Parshat Shlach Lecha Rabbi Chaim Brovender

Let us learn a posuk with Rashi

Moshe argues for the people. Hashem says that the time has come to destroy the nation. The sin of the spies is inexcusable, but Moshe keeps arguing. Hashem suggests, "I will smite them with a plague and annihilate them..." and continues "...and I shall make [from] you a great and powerful nation..." (14: 12). In other words, the greater plan of bringing the people to the land is not abandoned but adapted: not these people but the children of Moshe himself will inherit the land!

Moshe cannot argue that the people do not deserve such a punishment, but he also declines to accept the solution suggested by Heaven; instead, Moshe responds (as he did after the sin of the golden calf) that the peoples of the world will misunderstand such a turn of events. Among the nations, people will slyly claim that "...because Hashem lacked the ability to bring the people to the land... ...He slaughtered them in the wilderness..." (14:16).

Finally, Moshe adds: "And now may the strength of the Lord be magnified as you have spoken: Hashem, slow to anger, abundant in kindness..." and, "Forgive now the iniquity of this people according to the great kindness which is yours..." (14: 17, 18, 19).

Rashi explains (based on the gemara in Sanhedrin 111a) that when Moshe ascended to heaven to receive the Torah he found Hashem sitting and writing. Moshe said "for the righteous" and Hashem answered "even for the wicked." Moshe said, "let the wicked perish", and Hashem answered: "in the future you will call upon my trait [mercy] to be slow [to anger] even for the wicked." When Yisrael sinned at the golden calf and at the time of the spies, Moshe prayed that Hashem would be slow to anger. Hashem responded: "did you not say only to the righteous?" Moshe responded: "Did You not say for the wicked as well?"

In what emerges from Rashi, Moshe had to negotiate between the different requirements of his roles as a defender of the people and as their teacher-leader. Moshe taught and led based on a vision of perfect justice: he differentiated clearly between the wicked and the righteous and did not waver in matters of judgment.

Watching, up in heave, as Hashem wrote the words of the Torah, a spirit of justice rooted in awareness of truth, filled him. In such a state Moshe could not fathom that, following the giving of the Torah, mercy should still reign - only justice made sense. Hashem explained to Moshe, that the perspective of heaven would not suffice when he re-assumed the leadership of the people and responsibility for bringing them into the land. Moshe experienced this epiphany twice: after the golden calf incident and now again after the spies took the people off their appointed course. For Moshe the necessity of mercy becomes a lived reality just as Hashem, in heaven, had promised him.

However, Moshe had to clarify for us that Am Yisrael cannot depend on G-d's mercy exclusively. We should never imagine that there is an ever present safety net that enables us to expect divine mercy no matter how we fail. For this reason, Moshe includes the argument about what "the nations would say...". Not mercy alone but mercy combined with some other factor enables the forgiveness of Heaven. The exodus, the giving of the Torah, and bringing the people to the land were part of a larger educational agenda that would effect the entire world. This process set in motion would gradually release humanity from the grip of their idolatry and ignorance allowing them to recognize the place of Hashem in the created world. The ability to perceive the Divine project as unfolding according to plan, despite the interference of severe transgressions, had to be available to all peoples. Moshe states that both mercy and the design of history are the causes for accepting the atonement of Am Yisrael; both factors allowed for the continuation of the people in history and into the land.

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