Audio Summaries of the daily Chumash portions In loving memory of Ousher Zelig ben Myer HaLevi Z”LTo sponsor an episode please visit: https://itistaught.com/support-this-project/To get the daily chumash summaries in your email click here https://substack.com/profile/182692001-sarede-rachel-switzer?utm_source=profile-page.Subscribe on SpotifySubscribe on Apple PodcastsPlease consider leaving a review on the platform of your choice! For comments and inquiries, email itistaught@gmail.comThe Spies' Consequences and Sacrificial InstructionsThe Spies' Consequences Cont'dG-d asks Moshe and Aaron rhetorically, in reference to the spies*, "How long for this evil congregation that provokes the Israelites to complain against Me?"*Side note: Rashi notes that this is where we learn that a "congregation" means a group consisting of at least ten people.G-d tells Moshe and Aaron to tell the spies that He is giving an oath that He will fulfill what they had asked, "if only we would die in the desert". Thus anyone who is usually counted as part of a tally (eg. for an army or for shekalim) will indeed die in the wilderness. This included anyone over the age of twenty, to the exclusion of anyone fro the tribe of Levi, since they were not counted the way the others were.G-d also excludes Caleb the son of Yefuneh and Yehoshua the son of Nun from this decree.G-d goes on to say that the children (who will remain alive) will wander in the desert for forty years, corresponding to the forty days the spies spent spying out the land.Thus none of those who were decreed to die here died before entering their sixtieth year (i.e. before the age of 59), thus forty years would have had to pass for this to be true for the youngest who were included (i.e. twenty year olds) to reach this age.This forty years began in their first year, since that is when the sin of the Golden Calf happened, and the thought of this decree entered G-d's mind, yet He only waited until this point, when their sins has accumulated, to fulfill it.Since they "removed their hearts" from following G-d, they will now know what it means to depart from Him.The actual spies (aside from Yehoshua and Caleb) died in a plague. The plague attacked them in a "measure for measure" manner. Since the spies sinned with their tongues (by speaking slanderously about the land), they were afflicted with having their tongues stretched out to their navels and having worms emerge from their tongues and enter their navels.The gemara in Sotah 35a elaborates that the Land of Israel is the center, i.e. "navel" of the world. And the Be'er BaSadeh (based on Mechilta, Beshalach 2) points out that worms attack and destroy plants with their mouths just as the spies attacked with their mouths.Yehoshua and Caleb took the other spies' portion of the Land of Israel as their own.So Moshe related all of these things to the Israelites and the nation mourned profusely.The Israelites woke up early in the morning and began traveling up towards the Land of Israel, declaring that they acknowledged that they had sinned and that they are ready to enter the Land of which "G-d had spoken". The Be'er BaShadeh notes that in calling it "the Land of which G-d had spoken" rather than the "Land which G-d told us to enter", they neglected to voice that in entering the land it would be a fulfillment of G-d's command.Moshe tried to stop them, saying, "Why are you going against the word of G-d? It won't work. Don't enter the land for G-d is not with you and don't be killed by your enemies." He warns that the Amalekite and Canaanites are before them and that the Israelites will be die by their hand. Since they turned away from G-d, G-d will turn away from them.Yet they were unstoppable in ascending towards the land, while the Ark remained behind in the camp. And the Amalekites and Canaanites who were dwelling in the land came down and attacked them until they were annihilated*.*Side note: The Hebrew word for annihilation is חרם, and thus the text has a dual reading of "until annihilation" or "until a place called חרם (which was so called due to what happened there).G-d then tells Moshe to relate some instructions to the Israelites regarding offerings they will bring when they "enter into the land* of your dwelling place".*Side note: One interpretation of this is that this instruction was regarding when they would eventually enter into the Land, however another reading suggests that they were meant to bring these offerings in the desert as well. Either way, the reason for commencing with when they enter the Land, was in order to reassure them that in spite of everything which had occurred, they would still eventually make it into the Land of Israel.Sacrificial InstructionsThe instruction is that for any offering they bring from their cattle or flock, whether it be an olah or peace offering, brought as a vow or from free will, or on a holiday, they must offer libations and a meal offering for each animal.Unlike in...
