Who Lived Through the Spies and Entered the Promised Land?

Parshat Pinchas

by Rabbi Avi Billet

The plague is over, the Pinchas/Zimri story has reached its conclusion, and it is time for the Israelites to move on. God instructs Moshe to count the people, and in 26:4 he and Elazar tell the people, “(Count those) over 20 years old, just as God commanded Moshe and the Israelites who left Egypt.”

What is the point of comparing a new census to that of almost 40 years ago? One approach judges whether Moshe did a decent job as leader through handing over a similar size population. Chizkuni notes that the same formula of counting those 20 and up is utilized – though it is debated as to whether this current census was accomplished through counting heads or counting half-shekels. Of course, however it was done was by divine instruction, which assumes the method, in the end, does not matter. Alshikh notes that the count is being done for the sake of the new shepherd, Yehoshua, just as the count had been done for the new shepherd, Moshe, back in the day.

All of this got me thinking about who merited to enter the land. Put another way, who was included in the decree of the spies, and therefore was not entering the land, versus who was not included in the decree and has actually been around since the Exodus and will be venturing on after Moshe’s death?

In Parshat Shlach, at the episode of the spies, we were told that everyone over 20 would die, except for Kalev and Yehoshua, and that the children of those living at that time would also enter the land. Is that list exhaustive? (Baba Batra 121b also suggests people over 60 at the time were also not automatically subject to the decree)

At the end of the chapter here, verse 26:64, the Torah says, “Among those counted now, there was no man previously counted by Moshe and Aharon… [and they] had taken a census of the Israelites in the Sinai Desert.”

Rashi on that verse notes that the decree did not apply to the women (“no man…”)! So while there may have been a few women who passed away (think of Miriam, etc) the overwhelming majority of women merited to enter the land because they loved the land! See the story of Tzlafchad’s daughters to get a sense of the feelings women had for the land.

Using textual hints, the Midrash in Bamidbar Rabba 3 notes that the entire tribe of Levi was not subject to the decree. (See this point in Baba Batra 121b as well, and there it also says Achiyah HaShiloni and Yair Ben Menashe entered the land.) In simple terms, they were not counted from 20 and up in any census (they were even counted separately from the rest of the nation!) Part of the discussion there surrounds the person Elazar, and how he managed to enter the land. There are a few answers. He was under 20 at the time; he was from the tribe of Levi; he was exempt from the decree because he replaced his father as Kohen Gadol, entering on the merit of his leadership position.

Or HaChaim (26:4) wonders why a reference is made to those who left Egypt in the verse, and in particular wonders about the cryptic explanation given by Ibn Ezra. In his own analysis, Or HaChaim notes that plenty of people who left Egypt were slated to enter the land, as they were all under 20 at the time of the spies. This would mean that someone who was 18 at the time of the Exodus would be entering the land. It’s not a matter of being a child – it’s a matter of having been under 20 at the time of the sin of the spies.

Three groups: Levites, women and children. (See sixth paragraph here, and quote from R Samson Raphael Hirsch)

These are the people who avoided the decree of the spies, and these are the people who now, 38 years later, along with the new generation, are slated to enter the Promised Land.

What an incredible lesson in patience and perseverance!

Some things are not in the cards for everyone. But some things are in the cards for those who can only bide their time and wait.

Moshe and Aharon were excluded on account of the decree – Moshe makes this clear in the book of Devarim in several places (first in 1:35-36)! But their children (and those of all the tribes), their tribe, and almost all the women in their lives lived through one fated experience only to join with everyone else in entering the Promised Land.

It is true that for some people it seems there is no hope. But their hope can nevertheless live on in their children, who will hopefully live to see a better and brighter tomorrow and future.

I leave you with a thought question. If the men died, and the Levites, women (widows) and children (orphans – albeit grown up) are not subject to the decree, does this have any impact on the groups of people the Torah instructs us, so many times, to care for and not neglect, especially during holiday seasons?