This week’s Torah portion begins with Moshe begging Hashem to allow him to enter the Land of Israel:
“I beseech Thee, let me go over and see the good Land that is beyond the Jordan, that good mountain and the Lebanon.”
I once heard Rabbi Sholom Gold of Har Nof ask an interesting question. Why does Moshe repeat the word “good” in the verse? Rabbi Gold answered that Moshe was actually asking two things from Hashem. First, he was asking for permission to enter the good Land. Second, he was asking for Hashem’s blessing that once he was in the Land, he would continue to see the Land in a good light.
Rabbi Gold explained that there is a yetzer hara (evil inclination) that causes a person to see the Land of Israel in a negative perspective. The Spies are the classic example of this tragic transgression. Even though they were outstanding Torah scholars and leaders of the tribes, they came back from their tour of Israel with a critical report, highlighting the dangers they encountered. Instead of emphasizing the good of the Land, they succumbed to their yetzer hara and emphasized the things which they subjectively experienced as bad.
For instance, having seen many funerals during their trip, they reported that it is a land that “devours its inhabitants.” Rashi explains that in reality, Hashem was doing them a favor, arranging that there would be many funerals so that the Jews could go about their mission undetected (Bamidbar, 13:32). Rather than seeing that the Land of Israel was indeed good, as Hashem had promised, the Spies interpreted events in the Land as bad, in order to justify their personal desire of remaining in exile where they thought that they could sit and learn Torah in comfort, enjoying the manna which miraculously fell every day, without their having to work for a living, or play a part in the mitzvah of conquering the Land (Mesillat Yesharim, Ch 11, in the discussion on Honor; also Zohar, 3:158).
This same corrupted vision continues today on the part of all of the lovers of the galut who spend their days criticizing Israel: “This is no good, and that’s not holy enough, and this is secular, and that is dangerous, and there are too many taxes, and we don’t want to serve in the army, and they knock down Jewish homes, and they are pushy on lines,” ad infinitum. They self-righteously proclaim, “Until all of these terrible things are corrected, it is suicide to go on aliyah,” thereby reenacting the sin of the Spies.
Seeing the Land of Israel, and what goes on there, in a negative light is a pernicious sickness that most people aren’t even aware that they are guilty of. On the contrary, they think they are doing a mitzvah by rejected Hashem’s chosen Land with all kinds of halachic gymnastics and shallow excuses. They don’t realize that they are embracing the very same sin as the Spies.
As the Gaon of Vilna writes: “Many of those who sin in the great transgression of speaking out against the Land of Israel, as it says, ‘They despised the cherished Land,’ and also many of the guardians of Torah, will not know or understand that they are caught in the sin of the Spies in their many false ideas and empty claims….” (Kol HaTor, Ch.5).
This does not mean that one cannot point out problems with the State of Israel, or with government policies, or with the biased media, etc. However, in doing so, the criticism must come forth from the fundamental confirmation that this is our one and only Land, and come hell and high water, we won’t betray our love for it with an allegiance to any other lover.