Jun 24/06 - Parashat Shelach

Commentary by Chazzan Aníbal Mass

A man moves to another city and the first thing he does is to go to the local synagogue. There he tells the Rabbi that he is new in town and therefore he’d like to know how the people are before becoming a member.

The Rabbi asks him: "How were the people of your previous synagogue?” to which the man answers: "Oh, people there were terrible. They spoke Lashon Hara; they were selfish, arrogant and disrespectful.”

The Rabbi tells him that, unfortunately, things here are not much better; people in this synagogue are basically exactly the same.

Immediately after, another man is presented before the Rabbi and he comments that he also is new in town and he’d like to know about the people of that synagogue.

The Rabbi has the same question for him: "How were the people of your previous synagogue?”

The man answers: "Oh, it was a wonderful congregation. People never spoke Lashon Hara; they were altruistic, humble and very respectful.”

The Rabbi gives him a strong hug and tells him that, fortunately for him, people in this synagogue are as good as the people of his former place.

The first man, amazed by this answer, asks the Rabbi: "How it is possible that you told me that people here are bad and you told him that people here are good?”

To this the Rabbi answers: "Very easy my friend. You have found people of your former place bad because that is your way of seeing things. Therefore, you will quickly find negative people here too. This other man was able to see positive things in his old city, therefore he will quickly be able to discover all the wonderful things in this place too, because, my friend, everything depends on the way we want to see things.”

In this Parashah, the Jewish people are condemned to live in the desert for the next forty years. Here we discover the characteristics and values necessary to define who will be capable of living in freedom and who won’t. Consequently, it is in this Parashah where the future of an entire generation is determined: who will die in the desert, and who will end up living in the Land of Israel.

Moshe, acting on God’s instructions, sends a delegation of twelve men to observe the characteristics of the Land of Israel. They are leaders of the twelve tribes. This is a diplomatic delegation that will present a military report later.

They must go to observe the cities, the men that populate them, the weapons that they have, etc. The delegates are to fulfill their mission and, upon their return, present a clear and objective report, without distortions of any type. So they do.

At the beginning, they present a positive report based on what they saw. The crisis arises when the informants exceed the mission and individually begin to infer conclusions based on their own fears. They stop talking about the land and starting talking about the possibilities of conquering it or not. And then personal subjectivity enters into the game.

That their subjective views differ from the initial report is important. And that only two of the twelve delegates are optimistic, and ten are not, is important too, because, based on that, the people of Israel find the mission impossible to accomplish.

Moshe wants a positive report from the delegates so that the people of Israel will be motivated to conquer the land, making the assignment easier and more meaningful. In the face of the discussion of the delegates and the pessimism of ten of them, the people react with desperation, assuming a fatalistic and hopeless attitude, lowering their arms even before beginning the task.

God becomes furious with them. Has not He given enough demonstrations of His guidance and protection? The people, once again, react by questioning God.

God, assuming that the problem resides in the personality of the men, in their slave mentality, reaches the conclusion that all those who can’t see the positive side of things and situations can’t be free persons. So, He declares that those who were still thinking as slaves and maintaining a condition of pessimism and lack of faith wouldn't enter the Land of Israel.

This is a teaching for each one of us. We all can see the same thing and perceive it in a different way, depending on our previous experiences. In our story, only two delegates, Yehoshua Bin-Nun and Calev Ben-Yefune, don't forget that it doesn’t matter how bad things can be, we can’t stop being positive.

Although sometimes we feel a lack of faith and hope surrounding us, it is our obligation to keep being positive and to encourage our fellow human beings to be constructive and optimistic.

Shabbat Shalom.