BY: Chana Tolchin
When the meraglim return from their mission and begin elucidating their report on the land, Calev’s reaction is swift and immediate. Only much later does Yehoshua join Calev’s effort. The sense of Yehoshua as a latecomer to the defensive front continues in the parsha’s description of the nation’s punishment for Cheit HaMeraglim (the sin of the spies). When Hashem first describes the punishment of the nation (14:22-24), only Calev is mentioned as being exempt from dying in the wilderness and meriting entry into the land, on account of the “ruach acheret” (different spirit) that he possessed in contrast to the other meraglim. When Hashem discusses the punishment for a second time (14:28-38), Yehoshua and Calev are both mentioned as being spared from punishment, linked together as one and the same. Where is Yehoshua when Calev stands up alone, and where is he in the first description of punishment?
This question also arises in Sefer Yehoshua when Calev himself recounts the story of the meraglim before Yehoshua and the children of Yehudah, but with no mention of Yehoshua’s role in the story. Additionally, Moshe reviews the punishment of the first generation in Sefer Devarim and details the reasons why both Calev and Yehoshua are exempt. Calev is exempt because he “followed Hashem wholeheartedly,” (Devarim 1:36) whereas Yehoshua is granted entry into the land because “he will cause Israel to inherit it.” (ibid., 1:38) What does this recurring separation between Yehoshua and Calev reveal?
In his article on Parshat Shlach, Rav Tamir Granot uses the separate reasons for reward for both Calev and Yehoshua in Devarim as the basis for identifying the difference between them as well as explaining why Yehoshua joined Calev only later. Devarim tells us that Yehoshua merits entry to the land because he is Moshe’s replacement. Throughout the story of the spies, Yehoshua’s authority is derived from Moshe. Before the spies leave for their mission, Moshe changes Yehoshua’s name, a symbolic reminder of Yehoshua’s role as Moshe’s successor. The mefarshim debate whether the name change actually happened at this point in the story (Rashi) or whether the Torah is reviewing a change that took place sometime before (Rashbam, Chezkuni). Following Rashi’s reading, the name change represents the divine assistance that would help keep Yehoshua from the sin that the other spies would commit. Thus, Yehoshua isn’t a self-made hero – he is blessed by Moshe and designated for his role. Even according to Rashbam and Chezkuni, the very fact that the Torah chooses to insert this information now shows that it wants us to associate Moshe’s changing of Yehoshua’s name with the story of the spies. As a novice leader who derives his authority from a greater leader, Yehoshua can’t make any moves until Moshe acts first. This explains why he takes no part in Calev’s initial independent reaction against the words of the meraglim. Yehoshua can only act once he observes Moshe’s reaction, then able to behave accordingly. Only once Moshe and Aharon fall on their faces before the nation does Yehoshua take his cue to join in Calev’s response.
Calev, on the other hand, earns his own reward as an independent leader. While Moshe singles Yehoshua out, Calev separates himself from the group by traveling alone to Chevron, “the land on which he walked.” (ibid., 1:36) In the description of the journey of the meraglim, the verb “vayavo” (13:22 [“vayavo ad Chevron”]) stands out as being singular, which Rashi and others famously explain to mean that Calev alone breaks from the group and goes to Chevron to pray at the graves of his ancestors that he should not be affected by the counsel of other spies. The Talmud in Sotah 34b delineates this same notion, adding in the fact that Moshe had already “prayed” for Yehoshua by adding the letter yud to his name, representing Hashem’s influence in shielding him from the counsel of the meraglim. The Gemara seems to take for granted an equivalence between Calev and Yehoshua – Yehoshua gets his prayer before the journey, but since Calev doesn’t, he must detour during the journey to obtain his. The formulation in Sotah, bolstered by Rashi’s comments there, seems to view Calev and Yehoshua as essentially one and the same. The likeness isn’t necessarily present, however; Calev’s trip to Chevron can also be understood as an entirely self-motivated move. As opposed to entering the mission with the foresight that he is different, Calev may have only realized his dissension from the group once the journey actually began. Of his own initiative, he separates himself from the group and for this he merits to enter the land and to earn Chevron as his personal nachalah.
According to Rav Granot, Calev and Yehoshua represent two distinct models of leadership, an explanation that in turn justifies Yehoshua’s behavior. When the meraglim begin their sinful report, Calev attempts to rally the nation to his side with encouraging words, the kind of independent action that Yehoshua, as a faithful servant of Moshe, cannot perform.
Rav Moshe Lichtenstein takes the differentiation between Calev and Yehoshua a step further. Not only does Yehoshua derive his authority from Moshe, he also derives his leadership from the future. Calev belongs to the generation of the midbar (wilderness), and his fate is therefore mentioned “in the same breath” as the fate of the current generation in the description of the punishment in Devarim. His merited entry and land portion result from the event of Cheit HaMeraglim. Yehoshua’s fate, on the other hand, is mentioned in conjunction with that of Moshe. Yehoshua’s fate is a direct result of the death of Moshe and is therefore contingent upon the future generation. According to this distinction, Yehoshua’s actions throughout Cheit HaMeraglim are inspired by his knowledge of the future position he will hold for the nation. In the first description of the punishment, only Calev is mentioned because in a sense, he is the one member of the present generation excluded from national punishment. Yehoshua really belongs to the future generation, a fact that affects both his behavior throughout the episode and the way in which the Torah describes him in relation to the nation’s punishment later.
The two prototypes of leadership that Calev and Yehoshua represent each hold unique value. Calev as an independent leader realizes the problems around him and possesses the strength of character to dissent and be a mouthpiece of truth. Yehoshua, on the other hand, represents continuity. When Moshe changes Yehoshua’s name at the start of the mission, he ensures that no matter what goes wrong in this group of people, one individual will certainly embody the values of Hashem. Throught the episode, Yehoshua is Moshe’s representative. While Calev merits entering the land because of a “ruach acheret,” Yehoshua enters because of an established ruach that is greater than himself but that he has been chosen to embody for the next generation entering Eretz Yisrael. Yehoshua stands for a type of leadership in which one pays deference to the leaders and systems of the present for the sake of serving as the vehicle for continuity in the future.
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