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 beneath the surface, one is struck by the recurring motif of the number forty:

·       The spies scouted the land for forty days.

·       Moshe spent three periods of forty days and nights on Mount Sinai from his initial ascent before Shavuot to his triumphant descent on Yom Kippur carrying the second set of tablets.

·       Not forgetting the Flood which deluged the earth for forty days and forty nights.

Two numbers reoccur time and again in the Torah and these are seven and forty.  The latter also shows up again later in the Tanach, for example with regard to the length of King David's reign.

Walter B. Pitkin, an American Psychologist, wrote a book in 1932 titled, ‘Life begins at Forty’ which echoed the thoughts of the eminent 19th Century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer who wrote:

"The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary." in his book ‘The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims’, first published in 1851.

Is there any connection between these contemporary adages and the Torah's utilisation of the number forty?

The following ideas have been sourced from https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2962/jewish/Fortysomething.htm

If we refer to the three aforementioned examples and work backwards through the list, we will come to see that the sin of the spies and the punishment they were given is directly related to the flood. What was the flood?

It was Gd's decision to punish humanity for their fall from grace.  They had lived an existence that was so morally corrupt that there was no other option for Gd but to recreate the world and make it a more habitable place. 

He could have used myriad ways to enact his decree, as witnessed by later descriptions of His ire with mankind.  We know that Sodom was destroyed by brimstone and fire whilst Egypt suffered all kinds of natural disasters.  Why did he choose water as the means to rid the world of humanity?

Chassidic thought sees the flood as being a kind of mikvah where the world was immersed in order to purify it and in the process, renew it.  Just as the flood waters rained from above (and rose up from below)for forty days, so does a kosher mikvah require forty se’ah (which is the equivalent of approximately 166 gallons or 754 litres) of water.  Eventually, after the flood had receded (it took another forty days after the mountains became visible for Noach to send forth the raven) and following the Dove's disappearance, Noach and his family set foot on dry land.  Humanity had been cleansed, the past had been wiped out (quite literally) and it was time to start afresh.

Scenario two witnessed Moshe receiving the Torah directly from Gd Himself over a period of forty days (and nights) whereupon he descended from the Mountain and saw the ugly spectacle of the Golden Calf.

When he re-ascended, it took another forty days and nights to beseech Gd to change his mind and withhold destroying the nascent Israelite nation.  Returning for the third such period, he prayed on behalf of the people for Teshuvah, repentance (in very similar language that we see employed in this week's Parasha).  He was successful since Gd gave the people a second chance through the second set of commandments.  Again, forty days.

We can see a pattern emerging of the time period that transpires for events to mature.  For people to make their mistakes, try to amend their ways and start anew.  Chazal teach us that one of the criteria for a man to be able to learn Kaballah is that he has reached the age of forty.

Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of the Fathers (Chapter 5.22) tells us that, upon reaching this age, one achieves 'understanding'.  Rashi explains this mishna:

'just as the body follows a natural, programmed course of growth, so too is there a natural and inevitable development of the intellect.  At the age of forty, a person's innately given faculty of binah—understanding one thing from another (inference and deduction) becomes fully developed.  That is to say, the power of inferential understanding continuously matures until it reaches its full potential at the age of forty.'

Returning to the spies and their failed mission along with the subsequent behaviour of the people, we are left with a sobering thought.  At that point in their wanderings, they were only eleven days' walking distance away from entering the land of Israel but their emotional and spiritual development was only at start of its own journey.  It would take forty years to 'cleanse themselves' in order to reach the point that they were ready to enter the land.  Forty years for the virtual ‘mikvah’ to prepare them to enter the land.

For the Bnei Yisrael, life as a nation began at forty.  They may have been listening to ‘Schopenhauer’s text’, but it took them the full two score and ten years appreciate the 'commentary'.

As we know, life is itself a journey and often, we don't know which destination it will lead us to.  That we are granted time to make our mistakes, learn from these and become the best versions of ourselves that we can be is a blessing.  If we view the first forty years of our existence as being the forge which shaped us, it gives more meaning to everything we accomplish from that point.  We need a great deal of forty-tude to achieve our personal goals.  I guess that life really does begin at forty!

Shavuah Tov.