EXOD1073 Another famous instance of questionable justice on G-d's part occurs when G-d responds to the incidents of the golden calf and the ten spies who recommend against going forward to occupy the land of Canaan. In both places, G-d reveals that He “visits the iniquity of the parents upon the children and children's children, upon the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:7; Numbers 14:18). Similarly, the generation of the spies was told that “your children [will] roam the wilderness for forty years, suffering for your faithlessness, until the last of your carcasses is down in the wilderness” (Numbers 14:33; emphasis added). Biblical scholars describe this doctrine as “vertical retribution,” in that G-d's punishment is transferred not horizontally in time to other members of one's generation, but vertically through time to those of generations to come. In its positive form, in which people receive benefits as a result of what their ancestors did, the Rabbis call it tekhut avot, “the merit of the ancestors.” This offends our sense of justice, for we think that people should be responsible only for their own deeds. In human legal proceedings, the Torah demands that courts judge exactly that way (Deuteronomy 24:16). Nevertheless, as discussed in the last chapter, this passage from the ten commandments describes correctly what in fact happens in people's lives, where we both benefit and suffer from what our ancestors have done and what our community is now doing; we do not live on isolated islands but are rather significantly affected by what other people do, however unfair that may seem.