Legands of the Jews > Volume 3 >
THE NIGHT OF TEARS
The Night of Tears
The words of the spies were heard by willing ears. The people believed them implicitly, and when called to task by Moses, replied: "O our teacher Moses, if there had been only two spies or three, we should have had to give credence to their words, for the law tells us to consider the testimony of even two as sufficient, whereas in this case there are fully ten! [530] Our brethren have made us faint of heart. Because the Lord hated us, He hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us." By these words the Israelites revealed that they hated God, and for this reason did they believe that they were hated by Him, for "whatever a man wisheth his neighbor, doth he believe that his neighbor wisheth him." They even tried to convince Moses that God hated them. They said: "If an earthly king has two sons and two fields, on watered by a river, and the other dependent upon rains, will he not five the one that is watered by the river to his favorite son, and give the other, less excellent field to his other son? God led us out of Egypt, a land that is not dependent upon rain, only to give us the land of Canaan, which produces abundantly only if the rains fall." [531]
Not only did the spies in the presence of Moses and Aaron voice their opinion that is was not advisable to attempt conquering Palestine, but they employed every means of inciting the people into rebellion against Moses and God. On the following evening every one of them betook himself to his house, donned his mourning cloths, and began to weep bitterly and to lament. Their housemates quickly ran toward them and in astonishment asked their reason for these tears and lamentations. Without interrupting their wailings, they answered" "Woe is me for ye, my sons, and woe is me for ye, my daughters and daughters-in-law, that are doomed to be dishonored by the uncircumcised and to be given as a prey to their lusts. These men that we have beheld are not like unto mortals. Strong and mighty as angels are they; one of them might well slay a thousand of us. How dare we look into the iron faces of men so powerful that a nail of theirs is sufficient to stop up a spring of water!" At these words all the household, sons, daughters, and daughters-in-law, burst into tears and loud lamentations. Their neighbors came running to them and joined in the wails and sobs until they spread throughout all the camp, and all the sixty myriads of people were weeping. When the sound of their weeping reached heaven, God said: "Ye weep to-day without a cause, I shall see to it that in the future ye shall have a cause to weep on this day." It was then that God decreed to destroy the Temple on the ninth day of Ab, the day on which Israel in the wilderness wept without cause, so that this day became forever a day of tears. [532]
The people were not, however, content with tears, they resolved to
set up as leaders in place of Moses and Aaron, Dathan and
Abiram, and under their guidance to return to Egypt. [533] But
worse than this, not only did they renounce their leader, but also
their God, for they denied Him and wished to set up and idol for
their God. [534] Not only the wicked ones among them such as the
mixed multitude demurred against Moses and Aaron, but those
also who had heretofore been pious, saying: "Would to God that
we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would to God we had died in
this wilderness!"
When Joshua and Caleb heard these speeches of the people
teeming with blasphemy, they rent their garments and tried to
restrain the people from their sinful enterprise, exhorting them
particularly to have fear of the Canaanites, because the time was at
hand when God had promised Abraham to give the land of Canaan
to his descendants, and because there were no pious men among
the inhabitants of the land for whose sake God would have been
willing to leave it longer in their possession. They also assured the
people that God had hurled from heaven the guardian angel of the
inhabitants of Palestine, so that they were now impotent. [535] The
people, however, replied: "We do not believe you; the other spies
have our weal and woe more at heart than you." [536] Nor were
the admonitions of Moses of more avail, even though he brought
them a direct message from God to have no fear of the Canaanites.
In vain did he say to them, "He who wrought all those miracles for
you in Egypt and during your stay in the wilderness will work
miracles for you as well when you will enter the promised land.
Truly the past ought to inspire you with trust in the future." The
only answer the people had to this was, "Had we heard this report
of the land from strangers, we should not have given it credit, but
we have heard it from men whose sons are our sons, and whose
daughters are our daughters." [537] In their bitterness against their
leaders they wanted to lay hands upon Moses and Aaron,
whereupon God sent His cloud of glory as a protection to them,
under which they sought refuge. But far from being brought to a
realization of their wicked enterprise by this Divine apparition,
they cast stones at the cloud, hoping in this way to kill Moses and
Aaron. This outrage on their part completely wore out God's
patience, and He determined upon the destruction of the spies, and
a severe punishment of the people misled by them. [538]
