KabbalaOnline.org Shelach 5783 The Holy Ari Insights on the Torah Reading
KabbalaOnline.org Shelach 5783 The Holy Ari Insights on the Torah Reading Souls of Spies and Princes The Holy Ari From the teachings of Rabbi Yitzchak Luria; translated and edited by Moshe Yaakov Wisnefsky The portion of the Torah read this week opens with the story of the princes of each tribe who were sent to spy out the land of Israel before the Jewish people entered it. Commenting on the verse, " And Joseph said to them, 'You are spies… '" ( Gen. 42:9) our Sages said that Joseph was hinting to his brothers that they would [be reincarnated and] spy out the land of Israel, but that Joshua - the prince of the tribe of Ephraim , the son of Joseph, would not be a [reincarnated] spy. The patriarch Jacob had twelve sons, each of which became the progenitor of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. When Joseph told his brothers, "you are spies", he was in effect telling them that all eleven