BH

Monday Sivan 18, 5777 / June 12, 2017

This week's Parsha is Shlach. The Parsha begins with the story of the spies that Moshe sent to scout the land of Canaan which G-d promised to give to the Jewish people. Although G-d told them that the land was a good and fertile land, a land which flows milk and honey and that they would conquer the land, yet, they wanted to send spies to check out the Promised Land. This act was an expression of a lack of faith in G-d.

The spies scouted the land for forty days. Instead of returning and encouraging the people to go up and conquer the land, ten of the spies brought back a negative report which discouraged the people. 

They brought back fruits from the land.  Displaying the fruits, they told of the giants who live in the land.  They concluded their report by saying, "The land through which we have passed is a land which eats up its inhabitants!”

The people were so distressed when hearing this report that they revolted against Moshe and wanted to go back to Egypt, refusing to go into the Promised Land. G-d punished them and instead of continuing to the Promised Land they stayed in the desert for forty years (one year for each day they scouted the land). Only after all those, from the age of twenty, who refused to go into Israel died, did G-d bring their children into the Promised Land.

Q.   Why did they describe the land as "a land which eats up its inhabitants?"

A.   In order that the spies should not be harmed, G-d brought a plague wherever the spies went.  Thus, the people of the land were busy burying their dead and did not pay attention to the spies.

Had their faith in G-d been complete, the spies would have realized that this was for their benefit.  However, because they lacked faith in G-d they attributed this to, "A land that eats up its inhabitants!" 

Q.   The spies said, "And we were in our own eyes as grasshoppers and so we were in their eyes."  What lesson can one derive from this?

A.   Our rabbis explain that as a person is in his own eyes so too he is perceived by others.  Had the spies been positive and confident in their mission, remembering that they were sent by Moshe, they would have been proud of their mission.  But with their negative attitude ("we were in our own eyes as grasshoppers") they projected the same image about themselves to the inhabitants of the land; as small and meaningless creatures.

Lesson:  When we do a mitzvah, performing our G-dly mission in this world, it is important to feel proud and positive about what we are doing.  This feeling will then be projected and transmitted to others. They will look at us in a positive way and they too will be influenced to do the same.

HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY