Home

Parashat Shelah tells the famous story of the Meragelim – the twelve spies sent by Moshe to see the Land of Israel and report back to the nation.  Unfortunately, ten of the twelve spies betrayed their mission, frightening the people and convincing them not to proceed into the land.

In telling this story, the Torah makes a point of mentioning that during the spies' excursion through the land, they cut a vine with a cluster of grapes, and they brought it back to the people to show them a sample of the land's fruit (13:23).  This appears to have been a very significant act – for in the next verse, the Torah tells that the spies named that location "Nahal Eshkol" – "the Valley of the Cluster," commemorating this cluster of grapes.

We must wonder, why was this particular act worthy of such commemoration?  Why did the spies consider this such a significant event that they found it necessary to memorialize it by changing the location's name?

A closer examination of the text reveals yet another difficulty.  The Torah tells that this area was renamed to commemorate "the cluster that Beneh Yisrael cut from there."  Curiously, the Torah speaks of "Beneh Yisrael" taking this cluster grapes, when in truth only twelve members of the nation – the twelve spies – performed this act.  Why?

The answer emerges from the comments of the Seforno (Rav Ovadia Seforno, Italy, 1475-1550) in explaining Moshe's instruction that the spies should bring fruit from Eretz Yisrael (13:20).  The Seforno writes that this act functioned as a Halachic "Hazaka" – display of ownership.  When a person purchases land, the property Halachically enters his possession in one of three ways – the transfer of money to the seller, receiving from the seller a deed of sale, or performing an act of "Hazaka" whereby he demonstratively establishes ownership over the property.  A "Hazaka" can take on several different forms, such as erecting a fence around the property, and performing agricultural work in the land.  According to Seforno, this was the purpose of the spies' seizing fruit from Eretz Yisrael.  This was intended not simply to bring the people a sample of the land's exceptional, high-quality produce, but also to formally take possession of the Land of Israel.  Hashem was giving this land to Beneh Yisrael – but they needed to perform an act of acquisition to establish their ownership.  This is the significance of the severing of a vine.

Quite understandably, then, this was a very significant act that was worth commemorating, as it marked the point when we formally took possession of our homeland.  And, this explains why the Torah speaks of "Beneh Yisrael" cutting the vine – because the spies performed this act as representatives of the entire nation, who thereby collectively became owners over the Land of Israel.  This was the moment when the Jewish People established their eternal ownership over our beloved land.