{"id":54109,"date":"2019-04-20T22:40:27","date_gmt":"2019-04-20T19:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=54109"},"modified":"2022-11-12T23:29:30","modified_gmt":"2022-11-12T21:29:30","slug":"the-spies-final-episode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-spies-final-episode\/","title":{"rendered":"The Spies: Final Episode"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[809,375,806],"acf":{"old_id":"54109","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":53309,"related_cahpter":"201","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Redemptive reversal and model of unshakable faith","content":"

While Joshua continued to occupy a prominent role in the account of the wilderness (Num. 27:15-23; 32:28; 34:17) and eventually succeeded Moses as leader of Israel, Caleb passed from the Torah’s narratives until this episode in the Book of Joshua. <\/span><\/p>\n

Caleb now asks Joshua for a very particular plot of land: Hebron. In our passage, Caleb maintains that Hebron was pledged to him by Moses himself. When Moses recounts the incident of the spies in Deuteronomy, he makes clear that the pledge came from God. Mysteriously, however, the travels of Caleb to Hebron that are here understood to be an unassailable fact and the basis of his claim to that territory are never mentioned explicitly in the original account of the episode of the spies. <\/span><\/p>\n

Why would the text of the Book of Numbers leave these critical details unmentioned? Conversely, why does the account of the tribal territories in the Book of Joshua begin with that very detail? <\/span><\/p>\n

It is the midrash mentioned by Rashi (Num. 13:22) and drawn from the Talmud that alerts us to a possible solution: <\/span><\/p>\n

“He arrived at Hebron” \u2014 This refers to Caleb who went there alone and threw himself down at the graves of his ancestors, imploring God to preserve him from the seductive counsel of his cohorts. (Sota 34b) <\/span><\/p>\n

The account of the spies, their crisis of confidence precipitated by a lack of trust, is no place to highlight the heroism of Caleb, who was so obviously filled with a “different spirit.” Their counsel won the day, that generation was plunged into the abyss, and Caleb’s visit to Hebron was therefore concealed by the text. <\/span><\/p>\n

Our passage in the Book of Joshua is Numbers’ textual antithesis and the redemptive reversal of its calamity. <\/span><\/p>\n

The section therefore begins with a moving recollection of Caleb’s visit to Hebron some forty-five years earlier, an expedition that not only offers dazzling proof of his own mettle but also provided the people of Israel with a paradigm for the nurture of their own spiritual fortitude. Caleb is still alive to recount those ancient events, standing before them with his vigor undiminished and his trust in God undimmed, while his erstwhile comrades and their fearful followers have perished long, long ago. <\/span><\/p>\n

What more fitting way to introduce this great undertaking than by emphasizing its necessary underpinnings of an unshakable faith? <\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Caleb and Joshua, Brunnen am Carlsplatz in D\u00fcsseldorf, 1958, photo: Kurschner, 2011\/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>\n

from: <\/span>Joshua: The Challenge of the Promised Land<\/em> <\/span>(Jerusalem: Koren, 2015); chap: \u201cSettling the Land of Canaan\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":54110,"id":54110,"title":"jo14-caleb and joshua","filename":"jo14-caleb-and-joshua.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo14-caleb-and-joshua.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-spies-final-episode\/jo14-caleb-and-joshua\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jo14-caleb-and-joshua","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":54109,"date":"2019-04-20 19:40:10","modified":"2022-08-30 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