The Spies Died 40 Years Earlier—But Something Remained - Rabbi Shlomo Horwitz

[music] >> You wouldn't believe what I learned about Parshas Haazinu. Listen to what the Kli Yakar says. It is shocking. At the end of Moshe Rabbeinu's life, the Torah suddenly refers to Yehoshua by his original name, Hoshea. Why? He had been called Yehoshua for nearly 40 years. Why at this point does the Torah revert to his old name? To understand that, we need to remember why Moshe added the letter Yud to his name in the first place. Before the Meraglim were sent, Moshe changed Hoshea's name to Yehoshua, adding a Yud before the Hey, which formed Hashem's name, Yud and Hey, Kaf. It was a Tefillah, Kaf Yoshia'cha Me'atzas Hamraglim, may Hashem save you from the council of the spies. The Kli Yakar explains that now that the entire generation of the Meraglim had died, there was no longer any fear that Yehoshua would be influenced by them. He no longer needed that special protection, so the Torah could once again call him Hoshea. This boggles my mind. Are you kidding me? This is Yehoshua. He is about to assume the leadership of Klal Yisrael, as like a king. And we're being told that until Moshe's dying day, Yehoshua still needed protection from the Meraglim? What Meraglim? The actual spies had died immediately within a month after they were sent 40 years earlier. If they were the only danger, Yehoshua could have gone back to being Hoshea a month later. What's the Kli Yakar really saying? It seems to me that the danger did not come only from the 10 spies themselves. It also came from the people who believed in them, followed them, and took on their outlook. The miraglim were gone, but their influence remained. Some spiritual taint lingered within that whole generation, and apparently, even Yehoshua, no longer such a young man, and a great person, still required special protection from it. Only when that generation was gone, did the danger finally pass. What a lesson this is about negative peer pressure. A rebellion could end, but its influence can remain in the air long afterwards. Cynicism lingers, ideas leave traces behind, even after the people who introduced them are gone. And if Yehoshua required Hashem's protection from the atmosphere surrounding him, we too certainly need to be careful about the voices and influences around us. What a powerful lesson from Ha'azinu, the penultimate parsha of the Torah. Wishing everybody a good Shabbos, and a Gmar Chatima Tova.