CHOCHMAS NASHIM: SHLACH: PERSPECTIVES AND SOLUTIONS
By: Suri Davis
When I was in Central Manhattan high school, I had Mrs. Judith Sokolow as my social studies teacher. One day she walks in, jumps rope and walks out.
Then she had all the students write an eye witness account of what happened.
Fascinating to see the differences of opinion of eye witness accounts which happened seconds earlier.
What each girl witnessed was different than what others witnessed. The details of Ms. Sokolow’s outfit were important to some. The number of times she jumped was debated. How many seconds she jumped were important to others.
It is mind boggling to look at pre-1948 pictures of Israel as compared to Israel today. But what if we visited Israel in 1946 and saw swamps and deserts and dirt roads. What if we heard of the malaria and how the earth wouldn’t produce food. Would we have been gung ho to have the land. In fact, when the Jews inhabited the land of Gush Katif in Gaza, it flourished, look at it now in the hands of the Arabs (I refuse to use the word Palestinians, because there are no such people unless we include Jews in the pre-1948 inhabitants of the land), back to desolation.
What the spies saw when they checked out Israel was in fact that it was flowing with milk and honey and produce. They saw giants, and Rashi tells us that the inhabitants were dying, true, but that was to distract them from focusing on the Jewish spies.
So what is your nature. Do you see a pile of work and get overwhelmed and think you cant tackle it, or do you see it as a challenge that with G-ds help, and time, you can manage. G-d had just revealed His miracles and omnipotence to the Jews, why didn’t the spies believe that G-d could help them conquer the land.
Dan lkaf zchut. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. They had just spent 210 years building pyramids for Egypt, they might not have had the inner wherewithal to go into war with established nations. G-d punished them and told them they would have to remain in the desert for 40 years. But we have experience to know that even when G-d punishes it is for the best. So for 40 years that they were tired, He carried them in the desert, providing for their every need with miracles. Building their faith in Him, and giving them time to recover faith in themselves and their relationship with G-d.
This is juxtaposed to the story of the man who was gathering wood on Shabbos in violation of Shabbos. The juxtaposition is clear. Shabbos is a day that we sit back and see G-d’s hand clearly in our sustenance. We don’t work, we let G-d provide for us.
And the torah portion ends with the parsha of Tzitzit, the stringed garment men wear which has blue strings which remind them of the sky and G-d who is in Heaven. A solution to the problem of remembering who is in charge every minute of every day.
This is a torah portion about perspective. It is difficult to conquer a land, but do we have faith in ourselves, in G-d, and in the human/G-d relationship. Lakol zman/everything has its moment. At the right time there is a confluence of faith in G-d, self, and those around us that give us the push to accomplish what is necessary.
So often we stay in bad situations, or do not move to make a better situation out of fear and lack of faith. The paradigm I think of often is Monty Hall in the old t.v. show Let’s Make a Deal. He gives you $100 in your hand, and asks whether you want to exchange the money for what’s behind the box on stage. Behind the box could be a rubber chicken or a car, and you have to decide whether you want to give up what you have to try for a chance at something better. Fear puts failure at the fore. Faith permits you to envision success. Even if you get the rubber chicken you succeeded in conquering fear and raising faith.
Having binah yisayrah permits to know what our senses cannot determine. That was is, doesn’t have to be because G-d is omnipotent/kol yachol, and is above science, medicine and nature. We just have to believe this is so, and trust that G-d can conquer giants.
Shabbat shalom.
-Suri