page_title: Shlach
section_title: Numbers chapter 14
hierarchical_section_title: Shlach / In classical rabbinic interpretation / Numbers chapter 14
caption_attribution_description: العربية: 14 change me! الكتاب المقدس التوضيح من الكتاب من الفصل Беларуская (тарашкевіца)‎: Біблійная ілюстрацыя да Кнігі Лічбаў, разьдзел 14 Deutsch: Biblische Darstellung Buch change me! Kapitel 14 Ελληνικά: Βιβλική εικονογράφηση του βιβλίου της change me! Κεφάλαιο 14 English: Biblical illustration of Book of Numbers Chapter 14 Español: Ilustración bíblica de libro del change me!, capítulo 14 Français&#160;: Illustration biblique du livre de la Nombres chapitre 14 עברית: 14 האיור המקראי של change me! פרק हिन्दी: {{{hi}}} अध्याय change me! की पुस्तक की बाइबिल चित्रण Bahasa Indonesia: Ilustrasi Alkitab dari Kitab Bilangan pasal 14 Italiano: Illustrazione biblica del libro della change me! Capitolo 14 日本語: change me!14章の本の聖書の実例 Jawa: Ilustrasi Alkitab saking Kitab Wilangan pasal 14 한국어: change me! 14 장 장부의 성경 그림 Bahasa Melayu: Ilustrasi Alkitab dari Kitab Bilangan pasal 14 Nederlands: Bijbelse illustratie van change me! hoofdstuk 14 Português: Ilustração bíblica do Livro de change me!, capítulo 14 Русский: Библейские иллюстрации Книга Чисел Глава 14 中文: 圣经change me!第14章的书籍插图
context_page_description: Shlach, Shelach, Sh'lah, Shlach Lecha, or Sh'lah L'kha is the 37th weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the fourth in the Book of Numbers. Its name comes from the first distinctive words in the parashah, in Numbers 13:2. Shelach is the sixth and lecha is the seventh word in the parashah. The parashah tells the story of the twelve spies sent to assess the promised land, commandments about offerings, the story of the Sabbath violator, and the commandment of the fringes.
  The parashah constitutes Numbers 13:1–15:41. It is made up of 5,820 Hebrew letters, 1,540 Hebrew words, 119 verses, and 198 lines in a Torah Scroll. Jews generally read it in June or early July.
context_section_description: The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer told that God spoke to the Torah the words of Genesis 1:26, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." The Torah answered that the man whom God sought to create would be limited in days and full of anger, and would come into the power of sin. Unless God would be long-suffering with him, the Torah continued, it would be well for man not to come into the world. God asked the Torah whether it was for nothing that God is called (echoing Numbers 14:18;) "slow to anger" and "abounding in love." God then set about making man.
  The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer told that God had spoken the words of Numbers 14:20 to Moses before, after the incident of the Golden Calf. The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer told that after the incident of the Golden Calf, Moses foretold that he would behold God's Glory and make atonement for the Israelites' iniquities on Yom Kippur. On that day, Moses asked God to pardon the iniquities of the people in connection with the Golden Calf. God told Moses that if he had asked God then to pardon the iniquities of all Israel, even to the end of all generations, God would have done so, as it was the appropriate time. But Moses had asked for pardon with reference to the Golden Calf, so God told Moses that it would be according to his words, as Numbers 14:20 says, "And the Lord said, 'I have pardoned according to your word.'"
  A Baraita taught that when Moses ascended to receive the Torah from God, Moses found God writing "longsuffering" among the words with which Exodus 34:8 describes God. Moses asked God whether God meant longsuffering with the righteous, to which God replied that God is longsuffering even with the wicked. Moses exclaimed that God could let the wicked perish, but God cautioned Moses that Moses would come to desire God's longsuffering for the wicked. Later, when the Israelites sinned at the incident of the spies, God reminded Moses that he had suggested that God be longsuffering only with the righteous, to which Moses recounted that God had promised to be longsuffering even with the wicked. And that is why Moses in Numbers 14:17–18 cited to God that God is "slow to anger."
  Rabbi Simeon son of Rabbi Ishmael interpreted the term "the Tabernacle of the testimony" in Exodus 38:21 to mean that the Tabernacle was God's testimony to the whole world that God had in Numbers 14:20 forgiven Israel for having made the Golden Calf. Rabbi Isaac explained with a parable. A king took a wife whom he dearly loved. He became angry with her and left her, and her neighbors taunted her, saying that he would not return. Then the king sent her a message asking her to prepare the king's palace and make the beds therein, for he was coming back to her on such-and-such a day. On that day, the king returned to her and became reconciled to her, entering her chamber and eating and drinking with her. Her neighbors at first did not believe it, but when they smelled the fragrant spices, they knew that the king had returned. Similarly, God loved Israel, bringing the Israelites to Mount Sinai, and giving them the Torah, but after only 40 days, they sinned with the Golden Calf. The heathen nations then said that God would not be reconciled with the Israelites. But when Moses pleaded for mercy on their behalf, God forgave them, as Numbers 14:20 reports, "And the Lord said: ‘I have pardoned according to your word.'" Moses then told God that even though he personally was quite satisfied that God had forgiven Israel, he asked that God might announce that fact to the nations. God replied that God would cause God's Shechinah to dwell in their midst, and thus Exodus 25:8 says, "And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them." And by that sign, God intended that all nations might know that God had forgiven the Israelites. And thus Exodus 38:21 calls it "the Tabernacle of the testimony," because the Tabernacle was a testimony that God had pardoned the Israelites' sins.
  The Mishnah deduced from Numbers 14:22 that the Israelites in the wilderness inflicted ten trials on God, one of which was the incident of 
caption: The Ten Spies Who Had Spread the False Report Died (1984 illustration by Jim Padgett, courtesy of Sweet Publishing)
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