RABBI EPHRAIM SPRECHER Faculty, OU Israel Center
The Spies’ Tunnel Vision
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re we able to defeat the Giants? (Remember Willie Mays?) The Torah tells us that the inhabitants of Eretz Yisrael were y’lide ho’anaq, remnants of a race of Giants. When the M’raglim, the Spies, returned with their report, they announced: “The people that dwell in the land are fierce, and the cities are fortified and very great; moreover, we saw the children of Giants there.” (Bamidbar 13:28) And again, (Bamidbar 13: 32,33) reference is made to the anshe middoth, the men of great stature, and the n’philim, the primeval Giants. The Torah wants to impress upon us the fact that not Bigness was to conquer and hold the Holy Land – but Greatness. The Spies used the wrong measuring rod of Bigness, and that was their tragic and fatal error. However, Gd desires Greatness not Bigness. This view of Bigness vs. Greatness is expressed in many places in Tanach. Yitzchak referred to Eisav as bno hagadol (his big son) (Bereshit 27:2), and the Rabbis comment, Hashem said to Yitzchak, “Im gadol hu b’einecha, baeinai hu nanas shebananasim.” “By your standards Eisav may be Big; but by My standards Eisav is a 60
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dwarf, a spiritual midget.” (Bereshit Rabba 65:11) In the 16th Chapter of Shmuel Aleph we are given a beautiful description of the Biblical concept of Greatness, as opposed to the popular concept of Bigness. The prophet Shmuel is sent to Bethlehem to select a successor to Shaul Hamelech in the kingship. One by one Shmuel looks upon the sons of Yishai and thinks that this one or that one is the anointed of Hashem, but Hashem says to him: Al tabeit el mareihu v’el g’vah komato…ki lo asher yireh haadam, ki haadam yireh laeinayim v’Hashem yireh laleivav.” “Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature… for it is not as a man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but Hashem looks in the heart.” (Shmuel Aleph 16:7). And it is Little David who was physically shorter than all of his brothers, who was selected, not by the standard of Bigness, but by the measuring rod of Greatness. Bigness is measured from the chin down; but Greatness is measured from the chin up. A person may be the biggest and tallest player in the NBA and still be a mental midget. The Greatness of a people is no more determined by their number than the Greatness of a person is determined by his height. This is certainly true in the case of Israel. As the Torah says: “For you
