The day the spies returned was the eve of Tisha b’Av, and that night the people wept. Said the Holy One: “You wept a weeping for nothing — so I establish for you a weeping for the generations.” That night it was decreed that our fathers would not enter the land.

The Mishkan was erected on 1 Nissan (year two). On 20 Iyar the cloud lifted (Behaalotcha) — and they began to travel. Then Kivrot HaTaavah: “a month of days” — thirty days, until 20 Sivan. Then Miriam was shut out seven days — until 29 Sivan.

On 29 Sivan Moshe sent the spies; “they returned from scouting the land at the end of forty days” — and that year Tammuz was a full month (thirty days) — bringing us to the eve of Tisha b’Av. The source? Tractate Taanit, page 29 — a sign: on the 29th of Sivan they set out.

Ask in the street: where did Hashem say to Moshe “Salachti kidvarecha” (I have forgiven as you said)? All will answer: at the sin of the calf. This is an error. At the calf (Ki Tisa, Shemot) — after Moshe’s prayer — “Salachti kidvarecha” is not said at all.

The one place where “Salachti kidvarecha” is written is precisely here, in Parashat Shelach, regarding the spies.

Two sources for the error. First: on Yom Kippur we say the Thirteen Attributes 26 times, and right after them “Forgive, please, the iniquity of this people… And Hashem said: I have forgiven as you said” — which is taken from here (the spies), yet in our minds it is the calf.

Second: Rashi in Devarim (on the calf) says that on the second Yom Kippur Moshe came down and was told “Salachti kidvarecha,” and that day was set for pardon and forgiveness. But in Shemot the phrase is not written — Rashi says it by the holy spirit: “that day the Holy One was reconciled with joy” — a forgiveness so high it was not written.

Right after “Salachti kidvarecha,” the Torah adds: “Yet, as I live… all the men who saw My glory… shall not see the land.” If so — what kind of forgiveness? The whole desert generation, from age twenty and up, would die over forty years.

Rashi explains: “kidvarecha” — for what you said, that the nations should not say “Hashem lacked the power.” On that I forgive — that I can bring them to the land; but this generation will not enter. A forgiveness more limited than at the calf, which was with joy and unconditional.

The Ohr HaChaim gives a further reading of “Salachti kidvarecha”: not an absolute pardon of the sin, but “as you said” — as you asked, “Let Me be” — that I not destroy them in a single blow.

Not in one blow — but little by little: six hundred thousand divided over thirty-eight years — each Tisha b’Av some sixteen thousand would die — until that generation was spent.

In any case, judgment is carried out with patience (b’arichut apayim). On this our Sages said: there is no calamity in any generation that does not contain a little of the sin of the calf and a little of the sin of the spies.

The sufferings that came upon Israel through two thousand years of exile are, in essence, an atonement — each time a little. Israel, thank G-d, is not destroyed and will never be destroyed — for in the end we are His beloved children, and we have a task: to bring the redemption to the world.

A parable of a king in whose kingdom the thief’s sentence was stoning — a great stone laid upon him until he dies. His only son was caught stealing, and his sentence was stoning, with no favoritism. The Jew advised him: grind the stone to gravel, and throw one small piece upon him each day. Thus the sentence is carried out — yet he does not die from it.

And the meaning: Israel. The Holy One was greatly angered — at the calf (idolatry right after the Exodus) and at the spies (the spurning of the cherished land, which was the whole purpose of the Exodus). “Let Me be” — yet the judgment is done with patience, little by little, without destruction. We will improve, and finish with these small stones — and Mashiach will come, speedily in our days, amen and amen.