Question: In the Torah Portion of Shelach (Numbers 13:17-21) why is it that Moses seemed scared to commit to the promised land? Why didn’t he want to trust G-d?

Answer: Excellent question, which the eminent medieval commentator Nachmanidies addresses.

Moses trusted that G-d would take them into a good land. However, it is normal and expected that they would conquer Israel in a semi normal way, with spies scouting out the best routes, etc. They did this in Joshua Ch 2 without any problem. Moses wanted to show the spies and people the greatness of Israel by pointing out all of the good things to look for in the land.

I have a theory that Moses specifically put the spies to a test to see how they would react to Israel and to test them whether they would overcome their desire to speak lashon hara (gossip) about the land or not. I believe that Moses intended for the Jews to “fix” the sin of Adam (The Jews at the time of receiving the Torah lived in an Adam-like Eden situation). Thus he had an inkling that the spies might sin. We see this when he named Hoshea Bin Nun, Joshua, stating (as the Talmud says) “May G-d save you from the plans of the spies.” Just my own theory.

All the Best,
Rabbi Meir Goldberg