This week's Parasha, Shelakh Lekha, is near and dear to my heart. It is my daughter's Bat Mitzvah Parasha and we studied it together many years ago. Sammi subtitled the Parasha "Spies, Lies, Cries and Ties". Below I am summarizing the D'Var Torah she gave at her Bat Mitzvah.
SPIES
God tells Moses to send 12 spies into Canaan to scout the land out and to provide a report. The spies are chosen, one from each of the tribes. Each one is a leader. They represent the best that Israel has to offer. But let's see where that gets us. Is this a meritocracy or are the Spies chosen because of family name and history?
When the spies return from their vacation in sunny Canaan, they give an interesting, If not completely truthful, report. They brought back fruits and a cluster of grapes that was so big that needed two people to hold it. The land, they said, flows with milk and honey. This was the start of the report and everyone present shouted Hooray!!! But then something happens and the happy story takes a dark turn.
LIES
The land may be beautiful, 10 of the spies cried, but it devours its inhabitants. That is weird because they then describe giants who made the Israelites look like Grasshoppers. If the land devoured its inhabitants, how is it that there were giants on the land? It seems that the Spies needed to get their story straight.
The spies said that "we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves, and so we must have looked [like grasshoppers] to them." Notice that the Text does not say that they were the size of grasshoppers...it says we "looked like grasshoppers." There are lies being told by the best and the bravest.
But, in truth, who are these men? They are not warriors. A few short months ago they were slaves. Of course they were afraid, Until God came around they were an abused and subdued people. How could God expect any more of them?
Furthermore, they knew that they only got out of Egypt because God led the way. And if God needs them to scout the Promised Land, then perhaps God is going to make them fight for real. Not what a slave wants to hear.
Only 2 of the spies, Joshua (the future leader who would later tumble the walls of Jericho) and Caleb, tell the truth and advise people that if they have faith in God, they would prevail.
CRIES
However, the children of Israel choose only to hear the bad report. Instead of remembering how God took them out of Egypt with miracles and wonders, and instead of having faith in the Deity's incredible power, they cry and want to get rid of Moses and Aaron. They even want to go back to Egypt. God becomes so furious that He threatens to destroy the whole group except Moses. God even offers to start the Children of Israel over again, with Moses as the father.
But Moses, using his best lawyering skills, brilliantly represents his Israelite clients and gets God to avert the decree. His argumentation is flawless; he plays to God's ego by explaining that if God kills them before they get in to the land, then it will look as if God could not get the job done and decided just to wipe the people out.
God listens and changes his punishment. The punishment imposed would be that the Israelites would wander in the desert for 40 years, one year for each day that the spies were scouting the land. None of the people who were alive and received the false report, except for Caleb and Joshua, would see the Promised Land.
TIES
By the end of the Parasha, There is what appears to be a non-sequiter as God commands the people to wear Tzitzit. But his will actually tie everything together.
So what is the take-away from all of this. We get many lessons, but what I want to point out is something that I think is a major theme of Torah. There is always room for conversation, and growth, and there is room for change.
How do we see these points here.
1)
The majority of the spies are telling a bad tale, but Caleb and Joshua are willing to, at least try, to extend the conversation. Here it may not have worked, but Torah is telling us that we need to express that minority opinion.
2)
God can be argued with, reasoned with and God can be forgiving even when the Deity is really angry. Moses shows this when he is able to negotiate a better penalty. Indeed, so important is this notion of God's capacity for forgiveness that the phrase used to express this was taken from Shelakh Lecha and placed into the Yom Kippur liturgy by the Rabbis..."Vayomer Adonai Sehlakhti keedvahrekha" "I pardon as you have asked" Chapter 14:20.
I think the next one becomes the most important message.
3)
People, and God, can grow and learn. Joshua and Caleb become bigger leaders almost out of nowhere (Do we see hints of a meritocracy?)
Moses grows and learns. He starts as a person slow of speech in the beginning of his story, and becomes a person who is quite eloquent.
God, also, grows and learns. Remember the Ten Commandments? It says: "I am your God, you shall have no other, don't make any images of Me". it's nice stuff, but it fails to take into account the human dependence on sight.
By the end of the spy incident, God has learned that the people need more than an impersonal cloud or fire. The tzitzit, referenced at the end of the Torah portion, become a tangible reminder of God's presence and, thought the Tallit, that presence is forever attached to each person. It is very powerful.
The message of this Torah, is that if Moses, the greatest Prophet, and God the God of all Gods, can change, then how much more so should we be able to change. To be able to fine-tune ourselves is a gift given to us, and learned from, God.
Shabbat shalom - Rabbi Michael S. Jay relaying the thoughts of Samantha Jay.