Likkutei Sichos Vol. 2 – Shelach 1 – Why Moshe Davened Only for Yehoshua: A Leader Stands Up for Every Jew
1. On the verse in this week's parsha, "And Moshe called Hoshea the son of Nun, Yehoshua," the Gemara (Sotah 34b) relates that Moshe Rabbeinu davened, "May G‑d save you from the plan of the spies." This needs to be understood. At that time the spies were still kosher — and this must be so, for otherwise Moshe Rabbeinu would not have agreed to send them (it depended on Moshe, as it says, "Send for yourself" — according to your own judgment). Why, then, did he daven, "May G‑d save you from the plan of the spies"?
And if one will say that although they were kosher, Moshe nevertheless considered that something might happen, and therefore davened for Yehoshua — then it is not understood why he davened only for Yehoshua and not for everyone.
2. The Gemara says (Shabbos 105b): "This is the craft of the evil inclination: today it tells him, 'Do this,' and tomorrow it tells him, 'Do that,' until it tells him, 'Go and serve idols.'" The Gemara is explaining how it can come about that a Jew commits a sin. A Jew is a descendant of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, and he has a soul of which we say, "The soul You have given me is pure; You created it, You formed it, You breathed it into me, and You guard it within me." How, then, can he transgress the command of his Creator? The Gemara answers: "This is the craft of the evil inclination" — it does not come all at once, but little by little.
With mitzvos there is hiddur mitzvah (performing a mitzvah in the most beautiful way), and it is possible — as the Gemara says — to perform a mitzvah in a way that one does not fulfill one's obligation at all. At first the yetzer hara comes with the argument: why must you perform the mitzvah in the most beautiful way? Perform it plainly. Then the yetzer hara argues that he should perform the mitzvah the way one fulfills it only under pressure. And so, little by little, it gains an opening to tell him to transgress a prohibition.
If this is so with every individual mitzvah — that beginning to be lenient in a mitzvah already gives an opening to transgress a prohibition — how much more so with the mitzvah of ahavas Yisrael (love of a fellow Jew), which is the foundation of all the mitzvos, as the Yerushalmi says (Nedarim 9:4): "Rabbi Akiva said, 'Love your fellow as yourself' — this is a great principle of the Torah." If one is lenient in ahavas Yisrael, it gives an opening to the opposite, G‑d forbid.
3. Concerning ahavas Yisrael, the Gemara relates (Shabbos 31a) that a convert came to Shammai and said to him, "Teach me the entire Torah while I stand on one foot." Shammai "pushed him away with the builder's measuring rod." When he came to Hillel, Hillel told him, "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow; the rest is its commentary." This is difficult: since Hillel said so, it is absolutely true. Why, then, did Shammai not tell him the same thing?
The explanation is that in the avodah and conduct of tzaddikim there are two paths. There is the conduct of tzaddikim as they are for themselves — a conduct from the line of gevurah (severity), whose whole concern is ascent, and who have nothing to do with the physical world. As Likkutei Torah explains, their fulfillment of the mitzvos is spiritual, like Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai when he was in the cave.
That is, such avodah is not for the community. For tzaddikim who are below as they are above, it is a real path, but in the world it has no place. As Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says (Berachos 35b), "Is it possible for a person to plow and to sow…? What will become of the Torah?" — and the Gemara concludes, "Many did as Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, and did not succeed."
So too Beis Shammai: their avodah and conduct are from the line of gevurah — "Shammai" is from the expression "one who weighs (שם) his ways," everything carefully measured, as Likkutei Torah explains. For themselves it was a path, but in the world it has no place. That is why "the halacha does not follow Beis Shammai," and more than that, "the view of Beis Shammai where it conflicts with Beis Hillel is not considered a Mishnah" (Berachos 36b).
Therefore, when the convert came to Shammai and said, "Teach me the entire Torah while I stand on one foot," then from the standpoint of Shammai's conduct — the line of gevurah, removed from the world — it had no place, and "he pushed him away with the builder's measuring rod." The builder's measuring rod means a measure: by the measure and limitation of Shammai's building he pushed him away, because there it had no place. But when he came to Hillel, whose quality is "when His lamp shone" (Iyov 29:3) — kindness and drawing down — Hillel found a place for him too, and told him that through ahavas Yisrael one has the entire Torah.
4. As the Zohar says regarding three tzaddikim, each of whom lived in a generation that was not as it should be: Noach, Avraham and Moshe. In Noach's generation, at the time of the Flood, Noach davened only for himself and his household, and did not think about the whole generation. At most, when people came and asked him why he was building the ark, he told them that G‑d was going to bring a flood upon the world, and he rebuked them. But that was when they came to him; he did not go to them. About this the Zohar says a harsh word.
Avraham did not wait for people to come to him. Rather, "he called there in the name of G‑d, the G‑d of the world" (Bereishis 21:33): he went to everyone and made G‑dliness known in the world. Nevertheless, what did his avodah consist of? Making everyone into tzaddikim. But for those who were not tzaddikim he did not plead. When the decree came upon Sodom, he pleaded with G‑d, "Perhaps there are tzaddikim within the city" — that if there were tzaddikim there, He should not destroy the city for their sake. And when he was answered that there were not even ten tzaddikim, then "Avraham returned to his place" (Bereishis 18:33): he had no further claims.
The conduct of Moshe, the faithful shepherd, was different. When the Jewish people sinned, Moshe Rabbeinu demanded of G‑d that He forgive all the Jews, even the wicked. And not only did he not conduct himself like Noach, who davened only for himself and his household; on the contrary, Moshe Rabbeinu said (Shemos 32:32), "And if not, erase me now from Your book that You have written."
Moshe Rabbeinu put himself on the line for all Jews. By logic, by reason and understanding, there is no room to daven for someone who sinned with the Golden Calf, and deliberately. Yet Moshe Rabbeinu stood up for them too, with a powerful will and mesirus nefesh (self-sacrifice) that is above reason and understanding. Only this conduct does the holy Zohar call "the soul of the Torah — complete as it should be." This is the path after Mattan Torah, and this is the sign of a faithful shepherd.
A leader of the generation, especially after Mattan Torah, stands up for all Jews without exception, whether or not it makes sense to the intellect. He does not shut himself up in an ark with his sons, his wife and his sons' wives, while for the rest of the Jews "he does not ask for mercy," because after all they are such-and-such — "and because of this the waters of the Flood are called by his name" (Zohar I:67b).
A shepherd of Israel stands up, with actual mesirus nefesh, even for a generation such as the generation of the desert. About them Rabbi Akiva — though he was a lover of Jews, and said, "'Love your fellow as yourself' — this is a great principle of the Torah" — said that "they have no share in the World to Come" (Sanhedrin 108a). Yet Moshe Rabbeinu, the faithful shepherd, stands up for them too, and remains in the desert for their sake. As the Midrash says (Bamidbar Rabbah 19:13) on the verse "He performed the righteousness of G‑d and His judgments with Israel": Moshe Rabbeinu remained in the desert in order to bring the generation of the desert along with him.
5. In light of this we will understand why Moshe Rabbeinu davened specifically for Yehoshua, "May G‑d save you from the plan of the spies," even though he did not daven for the others.
Chassidus (Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 36d) explains why the spies did not want to enter Eretz Yisrael: they did not want to involve themselves with the physical world. In the desert the Jews had nothing to do with physical matters — there was bread from heaven, water from Miriam's well, and even their clothes were cleaned and pressed by the Clouds of Glory. Therefore they did not want to leave the desert and go into Eretz Yisrael, where they would have to deal with plowing and sowing, like people who plow and sow.
For themselves, this may have been good — as we said earlier, there are tzaddikim whose conduct is from the line of gevurah. But the shepherd and leader of the generation, in order to carry out the purpose of making a dwelling place for G‑d in the lower worlds, must have the bittul (self-nullification) of setting himself aside and devoting himself to the generation.
That is why Kalev did not side with the spies. Kalev had within him bittul to Moshe Rabbeinu, the leader of the generation, as it says (Bamidbar 13:30), "And Kalev silenced the people toward Moshe." Moshe is the quality of "and what are we" — essential bittul, bittul of one's very existence (Torah Ohr, Yisro 68c; Likkutei Torah, Vayikra 2a). That is why of Kalev it says, "a different spirit was with him."
And this is why Moshe Rabbeinu davened specifically for Yehoshua. Moshe knew that Yehoshua would be the leader of the generation after him, for Eldad and Meidad prophesied in the camp, "Moshe will die and Yehoshua will bring Israel into the land" (Bamidbar 11:26; Sanhedrin 17a). Therefore he davened for him, "May G‑d save you from the plan of the spies," even while they were still kosher — because a leader of the generation must devote himself to everyone.
(From a sichah of Shabbos Parshas Shelach, 5715)