This week’s parsha (Torah portion) is a strange one. Moshe (Moses) sends 12 men into the land to spy on it and its inhabitants. They come out and their report causes a national hysteria which leads to a 40 year sojourn in the desert until all the men die off. The Torah then goes into a discussion about sacrifices, and we finish with a man getting stoned to death for breaking shabbat and a law regarding the wearing of tzitzit (knotted strings) on the corner of one’s garment.
What I have given above is a very brief and general overview. A lot of people like to focus on the fact that Moshe changes Joshua’s name (in Hebrew, from Hoshea to Y’hoshua, the difference being the letter yud was added to the front). I heard one rabbi say that the yud represents an individual and the hay (which was the beginning of the name ) represents the group. So by adding the yud, Moshe was taking Joshua out of the group of spies so he could stand against them. But this is not what I wish to discuss.
Three things struck me in this parsha.
The first was what the spies reported back. I have heard many people say that they provided an evil report. Yet at the same time, they spoke only the truth. So how could their report have been evil and why would the people be scared?
The key to this question is in the last verse of chapter 33 (in Bmidbar/Numbers) where the spies say, “And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of a giant from the Nephilim, and it was in our eyes that we were like grasshoppers, and so we were in their eyes.” What is significant here is that they saw themselves like grasshoppers and without asking the Nephilim what they thought, they assumed or projected how they felt to be how they appeared to others.
This is not an uncommon practice. How many of you out there have done that? I know I have, on more then one occasion. I might feel that I am not worthy of getting a job for example, and so I assume everybody at the job interview can see the sham I am putting on. The irony is that often others don’t see us in our self-critical light, and that self-critical light colors how we view the world.
How did this feeling effect the spies’ report? Well, it is a case of how information is presented: is the glass half-full or half-empty? They talked about a land that was too good for the people, that the people wouldn’t be able to handle it or the inhabitants. The negativity in the report was not about the land, but about their brothers and sisters, the tribes of Yisrael. The people bought it and agreed that they were nothing more then insects worthy of only being slaves, and they forgot that haShem (god) thought so highly of them that he gave them the 10 statements and miracles and constant attention. This is a teaching on the power of words and how you look at yourself and the world around you.
The people cry out saying (among other things), “If only we had died in this wilderness.” HaShem heard this and said (to paraphrase), “Well, if that is what you want…” and he decreed that all the men over the age of 20 would die in the wilderness. It is interesting to note that it was only the men who felt unworthy and complained. I say this because they are the only ones who were sentenced to die in the wilderness. The woman must of had more faith and trust in haShem and so were allowed to go into the promised land, or they must have at least seen through the wording of the report and understood that they could occupy the land. This, however, is a digression to the point I am trying to make which is that one needs to be aware and careful of what one says, because haShem DOES listen to us and will give us what we ask for. This is a perfect example of it.
Rebbe Nachman also talks about this. I once heard Rabbi Gedalia Fleer teach that according to Rebbe Nachman, any bad decree put on a person has to be ok’d by that person. Well nobody would voluntarily agree to be punished, so haShem puts in front of that person a similar example to what that person did, and how that person responds to it is what he will receive. The example Rebbe Nachman uses is from the bible where King David takes BatSheva from another man and the prophet Nathan comes to King David and tells him a story of thievery. King David says the man in the story should be killed and Nathan informs King David that that man is him.
What is interesting in the King David story is what happens next. He immediately sees that he messed up big time and starts repenting. The result is that he is not killed, the decree against him has been removed.
And this is exactly why we have talk about sacrifices right after the decree on the people. This is the Torah’s way of saying that even if you screw up and a punishment has been handed down upon you, you can still repent and make a sacrifice (today I would say a personal sacrifice to change your ways and try to fix the mistake you made) and the punishment can still be softened or eliminated. This is a very important concept because no matter how good we are at seeing the glass as half full and at having faith in god and not projecting our insecurities onto others and not being judgmental, we are only human and we will sometimes do these things. So it is important to know that there is a way to reach haShem’s compassionate side, and soften the judgement against us. It is a pity the men going into the wilderness didn’t catch on to what the Torah was trying to teach, for if they had, they might have done the sacrifice (or karbon in Hebrew which means to come close as in closer to god), and the decree of death might not have been carried out.
I bless everybody to be lenient judges of themselves and others, and that we all try to make amends when we make mistakes, even when changing our ways and patching things up with others is hard.
About the Author
Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.