There is an accepted idea that there are no wasted words in the Torah, which makes it rather interesting that twice in this week’s parsha, Parshas Shlach, the Torah literally repeats itself. Furthermore, these two repetitions appear to be at opposite ends of the narrated events, as if bookmarking the events and alerting us to the fact that we must learn from our ancestors’ actions.
The first repetition is at the opening of the parasha: “Send for yourselves men to scout the Land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Children of Israel; send one man one man from each of their ancestral tribes, each one a chieftain among them” (Bamidbar 13:2). Most translation don’t write “one man one man,” but the Hebrew text is written “eesh echad eesh echad.”
The second use of repeating language is as the episode of the scouts comes to a conclusion. Having undermined their own mission and with the entire gathering of the Children of Israel having panicked at their words, Hashem doles out His displeasure by condemning the entire generation to live out their lives in the Wilderness. “You shall bear your punishment for forty years, corresponding to the number of days – 40 days – that you scouted the land: a year for a day a year for a day. Thus you shall know what it means to thwart Me” (14:34). Once again, most English translations do not include the word repetition, but the Hebrew is written: “yom lshana yom lshana.”
Is there a connection to these two repetitions? Double language in the Torah is a means of stressing a point. What that point may be is one that we have to consider.
The first repetition is “one man one man,” which reminds us that each person is unique. Hashem did not tell Moshe to round up random individuals, but rather to think through the choices of the unique individuals. Judaism has a very strong ideology of each person being singularly important in their own right and as part of the general community of the nation. This is part of the lesson of eesh echad eesh echad. Hashem was hoping that the men chosen to be scouts could each demonstrate their abilities to be their own man, so to speak. To not need to do as the crowd does. Two of the scouts, Yehoshua (Joshua) and Caleb, were men of such caliber. The lesson for us is that we do not have to go with the crowd, to be part of the multitude. This brings us to the second repetition, yom lshana. The root of the word shana, which means year, is the same root as the verb to change or to make different. When we are able to stay true to our essential selves, we can come to yom lshana, day for change. Whether that means making changes for ourselves, like self improvement projects, or making changes to affect the world as a whole, positive change can only come from understanding our own unique gifts.
Looking at the language of yom lashana, one could also find a similarly significant message. While the usage here is that the letter lamed is the preposition "for" (a day for a year), the word lashona by itself is connected to lashon – language – and thus to the lashon harah (wicked speech) that the scouts spoke about the Promised Land. When one brings this shift in meaning to the first repetition – eesh echad eesh echad, one man one man – one can see the lesson that each person is responsible for their own speech. A person can easily be carried away by a crowd speaking lashon harah, but that is not an acceptable excuse for speaking negatively or gossiping about someone. This was the case of the scouts, who, except for Yehoshua and Caleb, did not have the courage to raise their voice separately but followed the lead of the crowd.
Lessons on the importance of speech are always meaningful. The double down of the repetitive language in Parshas Shlach is a message that encourages us to be strong and know that if we can stay true to ourselves (and be a Kiddush Hashem through our own unique talents), we can use each day to make a positive change on the world.
