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Power vs. Weakness
Parshat Shelach Lecha:
Numbers 13:1-15:41; Joshua 2:1-2:24.
p
arshat Shelach Lecha holds
a lesson on the dangers of
power and the corrosive
nature of weakness. The Torah portion
and its haftorah hold a mir-
ror to us first when we are
powerless and then when
the world bends easily to
our will.
In these readings, we see
the complexity of being
human. Thucydides, the
ancient Greek historian,
wrote, in reference to two
opposing foes, "The strong
do as they can, and the
weak suffer what they
must:' Here, in the Torah
and haftorah, our people fulfill both
roles separated by 40 years.
In the Torah, the people, after a long
two-year journey, have arrived at the
edge of the Promised Land. God com-
mands Moses to shelach lecha, look for
yourself, at what lies ahead in the Land
of Israel. An elite group representing
all 12 tribes is assembled and charged
with spying out the land.
They return with a difficult report.
The land is perfect, too perfect. The
spies are frightened beyond belief.
Even the narrator is frightened. He
reports that the fruit carried back by
the spies was really gargantuan, grapes
the size of grapefruit. Honestly, impos-
sible.
And the spies, themselves, tell tales
of giants. Finally, they confess to feel-
ing like grasshoppers. They profoundly
lack belief in their destiny. They,
indeed, are but grasshoppers, inas-
much as it is their self-identity. The
weak do suffer.
Fast forward four decades. Now, in
the haftorah, we are again ready to
enter the land with a new group of
Israelites. God's imposed 38-year wait,
a wait for the death of every adult
Israelite of that generation who weakly
feared the land, had finally ended.
Once again, spies are dispatched. Once
again, they encounter the land and its
people. However, this time,
they are the emboldened
strong. And the strong do as
they wish.
After checking out the
countryside, the spies
decide to actually enter one
of the fortified cities that
so frightened the previous
generation. There, they
check into a brothel owned
and operated by a woman
named Rachav or "Wide'
However, the evening of
relaxation is interrupted by soldiers
who have come looking for the spies.
With Rachav's help, purchased with
a conditional promise of safety for
herself and her family, the spies escape
and return to the Israelite camp with a
good report.
One generation of spies is too
frightened to hold on to their destiny.
Their fears, while rational, delude the
community to believe that they are
impossibly weak and that the foe is
unbelievably powerful. These Israelites
are stuck. The weak do suffer.
The next generation of spies is liber-
ated from this overwhelming fear and
lives in the space of the conqueror.
They intend to party with the locals,
and when shown kindness, they
strike a bargain with Rachav in which
Rachav saves them in exchange for
the possible rescue of her family. The
strong do as they wish.
We, like our ancestors, have so
recently experienced both profound
weakness and potentially excessive
strength. ❑
Robert Levy is the rabbi at Temple Beth
Emeth in Ann Arbor.
_1 41. 4 . 11
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