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https://www.mogen-david.org/event/membership-year-5785.html

A short beautiful idea on Shelach, to uplift and to be shared on your Shabbat table with Friends and family. 

Why were the spies punished?
What caused them to feel so small?
Could they have felt big?
How can we feel strong and powerful?

Shabbat Shalom, Eliyahou Binyamin Moses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3PNr_SwLR8

Dear Mogen David Family,

For what purpose did Moshe Rabbeinu send twelve leaders of the Tribes, one from each Shevet, on a reconnaissance mission to Eretz Cana'an? According to our Parasha the answer is clear; Moshe desired to collect data. After all, if a nation is planing a military conquest, responsible planing requires the generals to know the demographics of the land. How populated is the land, how fortified are their cities, etc..? But Moshe's line of questioning reached beyond a simple fact-finding mission. He wanted to know the nature of the Land, it's beauty, it's feel.

He wanted to become as intimate with the Land as one could, without actually seeing or touching Eretz Yisrael. In fact, Rashi understands the word "lecha," for you, to mean that Hashem allowed Moshe to send the spies, but did not command Moshe to do so. It was entirely Moshe's decision.

Based on the above understanding, the Ramban considers criticizing Moshe for sending the Meraglim at all. Why even engage in the risk of receiving an ill report--which happened--when Hashem already promised Bnei Yisrael that the Land is an Eretz Zavat Chalav U'D'vash, a land flowing with milk and honey? Had Moshe erred on the side of caution, perhaps the entire Jewish history would have been different as well.

Rav Soloveithcik explained that Moshe was emotionally [and halachically] compelled to send the spies. As demonstrated by many stirring aggadot, stories, at the end of Masechet Ketuvot, our relationship with Eretz Yisrael is akin to a marriage, deeply rooted and indissoluble. And the Gemara in Massechet Kiddushin Daf 41a informs us: Assur L'Adam She-Yekadesh et Ha-Isha ad SheYirena... Man is forbidden to become engaged/married to a women until he has seen her, to ensure the couple is attracted to one another. In our modern world, I would suggest they should know one another through conversations as well, to recognize their personalities middot complement each other.

Moshe, by sending the spies to 'see' and become familiar with the Land, writes Rav Soloveitchik, was fulfilling the proper Halachic requirements before engagement. Moshe loved Eretz Yisrael and palpably felt his connection with the Land.

We too should reach higher in our relationship to Eretz Yisrael, now more than ever.

We are 'married' to the Land, and it is an objectively good land, a land overflowing with Kedusha. And like all good marriages, the relationship requires hard work, occasional reassessing, but always through love and support.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Yehuda Moses Rav HaKehillah/Senior Rabbi