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CHUMASH CANDESCENCE
PARASHA SHELACH
NUMBERS 13:01 TO 15:41
"You've Got Marty Feldman Eyes"
My apologies to songstress Kim Carnes and her hit "You've Got Betty Davis
Eyes." I hope you remember the funny actor of blessed memory, Marty
Feldman. He played "I-gor" in Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein." Marty had
those bulging buggy eyes. We will weave Marty's "Bug Eyes" into this
D'var Torah later on.
Our Parasha this week gets it name from the Hebrew words that begin it.
"Send forth (shelach) men, if you please, and let them spy out the land
of Canaan." Moses assembles 12 men, one from each tribe, to go spy and
report back on what is to eventually become Eretz Israel. Ten come back
and give a discouraging report. Two men however are very positive. This
parasha relates how the people listen to the ten who discourage them. God
punishes the Children of Israel with 39 more years in the desert in which
time this weak generation will die out.
There are some very subtle wordings in this week's portion that need to
be parsed in order to understand the deeper meaning. A first hint is
given in the word following "shelach." This word is "lecha." This
literally means "for yourself." God gave Moses permission to send spies
if Moses needed reassurance. The word used for the spies is "regelem."
Regel is a foot. The are literally "walkers." The Hebrew used for "to
spy" is "yeturu." It is from the root word "tur", to explore. It is used
12 times in this parasha alone, yet only ten times in the rest of the
entire Torah. They are told to "look" (u'reitem ) at the land. One of the
spies is Hosea bin Nun. He is later given the name Joshua by Moses by
adding the letter Yud.
Note the Hebrew "bin" for "son of" instead of the
usual "ben." Nachmanides of 13th century Spain said this is foreshadowing
Joshua's role by calling him "Binun" (wise one) which is from the root
word Binah which means understanding. Joshua was one of the two positive
spies. The Midrash says that Joshua's new Yud came from the Yud that God
took from Sarai's name when he renamed her Sarah. Moses knew that Hosea
would need God's help, Rashi says, in dealing with his fellow spies, so
Moses renamed him with a name meaning "may God save you."
Here is the scenario. Moses and the people have left Egypt a year ago.
They just celebrated Passover a year after the first one when they were
saved from Pharaoh and the angel of death who killed all of the first
born in Egypt. They are only miles from the land of Canaan. They have God
on their side. God has promised them the land. They have seen God do
miracles on a daily basis. Yet Moses decided that he needed to send out
human spies to double-check on God. Even though God had promised Israel
and Moses "a land flowing with milk and honey" Moses asks his spies to
see if the land is "fertile or lean? Are there trees in it or not (Num
13:20)?"
So what happens when the spies return? Ten of them reported directly to
the entire people as well as to Moses (Num 13:25). They agree that the
land flows with milk and honey. They even bring back fruit samples. Then
the Torah uses another word, "ahfaht." This word means "but." It is a
qualifier. They negate the positive words about the land with this "but."
They continue with stories of Giants, fortresses, and a strong
unconquerable people there. They saw many dead people and said the land
"devours its inhabitants (Num 13:32)." They end their report with "we
were like grasshoppers in our eyes, and so we were in their eyes (Num
13:33)." Please note the wording of "in OUR eyes."
Caleb and Joshua are the two of the twelve spies that give good reports.
But the other ten have rallied the people into a frenzy. There is
actually a national hysteria. The Torah reports that the "entire assembly
(Num 14:01)" wished they had died in Egypt and wanted to appoint a new
leader and return there (Num 14:02-04). So of course God gets upset. He
threatens the entire people with extermination (Num 14:12). Moses pleads
with God. The people's punishment is plea-bargained down to spending 40
years in the wilderness. The slave mentality of the older generation
will die there and a new free generation will be allowed into "the land."
They decide on 40 years because the spies were away for 40 days.
I would like to point out that the authors of the Torah blamed last
Shabbat's parasha's insurrection on the "mixed multitude riff raff" that
followed the Israelites. But here the Talmud takes the words of the Torah
("entire assembly") and says it was just two men, Dason and Aviram, who
wanted to dump Moses and return to Israel (Talmud Tractate Nedarim 64B).
We will read more about these two men in next week's parasha.
As we can see, this mission was doomed to failure before it began. Moses
would have been better off not sending spies at all. God told Moses he
could send spies if he needed to do this for himself. Moses, of all
people, should have trusted God with blind faith. The 19th century Rabbi
Zvi Kalisher writes that Moses sent spies hoping they would come back
with a report about the strength of the Canaanites, so that when Israel
conquered them, they would realize another miracle of God. Rashi in
discussing Deut 1:21-23 says that the people forced Moses to send spies.
If he did not do so, they would have thought he has hiding something. It
is like one asking to "test drive" a donkey before buying it and being
told "no." If one is told "yes, please even take the donkey up a big hill
and down a deep valley," one gets confidence in his purchase and may not
even want to test the animal at this point.
When the spies walked the land, they saw many funeral processions. They
assumed that this was a violent land. The Midrash says that God sent a
small plague into Canaan to distract the inhabitants so that the spies
could travel unnoticed. The spies, however, interpreted the events the
way they wished to perceive them. The spies saw the people living in
walled cities. Rashi said this is a sign of weakness of faith. If people
dwell in open cities, they think of themselves as strong. Rashi says the
spies misinterpreted this fact. The spies also brought back big grape
clusters, giant pomegranates and huge figs. They did this not to show
how wonderful the land was, but how freakish it was.
Rabbi Elya Bloch of the 20th century wrote that when one's intentions are bad, nothing can
persuade him of the truth. Eight spies carried the giant grapes, one
carried the pomegranates and one carried the figs. Caleb and Joshua ,a
Midrash teaches, did not carry back these fruits, as they knew they would
be used to demonstrate negativity.
On another interesting note, the Talmudic rabbis say that the Torah says
there are three ways to acquire land: payment, a deed or chazakah.
Chazakah means performing an action that demonstrates ownership, such as
harvesting fruits. The rabbis state that when Moses asks the spies to
bring back fruits (Num 13:20) he was asking them to legally, according to
Jewish law, establish ownership of the land. The question as to why the
negative spies, who did not believe they could conquer the land harvested
fruits, and the two positive spies who thought they could conquer the
land did not harvest fruits, is left unasked and unanswered.
The Talmud in Tractate Sotah 35A discusses whether the spies actually
overheard giants call them "grasshoppers." The rabbis say that the spies
said the Canaanites said "there are people-ants crawling around in the
fields." The rabbis may be missing a good lesson of psychology here. It
is not really important what the Canaanites thought. What we need to
focus on is how the spies thought of themselves. They obviously were in a
trap of spiritual self-devaluation. They not only were lacking in faith
in God, but were lacking in their own self-esteem. They saw themselves as
grasshoppers. They had Marty Feldman's "bug eyes."
Rabbi Yaakov Kamensky of 20th century New York City wrote "If you hold yourself to be a shmateh
(rag), others will hold you to be a shmateh as well." If one thinks he
will have no chance, he will have no chance. Should our modern
psychiatrists call a self-esteem problem the "grasshopper syndrome?"
The poetess Chana Andler wrote in her poem "Shelach":
"Twelve spies went out
To view the Promised land.
Only two returned.
The rest were lost along the way,
Prey to doubt and indecision,
The certainty
That they were little men,
Too small to face the future
God might ask.
Their bones were left
Behind in the desert
To bleach away their fear.
A stern reminder
Of the consequences
Of little faith.
How often do we
Play out this drama,
Measuring what can be
By what has been before?
We see the front
That others wear,
The illusion of perfection,
And judge ourselves
Inadequate to the task,
Incapable of achieving
Such heights of glory.
They are giants
To our children's eyes,
Puffed with virtues
We cannot possess.
But what in truth
Was ever asked of us
That we could not survive
Were we only
To hold our ground
And let the Spirit
Carry us along?
It's folly to gauge our strength
Against the gods and monsters
We create to undermine our dreams.
To judge our soul's potential
By the small amount
We can perceive.
Twelve spies went out
To view the Promised Land,
But only two returned.
May we find our way out
And back again,
Untouched
By what we think
We see."
Rashi writes that "the heart and the eyes are the spies of the body, that
is, they led a person to transgress: the eyes see, the heart covets, and
the body transgresses." Or, as King Solomon is credited with writing in
Ecclesiastes 2:14, "The wise man's eyes are in his head, and the fool
walks in darkness." Self-image is how we see ourselves. It is also how we
think others see us. Self-esteem is our internal feeling and evaluation
of ourselves based on our "perceived" self-image. Once we get some
negative statements in our head that we may have learned in our
childhood, we do not physically need to hear them again. The tapes become
hardwired in our minds. Again and again those negative statements
unconsciously repeat. It is like having a constant heckler in your mind.
Psychologists say that one needs about 20 positive statements about
ourselves to offset a negative personal statement.
The best way of offsetting negative self-talk is to remind yourself that
you have the internal resources to handle whatever challenges life gives
you. When one feels powerless and sees others as "giants" one will
develop low self-esteem. Instead of dealing with situations directly and
assertively, one will use passive-aggressive behaviors. The spies did
this. Instead of reporting directly to their boss, Moses, they went
directly to the people with their bad report.
When one has good self-esteem combined with a faith in God, one acts
assertively and with kindness. One is not passive, or aggressive, or acts
passive-aggressively. One does not blame others for their problems but
takes responsibility for them. There is no room for apathy nor pessimism,
and one's life has vision, focus, commitment and self-control. One
trusts one's self and has a realistic trust of others. One has the
confidence to choose friends who are safe and who will not injure or
exploit . One learns to be self-nurturing and not looking for others to
be parents. One is autonomous and has a strong sense of identity. And
one relates closely and intimately with others and yet knows when to
limit closeness.
Positive self-esteem allows one to own up to one's failures, fears and
weaknesses. It is not a cocksure attitude that one cannot do wrong.
Conversely, good self-esteem would enable one to be able to admit wrong
doing, apologize and do teshuvah. Self-esteem requires continual
monitoring and "feeding one's head" with good statements. The rabbis tell
of one of their elders describing his inner struggle. He said "Inside of
me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog
is good. The mean dog fights with the good dog all the time." When he was
asked which dog wins , he reflected for a moment and replied, "The one I
feed the most."
We are all regelem. We are all walking and journeying through life. All
of us will have a journey that is not balanced or straight. King David
writes in Psalm 73:02 "My feet nearly faltered, my steps were almost
washed away!" The Rabbi Judah the Prince (ha Nasi) ,the redactor of the
Mishna circa 200 CE, in Pirket Avot (2:01) reminds us that the right way
to walk is one that is honorable and brings honor. If we try to keep to
this path in what ever situation we find ourselves, no matter how hard
that may seem at the time, our esteem for ourselves will always be high.
The Torah recognizes this. It actually developed a physical "sting around
the finger" to remind us to think positive thoughts. This idea was
commanded to us after the sin of the spies in this week's parasha. I am
referring to the mitzvah of Tzitzit. While I am not promoting the wearing
of Tallasim with Tzitzit in liberal temples, I would ask you to explore
the wording of the commandment with me.
Tzitzit are fringes. It is from the root word "to peer at something
intently." In Numbers 15:39 we are told to wear them on our four-
cornered garments so we "will not go astray (saturu) after your hearts
and eyes." The 12 men were asked to spy (latur). The root words are the
same. We are asked to "see" the tzitzit (u'reitem oso), and the spies
were sent to "see" the land (u'reitem et ha Aretz). There is an
interesting twist to the mitzvah of wearing tzitzit. It is optional!
Numbers 15:38 commands us to put tzitzit on the four corners of a four-
cornered garment. There is no rule commanding us to wear a four- cornered
garment. Traditional Jews have taken it upon themselves to wear a
four-cornered garment so that they can fulfill the mitzvah of wearing
tzitzit. Although wearing tzitzit is optional, there are 12 chapters in
the Shulchan Aruch, the Set Table of Jewish law, on the rules of tzitzit.
The sending of the spies and the wearing of tzitzit were both optional to
us. How we look at things and the conclusions we draw from "our eyes"
spying has been always left up to us as individuals. We are capable of
seeing very far, writes Rabbi Frand, but only if we open up our eyes and
be honest enough to see things as they really are.
Rabbi Gunther Plaut translates the last half of the verse of Numbers
15:39 as "so that you do not follow your heart and eyes in your lustful
urge." The Art Scroll Tanach translates it as "not explore after your
heart and after your eyes after which you stray." The Kings James Bible
reads "that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after
which ye use to go a whoring." While I can usually find mistranslation in
the King James version, it has in this case the best rendering of this
passage. The Hebrew word "zonem" is from the Hebrew word for harlot
(zonah).
Prostitutes are paid, or so I am told, to tell men what they
want to hear. We must not prostitute our eyes into lying to ourselves
to inflate our egos and let us be in denial about situations. Nor should
we allow them to deflate our egos so that our self-esteem is lowered. We
do not want to live our lives unfulfilled and waste 40 years of it
wandering through a desert of irrational fears.
An honest prostitute is the heroine of this week's Haftorah from Joshua
2:1-24. Joshua sends out two spies 39 years after he was one of the
original 12 spies. The two seek refuge in the "bait eshah zonah ushemah
Rahchav " (the "house of women" of a harlot named Rahab). She hides and
saves the two spies from the King of Jericho's soldiers. They promised
her that when the Israelites invade Jericho she and her family will be
spared. She hangs a red thread from her window to mark her home.
Unlike the ten spies 39 years before, Rahab had faith in God's plan for the
Israelites. She had heard tales of the Israelites' God helping to defeat
their enemies. She knew about the Jews at Mt. Sinai, as well as hearing
about their escape from Egypt. She had the same data, actually second
hand data, that the original 10 defeatist spies had, yet she concluded
that the Israelites would conquer her land of Canaan and she sided with
them.
Joshua kept his spies' word and after the battle of Jericho gave Rahab
choice land as a reward. A Midrash relates that Rahab married Salmon and
gave birth to Boaz. Boaz married Ruth. Rahab was to become the
great-great-grandmother of King David. Our first great king had maternal
lineage of both harlotry and idolatry. Ruth was a convert with a soul
full of faith and loving kindness. Rahab was a "hooker with a heart of
gold" with the faith to match. The Talmud says she was one of the four
most beautiful women in the Bible.
Thirty nine years after the original spies went out, Joshua was to lead
the now-matured and with a positive attitude Israelites into Canaan. His
two spies say "Truly the Lord has delivered into our hands all the land;
and moreover all the inhabitants of the land do melt away before us."
Thirty-nine years of desert therapy cured us of our Grasshopper Syndrome.
We lost our Marty Feldman-like "Bug Eyes."
Shabbat Shalom,
RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL
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