It is, as many know, not a coincidence that we read parshas Devarim, the first portion of the final book of the Torah, on the Shabbas before Tisha B’Av (9th of Av), the day on which we mourn a series of calamities in Jewish life. Devarim is, as is noted in the opening phrase, a recording of the words that Moshe spoke to Bnei Yisrael before his death and their entry to eretz Yisrael, and he began by talking about the demand of the people for sending scouts into the Promised Land and their refusal to enter the Land after the scouts returned.
There are many excellent reasons for this to be Moshe’s starting point, not the least of which is because the reactions of Bnei Yisrael to the report of the scouts were the reason the nation had to remain in the Wilderness for four decades. And yet, it seems a strange place to begin a review of the journey of Bnei Yisrael. Why wouldn’t Moshe begin at the beginning, with Hashem instructing him to lead them out of Mitzrayim, or with their experiences at the crossing of the Sea and camping at Har Sinai? On the other hand, if one is going to state the great infraction of the burgeoning Jewish nation, most of us think first to the Cheit Ha’egel, the Golden Calf, of which here there is no mention.
In sefer Bereishis, humanity received two great punishments. They were utterly obliterated, with the exception of Noach, by the flood as a punishment for becoming corrupt and so depravedly self-centered that they wantonly stole and plundered from each other. Not long after, another generation is struck down and scattered by a transformation in their communication (no longer able to speak the same language) as a punishment for raising a tower to make war against the Heavens. The difference in the two incidents, the reason that Hashem did not destroy humanity again at the Tower of Babel, was that Hashem could accept His creation fighting with Him but He could not accept His creation destroying one another. From here we are taught that Hashem values Bein Adam L’Chavero over Bein Adam L’Makom (interpersonal behaviors over those between a person and the Divine).
Perhaps remembering these distinctions will help us see the difference in Moshe’s perspective on the people's behavior during the Cheit Ha’egel verses their reaction to the scouts. The commentators explain that the people made the Golden Calf because they miscalculated Moshe’s time on Har Sinai. They expected him to have returned and so they panicked. They created the calf not to be a replacement for Hashem, but to be a replacement for Moshe, to be a new intermediary. They were wrong, of course, but they were also misguided and, perhaps, spiritually confused due to the idolatrous world that had surrounded them throughout their lives.
The Incident of the Scouts happened not long thereafter, but the exposure of the underlying flaw of the nation was far more insidious. They did not lack faith, they lacked trust and they lacked hope. They knew that Hashem exists and that Hashem was active in their lives, and yet somehow they could not believe that they could conquer and be successful in the Promised Land. More significantly, however, was that how they each reacted undermined the future of their fellow Jews.
While both the Chait Ha’egel and the reaction to the scouts appear to be issues of trusting Hashem, the comparison is in the ramifications. Like Migdal Bavel, the Cheit Haegel was a group of people but each was compromising their own individual relationship with the Divine. They joined together from peer pressure, but the actions had the greatest impact on themselves. Like the dor haflaga, the nation of the flood, the generation that came out of Egypt and who bemoaned their fate and cried out against their ability to conquer the Promised Land were determined to act in a way that put others in danger. Refusing to enter Eretz Yisrael was an action that affected not only them but their children and their future generations. Moaning that they wanted to go back to Mitzrayim demonstrated a psychological state that preferred the depravity of Egypt to the promises of living a full Torah life. (This fits even with the Midrashim that speak of the generation’s reaction as an attempt to stay in the environment of being secluded with Hashem, because truly acquiring Torah – and the benefits of Torah - mean taking it into the world, into real life, and living it.)
The generation that came out of Egypt was in no means depraved as was the generation of the flood. They did not deserve to be annihilated in one fell swoop. But they were so deeply flawed that their actions had incredible ramifications on the lives of all of their descendants – for generations. The anniversary of the bewailing of the people as a reaction to the report of the scouts is Tisha B’Av. This is the date on which both Temples were destroyed, on which the Roman Emperor Hadrian plowed over the city, and on which the Bar Kochba Rebellion was decimated. This is the date on which Jews were kicked out of England in 1290 and on which the great Expulsion from Spain took place. This is the date of endless tragedy because the generation that came out of Mitzrayim could not take the lessons they had learned of Hashem’s ability and desire to perform miracles for them and take the first step to independent Torah living.
Had we moved into Eretz Yisrael when Hashem first led the people there, the history of the world and the fate of the Jewish people would have been very different. The sages placed the reading of Devarim at this time, just before Tisha B’Av, because just as the action of that generation continues its impact on us, we need to read/hear Moshe’s words so that we can try to repair the exile that, in many ways, began before we even entered the land.
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