Torah Portion

Of Spies And Lies
And Lack Of Trust

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N

to wallow in their longings for the
"
good life" in Egypt.
How often do we, in our modern
lives, wax nostalgic for the "good old
days"? Our memories are short. The
good old days had plenty of difficulties;
but we yearn to return, nonetheless,
when we hit upon current hard times.
Our ancestors who were slaves
ur Torah portion this week
could never purge themselves of a
offers high drama.
slave's mentality. The fact
First we learn of
that they wished to return
and delve into the
to captivity at every obstacle
nuances of the history-chang-
on the road to freedom is
ing episode of the 12 spies;
proof that they were unable
then we receive instruction to
to make the transition. As a
treat the convert in our midst
result, God decided that
with equality; then we learn
they should remain in the
of a single Israelite who gath-
desert for 40 years during
ers wood on Shabbat — a
which
time the entire gen-
capital offense, and finally,
eration
of the exodus (save
more law concerning fringes
RABBI ARNIE
Caleb
and
Joshua) were to
on our garments.
SLEUT ELB ERG
die. A whole new genera-
The first subject men-
Spec ial to
tion, who knew not slavery, ,
tioned above, that of the
The Jew ish News would actually inhabit the
spies, receives the most
land of Israel.
description in the Torah as
Why
did
the spies lie about giants?
well as the midrash and commentaries.
Why
did
they
wish to scare the
It is a narrative full of impassioned
Israelites
and
disable
them? Why did
drama, villains, heroes, victims and
they
conspire
to
lie?
Rabbi
Morris
long-term consequences.
Adler wrote that they were pleased
God instructs Moses to send 12
with the status quo of the desert. They
spies, one from each tribe, to scout
opposed change. Everything was pro-
out the Promised Land and learn
vided: food, shelter, water. Life was
about its topography, soil, forests,
good enough for them. They did not
cities, inhabitants and to bring back
want
to take on the burden of con-
some of its fruit. Clearly, since the
quering
the promised land nor the risk
land is flowing with milk and honey,
of losing the power and security they
Moses' expectation is that they would
already possessed. They wanted to pull
return with an exuberant report of the
down the blinds on all the pain and
richness of the land and, thereby, rally
sorrow of the world and live in the
the Israelites to swiftly retake it.
security of their own safe desert. Or,
The spies spend 40 days in the land
maybe, as Rashi observes, the spies'
and come back having fulfilled only
self-esteem was so low, also due to
part of their mission. Ten of the 12
slavery, that they could not imagine
spies (not Caleb and Joshua) share
being successful at conquering the
with the entire Israelite people that,
land, which was why they reported
among other very positive attributes,
that they felt as grasshoppers to the
the land swallows up people and is
,,
"
giants.
inhabited with giants who have large
It seems to me, that the trust level
fortified cities.
of
the
Israelites was very low. They
The report terrifies the community,
even Caleb and Joshua's tribes. Why
did their tribes acceded to the majori-
ty and not side with their fellow
tribesmen? We can only speculate.
oil were in the desert, hav-
The Israelites turn on Moses and
Aaron, blaming them and God for their
eard
otAn
esca
t Snai, t n 'ict en h witnessed
perceived dismal situation, while shout-
rt of the spies, how wo
ing their desire to return to Egypt.
Despite repeated appeals by Caleb and
Joshua that the land is exceedingly good
and that they can succeed in taking it,
the people are demoralized and prefer

Shabbat Shelah Lekha:
Numbers 13:1-15:41;
Joshua 2:1-24.

0

a

Rabbi Arnie Sleutelberg is the spiri-
tual leader of Congregation Shir Tikvah
in Troy.