed for 400 years. The protest continued until Yehoshua came and the Almighty prophetically had Moses add the yud to Hoshea's name.



The connection between Sarah and Joshua is that G-d told Sarah that her child would inherit Eretz Yisrael, and she had confronted Avraham Avinu with the fiery declaration "Ki lo yirash ben ha'amah hazot im bni, im Yitzchak." ("For that son of a maidservant [Yishmael] will not inherit [this land] with my son, with Isaac." - B'reishit 21:10) And now, Joshua, Sarah's descendant, was to be the one to return the Jewish nation to Eretz Yisrael and conquer it. So, it was fitting for him to receive that yud.



And it is fittingly a yud, as Rabbi Sorotzkin explains later in reference to Bamidbar 15:17 on the words, "V'ata yigdal na co'ach Adoshem." ("And now may G-d's might be magnified.") Numerically, the letter yud stands for the number ten, and the yud in "yigdal" is a large one, signifying that this is the tenth time the Jews of that generation had rebelled against the Almighty. Also, the spies had slandered Eretz Yisrael, which the rabbis say is hallowed with ten levels of sanctity. Furthermore, by this slander, the spies had violated the nation's covenant of the Torah, which had been sealed in the Ten Commandments, a covenant for which the world had originally been created by G-d with Ten Utterances. In fact, the word "co'ach" (might) is itself a code-word hinting to the Creation. As Rashi on the first verse in the Torah says: "Co'ach ma'asav higid l'amo lateit lahem nachalat goyim." ("The Almighty infused his people with the might [co'ach]] of His creation, in order to give them an inheritance of the nations [the Land of Israel].")



Amazingly, both sentences, Bamidbar 14:17 and Bereishit 1:1, have 28 letters. 28 is the gematria ( numerical equivalent ) of the word "co'ach", the strength by which Joshua and Israel conquered and held onto Eretz Yisrael. The strength bequeathed and genetically transmitted ("higid") to us by foremother Sarah.



Of course, our history tells us that the spies thwarted the attempt to enter Eretz Yisrael. A one-liner by Dave Barry is informative: "If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there are men on base." Women, like Sarah Imeinu, instinctively feel the need to protect life and all that is essential to life. Men , however, tend to act like spies, looking for advantages, to create their own breaks, to stack the deck in their favor. Spies ask, "What's in it for me?" ("Ma betza...?" - B'reishit 37:26), rather than, "What can I do for my country?" Thus, the spies bequeathed us something: Tisha B'Av, a day of national failure. A failure of national will.



Rashi says that this week's parsha is called Shlach Lecha because the "lecha" implies: You send, I (G-d) am not commanding you. You send spies, if you want. The inheriting of Eretz Yisrael is purely a matter of wanting it enough. Enough to leave the Diaspora and move here. Enough to declare our rights to our national home, without false bashfulness, but with pride. Enough to utilize the might that the good Lord gave us to protect our citizens and our inheritance. And enough to declare, like our foreother Sarah, "Ki lo yirash ben ha'amah hazot im bni, im Yitzchak."