Kalev Ha-Yehudi

Kalev was born when his father, the grandson of Yehudah, was elderly that died soon after. 40 years earlier, Moshe Rabbeinu was born. Batya, the daughter of the Pharo, did not want to be like her idolatrous father and wanted to become holy by purifying herself via immersion in the Nile River. This would be akin to going into the mikveh.

Afterwards, she got out of the river and saw the basket with the baby (Moshe) in it. Miriam, his sister, got Batya to get Yoheved (their mother) to be the feeding-nurse of Moshe.

Miriam was single until age 46, but Hashem wanted Kalev Ha-Yehudi to marry her despite him being significantly younger. Kalev, with his wife, and her brothers, led Aam Yisrael out of Mitzrayim via miracles.

Amalek had a hatred towards Aam Yisrael and wanted to stop them even if they would die trying. Aharon and Hur, son of Kalev and Miriam, held the arms of Moshe Rabbeinu while he was praying for Aam Yisrael to win the war against Amalek.

During the time that Moshe Rabbeinu was on Har Sinai, the Erev Rav wanted to find someone to advocate for their own agenda (Golden Calf), so they consulted with Hur who was an amazing person who would never support an idol or a partner…The Erev Rav murdered Hur and eventually created the Golden Calf.

The Mishkan (Tabernacle) was the atonement for the sin of murder and idolatry that had taken place. Hashem did not want Moshe Rabbeinu to construct the Mishkan because Moshe was akin to the Melekh shel Yisrael. Instead, it would be Betzalel (the grandson of Hur) who would be the one to construct the Mishkan.

Kalev Ha-Yehudi, who was still alive in the same era as his great grandson, was one of the spies to scout the Land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael). The other good spy was Hoshua who received a Yud was taken from Sarah Imeinu and then gave it to Hoshua Ha-Binyamini who had his name transformed to Yehoshua Ben Nun (peace be unto him).

They came with 10 other spies. All 12 spies was from a different tribe. The other 10 others are of the tribes that would later become the lost tribes. All of the spies were righteous when the journey started, but during their mission, the 10 other spies had become corrupted by ideas that were convincing them to not want to live in Eretz Yisrael. Yehoshua Ben Nun was not affected by this conversation, but Kalev was affected but did not want to listen to this conversation because he’d become too affected by their motives to not live in Eretz Yisrael, so he went to the burial site of his forefathers to daven to Hashem that he wouldn’t be influenced by the words of the other spies.

On the 9th of Av, the spies returned to the place of the Israelites gave their report. Yehoshua Ben Nun tried to give a good report, but the 10 other spies was able to get him not to talk. Kalev was the next to speak. It turned out that the until this point, the 10 other spies thought that he’d give a negative report, so the 10 other spies started a riot and force their negative report onto the people. This led to most Yehudim, at that time, to being cursed by not being able to enter Eretz Yisrael in their lifetime.

Every anniversary of this day, people would die on that day in fair numbers. Eventually, in the same year, Aharon Ha-Kohen, Miriam, and Moshe Rabbeinu died. And then, Yehoshua Ben Nun, the leader of Israel at the time, led Aam Yisrael to the land that Hashem had wanted them to live in. Kalev merited to join Yehoshua Ben Nun in the settling of Eretz Yisrael.

Kalev would be sent, with Pinhas Ha-Kohen, to spy on the city of Yerikho (Jericho) because Kalev had a esoteric knowledge on the topic of dark spiritual forces such demons. There were demons that were guarding Yerikho.

Yehoshua said that there was a soul of someone that could be brought into the people of Israel. They went to the inn of Rahav (רחב) – a prostitute that was well-connected to the 30+ Kings of Canaan. She was a famous person.No one would suspect that those of the purest nation could possibly want to go to their house of sin…

When she tried to seduce them, they weren’t interested. This astounded her since she had never experienced that before, so she decided to convert to Judaism and would later be married to Yehoshua Ben-Nun. Kalev would later remarry Batya.