Shlach

Annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading

Shlach, Shelach, Sh'lah, Shlach Lecha, or Sh'lah L'kha (שְׁלַח or שְׁלַח לְךָ—Hebrew for "send," "send to you," or "send for yourself") is the 37th weekly Torah portion (פָּרָשָׁה, parashah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the fourth in the Book of Numbers. Its name comes from the first distinctive words in the parashah, in Numbers 13:2. Shelach (שְׁלַח) is the sixth and lecha (לְךָ) is the seventh word in the parashah. The parashah tells the story of the twelve spies sent to assess the promised land, commandments about offerings, the story of the Sabbath violator, and the commandment of the fringes (צִיצִת, tzitzit). The parashah constitutes Numbers 13:1–15:41. It is made up of 5,820 Hebrew letters, 1,540 Hebrew words, 119 verses, and 198 lines in a Torah Scroll (Sefer Torah). Jews generally read it in June or early July.

In traditional Sabbath Torah reading, the parashah is divided into seven readings, or עליות, aliyot.

In the first reading, God told Moses to send one chieftain from each of the 12 tribes of Israel to scout the land of Canaan, and Moses sent them out from the wilderness of Paran. Among the scouts were Caleb, son of Jephunneh from the Tribe of Judah and Hosea (Hoshea), son of Nun from the Tribe of Ephraim. Moses changed Hosea's name to Joshua. Moses asked for an assessment of the geographical features of the land, the strength and numbers of the population, the agricultural potential and actual performance of the land, civic organization (whether their cities were like camps or strongholds), and forestry conditions. He also asked them to be positive in their outlook and to return with samples of local produce.

In the second reading, they scouted the land as far as Hebron. At the wadi Eshcol, they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes so large that it had to be borne on a carrying frame by two of them, as well as some pomegranates and figs. At the end of 40 days, they returned and reported to Moses, Aaron, and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh, saying that the land did indeed flow with milk and honey (date honey) but that the people who inhabited it were powerful, the cities were fortified and very large, and that they saw the Anakites there. Caleb hushed the people and urged them to go up and take the land. But the other scouts spread calumnies about the land, calling it "one that devours its settlers." They reported that the land's people were giants and stronger than the Israelites. The whole community broke into crying, railed against Moses and Aaron, and shouted: "If only we might die in this wilderness!" Moses and Aaron fell on their faces, and Joshua and Caleb rent their clothes.

In the third reading, Joshua and Caleb exhorted the Israelites not to fear and not to rebel against God. Just as the community threatened to pelt them with stones, God's Presence appeared in the Tabernacle. God complained to Moses: "How long will this people spurn Me," and threatened to strike them with pestilence and make of Moses a nation more numerous than they. But Moses told God to think of what the Egyptians would think when they heard the news, and how they would think God powerless to bring the Israelites to the Promised Land. Moses asked God to forbear, quoting God's self description as "slow to anger and abounding in kindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression." In response, God pardoned, but also swore that none of the men who had seen God's signs would see the Promised Land, except Caleb and Joshua.

In the fourth reading, God swore that all of the men 20 years old and up, except Caleb and Joshua, would die in the wilderness. God said that the Israelites' children would enter the Promised Land after roaming the wilderness, suffering for the faithlessness of the present generation, for 40 years, corresponding to the number of days that the scouts scouted the land. The scouts other than Caleb and Joshua died of plague. Early the next morning, the Israelites set out to the Promised Land, but Moses told them that they would not succeed without God in their midst. But they marched forward anyway, and the Amalekites and the Canaanites dealt them a shattering blow at Hormah. God told Moses to tell Israelites that when they entered the Promised Land and would present an offering to God, the person presenting the offering was also to bring flour mixed with oil and wine.

In the fifth reading, God told Moses to tell Israelites that when they would present a bull for a burnt offering to God, the person presenting the offering was also to bring flour mixed with oil and wine. And when a resident alien wanted to present an offering, the same law would apply.

In the sixth reading, when the Israelites ate bread of the land, they were to set aside a portion, a dough offering (חַלָּה, challah), as a gift to God. If the community unwittingly failed to observe any commandment, the community was to present one bull as a burnt offering with its proper meal offering and wine, and one he goat as a sin offering, and the priest would make expiation for the whole community and they would be forgiven.

In the seventh reading, if an individual sinned unwittingly, the individual was to offer a she goat in its first year as a sin offering, and the priest would make expiation that the individual might be forgiven. But the person who violated a commandment defiantly was to be cut off from among his people. Once the Israelites came upon a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day, and they brought him before Moses, Aaron, and the community and placed him in custody. God told Moses that the whole community was to stone him to death outside the camp, so they did so. God told Moses to instruct the Israelites to make for themselves fringes (צִיצִת, tzitzit) on each of the corners of their garments. They were to look at the fringes, recall the commandments, and observe them.

Numbers 13:22 and 28 refer to the "children of Anak" (יְלִדֵי הָעֲנָק, yelidei ha anak), Numbers 13:33 refers to the "sons of Anak" (בְּנֵי עֲנָק, benei anak), and Deuteronomy 1:28, 2:10–11, 2:21, and 9:2 refer to the "Anakim" (עֲנָקִים). John A. Wilson suggested that the Anakim may be related to the Iy ‘anaq geographic region named in Middle Kingdom Egyptian (19th to 18th century BCE) pottery bowls that had been inscribed with the names of enemies and then shattered as a kind of curse. Numbers 13:27 and 14:8, as well as Exodus 3:8 and 17, 13:5, and 33:3, Leviticus 20:24, and Deuteronomy 6:3, 11:9, 26:9 and 15, 27:3, and 31:20 describe the Land of Israel as a land flowing "with milk and honey." Similarly, the Middle Egyptian (early second millennium BCE) tale of Sinuhe Palestine described the Land of Israel or, as the Egyptian tale called it, the land of Yaa: "It was a good land called Yaa. Figs were in it and grapes. It had more wine than water. Abundant was its honey, plentiful its oil. All kind of fruit were on its trees. Barley was there and emmer, and no end of cattle of all kinds."

Joshua 14:7–12 presents Caleb's recollection at age 85 of the incident of the scouts in Numbers 13–14.

Benjamin Sommer read Exodus 34:6–7 and Numbers 14:18–20 to teach that God punishes children for their parents' sins as a sign of mercy to the parents: When sinning parents repent, God defers their punishment to their offspring. Sommer argued that other Biblical writers, engaging in inner Biblical interpretation, rejected that notion in Deuteronomy 7:9–10, Jonah 4:2, and Psalm 103:8–10. Sommer argued that Psalm 103:8–10, for example, quoted Exodus 34:6–7, which was already an authoritative and holy text, but revised the morally troubling part: Where Exodus 34:7 taught that God punishes sin for generations, Psalm 103:9–10 maintained that God does not contend forever. Sommer argued that Deuteronomy 7:9–10 and Jonah 4:2 similarly quoted Exodus 34:6–7 with revision. Sommer asserted that Deuteronomy 7:9–10, Jonah 4:2, and Psalm 103:8–10 do not try to tell us how to read Exodus 34:6–7; that is, they do not argue that Exodus 34:6–7 somehow means something other than what it seems to say. Rather, they repeat Exodus 34:6–7 while also disagreeing with part of it.

Pseudo Philo read the commandment to wear tzitzit in Numbers 15:37–40 together with the story of Korah’s rebellion that follows immediately after in Numbers 16:1–3. Pseudo Philo reported that God commanded Moses about the tassels, and then Korah and the 200 men with him rebelled, asking why that unbearable law had been imposed on them.