Shelach- 'If you would only understand!'
For Year 2 of Parsha Lesson, I will be focusing on one practical middah, character trait, to think about in the week ahead and steps we can take to attain it.
Background
In this week’s Parsha we have the unfortunate story of the Meraglim, spies, who went to scout out the Land of Canaan to bring back a report if the land was good and to assess the people of the land. The spies returned and proceeded to disparage the land and drum up the people’s fears and aversion to going to the Land of Canaan, Eretz Yisroel. That night the people cried bitterly out of their fears of travelling to a ‘land of giants’ that is so fearful that it ‘eats its people.’
The Gemara shares with us that Hashem, upon beholding this scene of the Jewish people crying over going into this special land that Hashem himself was giving them, proclaimed: “You are crying over nothing!? I will set for you this night as a crying for generations.” Sure enough, that night was Tisha B’av, the 9th day of Av, which has been for the past few thousand years a night mourning and infamy: both Batei Mikdash (Holy Temples) were destroyed on that day, amongst many other calamities to our people.
Question
R’ Henoch Leibowitz z”l asked a very piercing question: why was this crying of the Jewish nation considered by Hashem to be a crying over nothing? The Jewish people were sincerely scared! The spies were great leaders, well-respected, otherwise righteous, and specifically chosen by Moshe and approved by Hashem himself to do this mission! And these great men told the entire nation of the frightful prospect of what this unknown land held for them.
Why would Hashem look at this night as being one of ‘crocodile tears’ which therefore deserves special punishment and distinction of being a night where real, painful tears are now destined to flow?
Answer
The Jewish people were, in no doubt, scared. They were scared by the report of the spies. The problem is, Hashem already told them that He will be bringing them up to inherit the good land of Eretz Yisroel. In addition, they already witnessed the tremendous power and protection of Hashem and should not have, for even a moment, been fearful of any giants or other imposing physical challenges.
Therefore, because the basis of what their tears were based on was nothingness and inexcusable, the subsequent crying and ‘histrionics’ were built on a foundation of nothingness and therefore themselves ‘crying over nothing.’
Lesson
We live in a generation of understanding. We need to be constantly understanding of those around us and we expect others to be endlessly understanding of us. This is certainly a good thing- people should not go through life with a limited perspective and judge others and situations without having an understanding and good handle of what is at hand.
However, this understanding does not therefore confer rightness. Just because we can explain the genesis of where our actions came from, does not mean that they are therefore correct and justified. Just because we can understand all of the causes and motivations that others might have which led them to behave in a certain way, does not mean that that way of behavior is correct.
The causes, while understandable, may not be sufficiently justified and the outcome and result may therefore be wrong. At times the outcome may be completely unacceptable, while at others merely inappropriate, but either way- the fact that there is a chain of events which led to a certain behavior does not mean that the behavior is correct.
First Step
The First Step towards getting ourselves out of this seductive malaise that our behavior is explainable and therefore proper, one needs to review the basic building block of the Jewish faith and of a responsible life: a person has free choice.
Every human being, at nearly every moment of their lives, has free choice as to how to behave. At times the choice of what is right and wrong may be different than at other times, but there is always free choice and it is therefore incumbent on man to choose correctly.
Once a person takes home the message of free choice and the responsibility that comes along with it, a person can then analyze their actions more objectively and judge what is right and wrong. A person will no longer be trapped in a mindset of life being a series of helplessly following along in the direction that events and happenstances lead them. This will then be a framework through which one’s actions can, potentially, be judged accurately.
It is incumbent upon us to judge our actions as best we can, and as honestly as we can, because one thing is for sure: Hashem will judge our actions after we pass on to the next world, and Hashem’s judgement will not be skewed by our own justifications.
Have a wonderful Shabbos!
Rabbi Eli Meir Kramer
