17 Jun SHLACH: MESSAGE OF THE YUD

Sarah’s Message
Passes to Yehoshua
by Way of the Yud
Many of us are
familiar with a very
famous Chazal, a
statement of our
Sages, in this week’s parsha. Before Moshe
sent out the spies, he changed the name of
‘Hoshea’ bin Nun to ‘Yehoshua’. The letter
‘Yud’, which was added to the start of the
name, symbolized ‘G-d’ — as if to say “May
G-d save you from the plan of the spies”. Our
Sages tell us that this ‘Yud’ was the same
‘Yud’ that was dropped from Sarai’s name
when Avraham’s wife’s name was changed to
Sarah.
Virtually everyone who has picked up a pen
to write a commentary on the Torah discusses
this Rabbinic teaching. Why Sarah? I would
like to share two insights into what it was
about Sarah’s name that might have been
beneficial to Yehoshua at precisely this time.
Rav Elyakim Schlesinger, in his commentary
Beis Av, suggests that Yehoshua was in need
of strength to help him avoid falling in with
bad company. Sarah exemplified such

strength. When Yitzchak was a young boy,
Sarah realized that he was falling under the
influence of Yishmael, and she insisted that
Hagar and Yishmael must be sent out of the
house. She knew what type of influence the
‘wrong crowd’ could have on a person. As
cruel as it might have seemed at the time —
to force Avraham to send out his own son —
Sarah realized that it was absolutely necessary
— because of the power and influence of the
wrong associations. This is what Sarah stood
for.
When Moshe Rabbeinu suspected that
Yehoshua would need the inner fortitude and
strength to go against the crowd, he imbued
Yehoshua with a portion of the name of Sarah
— so that he should gain this aspect of
Sarah’s own strength of personality.
Rav Nissan Alpert suggests a different
interpretation. There is another difficulty in
this Parsha. When Moshe Rabbeinu sent out
the spies, he gave them a variety of
instructions. First, he asked them to make a
military assessment of the people and cities
of the land. In addition, Moshe asked them to
assess the land itself — in terms of its fertility
and intrinsic goodness. When spies are sent
on a mission, we usually view them as a

strategic tool. We can readily understand the
instructions to assess the military potential.
However, the instructions to investigate the
land itself in terms of the quality of the fruit
and its fertility seems out of place in a spy
mission.
The explanation is that Moshe Rabbeinu was
not only sending them as strategic spies.
Moshe was also trying to instill an attitude in
them — the attitude that “This is your land”.
Moshe did not want them to go as mere spies,
but as “Ba’alei Batim” — the owners of the
land. “Go check out your land — where your
homes will be located. Check out the real
estate, check out the farming, check out the
productivity.” Why? “Because this is going to
be your land. You must look at it as if it is
already yours.”
Approaching Eretz Yisroel with the attitude
“this is mine” is totally different than the
attitude of a normal strategic spy. A spy thinks
in terms of whether we will be able to
succeed; the owner thinks in terms of how —
what method should we use. That is the spirit
that Moshe Rabbeinu wanted to instill in the
spies — that the question is not “whether” —
the question is “how”.

Moshe Rabbeinu considered it vital for
Yehoshua to understand this idea. There will
be no compromise. There is no question. It is
ours. Who, in Tanach, said that Eretz Yisroel
is ours, lock – stock – and barrel? It was
Sarah: “This one will not inherit with my
son” [Bereishis 21:10]. Yishmael will not
have a portion in this land. It belongs
completely to Yitzchak, with no partnership
and no compromise. Eretz Yisroel belongs to
the Jewish nation. It does not belong to
Ishmaelites [descendants of Yishmael]. It is
ours.
Therefore, Moshe Rabbeinu took the ‘Yud’
from the Matriarch Sarah and gave it to
Yehoshua. One must enter the Land of Israel
with Sarah’s attitude.