Parshat Shelah-Lekha - How to Make Ourselves a Holy Community
In
this week's parashah/portion, Shelah-Lekha (Bemidbar/Numbers
13:1-15:41), Moses, at God's command, chooses one leader from each of
the twelve tribes to serve as spies. Their mission is to enter the
land of Canaan, the Promised Land, and bring back a report about the
land to the people. "See what kind of country it
is.....investigate its cities, people, soil, and forests, and bring
back some of the fruit of the land,” they are told. When they
return, they do bring back huge bunches of grapes and other fruits,
but ten of the twelve spies also bring back a report that, though the
land is flowing "with milk and honey," it is filled with
large fortified cities, "giants" so huge that they made the
10 spies feel “like grasshoppers.” Only two of the spies,
Yehoshua/Joshua and Calev/ Caleb, bring back a positive
report and remind the people that God is with them, and so they can
overcome any obstacle or enemy.
Unfortunately,
the people are carried away by the negative report of the negative
majority and wonder if Moses brought them this far out of Egypt only
to die in the desert. As punishment for following the negative report
of the ten spies, God declares that the Israelites will wander in the
desert for forty years until this generation of adults dies. Joshua
and Caleb will be the only ones of that generation allowed to enter
the land.
I would like to think
that, at first glance, most of us would be incredulous when reading
this story. For how could the people have listened to the negative
reports? After all God had done for them, why couldn't they trust
God? However, I believe that most of us could in some way relate to
the 10 spies' reaction and the response of the people. For they are
very human. There is a tendency within many, if not most, of us to
expect – or believe – the very worst when in a difficult or
unknown situation. In spite of all the miracles that God provided us
the people were still unwilling to accept the positive assessment of
Joshua and Caleb, but more than willing to accept the words of the 10
spies, what the text calls an eidah ra’ah,
or evil community.
The use of this phrase to
describe the spies has always fascinated me. The Torah doesn't merely
call them a group of bad or misguided people, but an evil community!
For they were not merely 10 individuals acting alone, but they were
ten who banded together as one to mislead the people. In fact, the
Talmud uses this phrase and this story as the main proof text for
needing ten people for a minyan (a community of prayer). For
just as it took 10 acting in concert to create an evil community, so
too it takes ten to create a holy community. The number 10 represents
the power of community to create or destroy, to bring holiness or
chaos into our world.
But, what exactly made the
spies actions so “evil?” Couldn't they just have been so
overwhelmed that they blurted out what they saw out of fear? The
Gerer Rebbe, a great hassidic teacher, taught that the evil wasn't
the thoughts of the 10 spies, but their actions. It was the fact
that they delivered the bad report even after they had time to calm
down and think it through. Even after they told of all the good
things in the land. In this reading their actions were quite
intentional. Nehama Leibowitz, a 20th
century Israeli scholar and teacher, expands this by teaching that
the spies knew exactly what they were doing. They drew the people in
by telling them of all the bounty in the land. Only then did they
hit them over the head with the negative fear-mongering report. And
using such hyperbolic words as “grasshoppers” and “giants,”
they did indeed instill fear in the community.
For me, what made the
group an evil community was the moment they said to the people, “we
felt like grasshoppers ourselves, and so we must have appeared to
them (the giants in the land).”
For they didn’t simply
say “we must have looked like grasshoppers to the giants of the
land.” The primary focus of their comment is their self-perception
and lack of self-confidence. And if they, as tribal leaders, felt
this way, then who were the people to disagree? And so, if this was
intentional, as the commentators say, this was the verse that
clinched it.
It seems that even after
all the miracles that God did for the people, the main stumbling
block was a slave mentality that caused the people, to still view
themselves as inferior and powerless. Feelings that may have lurked
beneath the surface, but when their leaders gave them the report they
emerged into the light. It didn’t matter that God was on their
side. What mattered was that they did not believe that were up to
the task
So many times in our life
we are faced with a dilemma similar to that of the people. Do we
trust in God, in some Higher Power, in the force for goodness in the
Universe (whatever you choose to call it) or do we give in to our
natural human fears? Do we take a step forward into the unknown,
afraid by still in faith, or do we stay where we are (or even go
backwards)? Do we believe the evil fear-mongering and hatred that we
hear or do we follow the voice in our heart?
If we look at those who
fought against tyranny and oppression, even when they were
outnumbered, we are looking at those who would have listened to
Joshua and Caleb rather than to the other 10. We see this in someone
like Rosa Parks or others who fought in the civil rights movements
but were not Dr. King. Everyday people, who could have seen
themselves as grasshoppers, but instead saw themselves as human
beings with a soul and inalienable rights.
It may be true that Parks
and those like her did have Dr. King and the other leaders pointing
the way, but they also had elders in their community who were afraid
to “rock the boat” for fear of violence and retaliation (and
understandably so). This is true in every great revolution or fight
for civil rights that has ever taken place. It is the partnership of
visionary leaders and ordinary citizens with heart, soul and faith
that make a change. The Israelites had two visionary leaders among
the spies, but they did not have the heart, soul or faith to hear
them. And so they listened to the others. And their punishment from
God was that they would wander in the desert for 40 years until they
all died, except for Joshua and Caleb. That way, it would be the
next generation that would enter the Promised Land.
There are so many ways in
which I could apply this to our world today. For there are so
fear-mongering leaders trying to tell us that if we follow a certain
path we will surely meet our demise. Leaders who believe that they,
themselves are indeed giants and that they can make the people
believe that they are grasshoppers. And that, as grasshoppers, they
should be afraid of others who are trying to take away their rights
or change their world for the worse.
We must not allow
ourselves to listen to those voices. We must pay attention. We must
be mindful. We must listen to the voice of our soul. If we do that,
we will find the Joshuas and Calebs in our world, and within us, and
we shall listen to them.
These are indeed
frightening and difficult times. But listening to the hatred and
fear-mongering, whether in the guise of political discourse or
religious dogma – will only lead to us becoming part of an evil
community and not a holy community.
Today especially, we must
remember what happened to our ancestors and try to follow in the
footsteps of Joshua and Caleb in forming our communities and in
working towards changing our world, rather than wandering through it
aimlessly. We must remember that anything is possible if we use the
power within us that comes from the Divine. In fact it is our duty
to make God’s presence manifest in this world by doing mitzvot/
commandments (or good deeds), by healing the world, and by fighting
injustice and lies masquerading as truth. Only then can we be like
Joshua and Caleb, and so many others.
Our ancestors were unable
– or unwilling to do this – but hopefully we are. This is an
important message for us to remember as we face the difficulties, and
the possibilities, of life one moment, one day at a time.
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