The Forty Year Journey

The forty year journey of the Children of Israel to the Land of Israel was punishment for the people’s rejection of the Land by accepting the majority report of Moses’ spies. [Numbers 14:22-23]

The Torah teaches us that only free people can build a free society. Those who were born into slavery, though they longed for freedom, did not necessarily know nor fully appreciate freedom. The people were freed physically, but in order to be build freedom, it is necessary to be psychologically free.

Freedom must be a positive attitude. The absence of slavery does not necessarily make one free. It is not sufficient to rid oneself of the shackles of slavery, one has to know and appreciate the meaning of freedom.

The Children of Israel who left Egypt failed to appreciate that it is worth sacrificing in order to achieve freedom. Had the Israelites realized that the quest for freedom justifies, and perhaps necessitates, sacrifices, they would not have responded to the spies’ report “it is better for us to return to Egypt.” Rather, the people would have understood that it is better to fight on behalf of freedom in their own land. Because the adult generation failed to appreciate the value of freedom, they had to die before entering the Land.

It was the younger generation, which had grown up in freedom, which was qualified to create a free society in the Land of Israel.