Rabbi Dov Begon is Head of Yeshivat Machon Meir.
In this Torah portion, The Holy One Blessed be He punishes the generation of the wilderness, saying to them: “In this wilderness your carcasses shall fall... But your children, whom you said would become plunder, I will bring in, and they shall know the Land that you have despised" (Numbers 14:29, 31).
At first glance, it would have been sufficient to say regarding the next generation, “I will bring them in." Why the additional phrase, “and they shall know the Land that you have despised"? The verse comes to teach us that it is not enough merely to ascend to the Land and settle in it. One must know the Land - not only in terms of its geography, history, nature, and the like, but know it in terms of its essence and purpose, in the sense of its living eternal connection to the Jewish Nation and in the sense of our Divine historical and universal mission.
As was already said to our forefather Abraham at the beginning of his journey: “And the Lord said to Abram: Go forth from your land... to the Land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing... and through you shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 12:1-3).
As Rashi explains: “Go forth" - for your benefit and for your good. There, in the Land of Israel, I will make you into a great nation and make your nature known throughout the world.
The sin of the spies was that they did not want to know what the Land of Israel truly is - its greatness and its mission. Therefore they despised it and slandered it. The corrective response came through the generations that followed them, a brave generation who conquered the Land, settled it, and established in it a glorious kingdom under the leadership of King David who understood what the Land of Israel means to the Jewish People and to the world. Because of this understanding, he fought for it with all of his faith, military genius and strength, knowing that the war and conquest of the Land were Torah commandments whose purpose was to bring light and blessing to all of mankind, because Jerusalem and the Land of Israel are the light of the world.
Even now, in our generation, the generation of the ingathering of the exiles and national revival, we must learn to understand and recognize what the Land of Israel is and what the living connection is between the People of Israel and the Land of Israel, as Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook of blessed memory wrote:
“The Land of Israel is not an external thing, an external possession of the nation, merely as a means to the goal of national unity and the maintenance of its material or even spiritual existence. The Land of Israel is an essential unit bound by a living bond to the nation, embraced by inner treasures (segulot) together with its very existence" (Orot, p. 9).
The Land of Israel is not merely a refuge for persecuted Jews, or our historic Homeland, nor simply a country that is “pleasant to live in" and nothing more. In the Land of Israel, the national and universal vision of the End of Days is realized: “For out of Zion shall go forth Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem," as the Prophet Isaiah declared.
The wars fought by King David, peace be upon him, for the conquest of the Land were intended to reveal the light of the Almighty in the world. Likewise, the wars of our own time are wars of the children of light against the children of darkness. The goal of our enemies is to extinguish the lamp and light of Israel, which continues to shine ever more brightly in the Land of Israel and in the State of Israel.
We must learn to understand, recognize, and know what the Land of Israel is, what we are fighting for, and the grandeur of our ultimate mission as our still young nation rises to renewed life in the Land of Israel. Then the blessing given to Joshua son of Nun will be fulfilled in us: “Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the Land that I swore to their fathers to give them" (Joshua 1:6).
Awaiting the complete Redemption.