What is this Pasuk coming to teach us?
Rashi: It teaches us the incredible size of the fruit of Eretz Cana'an. We learn from the rocks that they picked up from the River Yarden, where each man carried a rock weighing forty Sa'ah 1 - and a person can carry three times as much when others load on him as when he himself picks it up himself (Sotah 34a). 2
Really, one Sa'ah is the volume of a hundred and forty-four eggs, between eight and fourteen liters. Forty Sa'im of water weighs about half a ton; the same amount of rock weighs about ten times as much?
Rosh: Rashi implies that they could carry three times as much, for there were others to load them. If so, eight men can carry a weight of nine fhundred and sixty Sa'ah. (Presumably, Calev and Yehoshua did not help load them. If so, at most two others could load them, and each can lift only forty Sa'ah by himself! Perhaps two Meraglim cut it off the vine when the eight were holding the poles; this is like others loading them. However, after resting it down when sleeping, how could they lift it again?! And what is the source that they found a cluster the full weight of what they can carry? Perhaps if fewer could carry it, others would have carried other fruits. However, perhaps they carried less than their full potential, to enable going quickly. They were afraid of the Cana'anim! - PF)
If all the spies went to Nachal Eshkol - the gardens and orchards surrounding Chevron - why did they not accompany Calev to Chevron?
Oznayim la'Torah: They decided to send only one of them to Chevron, since two spies entering a fortified town like Chevron would have been too risky - so Calev volunteered to go in order to Daven at the graves of the Avos. The ten spies on the other hand, made a point of going to Nachal Eshkol, a. in order to pick a bunch of grapes and b. in order to see the giants who lived there 1 - both as part of their plan to give a detrimental report of the land.
How did they know that hugh clusters of graped grew in Chevron and that giants lived there?
What is the significance of the fact that the spies picked grapes from the valley of Eshkol?
Oznayim la'Torah: Because, on the one hand, they wanted to pick a particularly large cluster of grapes to show the people, 1 but on the other hand, they want to avoid showing them its luscious fruit 2 - and the grapes that grow in the valleys were of inferior quality. 3
Oznayim la'Torah: In order not to encourage the people to yearn for the fruit of Eretz Cana'an. Indeed, that explains why the spies did not bring back the dates for which Eretz Yisrael is praised - "Eretz Zavas Chalav u'Devash" (Eikev Devarim, 11:9 - which refers to the honey of dates.
As the Mishnah states in Bikurim,1:10.
Seeing as "va'Yisa'uhu (plural) ba'Mot" implies that two people carried it, why does the Torah add the word "bi'Shenayim"?
Rashi: To teach us that they carried the cluster of grapes on two poles, so that eight men carried the cluster. 1
Targum Yonasan: To teach us that two men carried the pole 2 on their shoulders.
Chizkuni and Moshav Zekenim: They made a pole out of the branch, and carried it on two other poles.
How many spies carried the fruit?
Rashi: Assuming that one spy carried a pomegranate, and one man, a fig, 1 ten spies carried the fruit, whereas Yehoshua and Calev declined to carry anything.
Targum Yonasan: Two men carried the grapes, two the pomegranates, and two, the figs. 2
Why did Yehoshua and Calev not carry any fruit?
Sotah, 34b: Either on account of their importance or because the plan of their colleagues was to malign Eretz Yisrael, in order to tell the people that 'Just as the fruit is hugh, so too, are the people hugh! and Yehoshua and Calev wanted no part in that plan.
QUESTIONS ON RASHI
Rashi writes that "Va'yisa'uhu va'Mot" implies two; "bi'Shenayim" teaches that eight spies carried it. From where does he learn this?
Riva #1: S'tam "Mot" means two poles (one man bears each pole in front, and one at the back). "bi'Shenayim" teaches us that there were two small poles for the two ends - eight men (four in front and four at the back). 1
Riva #2 (citing B'chor Shor): The only way to carry the cluster is if one end is on a Mot on the right, the other end is on a Mot on the left, and the cluster hangs down in the middle. "bi'Shenayim" teaches that there were two small Motos for the two ends.
Rosh: It could have said Vayisa'uhu bi'Shenei Motos. And the Torah writes "Vayisa'uhu va'Mot bi'Shenayim" to teach us that at each of the four ends of the pole, there was another pole.
Riva Like the Torah writes by the the gold Mizbe'ach "ve'Samu es Badav? ve'Nasnu al ha'Mot" (4:11 & 12). Moshav Zekenim: "Al ha'Mot" cannot refer to the Badim, since the Mizbe'ach was an Amah wide, so there was an Amah between the Badim - and two people cannot fit in between them [for each to hold one of the Badim! They must have therefore carried poles that were underneath the Badim,]
