{"id":47182,"date":"2019-01-09T09:05:25","date_gmt":"2019-01-09T07:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=47182"},"modified":"2022-08-02T17:35:56","modified_gmt":"2022-08-02T14:35:56","slug":"the-scouts-their-report-evaluation-and-eventual-punishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-scouts-their-report-evaluation-and-eventual-punishment\/","title":{"rendered":"The Scouts: Their Report, Evaluation and Eventual Punishment"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Illustration for Chapter 13:<\/p>\n

This chapter relates the episode of the twelve spies that Moses sent to Canaan to scout out the land: \u201cAre the people who dwell in it strong or weak, few or many? Is the country in which they dwell good or bad?\u201d (Num. 13:18\u201319). Forty days later they returned carrying wonderful fruits and told of their findings to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community. <\/span><\/p>\n

Their report was in keeping with what they were asked to do, so why did it evoke such hysteria among the people and God\u2019s anger?<\/span><\/p>\n

In the painting<\/span> for this<\/span> parasha <\/span><\/i>the solid range of hills in the background marks the border of Canaan, from where the spies were dispatched: \u201cGet up there into the Negev and on into the hill country\u201d (Num. 13:17). On the far right are eight bearded men in striped gowns imaged as a single entity. In front of them we see two men with \u201ca branch with a single cluster of grapes, [so big that] it had to be borne on a carrying frame by two of them\u201d (Num. 13:23). Further to the left we see Caleb with a basket of pomegranates and Joshua with a basket of figs.<\/span><\/p>\n

The spies face Moses and Aaron standing to the left with all of the Israelites behind them as they report, and the painting figures an account of what was a three-part exchange. The spies first displayed the fruit as a sign of the land\u2019s fertility. They then countered their positive words: \u201cHowever, the people who inhabit the country are powerful and the cities are fortified and very large\u201d (Num. 13: 28). Then Caleb exclaimed: \u201cLet us by all means go up and we shall gain possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it\u201d (Num. 13:30), whereas the ten spies pictured behind him chose to add a frenzied, unsolicited judgment: \u201cWe saw the <\/span>nephilim<\/span><\/i> there\u2026and we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves and so we must have looked to them (Num. 13:33). <\/span><\/p>\n

Here the artist gives visual expression to their words with an image on the hilltop of \u201cthe <\/span>nephilim<\/span><\/i>,\u201d<\/span> miniature figures of four of the giants they saw looking down at them. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Israelites standing behind Moses and Aaron are depicted as a tightly packed group. The eight spies on the far right of the picture are figured without shoulders and arms, their bodies forming a rectangular block decorated with a meandering ornamentation that seems to hint at their stormy reaction to the spies report. <\/span><\/p>\n

Aaron standing next to Moses and Joshua next to Caleb tried to convince them to obey God\u2019s decree and proceed into the land of Canaan, but to no avail; the Israelites refused to go on. Thus, as they were so lacking in faith, the spies and all of the people of Israel were punished: \u201cYou shall bear your punishment for forty years, corresponding to the number of days \u2013 forty days \u2013 that you scouted the land, a year for each day\u201d (Num. 14:34). <\/span><\/p>\n

Artwork by: Avner Moriah, by courtesy of the artist<\/p>\n

Text by: Dr. Shulamit Laderman, who holds a\u00a0<\/span>PhD in Art History and has published extensively on Jewish and Christian influences on biblical interpretive illustration.<\/p>\n

For the entire weekly portion series, please visit: <\/span>https:\/\/avnermoriahprints.com\/collections\/parasha<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":47183,"id":47183,"title":"Num13-Shelah-Lekha","filename":"Num13-Shelah-Lekha.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Num13-Shelah-Lekha.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-scouts-their-report-evaluation-and-eventual-punishment\/num13-shelah-lekha\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"num13-shelah-lekha","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":47182,"date":"2019-01-09 07:05:11","modified":"2019-01-09 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