“Valley of Clusters” Parashat Shelach 5786 |
Twelve spies head out to reconnoitre the Land of Israel in preparation for capture. Soon after they break camp, they find themselves in a bizarre place [Bemidbar 13:23-24]: “They came to the Valley (Nachal) of Eshkol and they cut a branch with a cluster (eshkol) of grapes. They carried it on a pole between two [people] and [they also took] some pomegranates and figs. They called that place the ‘Valley of Eshkol’ because of the cluster (eshkol) the Children of Israel cut from there.” The word “eshkol” appears in these two verses in some form of another no less than four times. Clearly, it is a “key word”, critical to understanding the verses.
The most straightforward understanding is that the “Valley of Eshkol” originally had another name, maybe “Shangri-La-De-Da Valley”. When the spies came across an unusually large cluster of grapes growing in the valley[1], they renamed it “Valley of Eshkol” or “Cluster Valley”. The next verse is adding that it was called “Valley of Eshkol” only because of the abnormal grape clusters and not for some other reason.
Our Sages in the Midrash bring examples of places mentioned in the Torah whose names are not chronologically correct. For instance, Abraham chases his opponents [Bereishit 14:14] “All the way to Dan”. “Dan”, in the north of Israel, gets its name from the fact that it was the inheritance of the Tribe of Dan, Abraham’s great-grandson. The problem is that Dan was born about seventy years after Abraham died. How could Abraham chase anyone to “Dan”? Rashi[2] answers that the verse refers to “Dan” on the basis of its future name. In the time of Abraham, it was called something else, maybe “Shangri-La-De-Da Valley”. That said, there is no similar exegesis of the word “Eshkol”. It must be that the name of that valley was always “Valley of Eshkol”, even before the spies discovered the ubergrapes. The Torah alludes to this as well, calling it the “Valley of Eshkol” before mentioning anything about grapes.
Rabbi Jacob Tzvi Mecklenburg[3], writing in “Ha’Ketav veha’Kabala”, proposes a novel interpretation. “Eshkol” is........