POSITIVELY SPYING

A few years back I heard the most wonderful Drash on this week's Parsha, Sh'lakh Lekha, at the Bat Mitzvah of a soulfully sensitive young lady.  Her D'Var Torah boiled the Parsha down to one incredibly simple, but brilliant, message.

 

The story is probably familiar to most of us.  The Israelites are about to enter into Canaan and God tells Moses to send 12 men, one from each tribe, to spy out the land.  Moses immediately does so and the men reconnoiter for 40 days.  However upon their return, 10 of the spies gave increasingly negative reports of the land. First they reported positively that the land flowed with milk and honey and that it had incredible fruit.  But their report took a decidedly negative turn when they finished up by saying that the inhabitants were fierce, the cities were impregnable, and, that the land was teaming with Israel's enemies.

 

There were, however, 2 spies, Caleb and Joshua, who reported that the land could be conquered.  Rather than be calmed down by the more reasoned description given by Caleb and Joshua, the other spies embellished their rhetoric and asserted that the land was filled with giants.  Indeed, the 10 spies cried out that the Israelites were like grasshoppers to the native inhabitants.  The bad report led the people to cry out that they would have rather died in Egypt then be brought to the new land.  Caleb and Joshua tried once more to cajole the people, telling them that the land was not only beautiful, but that God was on the side of the Israelites and that would mean sure victory. 

 

Unfortunately, the attempt to quell the nerves of the people failed.  God became so infuriated that he punished the people by forbidding them to enter the Promised Land. Instead they would wander in the desert for 40 years, one year for each day that the spies were in the land.

The keen observation of our dear young (but dare I say old-souled) Bat Mitzvah was that the downfall of the 10 spies was that they failed to have a positive attitude. Our young sage took the position that the spies' inherently negative outlook fostered the fear that clouded their judgment.  The inherent negativity led to bad decision-making and, ultimately, to the promulgation of wildly exaggerated reports of impending doom. 

 

The lesson to be learned is that we need to take a positive attitude into the things we do.  If we see the glass as half-full we are more likely to reach well-reasoned conclusions and to have positive results.

 

God does not expect us to be perfect, nor does The Holy One expect us to perform miracles.  Instead, God is looking for us to process information unhindered by our human proclivity to allow fear and negativity to guide us.  Put simply: We may not be able to eliminate the negative but we can, and should, accentuate the positive.

 

           

Shabbat Shalom - Rabbi Michael S. Jay 

       

 

THE FOLLOWING CLASS WITH THE RABBI 

BEGINS THIS MONTH

Fridays from June 23 - August 25

10:00 - 12 Noon

Class & Discussion

"A Survey of Jewish Ethics

Each class stands on its own.  No registration needed.

Look for Monday Lunch & Learn Sessions 

beginning July 10