וַיִּשְׁמַע ה’ אֶת קוֹל דִּבְרֵיכֶם וַיִּקְצֹף וַיִּשָּׁבַע לֵאמֹר: אִם-יִרְאֶה אִישׁ בָּאֲנָשִׁים הָאֵלֶּה, הַדּוֹר הָרָע הַזֶּה—אֵת,
.הָאָרֶץ הַטּוֹבָה, אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּעְתִּי, לָתֵת לַאֲבֹתֵיכֶם
(דברים א/לד-לה)
“And Hashem heard the sound of your complaints, He became angry and swore: No one from this evil generation will see the beautiful land that I swore to give to your forefathers” (Devarim 1/34).
In this week’s parsha, Moshe retells Bnei Yisroel the incident of the sending of the meraglim, their return and Bnei Yisroel’s refusal to enter Eretz Yisroel. Moshe also reminded them of Hashem’s response to them; “Vayishma Hashem es kol divraichem vayeek’tzov va’yishava laimor, And Hashem heard the sound of your complaints, He became angry and swore…”
Zera Shimshon asks, what does it mean, “es kol divraichem,” the sound of your complaint? It would have been enough if it was just written, “es divraichem,” and Hashem heard your complaint” without the words “es kol,” sound of. What is the Torah teaching us with this word?
Zera Shimshon explains the usage of this word in light of two pesukim in Iyov.
When Elihu, the youngest friend of Iyov, came to console Iyov and to explain to him why he thought Iyov had to suffer so much, Elihu prefaced his argument to Iyov by apologizing that he is speaking even though that he is much younger than the others. Elihu told Iyov, “Ki mohlaisey meellim heh’tzeekasney ruach bitney, For I am full of words, the spirit in my stomach presses me.” (Iyov 32/18). Meaning, even though he shouldn’t say anything because he is so young, he can’t hold himself back and it is “ruach bitney” the “spirit in his stomach” that is pushing the words out involuntarily.
When Elihu concluded his argument he added a word (perek 34/16), “ha’azinah l’kol meelie, listen to the sound of my words.” He didn’t just say, “ha’azinah l’meelie, listen to my words” but he said, “ha’azinah l’kol meelie, listen to the sound of my words.” Why did Elihu add the word “kol”?
Zera Shimshon explains that when a person in a very emotionally charged state says something, the words that come out of his mouth aren’t always what he really means. It could be that it is only “the spirit of his stomach,” his emotions, that are speaking and not what is in his head. In order to know what his real thoughts are, we have to examine the sound and tone of his speech and not the words. If the sound is calm, then it is his intellect speaking but if it stormy and wild then it is his emotions speaking. Therefore, Elihu closed his argument by telling Iyov that even though “ki mohlaisey meellim heh’tzeekasney ruach bitney, For I am full of words, the spirit in my stomach presses me.” and therefore you will ignore what I said, “ha’azinah l’kol meelie, listen to the sound of my words,” and you will realize that what I said came from my intellect and not just from emotions.
It is the same in our parsha, Moshe reprimanded Bnei Yisroel for not wanting to go into Eretz Yisroel after the spies (meraglim) gave a very negative account of Eretz Yisroel. After Bnei Yisroel heard the meraglim’s report they panicked. Therefore, one might think that they were not complaining but it was only their emotion of fear and, this being so, they didn’t deserve such a harsh punishment of dying in the desert and not being able to enter Eretz Yisroel. Therefore Moshe Rabeinu said that Hashem heard the sound of their complaint- es kol divraichem, which shows that the complaining came from them and it wasn’t just their fear that spoke. Therefore, we can understand why Hashem punished them so harshly
