The
Cambridge Dictionary defines “Defamation” as “the act of harming someone’s
reputation by saying or writing bad things about them.”
Already in our Torah, we encounter such an act. One example that comes to mind is when Miriam and Aaron speak ill of Moshe after he marries a Cushite woman (Numbers 12:1) for which Miriam was severely punished.
This week’s Parasha, B’Shalach, is another example. This time, the subject of defamation is not another human being but Eretz Yisrael.
In it, Moshe names twelve men, each from one of the twelve tribes to go and tour the Land of Cana’an prior to conquering it. He gives them specific issues to investigate. He charges them with the duty to survey the Land, examine it and see whether it is good or bad. He also instructs them to study the size and the strength of the People inhabiting it.
After forty days, the twelve emissaries or spies as the Tanach refers to them, return and report their observations. They bring along with them samples of beautiful fruit from Eretz Yisrael which prove the quality of the Land. They also describe it as a “Land flowing with milk and honey.” At the same time, however, they speak harshly about it when describing the might of its dwellers and as “a Land that eats up its inhabitants.” The scouts all, except for Yehoshua and Calev, conclude that Am Yisrael could not go into the Land as the People that dwells there is mightier than it.
Already in our Torah, we encounter such an act. One example that comes to mind is when Miriam and Aaron speak ill of Moshe after he marries a Cushite woman (Numbers 12:1) for which Miriam was severely punished.
This week’s Parasha, B’Shalach, is another example. This time, the subject of defamation is not another human being but Eretz Yisrael.
In it, Moshe names twelve men, each from one of the twelve tribes to go and tour the Land of Cana’an prior to conquering it. He gives them specific issues to investigate. He charges them with the duty to survey the Land, examine it and see whether it is good or bad. He also instructs them to study the size and the strength of the People inhabiting it.
After forty days, the twelve emissaries or spies as the Tanach refers to them, return and report their observations. They bring along with them samples of beautiful fruit from Eretz Yisrael which prove the quality of the Land. They also describe it as a “Land flowing with milk and honey.” At the same time, however, they speak harshly about it when describing the might of its dwellers and as “a Land that eats up its inhabitants.” The scouts all, except for Yehoshua and Calev, conclude that Am Yisrael could not go into the Land as the People that dwells there is mightier than it.
The question
that is begging to be asked is why do Yehoshua and Calev see Eretz Yisrael
through different eyes? After all, all twelve emissaries observe and experience
the same things?
They all start their description of the Land in a positive way. However, unlike Yehoshua and Calev, the other ten switch to a negative portrayal of the powerful People and the fortified cities.
They all start their description of the Land in a positive way. However, unlike Yehoshua and Calev, the other ten switch to a negative portrayal of the powerful People and the fortified cities.
According to
the Babylonian Talmud Sotah 35a, this is the way slanderers speak. “They begin
with flattering and end with evil.”
Slander, defamation and badmouthing aim at separating people, drawing a rift, and deepening the divide among them. The slanderer observes a situation generalizes and embellishes its bad aspects while sharing their interpretations of it as a permanent and constant element. That is the nature of slander.
In this Parasha, defamation is aimed at separating between Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael.
Upon hearing the emissaries’ words, Am Yisrael bursts out in anger, complaints, and rebellion. They refuse to listen to Moshe, Aaron, Yehoshua and Calev who try to convince them that the Land is good and that one should trust G-d. Alas, the people are angry, assail them and prepares to hurl stones at them.
Unfortunately, slander of the “Land Flowing with Milk and Honey” did not stop with the ten of the twelve scouts that Moshe sent. They were, then, what organizations such as BDS, B’Tselem or Breaking the Silence are today. These are bonded by a desire to separate between the modern-day state of Yisrael and the rest of the world.
Like Moshe’s emissaries, members of these organizations see a relatively young state that has turned the desert into fertile land. They are witnessing its great contributions to world civilization. Not even they can ignore Yisrael as a world power in technology, medicine and other fields.
True, Yisrael, like any other normal state, especially one that is surrounded by those who wish to annihilate it and needs to fight for survival on a daily basis, is not perfect. Yet, these organizations choose to overlook its great aspects and elect to pick a handful of its bad ones, put them under the microscope, embellish and amplify them, sometimes beyond proportion, and use them to project it in a bad light. They use any means and any tactics to falsify and distort facts, misrepresent it and dis-inform a naïve world of the true and great facets of the Jewish state. Defamation is their middle name.
Shabbat Shalom and every blessing
No comments:
Post a Comment