B"H

Tuesday, Sivan 22, 5779 / June 25, 2019

 

This week's Parsha (in the Diaspora) Shlach begins with the story of the twelve spies (Meraglim) that Moshe sent to scout the land of Canaan which G-d promised to give to the Jewish people. He sent one person from each tribe. They scouted the land in forty days.

 

Moshe instructed them to see if the people of the land are strong or weak; if they live in fortified cities or not; if the land is fat or lean; are there any righteous people whose merit may protect the people of the land. He also told the scouts to bring back some of the fruits of the land. Moshe was sure they would bring back a good and positive report.

 

Upon their return, instead of encouraging the people to go and conquer the land, as Moshe expected of them, ten of the spies brought back a negative report which discouraged the people. They told of the giants who live in the land, "And we were in our own eyes as grasshoppers and so we were in their eyes." They also claimed, "The land through which we have passed is a land which eats up its inhabitants!”

 

As a result, the people refused to go into the Promised Land and wanted to return to Egypt. G-d punished them and instead of continuing to the Promised Land they stayed in the desert for forty years, until all those who refused to go to Israel died.

 

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, wherever the spies went G-d brought a plague so the people of the land would be busy burying their dead and would 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's promise that the land was good, they attributed the deaths to, "a land which 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, then everyone else would look at them positively. But with their negative attitude ("we were in our own eyes as grasshoppers") they projected the same image to the inhabitants of the land; who viewed them as small and meaningless.

 

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 too will look at us in a positive way and will be influenced to do the same.

 

HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY