Devarim followership. In the last month of his life, Moses gathered the people. He instructed them about the laws they were to keep and reminded them of their history since the Exodus. That is the substance of the book of Devarim. And of course, early in the process, he recalled the episode of the spies. The reason the people's parents were denied

the opportunity to enter the land. He wanted the next generation to learn the lesson of that

episode and carry it with them always. They needed faith and courage. Perhaps that's always been

part of what it means to be a Jew. But the story of the spies, as he tells it here, is very different indeed from the version

in Shalachlachah, which describes the events as they happened at the time, almost 39 years later.

The discrepancies between the two accounts are glaring and numerous, but here I want to focus only on two.

First, the question, who proposed sending the spies?

In Shalach, it was God who told Moses to do so. The Lord said to Moses, send men.

In our parcia, it was the people who requested it. Then all of you came to me,

says Moses, and said, let us send men. So who was it? God or the people? This makes a massive difference

to how we understand the episode. Second, what was their mission? In our parcia, the people said,

let us send men to spy out,

Vyakburu, the land for us. The 12 men made for the whole country, came to the Wadi Eshkol,

and spied it via Raglu. In other words, our Parcha uses the two Hebrew verbs, Lachpur,

and the Rangel, that mean to spy.

But as I pointed out in Covenant of Conversation on Schlach,

the account there doesn't mention spying at all.

Instead, 13 times, it uses the verb Latour,

which means to tour, explore, travel, inspect. Even in our Pasha when Moses is talking not about the spies but about God, he says he goes before you

on your journeys, Latour, to seek out the place where you are to encamp. According to the

Malbim, Latour means to seek out what's good about a place.

Lachbo and La Rageal mean to seek out what's weak, vulnerable, exposed and defenceless.

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