"...and He came to Hevron"

Moshe commanded 12 spies to enter into the Land of Israel.  What should have been a fairly easy scouting mission turned into the biggest sin in Am Yisrael's history. The Nation had been promised by the Creator of the world, that they would dwell in their eternal inheritance as was sworn to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov their forefathers. Yet, 10 out of the 12 spies reported negatively on the ability for the Nation of Israel to conquer the land.  As a punishment Am Yisrael would have to wander in the desert until a new generation would be ready, cleansed of the impurities of foreign lands to conquer what was rightfully theirs.

Only Yehoshua and Calev did not falter.  Yehoshua needed an additional letter (added to his name by Moshe) in order to hold strong against the Spies' faltering emunah (certain faith).  But what of Calev? 

כב  וַיַּעֲלוּ בַנֶּגֶב, וַיָּבֹא עַד-חֶבְרוֹן,
22 And they went up in the South and He came to Hevron

The verse indicates a change from plural to singular and it is Rashi that points out that this was indeed Calev who gathered strength from the Avot and Imahot buried in the Maarat HaMachpelah.  It was this connection that Calev drew upon to withstand the loss of Emunah from the other 10 spies.

Ben Gurion: Hebron is Jerusalem's Sister

In 1970 Ben Gurion wrote a letter in reflection of the return of Israel to Judea and Samaria. Here is a piece of the letter:

Before Jacob died in Egypt, after going down there to see his son Joseph, he made his sons promise to bury him with his fathers "in Hebron in the cave, in Ephron the Hittite's field, where were buried Abraham and his wife Sarah, Isaac and his wife Rebecca and where I buried Leah" (Genesis 49:29, 31). And that is what Joseph and his brothers did. It is thus clear that only the three Patriarchs and the three Matriarchs of the Jewish People were buried in the Cave of Machpela.

However, the importance of Hebron is not merely its role in the lives of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of our nation. After Saul, the first King of Israel fell upon his sword in the war with the Philistines, so that he might not be taken captive, and David replaced him as King, David inquired of the Eternal: "Shall I go up to one of the cities of Judah?" And the Eternal answered: Go up!" And David said: "Unto where shall I go up?" And G-d answered" "To Hebron." And David went up there...and the men of Judah came and anointed David there as King of Judah" (Samuel II,2.4). Finally, after the death of Abner, commander of Saul's army, "and all the tribes of Israel came to David in Hebron and proclaimed: "Behold we are of the bone and flesh; and so it was yesterday and the day before, while Saul was King over us, it was you who were the leader of Israel; and the Almighty has said "You shall shepherd my people Israel and you shall be prince of Israel." And all the elders of Israel came to the king in Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them in Hebron over Israel" (Samuel II, 5:1-3). Thus arose in Hebron the greatest royal dynasty that Israel ever had. Read the whole letter...

We are living in a generation where the world is quick to forget its roots. It dismisses that which lies within everything, the divine root of Creation, the director of History, the one and true G-d. The sin of the spies is a continuous sin. It is the sin of forgetting where we came from and from that stems the loss of knowing where we are going and how to hold onto to who we are. The world wants to forget, to move into a new era. The world wants an era where rules are just there to make life a little easier and society just a bit better, but Am Yisrael is meant to be a reminder to the world, and Hevron is the source of that reminder.  Hevron and the Maarat Hamachpelah are the way back to our source, to our path.  If Jerusalem is our future, the center and heart of our Kingdom, then Hevron is our Nation's memory, the place of our fathers and mothers.  With it we can return and bring the world back to its true essence, the One G-d of Israel.