Parshas Shelach

This week's sidra is Parshas Shelach, meaning "send". This refers to the permission Moshe receives fulfill the peoples' request to send scouts to tour the Land of Israel before the Children of Israel were meant to enter, conquer, and inherit the land. As the story goes, the scouts had ulterior motives, and they actually intended (and succeded) to bring back a slanderous report of the Land, scaring the rest of the Nation, and turning them back to Egypt; for this reason we usually refer to them as "the spies". As a result, the Jewish people received the famous punishment, that they should first wander 40 years in the Desert, waiting for this generation to die out, before their children would enter the Land in their place. One of the more bizarre events in the Torah, it contains many subplots; for example, why did Hashem allow Moshe to send spies, knowing that they would perpetrate a ruse? why would the spies want to return to Egypt, and not enter a land "flowing with milk and honey", after they had already witnessed many miracles, at the Reed Sea, at Mt. Sinai, and more? how did the spies, righteous men whom Moshe selected from amongst the leaders of each tribe, turn so quickly to deception? To answer these questions, we first must understand the state in which the Jewish people found themselves at this moment, less than two years after leaving Egypt and receiving the Torah. During this time, in which the Jews camped in the Desert, all of their material needs were miraculously taken care of: they ate "manna" which came down from Heaven every morning in the dew and tasted like whatever they had in their imaginations, their clothes grew along with them and never needed mending, when they needed water Moshe would simply strike a rock and bring out a stream, and the list goes on. However, when they eventually would arrive in Eretz Yisrael, they had many commandments (mitzvahs) from the Torah involving the working of the land, business transactions, and more, generally requiring them to participate in day-to-day life, more or less as we understand it now. Therefore, the spies did not truly intend to take the people back to the land of Egypt, but rather, they wished to stay in the desert, where they could lead a completely spiritual life, and not worry about the material world. Because they were such holy men to begin with, they could not imagine themselves coming down to the simple level of working the land. However, this story teaches us that the Torah intends just the opposite; not that we should find ourselves a spiritual refuge and remain there isolated, but rather that we should embrace the world, with the Torah as our guide. Finally, this also explains why Moshe was "allowed" to send the spies; which means specifically that he received no command to send them, but rather the free choice to acquiesce to their request. Since the ultimate desire was that the the Jewish people should enter the Land enthusiastically, with out the need of any scouts at all, however well-intentioned, but rather simply because of the promise they were given upon leaving Egypt, they they would receive a "Good Land, and Land flowing with Milk and Honey."

Parshas BeHa'alosecha

Now on to the weekly sidra, Parshas BeHa'alosecha, which literally means "in your rising up", but here in the Torah poetically describes the daily lighting of the Menorah in the Temple, to be performed (preferably) by the Aharon, and his successors to the position of Kohein Gadol (High Priest). While we can learn a great deal (from a very small portion, only three verses) from the topic of the lighting of the Menorah itself, I would like to focus on another very famous verse from this week's parsha which reads, "Now this man Moses was exceedingly humble, more so than any person on the face of the earth." When it comes to the trait of humility, many people mistakenly confuse humility with lowliness or even (less often) pitifulness or self-denigration. In truth, however, humility does not involve focusing on one's negative traits, but rather depends on how one views the positive traits that one DOES possess. Therefore, the first step to humility really begins when we recognize our strengths, and at this point, in general, we can view the strengths in three different ways. First, we could say that we have certain G-d given talents, that we have tried to make the best of, and maybe somebody else could have done even better than we have with those talents, so we really have no reason to feel so proud, or haughty, about these things. Second, and more humbly, we could say that while we truly have these talents, we never really did anything to actualize them, in fact we've done a lot to just let them waste away, and so with out any doubt another would have done much more with them than we did, so we should actually feel very thankful for all the success we have had with these talents. The third, and the highest level, of humility does not depend on how we view ourselves, but rather on what we do; to "perform" humility, so to speak. For example, it is said, about Hashem, "that where you find his greatness, you find his humility". We can understand this by looking at the case of a teacher and a student: although the teacher may possess great wisdom, far greater than the student, if he can not impart any of that wisdom to the student, than we should not really call him a "great" teacher. On the other hand, when the teacher takes his profound wisdom and makes it very simple, so that the student should understand, now we would call him a "great" teacher; because he "humbled" himself to see things from the perspective of the lowly student, instead of remaining in the lofty world of his own understanding. Unlike the first two types of humility, which require a great deal of introspection (and are, of course, also very meaningful), this third level in humility simply means sharing our talents, or advantages (material, spiritual, intellectual, etc), with those around us; sharing in the most literal sense of the word, that it should become accessible also to the recipient. When we do this we become more like Moses our Great Teacher, and in his merit, Hashem will surely bless us and come down, in his great humility, from his "lofty abode" to share with us happiness, health, and success.