Shlach with Idan Dershowitz

We, we want to talk about the connection, of course, the story we have in the parashah, the story of the spies, but we actually really want to focus on, um, the story of Rahab from the haftarah.

And I wonder if you could explain, um, the importance of the, uh, promise or assurance rather than the sign indicated in this story, um, that, that connects to the parashah.

Okay, thank you.

So the, the haftarah of Parashat Shlach, so in other words, the portion from the prophets that's read after we read the, the section from the Torah, is from the Book of Joshua, from the beginning of the Book of Joshua, chapter two, and it deals with spies who are sent out to scout Jericho.

And the reason that this haftarah is chosen for this week's parashah is because both the parashah and the haftarah deal with spies who, who scout out the, the land of Israel.

And in the story in the haftarah, these spies come to the house of Rahab, who's a Canaanite prostitute, and she ends up hiding these spies and protecting them.

And then afterwards, she seeks some sort of, uh, protection from, from these spies.

So she's helped them prepare for a conquest of, of Jericho, but she herself lives there and, and she wants herself and her family to be protected.

And in that story, we find the word ot.

She requests an ot, which is usually understood to be a sign.

So give me a sign that you will protect me.

That's usually how it's understood.

And my colleague, Na'ama Patel, from the University of Aus- of, um, Texas, uh, Austin, a- and I wrote an article suggesting that here and in many other places in the Bible, the word ot means something different to what is usually understood, and it doesn't necessarily mean a sign or a miracle, things like that, but rather it means a promise or an assurance or a commitment, things, things of that nature.

And so it changes our understanding of, of various different passages.

This is just, just one of them.

It also changes our understanding of the mark of Cain, for example, and, and, um, and there are several other examples that, that we discuss.

And in, and in this particular case, in the case of Rahab, it, it means that she's seeking something different from these spies than a s- a sign or some sort of divine, um, um, some sort of divine, um, m- miracle or something like that, and rather what she's seeking is a promise that they will protect her and her family.

And so when we understand it to mean sign, usually in this case it's, it's not underst- there are different ways of understanding it, but the most common one is that the sign that she gets from them is this red or this crimson cord that she's meant to hang from her window to mark her home as one that should be spared during the conquest.

But if ot instead means a promise, then what she's asking them for is a promise that they protect her, and they in fact do make that promise, and that has nothing to do with this crimson cord, which is a technical issue regarding how to, uh, how to identify the home that is to be protected.

And so it's an interesting case where, you know, we're dealing just with one word and the meaning of just one word, but depending on how you understand that one word, you get a different sense of what's going on in the story.

And in some cases, it, it really transforms our understanding of-Of the whole story, and we can talk about some other cases as well, uh, if you're interested.