In Parashat Shelach, the Torah tells the story of the מרגלים, that Moshe Rabbeinu, based on the request of the Bnei Yisrael, sent מרגלים, spies to Eretz Yisrael, and when the spies came back, they scared the Bnei Yisrael because they spoke lashon hara against Eretz Yisrael. They said, \"כי עז העם הישב בארץ\", that the people, the nation that lives in the land of Eretz Yisrael is very strong, and therefore they said, we will not be able to fight them, we will not be able to win them, \"כי חזק הוא ממנו\", because they are stronger than us. And not only did they say they are stronger than us, but as the Gemara says in Sotah דף ל״ה עמוד א׳, that the מרגלים said that the people from Eretz Yisrael, from Eretz Canaan, are stronger ממנו, from him. \"כי חזק הוא ממנו\", they are stronger from him, meaning from Hashem k'vayachol. And they said k'vayachol, \"אפילו בעל הבית אינו יכול להוציא כליו משם\". Even the Baal Habayit, the owner, which is Hashem, cannot take his vessels out of there. And therefore we won't be able to overcome them because they are even stronger than Hashem k'vayachol. And because of that, the Yidden got scared, and they didn't want to go into Eretz Yisrael, and this was the sin that brought about that Hashem should tell them that they have to remain in the מדבר till 40 years, and then their children will go into Eretz Yisrael. And this was a very, very terrible aveirah. As we see that Hashem said that because the Yidden cried that night when the מרגלים came back, which was Tisha B'Av, Hashem said, \"I will make this a בכיה לדורות. I will make this a time when for all generations you will cry.\" Meaning that something will happen later on on this day when you will cry rightfully. So we see that the aveirah was so terrible, this had an effect for all later generations. So the question that comes up is, how is it possible for the מרגלים to fall so low, since it says in Rashi that when Moshe Rabbeinu sent the מרגלים, באותה שעה כשרים היו, at that time they were still tzadikim? So if they left as tzadikim, how is it possible that within 40 days, which was the time that their trip took, they should fall so low to do such a terrible aveirah? And it's self-understood that they must have been not stam tzadikim, but big tzadikim. They were leaders of the Bnei Yisrael. And more than that, when Moshe Rabbeinu chose them as shluchim, as messengers, as agents to go to Eretz Yisrael, obviously he knew them that they are worthy of this position. Moshe Rabbeinu, who was the leader of Klal Yisrael, and he was a kind of leader that cared and knew every single person. As it says in the Midrash, that why did Hashem choose Moshe Rabbeinu to be the leader of Klal Yisrael? Because משה היה רועה, משה was a shepherd, and Hashem saw how he acted with the sheep, that he cared about each individual sheep, and he took care of each one according to its needs. So Hashem said, a person like that is fit to be the shepherd of Klal Yisrael. So obviously Moshe Rabbeinu acted that way to Klal Yisrael too. So he must have known every single person, must have cared about every individual as an individual. So he certainly knew who was the great tzaddik, who wasn't. So when Moshe Rabbeinu chose these 12 people as the shluchim, as the messengers to go to Eretz Yisrael, obviously he knew that these are the people who are worthy of this position. Now how is it possible that these people who were so great and chosen by Moshe Rabbeinu should fall so low that they should do such a terrible aveirah? The aveirah goes so big that they said כי חזק הוא ממנו, that they so to speak lost their bitachon and emunah, their trust and belief in Hashem, that they even said that it's possible for human beings to be stronger than Hashem. Now how is it possible from being great tzaddikim to fall so low in such a short time?

We also have to understand, how is it possible that the מרגלים were able to scare the Bnei Yisrael, to say that we won't be able to enter Eretz Yisrael because the goyim in Eretz Yisrael, the nations are very strong, when the Yidden knew from before yet that Hashem is able to perform miracles? While they were in the מדבר, which was called a נחש שרף ועקרב, a place where there are snakes and scorpions, a terrible place, as the Midrash Tanchuma in Beshalach י״ח and in Yalkut Remez רנ״ה and also the Mechilta בשלח קפיטל ט״ו פסוק כ״ב explain how terrible the מדבר, the desert was. And nevertheless, the Yidden saw constantly miracles למעלה מן הטבע, beyond nature. The way they saw the way the ארון and ענני הכבוד would kill the snakes, would straighten everything out. And also not only did they see how Hashem took care of them by getting rid of all the obstacles in the desert, but also to the good side, in the positive side, Hashem performed the miracle that they got the man every day מן השמים. They had water to drink from the בארה של מרים, from the well of Miriam, and all this were nissim, miracles lema'alah min hateva. This is even then at the time when they were in the desert. If you go back a little bit, they saw the miracles Hashem did to them in Mitzrayim. They saw the miracles Hashem did to them by the Yam Suf. He split the yam. And splitting the yam is a very great miracle, as we see that many times, the Gemara refers to that with the term קשה, it is hard. Not chas veshalom that anything is hard for Hashem, but the reason it's referred to as hard, as the Gemara says in Sota דף ב׳ עמוד א׳, is because to show how great this miracle was. And by all these things, the Yidden didn't need emunah, belief, to believe that this happened. They saw it with their own eyes. So they should have understood themselves that Hashem is able to perform miracles even after they will enter Eretz Yisrael and they will fight with the goyim. So how is it possible that they got scared when they heard that כי עז העם, that the goyim in Eretz Yisrael are very strong? Now at first glance, we might have explained it that it's no re'ayah, no proof from the fact that Hashem won over Pharaoh, that He will also win the thirty-one kings of Eretz Canaan. Maybe they are stronger. But the truth is that when the Yidden said the shirah after Keriat Yam Suf, they said נמוגו כל ישבי כנען, that all the inhabitants of Canaan all melted, so to speak, out of fear. So we see that the Canaanites understood themselves that Hashem is stronger than them. And this fear that they had was such a strong fear that it lasted for so many years, because we see later on, forty years after Keriat Yam Suf, when Yehoshua sent spies to Eretz Yisrael, they came back and they said that the people are still scared from the time when Hashem split the Yam Suf. So if the goyim were scared of the Bnei Yisrael because of Hashem, certainly the Yidden understood that Hashem is strong enough to fight the, the Canaanites, to fight the thirty-one kings of ארץ כנען. So how is it possible that they got scared when they heard what the meraglim said? It's even more than that. It says in the Gemara, in Chagigah דף י״ג עמוד ב׳, and it says in the Mechilta Beshalach קאפיטל י״ד פסוק ה׳, also brought down in the Zohar in שמות דף ו׳ עמוד א׳, that at the time when the Yidden were in מצרים, מצרים was the מושל בכיפה. מצרים controlled the whole world. So it comes out that these kings of ארץ כנען themselves were under the control of מצרים. So if the Yidden were able to overcome פרעה מלך מצרים with the help of Hashem, certainly they would be able to overcome the Kena'anim who were under פרעה. So how were the Yidden scared because they heard what the meraglim said?

But the answer to this is that the meraglim really were great tzadikim. And the reason they said what they said was because they thought that spiritually this was right. They made a mistake, but it wasn't just a mistake thinking that Hashem cannot save them from the Kena'anim, or a mistake of losing trust in Hashem. It was a very, very delicate mistake, and that led them later to come down to such a low madregah. But the mistake was as follows: They were in the desert, and they saw that they were provided by Hashem with all their needs. They had no reason to get involved in any physical things. They didn't have to work in the field, they didn't have to plow, they didn't have to plant, they didn't have to do business, they didn't have to do anything. They were provided by Hashem. Hashem gave them, as we said before, the man, lechem min hashamayim, bread from heaven. He gave them water, the בארה של מרים. They were surrounded, protected by the ענני הכבוד, by the clouds. The clouds did even other jobs for them: the clouds cleaned their clothes. It says that the clothes grew with them together. They didn't have to buy new clothes, or get new clothes, sew new clothes when they grew out of it, because it grew with them together. So they were provided by Hashem with everything. So we could imagine that the whole time was used up just in learning Torah, davenen, doing mitzvot, which means in עבודת השם, in serving Hashem, because they didn't have to do anything for their physical well-being, it was all taken care by Hashem. When they were sent to ארץ כנען to see what goes on there, and they saw that over there, in order to live, you have to have חורש and זורע, you have to plow and you have to plant, you have to get involved in physical things, Hashem will not provide them with the man anymore, they will not get water from the בארה של מרים, much of their time will have to be taken up by providing themselves with their physical needs, which means mimela that they will have to take away time from their עבודת השם, from their serving Hashem. So they thought to themselves, why do we need this? Let us better stay in the desert, in the midbar, and there we will have time to serve Hashem, we will be closer to Hashem, rather than going into Eretz Yisrael where we will have to get involved with all these physical needs. And this is similar to what Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said, as the Gemara says in Berakhot דף ל״ה עמוד ב׳, that אפשר אדם חורש וזורע, תורה מה תהא עליה? If a person is going to get involved in working, in plowing, and in planting, etc., etc., what's going to happen to the Torah? Which means that if you get involved in these ענינים, then you don't have the proper time to learn Torah. So that's what they wanted: they would rather stay in the מדבר, be away, isolated from the world, not having to get involved in parnasah and things like that, and then they would be able to sit and learn Torah properly. Similarly to what Chazal say, it says in the Mekhilta in Beshalach, קפיטל ט״ז פסוק ד׳ that לא ניתנה תורה לידרש אלא לאוכלי המן, that who are the people who are properly able to learn Torah? Only the people who ate the מן, the people in the desert. When they didn't have to work for their food, they got מן מן השמים etc., etc., they were the ones that were able to learn Torah properly. And this was the טענה of the מרגלים. Why get involved in ענינים of gashmiyut of the world, which will take you away from learning Torah, from doing mitzvot? And this is what they meant when they said that this is an ארץ אוכלת יושביה. It's a land that eats up its inhabitants. But what they meant was, it's an ארץ, a land, it stands for ארציות, גשמיות, which eats up the people who live in it. When you live in the land there, and since you have to get involved in gashmiyut, it will eat you up. You will become part of the gashmiyut. If you're away from Eretz Yisrael, you're in the desert and you're involved in ruchniyut, and even the מן that you get is given to you by Hashem, then the ארציות, the gashmiyut, the materialism will not eat you up, will not pull you down. But Eretz Yisrael they said is an ארץ אוכלת יושביה, it's a place that pulls you down. The ארץ will eat you up.

But all this was a big mistake. Because one thing is for sure: if Hashem wants them to go to Eretz Yisrael, then all the חשבונות and the calculations that they make that it's better to stay in the desert מצד רוחניות, מצד spirituality, it's nevertheless wrong if that's not what Hashem wants them to do. If Hashem wants them to go into Eretz Yisrael, that's where they have to go. And it's understood why Hashem wanted to go into Eretz Yisrael. Because to have people who are isolated from the world and have no connection to the world, and they should be close to Hashem, that is not a big chiddush, that is not what Hashem wants. Hashem has plenty of malachim who have no connection to the world and they serve Him all day. Hashem wants people who are involved in the world and have to do with the physical ענינים, and nevertheless they bring kedushah into the world, that's what Hashem wants. Which really is similar to what it says in the Midrash that Hashem wants a דירה בתחתונים. That the reason Hashem created the world was because He wants a dwelling place in this low world. He wants that this low world, with all its gashmiyus, with all its physicality and materialism, should be absorbed with kedushah. The only way to do it is if a Yid puts himself to the point of gashmiyus, which means gets involved in gashmiyus, works, and he brings kedushah into the gashmiyus. He works l'shem shamayim, he does everything the way Hashem wants him to do, so then you bring kedushah into the world. And this is why Hashem did want them to enter Eretz Yisrael and to get involved in gashmiyus, and make what we would call a דירה לו יתברך בתחתונים, to make a dwelling place for Hashem in the low world. And this was the mistake the מרגלים made. So here we see that even though they were great tzadikim, they nevertheless made a mistake, because the mistake was a very deep mistake. It was a mistake based on their wanting to be close to Hashem, but nevertheless it was a mistake. And because of this mistake they didn't want to go into Eretz Yisrael, and that's why the people cried etc., etc.

This will also explain how they were able to say that כביכול אפילו בעל הבית אינו יכול להוציא כליו משם, that even the baal habayit, which is Hashem, will not be able to take His kelim out, which means that they didn't believe in Hashem. But based on what we said before, this will also be understood. What they were saying was as follows: they said that you can't bring any proof from the miracles and the victory that was beyond nature that the Yidden had in the desert, that this will prove that the same thing will happen when they go into Eretz Yisrael. Because they said like this: while you're in the midbar and you're completely unclothed of gashmiyus because we are completely connected to ruchniyus, the mann comes from the shamayim, the water from the בארה של מרים, everything comes from Hashem, so then Hashem goes beyond nature. So the miracles are also beyond nature. But at a time when we're going into Eretz Yisrael, and we said before Eretz Yisrael is a place where you do have to get involved in gashmiyus, you have to lower yourself to the place of the gashmiyus, the teva of the world, so they said if you're going into a seder, an order of teva, now as far as teva is concerned, then we cannot overcome those giants, those goyim in Eretz Yisrael. If it would be a place which is lechatchilah beyond nature, we are close to Hashem, we have nothing to do with nature, then the miracles will take place as they did till now. But going into Eretz Yisrael, they said, this won't happen. And this is what they said: they knew that Hashem controls the world. They even referred to Him as the baal habayit. They said kivayachol even the baal habayit, the owner, cannot get His kelim out. So they referred to Hashem as the baal habayit, so they still believed that Hashem is the baal habayit. They believed that it's kelav, it's His vessels, so to speak, He's in control. What they said, that even He can't do anything, why? Because since Hashem wants us to go into Eretz Yisrael, into a place where we will not have the miracles, there He wants us to get involved in teva, in nature, and bring kedushah into the nature, So obviously he wants us to act according to nature. Now if he wants us to act according to nature, then he himself, who said that we should act according to nature, cannot go against his own words. So he himself will not be able to help us lemalah min hateva beyond nature. And if we're going to go according to nature, then definitely we won't win. And that's what he said, Hashem himself, so to speak, contradicts himself. If he said he wants us to go into the place where we have to lower ourselves to nature, then everything will work with nature, and he himself will not perform a miracle. So that's what he said, that's what they said to the Yidden, let's not go into Eretz Yisrael. Over there, we cannot win the goyim because naturally we cannot win the goyim, ובכלל, why go fight the goyim in order to get involved in nature, lower ourselves to the world, to the gashmiyus of the world? Let us stay in the midbar where we don't have a connection to gashmiyus, and here we will serve Hashem, be closer to Hashem. But the truth is, as we said before, this was a mistake because this is not what Hashem wanted. Hashem wants them to go into Eretz Yisrael, and Hashem says that even though you are going into a place of nature and I want you to get involved in nature, nevertheless, I promise that I will perform miracles even there. Because the real thing is that Hashem combines the nature with beyond nature. What Hashem wants us to do is to get involved in nature, but in the nature to bring kedushah. And so Hashem himself does the same. He wants us to get involved in nature, and in the nature he will perform miracles. In order to get to the nature, he will perform a miracle that we should conquer Eretz Yisrael and overcome the goyim. And this was the mistake they made. But because of that mistake, other people made a worse mistake and thought that, you know, can't go into Eretz Yisrael at all because we will not be able to overcome them at all. And that's why they cried, and this turned into a בכיה לדורות, into a crying for all later generations, for Tisha B'Av. But in essence, it wasn't because they lechatchilah did not believe in Hashem. Lechatchilah, they had good intentions with a mistake, and that answers the question that even though they were tzadikim, and Moshe Rabbeinu himself chose them, so definitely he chose the right people, but then nevertheless they made this mistake, because the mistake was a very delicate mistake, it was a mistake in a very high madregah, thinking that it would be better to serve Hashem if they would stay in the desert. And the mistake was that really Hashem wants them to go to Eretz Yisrael, to bring kedushah into the world, into the nature, and if this what Hashem wants, then any cheshbon, and any calculations you make is always wrong, because what you have to do is follow Hashem with קבלת עול מלכות שמים.