What are the connotations of "Vayotzi'u Dibas ha'Aretz"?
Ramban: As opposed to 'Meivi Dibah' (See Bereishis 37:2), which refers to a true report, albeit a slanderous one.
What are the implications of the words "el B'nei Yisrael"?
Ramban: Initially, when they spoke in the presence of Moshe and Aharon, they spoke in hints. 1 But now that they had left Moshe and Aharon's presence, and they saw that the people were in two minds whether to believe them or Calev, 2 the spies 3 added that the land consumed its inhabitants and that only giants could survive there, in order to convince them not to go to Eretz Yisrael.
Refer to 13:31:2:2**.
Ramban: Some believed in their own ability to overcome the Cana'anim; others, in Hashem.
Ramban: Who were terrified by the size and mighty appearance of the Cana'anim, and who succeeded in passing on their fears to the rest of the people, as the Pasuk testifies later ? in 14:36.
Why did the spies refer to Eretz Cana'an as "Eretz Ocheles Yoshvehah"?
Rashi and Targum Yonasan: Because wherever they went they found people burying their dead (due to a plague ? Targum Yonasan). 1
Ramban and Seforno: They meant that, when they said that all the people were strong, it was not due the praiseworthiness of the land, but rather because, due to the heaviness of the air, it was only the strong who were able to survive there.
Refer to 13:32:5:1-3.
Rashi: Hashem deliberately arranged this to happen, so that the people should be too busy burying their dead to bother with the spies.
What are the connotations of 'Anshei Midos'?
Rashi #1: It means people who were so tall that one tended to ascribe a measurement to each person that one saw. 1
Rashi #2 (in Yechezkel, 28:14 and in Yirmiyah, 22:14): It means simply that the Cana'anim were exceptionally tall.
Rashi #3 (K'sav Yad Teiman): It means that every Cana'ani was a trained soldier and had a house full of weapons. 2
Targum Yonasan: It means that all the people they saw had bad Midos.
Refer to 13:32:5:1-3.
Rashi: Like we find in Shmuel 1 17:4, and in Shmuel 2 21:20.
Rashi: "From the word 'Mado' meaning weapons, as in Shmuel 1 17:38.
What is the connection between "Eretz Ocheles Yoshvehah" and "Anshei Midos"?
Ramban and Moshav Zekenim: They were conveying the message that the land ? the air the water and the fruit, were heavy, 1 and it was only the giants who could survive there ? everybody else was bound to be killed by one or the other.
Hadar Zekenim #1 and Da'as Zekenim #1: The people should not think that the land consumes its inhabitants due to their weakness, because in fact, they were extraordinarily strong - and the reason that they die like flies was because the air was bad'.
Hadar Zekenim #2 and Da'as Zekenim #2: The people should not think that the land consumes its inhabitants because they ate and drank in excess, which is harmful - because in fact they were 'Anshei Midos' ? they ate and drank in [sparse] measures'.
Ramban: But if the air and the water were polluted, the land would produce, not giants, but weak, bloated people, small in stature.
QUESTIONS ON RASHI
Rashi writes that Hashem arranged for the Cana'anim to be busy burying their dead, and not bother with the spies. Why are the spies faulted for not realizing this?
Moshav Zekenim #1 (citing the Ri): Perhaps they realized the reason, and even so they said [that people die due to the land].
Moshav Zekenim #2: The Gemara states in Sotah, 35a - that Iyov had died, 1 and everyone came to eulogize him 2 (and it was not true that many people died). 3
Oznayim la'Torah (based on Sotah 35): Wherever the spies went, one of the Cana'ani leaders died - so what they ought to have said was 'Eretz Ocheles Gedolehah hi!' Only they figured that this would not scare the people sufficiently, so they changed it to "Eretz Ocheles Yoshvehah hi", intimating that only the strongest of the strong could survive there.
Because if one is obligated to judge a human-being to the scale of merit ('Dan le'Kaf Z'chus'), how much more so Hakadosh-Baruch-Hu, who had already proved His capabilities in Egypt, at the Yam'Suf and in the desert!
"be'Eretz Utz" (Iyov 1:1) is written Chaser (without a 'Vav'), to read this like 'Eitz' ? "ha'Yesh bah Eitz", one who protects his generation like a tree.I did not find anyone else who says that it is Chaser (PF). Refer to 13:20:2:3 and note 1.
Interestingly, Iyov's death msy have been the catalyst that would have enabled Yisrael to defeat the Cana'anim. Refer to 13:20:2:3 and note 1 - but the Meraglim saw it asa detriment. See Torah Temimah, citing Sotah, 35a.
If only Iyov died, how can the Meraglim have thought that everyone was dying? See Torah Temimah, note 21, who elaborates.
