Introduction: The Sins in the Wilderness and the Sin of the Spies
Psalm 106 is a psalm of national confession, recounting one after another the sins of our ancestors in the wilderness. In the section before us, King David arrives at the sin of the Spies, and from there to the sin of Baal Peor, and through this he teaches us how deeply the seeds of calamity for entire generations are sown within a single sin.
"And They Despised the Desirable Land" - Two Transgressions in the Sin of the Spies
וַיִּמְאֲסוּ בְּאֶרֶץ חֶמְדָּה לֹא־הֶאֱמִינוּ לִדְבָרוֹ׃ - And they despised the desirable land; they did not believe His word.
The Ibn Ezra explains that this refers to the sending of the Spies, who brought forth an evil report about the land. This occurred when they traveled from Chorev, and the Holy One, Blessed be He, told them: "Go up and possess it" - but they did not believe. The Malbim explains that the sin of the Spies comprised two distinct elements. The first: the Holy One, Blessed be He, said, "The land is good," but they said, "The land is bad," "It is a land that devours its inhabitants," and regarding this it is said, "Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of Hashem." This is what is meant by "And they despised the desirable land; they did not believe His word" - they did not believe His word that it was good. We will see the second transgression in the next verse.
A Chassidic Insight: A Positive Form of Rejection
Before continuing, it is worth citing a wonderful insight brought in the sefer Az Yedaber Yehoshua, which seeks to explain "And they despised the desirable land, they did not believe His word" in an intentionally positive light. In the path of Chassidut, everything is possible.
It is cited in the name of the holy Rebbe, Reb Zusha, who explained what is stated at the end of Masechet Sotah (49b): in the footsteps of Mashiach, "those who fear sin will be despised." The plain meaning is negative, as we witness today: everyone is deemed entitled to public funds - even someone studying ancient Chinese or frivolous degrees at university, billions are poured out; but if a few pennies are given to observant Jews and kollel students, an outcry erupts across the entire media. Everyone deserves funding as long as it shores up a coalition, and it all passes quietly; but if a few million are transferred to bnei Torah and to parents who want to send their children to learn Torah - heaven forbid, what an uproar! That is the plain meaning of "those who fear sin will be despised." Yet Reb Zusha explains it differently: an era will come when the primary aspiration will be to attain the love of Hashem. Someone will be told, "Be one who fears sin," and he will reply, "I do not want only that; I despise remaining at that level alone, I yearn to reach love." "Those who fear sin will despise it" - people will look down upon remaining merely at the level of fear and will aspire much higher, to the level of love.
The Maharid of Belz: Why Entering the Land Was Difficult
As a preface, the words of the Maharid of Belz on the Midrash, "Look from the peak of Amanah," are brought. He explains that entering the Land was difficult for them, and why? Because in exile they were subject to plunder and persecution. What happens to a person when he is persecuted, when he has no solid ground to rest upon? He turns to Hashem. And what happens when everything settles down? He manages on his own: "Master of the Universe, it is good to keep an open line between us in case problems arise, but in the meantime I can manage." Some might even add: "Do not disturb." But when you are in exile, hunted, having neither day nor night, you are in continuous, direct contact with the Creator of the world. Therefore, when coming to the Land, there is a grave concern of losing the level of emunah that existed in exile. Here, one senses Hashem's salvation tangibly and it becomes routine, whereas there, amidst the concealment, whenever one witnesses Hashem's salvation it is a novelty, and that preserves a constant bond with the Creator.
"We Ate Emunah"
This brings to mind a story told by Rav Galinsky: he once entered the room of Rav Chatzkel Levenstein and saw him looking crestfallen. He asked him what had happened, and Rav Chatzkel replied that when he was the mashgiach in the Mir abroad, during the period when the yeshivah was exiled to Shanghai, many months went by without any salaries in the yeshivah. And how did we make a living? What did we eat? We ate emunah - and the Holy One, Blessed be He, did not forsake us. "Yet we have arrived here," he said, "and I am deeply worried. I am the mashgiach in the Ponevezh Yeshivah, and Rav Kahaneman is the rosh yeshivah responsible for the income; I am worried that the salary will arrive regularly. Where is the emunah? Where is the bitachon? I have a steady salary, I rely on it, it comes in every month, there is nothing to worry about - but where is the emunah?" Six months later, Rav Galinsky met him radiant and in high spirits. He asked: "Why the great joy?" Rav Chatzkel told him: "Remember when I told you I was worried? For several months now we have not received a salary, Baruch Hashem - we have returned to emunah! We are now relying entirely on the Holy One, Blessed be He, just like abroad: bitachon and emunah in Hashem Yitbarach alone."
And speaking of Rav Kahaneman: he was famous for his mastery in extracting funds; he could extract money even from a stone. Once, a child swallowed a coin, and people rushed him to the Chazon Ish, who was frequently consulted on all kinds of medical issues. The Chazon Ish looked and said, "Quickly call Rav Kahaneman!" They asked, "Why?" He answered, "He knows how to extract money from places no one else knows how to." Everyone laughed, the child laughed as well - and the coin came out. This was the Chazon Ish's way of performing wonders.
"They Despised the Desirable Land" in a Positive Light
To return to the subject: the Land is called a "desirable land" (eretz chemda). The air of the Land of Israel makes one wise; the soul yearns for the Holy Land: "My soul thirsts for You." Here, closeness to God comes, as it were, on its own; we do not feel obstacles and only then find the Master of the World - whereas in the Diaspora, that required active labor. According to this, "they despised the desirable land" means: because everything here comes naturally and we find ourselves in such a spiritual realm, there is no need for the arduous labor of faith - and consequently, "they did not believe His word," for they had no need to believe when everything was perceived tangibly. One is not required to activate faith and forge a connection with Hashem, for everything is openly visible before one's eyes. And when everything is exposed, you no longer have to maintain faith and constantly strive to feel the Creator. It is like the child who sat at an organ and struck a single key over and over again. They told him, "There are other keys here; move your hands across the keyboard - you are stuck on the same one!" He replied, "Daddy, they are searching - I have already found it." So too here: one who has already "found" Godliness is no longer in a state of continual seeking. Therefore, they rejected this mode of divine service and longed for the faith they possessed outside the Land, where one had to awaken deep inner faith in order to recognize and perceive Hashem.
From here we can also understand the words, "Moreover, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey": once the people were embittered by the decree that everyone would die in the wilderness and no one would enter the Land, the seeds of hatred were sown upon that very bitterness.
Seeing, Yet Not Taking to Heart
The generation of the wilderness saw and yet did not take the lesson to heart - even though these were people of whom it was initially said that all of them were distinguished men. But before we complain about them, do we take lessons to heart? How many things do we see right before our eyes without learning from them? Rav Yerucham of Mir recounted the famous incident of the dybbuk in the days of the Chafetz Chaim: a soul from the World of Truth described what was happening to it, its punishments, what was said in Heaven about the Chafetz Chaim and Rav Elchanan Wasserman, and reported what was said about various individuals, even revealing some of their hidden sins. The episode caused a tremendous stir in the yeshivah and throughout the Jewish world. Rav Yerucham himself lamented that he had been certain an upheaval would take place in the yeshivah - yet nothing changed. An elderly man who was there recounted: "We saw all of this, and I was certain that from now on I would be a completely changed person." Then he stood up, knocked on the wall, and said: "You see this wall? Just like this - nothing penetrated. Absolutely nothing." In other words, a person can witness signs and wonders, and it still will not make him a God-fearing person. Fear of Heaven is achieved only through labor: through the study of mussar and meticulous observance of the mitzvos, not by being shown a miracle and becoming God-fearing overnight.
And consider the miracles we have witnessed. The Six-Day War - how did people not take a lesson from it, when enemies were already poised at our borders, Heaven have mercy? The Yom Kippur War - it appeared to be the end of the state. And in our own days: 1,200 missiles in a single day - and two fatalities. Anyone who sees this cannot help but stand in amazement: missiles are launched here, the overwhelming majority of the population is Jewish, yet the missiles kill only two people, and neither of them was Jewish. Is there any natural explanation for this? We can behold Godliness and still fail to open our eyes. We were the first country to emerge from Covid - a tiny country, while other nations were still mired in it, and they came to study models from us. People will tell you, "The Prime Minister brought vaccines" - that is the scoffing reply of the cynics. But anyone with understanding knows that everything could just as easily have gone the other way, that the vaccines could have turned out to be harmful, Heaven forbid. Rather, there are tzaddikim, and the tzaddikim instructed people to take them, and they did - and it is from the tzaddikim, the avreichim, and the bnei Torah that our very existence derives. Everything is divine assistance, yet one must open one's eyes. In his time, Saddam Hussein fired 39 missiles here; buildings collapsed, yet there was only one fatality, while in Saudi Arabia a single missile killed 300 people. We see miracles before our very eyes - and still fail to open our eyes.
"They Grumbled in Their Tents" - The Second Sin
וַיֵּרָגְנוּ בְאָהֳלֵיהֶם לֹא שָׁמְעוּ בְּקוֹל יְהֹוָה׃ - "They grumbled in their tents; they did not listen to the voice of Hashem."
"Vayeragnu" (they grumbled) is like "and you grumbled in your tents" (Devarim 1:27). Metzudas Tzion explains that this denotes complaint and grievance, as in "the words of a grumbler" (Mishlei 18:8) and "a grumbler alienates a close friend" (ibid. 16:28). A nirgan is a person who constantly complains, who always has grievances and objections. They were grumblers in their tents.
The Malbim explains: The first sin was "they despised the desirable land" - Hashem said the Land was good, yet they said it was evil, a land that devours its inhabitants. And here the second sin was added: "And you said, 'Because Hashem hates us, He brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorite, to destroy us'" (Devarim 1:27), and they said, "For they are stronger than we" (Bamidbar 13:31) - implying "because of Hashem's inability," as though the Holy One, blessed be He, were unable to save us from them. Our Sages expounded on "stronger than we (mimmennu)": as though even the Master of the house cannot remove His vessels from there, reading mimmennu as related to maneh, which signifies a vessel. That is to say, beyond disbelieving that the Land was good when Hashem told you it was good, you added sin upon transgression by claiming that He was not even able to bring us into it. And all this after you witnessed how He took you out of Egypt and overturned the laws of nature! Did He go into retirement after forty years? And forty years had not even passed yet - far less than that. How could it be that in such a short time, "they did not listen to the voice of Hashem" and "they did not believe His word"?
Two Punishments Corresponding to Two Sins
וַיִּשָּׂא יָדוֹ לָהֶם לְהַפִּיל אוֹתָם בַּמִּדְבָּר׃ - So He lifted up His hand to them, to cast them down in the wilderness.
וּלְהַפִּיל זַרְעָם בַּגּוֹיִם וּלְזָרוֹתָם בָּאֲרָצוֹת׃ - And to cast down their seed among the nations, and to scatter them across the lands.
"He lifted up His hand" - He swore, as in "For I lift up My hand to heaven" (Devarim 32:40), and as it is stated, "As I live, says Hashem... if these men shall see the land" (Bemidbar 14:21-23). "To them" - concerning them. "To cast them down in the wilderness" - all those who murmured, from twenty years old and upward, died there: "In this wilderness shall your carcasses fall" (Bemidbar 14:29).
The Malbim explains: Since there were two sins here - they despised the desirable land and did not believe it was good, and they also denied Hashem's providence, claiming that out of hatred He brought them out of Egypt to deliver them into the hand of the Amorite and that He was unable to save them - He therefore lifted up His hand and penalized them with two punishments. The first: "To cast them down in the wilderness" - they themselves would not enter the desirable land, for whoever despises the land does not merit the land. And the second: "And to cast down their seed among the nations, and to scatter them across the lands" - exile and subjugation were decreed for future generations, as Chazal say, "You wept a weeping of vain."
Where Was the Punishment of Exile Stated?
The commentators raise a difficulty: Where in the Torah do we find a punishment of "casting down their seed among the nations, and scattering them across the lands"? "To cast them down in the wilderness" is explicit, but dispersion among the nations is not written there. Ibn Ezra explains: "To cast down their seed among the nations" - if they, too, become rebels like them; the Holy One, Blessed be He, stated that if rebels like them arise after them, their descendants will fall among the nations, just as we find in the covenant that Moshe Rabbeinu forged with the children, warning them that if they stray from the path, exile will follow.
Radak writes this explicitly: "And to cast down their seed among the nations" - we have not seen this spelled out in the Torah. Likewise, in Yechezkel it is stated, "I also lifted up My hand to them in the wilderness, to disperse them among the nations and scatter them across the lands" (Yechezkel 20:23), and this formulation is not found explicitly in the Torah either. What seems right to him, says Radak, is that this refers to what is stated, "Then the Amalekite and the Canaanite who dwelt in that hill country came down, and struck them and beat them down, even unto Hormah" (Bemidbar 14:45), as well as "And the Canaanite, king of Arad, who dwelt in the South, heard... and took some of them captive" (Bemidbar 21:1) - this is "scattering them across the lands": the nations came and waged war against them, and through this they were scattered into the lands of those who attacked them.
And Midrash Tanchuma states along the lines of Ibn Ezra: "To cast down their seed among the nations" - this was spoken regarding the future, that He decreed upon their descendants to be exiled from their land and scattered across the lands, which aligns with "When you father children and children's children... Hashem will scatter you among the peoples" (Devarim 4:25-27). And Chazal taught: "'And the people wept on that night' (Bemidbar 14:1) - that was the night of Tisha B'Av. The Holy One, Blessed be He, said: 'You wept a weeping of vain; I will establish for you a weeping for generations' - for on Tisha B'Av the Temple was destroyed the first time and the second time." According to this, the connection is clear: the weeping of vain is what brought about "to cast down their seed among the nations, and to scatter them across the lands," meaning that on that very calendar date in the future they would be exiled. Thus, the seeds of calamity sown by despising the desirable land and by the lack of faith - "and murmured in their tents," "because Hashem was not able" - were the very seeds that sprouted into the destruction of the First Temple and the destruction of the Second Temple, when, following their rebellion against Hashem, they were driven from the Land. Everything was already sown in "and the people wept on that night," and therefore it is rightly said, "and to cast down their seed among the nations, and to scatter them across the lands," for their actions then planted the seeds for the consequences that followed.
"They Attached Themselves to Baal Peor" - The Sequence of Deterioration
וַיִּצָּמְדוּ לְבַעַל פְּעוֹר וַיֹּאכְלוּ זִבְחֵי מֵתִים׃ - They attached themselves to Baal Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead.
"They attached themselves [vayitzamdu]" - as it is written, "And Israel attached itself to Baal Peor" (Bemidbar 25:3), related to tzamid patil (a tightly bound seal), denoting something clinging and joined. "And ate the sacrifices of the dead" - as it is written, "And they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods" (Bemidbar 25:2), and their gods are dead. The Holy One, Blessed be He, is called "the living God" [Elokim Chayim], whereas their gods are lifeless: a deity devoid of power, "they have eyes, but see not; they have ears, but hear not" (Tehillim 115:5-6) - that is dead.
The Malbim explains according to the order of the verses in the Torah: "And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit harlotry with the daughters of Moav. And they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods... and Israel attached itself to Baal Peor" (Bemidbar 25:1-3). Here the stages of deterioration are delineated, along with what triggered them. Their attachment to Baal Peor did not stem from heresy or disbelief in Hashem, nor from sudden faith in the idol's power - it all began with lust. "And the people began to commit harlotry with the daughters of Moav" - that is where it all started. Next came "and they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods," another step down: the daughters of Moav invited them to partake of their gods' offerings. It was still framed around eating - albeit eating idolatrous offerings, yet simply eating: you are told there is a barbecue tonight, who wouldn't come? What is the harm, we are only eating. Only after that did "Israel attach itself to Baal Peor," which had already become outright idolatry.
Since the primary cause was lust for immorality, the moment Pinchas executed Zimri, Hashem's wrath turned away from Israel. Yet ostensibly, what did he do? He only executed the transgressors of immorality, whereas there was idolatry and eating sacrifices offered to the dead here - things of the utmost severity! Rather, all of those were merely accompanying symptoms whose root lay in immorality. Our Sages said: Israel only served idols in order to permit illicit relations in public. Even the worship of idols did not stem from genuine belief in them, but because idolatry is liberal and open, granting license and freedom - for why serve Hashem, when 'the God of these people detests promiscuity' and imposes too many restrictions? The Vilna Gaon pointed out that throughout Scripture, expressions of idolatry appear in the context of harlotry: 'your harlotries,' 'let her remove her adulteries from between her breasts,' and more. He noted that we have a tradition that beside every pagan temple stood a brothel, and the priests would organize wild revelries to attract people to idolatry. Chazal explicitly described how matters unfolded: at a time when the wine of Gentiles had not yet been forbidden, she called him and offered him wine to drink, and it was libation wine. Thus, step by step, the deterioration began, until she pulled an idol from her bosom and told him, 'Kiss this,' until she brought him to actual idol worship. In a certain sense, this contains a point of merit: denying Hashem out of ideology is extraordinarily severe, whereas lust is akin to coercion - not that one is absolved by it, but it is something a person is pulled toward, as one's soul covets it. Therefore, when Pinchas arose and executed the leader of the immoral transgressors, the matter ended, and there was no need to take further action against the idol worshipers, for idolatry was not the core purpose, but a byproduct of the primary sin.
From the Later to the Earlier
וַיַּכְעִיסוּ בְּמַעַלְלֵיהֶם וַתִּפְרָץ־בָּם מַגֵּפָה׃ - "They provoked Him to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them."
וַיַּעֲמֹד פִּינְחָס וַיְפַלֵּל וַתֵּעָצַר הַמַּגֵּפָה׃ - "Then Pinchas stood up and executed judgment, and the plague was halted."
The Malbim notes a difficulty here: the text opens with idolatry - "They attached themselves to Baal Pe'or," proceeds to eating sacrifices of the dead which preceded it, and only then arrives at the matter of immorality - "They provoked Him to anger with their deeds" and "Then Pinchas stood up and executed judgment." Why? Because it recounts events from the later to the earlier: they attached themselves to Baal Pe'or because they ate sacrifices of the dead; and this resulted from "They provoked Him to anger with their deeds," which refers to immorality with the daughters of Moav. That was what caused everything, and on its account the plague broke out among them.
"Vayefalel" (and he executed judgment) - he executed judgment upon Zimri, from the expression "ve-natan bi-flilim" (and he shall pay as the judges determine). The Malbim emphasizes that there is a distinction between mishpat (ordinary judgment) and pelilim: mishpat can apply even to a minor matter, whereas pelilim refers to judgment in a major and severe case. Likewise, he teaches that wrath (ketzef) differs from anger (ka'as): wrath is already the actualization, the indignation that goes forth to punish. When there is ketzef, punishment is already underway, which marks an additional stage beyond provoking anger.
The Dubno Maggid: Why Pinchas Merited the Covenant of Peace
וַיֹּאמֶר לְהַשְׁמִידָם לוּלֵי מֹשֶׁה בְחִירוֹ עָמַד בַּפֶּרֶץ לְפָנָיו לְהָשִׁיב חֲמָתוֹ מֵהַשְׁחִית׃ - "He said He would destroy them, were it not that Moshe His chosen one stood in the breach before Him, to turn back His wrath from destroying."
In his work Ohel Yaakov, the Dubno Maggid asks: Pinchas merited "Therefore say: Behold, I give him My covenant of peace" - so why did Moshe Rabbeinu not merit this? After all, regarding Moshe it is said, "Were it not that Moshe His chosen one stood in the breach before Him, to turn back His wrath from destroying," and not just once like Pinchas, but many times, yet he was never promised a covenant of peace!
He answers with a parable, as is his way: A certain man had many creditors and had no means to pay them. Every time the creditors came to demand payment, a devoted friend would intervene and persuade them to postpone the collection: "Wait a bit longer, he is undergoing rehabilitation, and with God's help he will be able to pay." Thus, he put them off again and again. But this man had another friend who, seeing how aggressively the creditors pressed, stepped into the thick of it and negotiated a settlement for twenty percent: "It is worth your while; a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." Having no choice, they agreed, and all the debts were completely forgiven. The man thanked him, praised him, and went out of his way to shower him with blessings. His son asked: "Father, didn't the first friend help you time after time, yet I never saw you go out of your way to praise him like this - why are you extending such extraordinary gratitude specifically to this one?" He replied: "The first friend indeed kept the creditors away from me, but not permanently. He only delayed the debt; after a month they would call again, send collectors again - he didn't erase the debts, he merely caused me to push them off from day to day and month to month. But the second one canceled everything, saw to it that the debt was erased, paid twenty percent and that was that - he truly deserves great gratitude."
So it was here: Moshe Rabbeinu pleaded on behalf of Israel, and it is said, "And Hashem relented from the evil that He spoke of doing to His people," yet this was not an absolute cancellation, for it is also said, "And on the day that I reckon, I will reckon their sin upon them" - the debt was not erased, merely postponed, and a day of reckoning remained when it would be collected. Likewise, "As I live... surely none of these men shall see [the Land]" - we see that the punishment arrived: forty years in the wilderness. By contrast, with Pinchas the debt was cleared entirely, and therefore specifically to him was it said, "Behold, I give him My covenant of peace."
In summary: In the sin of the spies, there were two sins - despising the desirable Land because they did not believe Hashem's word that it was good, and denying His ability to save them. Therefore, two punishments followed: their demise in the wilderness and the scattering of their descendants among the nations, whose seeds sprouted the destruction of both Temples, a "weeping for nothing" that turned into a "weeping for generations." In the sin of Baal Pe'or, the Malbim teaches us to read the verses from the later to the earlier, showing that everything began with lust, and therefore through the deed of Pinchas the entire plague was arrested. From this emerge two spiritual tasks: to preserve living faith even when everything appears clear and orderly and not to lose continuous connection with the Creator; and to open our eyes and take moral instruction from the miracles we witness before us - for fear of Heaven is not acquired through wonders, but through toil, the study of Mussar, and meticulous observance of the mitzvos.