The Torah tells us that there was a group called the Ma'apilim. These Jews in the desert, who were condemned to die over forty years, decided to try and conquer the Land despite Moshe warning them that they would fail.
Was their action "good" or "bad"? That all depends on how you interpret a single word of the Chumash.
What is the connection between these "Ma'apilim" and the early settlers of the modern State of Israel? In this week's Kitah lesson, we learned about poem that connects them, which was written by an Israel poet in the early 1900's. Rabbi Reuven Spolter, Director of Kitah, explains.