Maghen Abraham - Thoughts From Mayer Sasson

The danger of haughtiness

"And Moshe sent them out….all were men who were heads of the Children of Israel." (13,3)

Our Sages said, "A person who rips his clothing in his wrath and breaks vessels in his wrath and throws away money in his wrath – should be in your eyes as one who worships idols; for this is the art of the Evil Inclination- today he tells him "Do so" and tomorrow he tells him "Do that" until he tells him to worship idols and he goes and worships idols."

In other words, the method of the Evil Inclination is not to entice a person immediately to worship idols for he knows that this is a very serious sin and certainly a Jew will not listen to him. He therefore plans to entice the person only with a "sequel" of idolatry which is not explicitly written in the torah – that one who tears his clothing or breaks dishes in his wrath is as if worshipped idols – and since "one sin causes another sin" he will come to transgress the source of the sequel which is true idolatry.

Thereby we can understand the great question – How did the spies who were Heads of Tribes in Israel, above the level of the people, fall to such a low level to the point of heresy, saying "We are not able to go up against the people for they are too strong for him" and Rashi explains, "They said as if relating to Him".

We can explain that it says in the holy Zohar that the spies were all righteous people and Heads of Tribes in Israel but they nevertheless spoke badly against the Land of Israel because they knew that only in the wilderness would they remain in their roles but once they would enter the Land of Israel they would lose them.

We understand from here that the root of their sin was that they fell prey to the trait of haughtiness, not wanting to relinquish their roles as Heads of Tribes. We learn in the gemara that "A person who has haughtiness is as if he worships idols" and therefore we see that haughtiness is a sequel of idolatry as well. Therefore, if the spies had worked on themselves to overcome their haughtiness which is a sequel of true idolatry, they would have been considered as those who overcome true idolatry.

However, since they did not do that and did not overcome their haughtiness, not wanting to lose their positions, therefore "one sin causes another sin" and they fell from their righteousness and descended to the point of true idol worship when they spoke badly about the Land of Israel and said that the inhabitants were "stronger than Him", G-d forbid.

This explains the words of the Baal Haturim concerning the words "שלח לך אנשים"- "Send out men for you" – where the last letters are  "ח כ ם" – They should be wise and righteous. Here G-d alluded to them that they should be wise, as it says "Who is wise? One who sees the outcome" – a person who sees the sequel of the sin. The Baal Haturim asks – concerning what outcome are we speaking? It says – "ויתורו את ארץ כנען""that they may explore the land of Canaan". They should get used to having the trait of humility and submission (- the word Canaan כנען comes from the word - הכנעה –submission- and thereby they would be able to overcome haughtiness which is the sequel of idolatry.

SHABBAT SHALOM!!