Ziv: Parashat Shelah 2


Each week, Gad Barnea or Sister Agnès de la Croix (from the Community of the Beatitudes) proposes a reflection on the portion of the Pentateuch that is read in the synagogue (parashat hashavua). This week the portion is from Numbers 13:1 – 15:41 with the haftarah (additional reading) from Joshua 2:1-24. They call their reflection “ziv” – a ray of light.

ziv shelah2

A land flowing with milk and honey…

This parasha describes for the first time the story of the spies sent to visit the land of Canaan before its settlement by the people. The haftara explains how Joshua, Moses’ successor, will also send spies. It is interesting to compare the two narratives.

In our parasha, the spies come back with an ambiguous report: on the one hand, the land is flowing with milk and honey, and on the other, its inhabitants are giants ready to devour them up. They harshly criticize the gift of God. We know what follows: because of their lack of faith and their murmurs, they will have to walk for forty more years in the wilderness.

“Thus will I do to this wicked band that has banded together against me” says the Lord to his people who decided to stone Joshua and Caleb (14:35), showing that the evil directed against his just ones directly affects Him. Only the following generation will be able to enter the land of Canaan. In the book of Joshua, the story is very different: the report is positive. “The Lord has delivered the whole land into our power; in fact, all the inhabitants of the land are quacking before us” (Jo 2:24).

Why such a different outcome for the same reality? In fact, the generation of the desert had not succeeded in leaving Egypt and carried the stigmas of his previous bondage. The people were living in fear, and were not able to assume their new freedom. They preferred the desert and the manna fallen from on high to the conquest and autonomy of Canaan. The spies sent by Joshua did not know servitude and the anguish that it generates. Therefore, they are ready to enter their heritage. In a certain way, they are redeeming the first ones.

A modern commentary show that in these two stories, the land of Canaan stands for the heart of the people: if they are afraid and lack confidence, they will describe it as a place of danger, and if, on the contrary, they are sure of the victory, like in the book of Joshua, they will describe it as a blessing… This may be an explanation for the title of the parasha: “Sent for you”… the land of Canaan is thus a place of revelation of what dwells in the heart of man. Shabbat shalom.

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