פרשת שלח
This week’s Parsha opens with the episode of the Jewish people requesting of Moshe to send out emissaries to discover the nature of the land that they were to be entering. The Torah goes on to delineate the punishment that was meted out to the Jews for this grave sin. I would like to attempt to shed some light on some difficulties on this topic. Firstly, we know that God expects us to put forth the normal effort in order to function and He in turn allows us to flourish (if He wills it). Why then should the Jewish people be punished for sending out spies, as this is a completely normal and reasonable activity for any nation that wishes to conquer a land?
Secondly, Moshe and Joshua themselves each in turn sent out spies to ascertain the nature of the lands that they were to be conquering and we don’t find any mention of wrongdoing by these great people. Moreover, we find that the spies were punished for reporting that they found giant people in the land, yet this was an accurate report as Moshe Rabenu himself testifies later on in Sefer Devarim!
In truth, the Ramban deals with these difficulties and he asserts that while it is true that sending scouts to scope out the land is a normal activity, for the Jews who had just witnessed the great miracles which God performed for them on the way out of Egypt, and continued to be privy to daily miracles, this was a demonstration of a lack of faith on their part. The Ramban goes on to compare this sin to the time later on in history during the lifetime of Shmuel Hanavi when the Jews requested of God to provide them with a king. For while it is true that the Torah itself introduced the concept of having a king and this was an acceptable request, nonetheless during the days when the Jewish people had such free access to God vis-à-vis Shmuel Hanavi, the request for a king was a severe portrayal of a lack of faith in God. Similarly, although the scouts’ testimony about the land was accurate, their entire approach was based on a faulty premise – that Israel is a normal land. Based on the fantastic miracles which they had witnessed, they should have been aware of the fact that their entering into and existence in Israel was to be completely miraculous and not based on nature.
One interesting concept that emerges from this Ramban is that although it is certainly acceptable, and even required to perform the necessary ‘Hishtadlus’ in our lives, doing more then is necessary for each and every individual’s level is culpable for lack of faith in God. With this understanding we can now deal with another difficult Rashi in the Parsha. Rashi says that when the Jews complained about the strength of the nations in the Land, “It was as if they feared that the nations were stronger then God”. How can we fathom such a statement? Based on this Ramban, however, we can say that truly, the inhabitants of the land were quite large and under any normal circumstances, the Jews would not be able to defeat them. So what they were saying is, “If God lets the world run naturally, as He normally does, there is no way we can beat these nations”. What they should have realized is that God was not dealing with the Jewish people of that time in a ‘normal’ way and that He would take care of them.
The Rabenu Bachaya on this week’s Parsha discusses the sin of the spies as stemming from fear. He asserts that the emotion of fear itself is a denial of God on a certain level, and evidences a lack of Bitachon in Hashem. Anyone who experiences this emotion is therefore to be held culpable. We can see this point further illustrated through the emphasis which the Torah places on the fact the spies cried on the night that they returned. Why was this crying punished so severely by God? If one were to analyze the anatomy of a cry, one would realize that crying emanates from a fundamental feeling of hopelessness. One cries because they feel that they cannot continue under the present circumstances. This being true, there is no greater demonstration of lack of Bitachon in God then a cry which is generated from utter despair. Parenthetically, the only type of despondency which the Torah permits is in learning, e.g. when a person doesn’t know how he will pass his Mishnah Berurah test.
Incidentally, I found in my father’s private journal after he passed away that he had accepted upon himself at a certain point never to be afraid or experience the sensation of fear for the rest of his life. He continued by writing, “How can I be afraid when I have such a powerful father in Heaven who is always looking out for me”.
The Gemorah in Berachos דף יב: says that Chazal originally wanted to insert the Parsha of Balak’s desire to curse the Jewish people into the daily Krias Shema. To advocate this, the Gemorah cites the verse, “They (Israel) lays down like a lion…”. Rashi explains this cryptic Gemorah to mean that when Israel lays down to sleep at night, they lay down with complete tranquility. One could ask on Rashi, what does sleeping peacefully have to do with Krias Shema? Based on what we have said, we could explain that just as the goal of reciting the Shema every day is to imbue in our hearts the belief that God runs the world, so to would the level of comfort and the lack of fear that one possesses when one lays down to sleep at night be a good indicator of their belief in God. The pinnacle of trust would be to doze off with the identical knowledge that a lion has – that absolutely no one can harm him. If a person were to recite the Parsha of Balak daily, they would be constantly reinforcing the obligation that they have to live a life free of fear.
R’ Shach offers some practical advice on how to overcome the strong pull of fear and despair in difficult situations. He quotes two verses in Devarim. The first one says, “Man has difficulties and hardships”, and the second only says “Man has difficulties” and omits the word ‘hardships’. R’ Shach says that the verse is telling us that every human being goes through challenging times and has tragedies occur. Yet a man doesn’t have to let these bring him down. He has the choice to trust in Hashem during those times that each of these tragedies will help him grow and this will bring him to a state in which he will feel no pain during these trying times.
I would like to conclude with a story that R’ Moshe Shapiro brings down about the Brisker Rav. He says that during WWII while the bombs were falling all around the city, and there was considerable confusion, the Rav would go around to each of the families attempting to help wherever he could. It happened one day that a bomb fell in the Rav’s vicinity and he responded by getting down on the floor with a peaceful look on his face and proclaiming that his obligation now is to actively trust in God with all of his might.
May we merit to vanquish all fear and despair from our heart and trust in God!