After the nation was informed of the consequence for the sin of the spies, they grieved exceedingly. The next morning, evidently several of them regretted their previous doubts and decided they would take responsibility for their sin, admit their error, and ascend the mountaintop and take on the enemy and conquer the promised land.

Moshe immediately confronts, and addresses, them, “Why do you transgress the word of Hashem? It — לא תצלח — will not succeed.”

Moshe seems not only to be taking them to task for their insolence in defying G-d’s will, but also informing them they will not succeed. Why is this second point even worthy of mention? Is Moshe intimating that if they were to succeed it would justify their going against the dictate of G-d?

Rashi seeking to amplify on this last statement — It will not succeed, adds, זה שאתם עושין לא תצלח — What you are doing will not succeed, seemingly adding nothing to the self-evident understanding of the verse.

If you ask anyone randomly what their greatest desire is for in life, most often people will respond: Success.

In fact, one of the most expressed wishes we bestow on one another is that of ברכה והצלחה — Blessing and Success.

Can one truly define success?

In truth, nowhere in all the written Torah does this exact word — הצלחה, appear as a noun. Most often it is used as a verb or an adjective.

The first time this word appears is during the episode of Eliezer, the servant of Avraham, in his quest to find a wife for Yitzchok. After devising a script for G-d to carry out detailing exactly how it should pan out, Eliezer observes how immediately after, Rivkah appears and accedes to his request for water, exactly as he planned it. The verse goes on to describe Eliezer’s silent astonishment and his wondering — הַהִצְלִיחַ — whether G-d had made his journey successful or not.

Rav S.R. Hirsch elucidates on the etymology of this word and writes: הצליח, from צלח related to שלח, to set something in motion towards a goal. The צ  sound introduces the nuance in overcoming difficulties so that צלח means to attain a goal by overcoming all the opposing difficulties... Perhaps סלח is also related. A sinful man deserves to be frustrated in the progress of his life. To allow him, nevertheless, to progress to a new future, to grant him this progress again, is called סלח.

Yosef is known as an איש מצליח — a successful man, overcoming obstacles and progressing towards his goals.

So, the emphasis is not as much on the objective as it is in the manner in which one gets there. Yosef was certainly enduring a uncomfortable life in Egypt, yet he forged ahead with perseverance in his goals. Even after being tossed into prison due to the false accusation of Potiphar’s wife, he is admired as a מצליח, a ‘successful one’.

There is a famous quote attributed to Winston Churchill, although he never actually uttered it:

Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

Whoever said it though, touched on the essence of ‘success’.

It is not about the goal per se, nor negated by failure along the way, but rather defined by the drive to forge on, overcoming with equanimity the obstacles that may come in our way, but persisting, nevertheless.

The goal posts always move for those striving for true success — self-perfection and closeness to G-d, and there really is no objectively defined noun called ‘success’. It is the constant 'צלח' — overcoming obstacles calmly and purposefully that makes one a ‘successful’ person. It is a state of being.

Moshe’s warning to the מעפילים — ‘Ascenders’, in telling them they would not succeed, was actually a profound lesson for life. They thought the objective is everything, thinking that now that they had sincerely repented, they could assume their mission as before. Moshe was teaching them that success is measured in how one approaches obstacles that are tossed in one’s path. If frustration and impatience is apparent, one has failed miserably. Only if one covets the challenge, realizing that in overcoming those difficulties with calm, lays our greatness, one achieves ‘success’.

In their overeagerness they lost an opportunity for greatness. A generation of children would have to grow up in an environment of fathers who would never ‘touchdown’ in the holy land, but would relish instead the forty year wait, achieving even greater success in their personal growth.

Perhaps that is what Rashi meant to add when he says — זה שאתם עושין — this that you place value only on the ‘accomplishment’, לא תצלח — is not the true definition of ‘success’.  

The Midrash states that the מקושש — the ‘Wood-Gatherer’ who publicly violated the Shabbos, was mistaken but well intentioned. Since the populace had begun questioning whether they were still prohibited from keeping the Shabbos once they enter the land, he desired to display before them the unequivocal consequence of profaning the Shabbos, by violating it himself and being duly punished.

Some say this was none other than Tzelafchad, a righteous individual who nevertheless erred.

Others posit that Tzelafchad was not the wood-gatherer but rather one of the ‘Ascenders’.

Perhaps I might suggest that the ascenders similarly sought to give up their lives for the sake of teaching the people this vital lesson.

By defying the instruction not to ascend in battle at that time and suffer the consequences of falling in battle, the nation would finally get the message that success is not determined by achieving the goal, but rather in persevering with grace, faith, and courage, through whatever hindrances G-d throws in our path.

At the end of the day, it is that ‘courage to continue’ that really counts and defines us as truly successful.

באהבה,

צבי יהודה טייכמאן