Shabbat shalom.
In this week's parasha, Parasha Sh'Lach L'cha, the Israelite people are at the border of the Holy Land, their long trek from Egypt seemingly complete. However, before they enter they want to see what the land is like, so Moses picks 12 men, leaders from each tribe, to scout it out.
They find that it is indeed a land flowing with milk and honey, beautiful and bountiful. The narrative states at one point that the scouts found a cluster of grapes so big it had to be carried between 2 of them. But they also found great danger there. The Holy Land's inhabitants include the Anakkim, descendants of the Nephillim from Genesis, Amalekites, our long-standing arch nemeses, and the Canaanites, the natives of that land.
When the scouts return, they tell Moses, Aaron, and the Israelite people everything they had seen, both the good and the bad. And this is the part where things start to go downhill.
10 of the scouts try to convince the Israelites that they cannot possibly take possession of the land. The inhabitants are too powerful, and they would surely fail. But Caleb and Joshua, the other two scouts, know that they can be successful, for the Lord is with them.
The big issue that this parasha confronts is human failure. It happens all the time. From something as little as forgetting to tip when you go out to dinner to something as big as pouring millions of gallons of oil a day into the gulf of Mexico, people make mistakes. THis parasha helps us understand at least one of the causes of human failure.
All 12 scouts were wise men and leaders of their tribes, and explored Canaan in its entirety. They all saw its beauty and its majesty, as well as its danger. Qhy, then, when they report back to the Israelites do 10 say there is no chance of them inhabiting Israel whereas 2 say it is a a certainty? Caleb and Joshua, in their exhortations of the People Israel, provide us with the answer.
They say to the Israelites: "Only you must not rebel against the Lord. Have no fear then of the people of the country, for they are our prey: Their protection has departed from them, but the Lord is with us."
That explains everything. The most significant difference between Caleb and Joshua and the other 10 scouts is their faith in God. Caleb and Joshua knew that they would inhabit the land of Israel because Adonai was on their side, not their enemies'. The other scouts did not share this belief, and so were convinced otherwise.
This idea is reinforced later in the parasha. God declares his punishment for the Israelite people for their failure to obey his command: That they should wander in the desert another 40 years, one year for each day the scouts spent in Israel, until the generation that had rebelled against him had all died off.
At this point, the Israelites decide they are ready to obey God and enter the land of Canaan. Moses warns them that they will not succeed, but they refuse to listen. Of course, lacking God's presence they are dealt a shattering blow by the natives.
What we draw from this is that when we rebel against God we are setting ourselves up for failure. Obviously we don't get directives from God about what we should do with our lives on a daily basis, but we know the difference between acting Godly and not doing so. When we don't fulfill Mitzvot, when we don't try to help the people around us and make our own lives holier, we are setting ourselves up for failure. On the other hand, if we keep God in our lives we are guaranteed success.
Personally, I think that this is an important lesson for me to learn. As I go out into the world on my own, I know that it will be hard to make the right choices all the time. But as long as I have faith in God and act in a Godly way, I know that in the end, everything will work out just fine.
Thank you.
Shabbat shalom.
No comments:
Post a Comment