YU TORAH Shelach: Gigantic Grasshoppers By Mrs. Shira Smiles

Bnei Yisroel is set to enter the Land Hashem has promised them. The people approach Moshe and ask to send spies to reconnoiter the land before they enter. Moshe, being unsure of how to proceed, asks Hashem for advice. Hashem responds, “shelach lecha – send for yourselves distinguished men and let them spy out the land...” We know what follows. The spies come back with a devastating report, bringing the entire nation to tears. They give a truthful account of what they saw, giants and fortified cities, fertile land with giant fruit. But then they editorialize. They insert not only their opinion that they will not be able to conquer the land, but to emphasize their diminutive size, they compare themselves to grasshoppers, not only in their own eyes but also in the eyes of the local inhabitants they are reconnoitering. Rashi takes the spies’ report even further by suggesting that they said that the inhabitants considered them as ants with human faces in their vineyards.