We can only operate on the information provided to us. The problem is that sometimes we are given bad information. Then we make a bad decision based on that. We have to try to understand what good information is and ignore those who are going on the bad.
Tourists, Not Spies
Now for a quick devar Torah.
This week we begin Parshat Shlach, the portion usually known as “the story of the spies.” But if you look carefully at the text, you’ll notice something interesting: the Torah never calls them spies.
The Hebrew word for a spy is meragel. That word does not appear here. Instead, the Torah uses the expression latour et ha’aretz—to tour, explore, or survey the land. In modern Hebrew, a tayar is a tourist.
Their mission was simple: go see the land and report what you found. Observe the cities, the people, the produce, and the terrain. Bring back information.
What they were not sent to do was make policy decisions.
A spy often analyzes information and recommends action. These men crossed that line. They returned saying that the land was indeed wonderful, but then came the fatal word: “but.”
“It is a good land, but…”
From there they moved from reporting facts to offering conclusions. They decided the land could not be conquered. They interpreted what they saw through the lens of fear rather than faith.
This story follows immediately after Miriam’s punishment for lashon hara. That connection is not accidental. Lashon hara is not necessarily falsehood. Miriam’s complaint about Moshe contained an element of truth, but it was presented in a negative way. The spies did something similar with the Land of Israel. Their description contained truths, but their interpretation was destructive.
The lesson is that facts and conclusions are not the same thing.
We all receive information. The challenge is learning how to interpret it properly. The spies saw fortified cities and powerful inhabitants. Joshua and Caleb saw the same things. The difference was not in the facts but in the conclusions.
The haftorah highlights this contrast. Years later, Joshua sends actual spies to Jericho. Their mission is intelligence gathering. The Torah’s “tourists” became self-appointed experts, while Joshua’s spies remained focused on their assignment.
There is a broader lesson here as well. We live in an age overflowing with experts, commentators, and analysts. Sometimes people move beyond presenting facts and begin telling us what is impossible. The spies did exactly that.
Faith does not mean ignoring reality. It means understanding that reality includes God’s promises as well.
Joshua and Caleb refused to accept the defeatist conclusions of the majority. They looked at the same evidence and reached a different conclusion because they trusted that God would help them succeed.
The lesson of Parshat Shlach is to be careful not only about what we say, but about how we interpret what we see. Facts matter. But conclusions matter too. Sometimes the greatest mistake is not reporting the facts incorrectly; it is drawing the wrong lesson from them.
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