When reviewing the parsha this week I was reminded of a vort from Rabbi Mansour that I heard in a previous year on Parshas Shelach and I wanted to briefly summarize in a pre-Shabbos post. Same ground rules as always apply. Any perceived inconsistencies are the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Mansour.
Rabbi Mansour based this shiur on an Ari which discusses the character of the Meraglim and analyzes why only Yehoshua gets the beracha of shinui hashem - change of name. He begins with the proposition that each of the meraglim actually had the soul of their particular tribal forefather inside of them when they went to scout the land of Israel.
His first limud is on the pasuk in Bamidbar 13:3 - וַיִּשְׁלַ֨ח אֹתָ֥ם משֶׁ֛ה מִמִּדְבַּ֥ר פָּארָ֖ן עַל־פִּ֣י יְהֹוָ֑ה כֻּלָּ֣ם אֲנָשִׁ֔ים רָאשֵׁ֥י בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל הֵֽמָּה - he teaches that the words at the end of the pasuk signify that the "רָאשֵׁ֥י בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל" are actually the sons of Ya'akov (Yisrael) which were in the Nasi. This is why Chazal teach that they were perfect at the beginning, which is because they were with their forefather.
However this presents a problem - the tribe of Levi was not involved, but to get to 12, both Ephraim and Menashe send a Nasi. However since they were the sons of Yosef and not the sons of Ya'akov, they could not each get Yosef inside. The Ari teaches this from the pesukim at 13:8 and 13:11. For Menashe the pasuk states - לְמַטֵּ֥ה יוֹסֵ֖ף לְמַטֵּ֣ה מְנַשֶּׁ֑ה גַּדִּ֖י בֶּן־סוּסִֽי - showing that Yosef went with him. However for Yehoshua from Ephraim, the Torah states - לְמַטֵּ֥ה אֶפְרָ֖יִם הוֹשֵׁ֥עַ בִּן־נֽוּן - he did not have Yosef linked to him.
This explains why Yehoshua got the beracha and the others were not jealous of it. The Ari teaches that since the other tribes had their forefather with them, they did not need the beracha. However, since Ephraim was left out, Yehoshua got this as a make up.
R' Mansour next quoted the pasuk at 14:24 where the Torah states about Calev - וְעַבְדִּ֣י כָלֵ֗ב עֵ֣קֶב הָֽיְתָ֞ה ר֤וּחַ אַחֶ֨רֶת֙ עִמּ֔וֹ - the use of Ruach is odd if it is only stating he had a different idea. However the Ari teaches that this means that he had a different spirit - Yehudah was inside of him and that was why he did not stray.
R' Mansour then connected this to the story of Joseph when he addresses his brothers at Bereishis 42:9 וַיִּזְכֹּ֣ר יוֹסֵ֔ף אֵ֚ת הַֽחֲלֹמ֔וֹת אֲשֶׁ֥ר חָלַ֖ם לָהֶ֑ם וַיֹּ֤אמֶר אֲלֵהֶם֙ מְרַגְּלִ֣ים אַתֶּ֔ם לִרְא֛וֹת אֶת־עֶרְוַ֥ת הָאָ֖רֶץ בָּאתֶֽם. In so doing Yosef calls them "spies" but how can this be a true statement? The Ari explains that he looked ahead and saw that they would be inside their descendants who would be meraglim.
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