Shelax (Numbers 13:1 - 15:41)

Shelax, literally "send", is thus named because it begins with the command to Moses to send people to spy out the Land of Canaan.

The portion begins with the command to Moses to send spies to Canaan. He sends the heads of the tribes, and they are commanded to see what the land is like and what the inhabitants are like - strong or weak, few or many. The spies return after 40 days, reporting that the land is very fruitful, but its inhabitants are strong and fearsome. Two of the spies, Caleb and Joshua, try to convince the people that the Israelites are capable of conquering the land, but the other spies insist that this is impossible, and then also choose to slander the land despite the good things they had previously said. The people then cry all night, and complain for having been taken from Egypt, suggesting that they return. They even threaten to stone Caleb and Joshua when they again try to convince them that the land is good and that God will help conquer it.

God is furious, and tells Moses that he plans to bring a plague upon the Israelites. Moses begs God not to punish the people so severely, and he therefore punishes all those above the age of twenty at the time, saying that other than Caleb and Joshua, none of them will enter the land. The Israelites are then sent to wander the desert for forty years, one year for each day the spies spent in Canaan.

The people then try to repent, and go conquer the land on their own, but it is too late. Despite the fact that Moses warns them not to proceed, they do, and are smitten by the Amalekites and the Canaanites.

The Israelites are then given a list of laws which they are commanded to keep when they reach Canaan, including sacrifices and donations to God.

We then hear of a case of a man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath. The people asked Moses how to punish him, because this was not specified, and Moses is told by God that he must be stoned. The people stone him to death outside of the camp.

The portion ends with a command to the Israelites to make fringes - Tzitzit - on the corners of their garments, in order to remember God and keep his commands.