The meraglim told Klal Yisrael that Eretz Yisrael was a bad land since they saw many people die there. The Sifsei Kohein writes a fascinating thing. The nations that lived in Eretz Yisrael believed in a tradition they had that when someone dies, they don’t bury him right away, but rather wait until a prominent figure dies and then bury them together, so that they can get a hitch with him to “Gan Eden”! Since Iyov passed away when the meraglim were visiting, they took out all the coffins from the previous period of time to bury them. The meraglim then thought that all those people had died at that time!
The Medrash says that when the meraglim were cutting fruits, the giants came and screamed at them. They got so scared that they passed out. The giants then performed CPR on them, and they regained consciousness. They told them, “Why did you come to spy? The entire world is Hashem’s. If He decided to give you Eretz Yisrael, it is yours, and you have nothing to be afraid of!” In this zechus, Hashem blessed the giants with a very long life, living until the destruction of the second Beis Hamikdash. (Yalkut Shimoni and Me’am Loez)
The Medrash brings down a fascinating story. A girl went into her father’s field and plucked a pomegranate off the tree. She threw the peel on the floor, and, meanwhile, the meraglim came and saw this gigantic red peel. Thinking it was a cave, they walked into it! The girl then thought to herself, “My father is going to scream at me. Let me get rid of the peel.” She picked up the peel with the meraglim in it and threw it out of the field! The meraglim were astounded at her strength, picking up twelve men as if they were just grasshoppers.
In the town where the Rebbe Reb Menachem Mendel of Kosov lived, there was a certain man who did everything he could to make the Rebbe’s life miserable.
One day, this same man experienced some serious troubles and came to pour out his heart before the Rebbe. The gabbai was sure that the Rebbe would rebuke him, but instead, he heard the Rebbe encourage him and give him much chizuk, telling him that a Yid should never give up!
The man then explained that he needed money to marry off his daughter. The gabbai was furious. How could this man have the audacity to ask the Rebbe for money? But the Rebbe did not hesitate. He simply asked the man how much he needed. The man named a very large sum, and the Rebbe calmly took the money out of a drawer and gave it to him.
The man himself was astonished and told others what had happened. When word spread, the Rebbe’s brother came to him and asked why he had done this when even the Rebbe’s own family was struggling financially.
The Rebbe replied that someone else had already come to him with the same argument—the yetzer hara—but he had not listened.
The Rebbe ended by saying, “I give my enemies so much love until they love me.”
This is similar to what Moshe Rabbeinu did. Even though Dasan and Aviram were such bitter enemies of his, he personally went to their homes and tried to make peace with them.
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 85.