When the meraglim returned from their mission, they gave Moshe Rabbeinu what they believed was an honest report of their findings.
Banu el haaretz asher shlachtanu v’gam zavat chalav udvash hee, v’zeh piryah – We have come to the land to which you sent us, and it was indeed flowing with milk and honey, and this is its fruit! (13:27-28).
However, there was something that frightened them: Efes ki az ha’am hayoshev ba’aretz, v’hearim betzurot g’dolot me’od, v’gam yelidei ha’anak raeenu sham – But the nation that dwells in the land is very mighty, and the cities are fortified and enormous, and we even saw the sons of giants there!
Were the meraglim bringing back a faithful report of what they saw? If they indeed saw giants and heavily fortified cities, wouldn’t that be a good reason to be frightened? What did Hakadosh Baruch Hu find wrong with their report?
Let’s fast-forward forty years, when Bnei Yisrael actually entered the land of Canaan. Were the people they met really giants?
If we look in Sefer Yehoshua, aside from the fact that there is no mention of giants anywhere in all of their battles, we find there were not even mighty men.
In this week’s haftarah, we read of the two meraglim sent out by Yehoshua to scout Canaan. In the city of Jericho, they found refuge in the house of Rahab, who tells them: Ya’da’ti ki natan Hashem lachem et haaretz, v’chi naflah eimatchem aleinu, v’chi namogu kol yoshvei haaretz mipneichem – I know that Hashem has given you the land, and that fear of you has befallen us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted before you.
Jericho is a walled city, a military stronghold, but all of the inhabitants are absolutely frightened of Bnei Yisrael!
And what was the cause of their fear? Aside from the recent victories of Bnei Yisrael over Sichon and Og, they were still frightened from what had happened to the Mitzrim at the Yam Suf, asher hovish Hashem et mei Yam Suf mipneichem, b’tzetchem miMitzrayim.
Certainly, then, forty years earlier the inhabitants of Canaan had been even more impressed with what they heard of Hashem and Bnei Yisrael. In fact, we read in Az Yashir, az nivhalu alufei edom… namogu kol yoshvei Canaan!
They may have appeared imposing on some level, but they were in fact afraid of Bnei Yisrael!
How is it that ten of our meraglim could so badly misinterpret the mood of the inhabitants in the land of Canaan? It wouldn’t have taken a great deal of reconnaissance to hear what people were saying, just as the spies in the time of Yehoshua had information volunteered to them by Rahab.
Let’s look at the words of the meraglim to see where they went wrong. It wasn’t what they found in Canaan that was the problem; it was their interpretation of it.
As they continued to spread fear in the hearts of the rest of Bnei Yisrael, they report that they saw giants, nefilim. V’sham rainu et hanefilim bnei anak!
And here is the key: va’nehi b’eynenu kachagavim, v’chen hayinu b’eynehem – We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and so we must have looked to them.
Here is the puncture in their inflated story. How big were the giants? Well, they say, we felt like grasshoppers next to them, and they certainly must have perceived us as such! But perhaps, in reality, they were not so imposing at all.