Parashat Shelach Lecha: Forty-titude
I recall a joke that was making the rounds shortly after the election of the first President Bush (and which replayed when his son entered the White House): Q: Why didn't the Jews vote for Bush? A 'Because the last time we listened to a talking bush, we wandered around the desert for forty years! In the true style of Jewish humour, we make light of a tragic situation that, at the time, was anything but funny. For the generation who had left Egypt with the dream of entering the Promised Land, Gd's edict, a result of the spies' negative report regarding their reconnaissance mission of the land was nothing less than shattering. On the face of it, Gd's decision to punish the Bnei Yisrael for forty years seems quite obvious: Numbers 14:34 You shall bear your punishment for forty years, corresponding to the number of days—forty days—that you scouted the land: a year for each day. Thus, you shall know what it means to thwart Me. If we look benea