Difference between revisions of "The Story of the Spies in Bemidbar and Devarim/2"
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<point><b>Prayer</b> – In Devarim, Moshe omits his prayer where he attempts to minimize the nation's sin and achieve forgiveness, since his goal is to highlight rather than hide the nation's mistakes.</point> | <point><b>Prayer</b> – In Devarim, Moshe omits his prayer where he attempts to minimize the nation's sin and achieve forgiveness, since his goal is to highlight rather than hide the nation's mistakes.</point> | ||
<point><b>Punishment</b> – The spies' punishment is not mentioned in the retelling, thereby emphasizing instead the wrongdoing of the people themselves.</point> | <point><b>Punishment</b> – The spies' punishment is not mentioned in the retelling, thereby emphasizing instead the wrongdoing of the people themselves.</point> | ||
− | <point><b>Moshe's encouragement</b> – Instead of encouraging the nation by emphasizing the good of the land (as Yehoshua and Calev had), Moshe mentions Hashem's miracles, recognizing that the nation's current fear was unconnected to the quality of the land,<fn>After forty years of wandering in the wilderness, the nation was likely not overly concerned that Israel would prove to have worse conditions. </fn> but to the imminent challenges of conquest.<fn>In addition, as Moshe had not recounted the spies negative report, there was no need to include Yehoshua and Calev's counter arguments.</fn> | + | <point><b>Moshe's encouragement</b> – Instead of encouraging the nation by emphasizing the good of the land (as Yehoshua and Calev had), Moshe mentions Hashem's miracles, recognizing that the nation's current fear was unconnected to the quality of the land,<fn>After forty years of wandering in the wilderness, the nation was likely not overly concerned that Israel would prove to have worse conditions. </fn> but to the imminent challenges of conquest.<fn>In addition, as Moshe had not recounted the spies negative report, there was no need to include Yehoshua and Calev's counter arguments.</fn></point> |
<point><b>Other omitted details</b> – Moshe did not recount all the details of his original instructions nor the full route of the spying mission as these had no relevance to his message and his audience was familiar with the story regardless.</point> | <point><b>Other omitted details</b> – Moshe did not recount all the details of his original instructions nor the full route of the spying mission as these had no relevance to his message and his audience was familiar with the story regardless.</point> | ||
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</category> | </category> | ||
<category>Literary Variation | <category>Literary Variation | ||
− | <p>The differences between the two accounts are not fundamental, but simply the result of literary variation.</p> | + | <p>The differences between the two accounts are not fundamental, but simply the result of literary variation. When recounting events, Torah is often brief in one place and lengthy in another, relying on the reader to fill in the gaps from knowledge of the combined accounts.</p> |
+ | <mekorot>perhaps <multilink><a href="RYosefKaraShofetim13-12" data-aht="source">R. Yosef Kara</a><a href="RYosefKaraShofetim13-12" data-aht="source">Shofetim 13:12</a><a href="R. Yosef Kara" data-aht="parshan">About R. Yosef Kara</a></multilink></mekorot> | ||
+ | <point><b>The initiator</b> – R"Y Kara claims that the fact that the nation's request to send spies is not mentioned in Bemidbar does not mean that it did not happen.<fn>He is not explicit, but might be assuming that there were two stages.  First the nation asked to send spies and then Hashem agreed to their request.</fn> The Torah omitted this detail knowing that it would be supplied in Devarim. As such, the two accounts do not contradict but rather complement each other.</point> | ||
+ | <point><b>Other omissions</b> – The other omissions are explained in the same manner.  Details are mentioned only in one story for brevity's sake as the reader is already familiar with them.</point> | ||
+ | <point><b>Choice of details mentioned</b> – This approach does not account for why certain details are mentioned in both accounts and others only in one or why one account contains the details that it does and not others.</point> | ||
+ | <point><b>Biblical parallels</b><ul> | ||
+ | <li>Our story is not the only one in which a character repeats an incident to another and some of the details are found only in the original story or only in the retelling. See, for example, Ramban on Bereshit 42:21, Radak on Bereshit 41:17, R"Y Bekhor Shor on Bereshit 31:3, and R"Y Kara on Shofetim13:12.</li> | ||
+ | <li>Ramban also points to the similar phenomenon where Torah often mentions a command but not its fulfillment or the opposite.<fn>See Ramban on and the  discussion in <a href="Invoking Hashem's Name Without Explicit Divine Sanction" data-aht="page">Invoking Hashem's Name Without Explicit Divine Sanction</a>.</fn></li> | ||
+ | </ul></point> | ||
</category> | </category> | ||
<category>Local Harmonization | <category>Local Harmonization |
Version as of 03:57, 9 June 2020
The Story of the Spies in Bemidbar and Devarim
Exegetical Approaches
Purposeful Recasting
The differences are intentional changes made by Moshe so as to best get across his message to the new generation. Moshe purposefully presented the story in a way that would emphasize the guilt of the nation rather than the sin of the individual spies.
Two Perspectives
The changes in the two books can be explained by positing that each is telling the story from a different perspective, with Sefer Bemidbar focusing on one aspect of the mission and Sefer Devarim on another.
Literary Variation
The differences between the two accounts are not fundamental, but simply the result of literary variation. When recounting events, Torah is often brief in one place and lengthy in another, relying on the reader to fill in the gaps from knowledge of the combined accounts.
- Our story is not the only one in which a character repeats an incident to another and some of the details are found only in the original story or only in the retelling. See, for example, Ramban on Bereshit 42:21, Radak on Bereshit 41:17, R"Y Bekhor Shor on Bereshit 31:3, and R"Y Kara on Shofetim13:12.
- Ramban also points to the similar phenomenon where Torah often mentions a command but not its fulfillment or the opposite.8
Local Harmonization
Many other commentators relate to each difference individually, without trying to account for all of the changes together.