Parshat Shlach, The Majority Voted "No"

I must admit that this week's Torah Portion of the Week, Parshat Shavua, Shlach Lecha, Numbers 13:1–15:41, is one of my favorite. It's not as simple and optimistic as my all time favorite Lech Lecha, but there's just so much to talk about.

Numbers Chapter 13

1The Lord spoke to Moses saying,		אוַיְדַבֵּ֥ר יְהֹוָ֖ה אֶל־משֶׁ֥ה לֵּאמֹֽר:
2"Send out for yourself men who will scout the Land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel. You shall send one man each for his father's tribe; each one shall be a chieftain in their midst."		בשְׁלַח לְךָ֣ אֲנָשִׁ֗ים וְיָתֻ֨רוּ֙ אֶת־אֶ֣רֶץ כְּנַ֔עַן אֲשֶׁר־אֲנִ֥י נֹתֵ֖ן לִבְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל אִ֣ישׁ אֶחָד֩ אִ֨ישׁ אֶחָ֜ד לְמַטֵּ֤ה אֲבֹתָיו֙ תִּשְׁלָ֔חוּ כֹּ֖ל נָשִׂ֥יא בָהֶֽם:
3So Moses sent them from the desert of Paran by the word of the Lord. All of them were men of distinction; they were the heads of the children of Israel.		גוַיִּשְׁלַ֨ח אֹתָ֥ם משֶׁ֛ה מִמִּדְבַּ֥ר פָּארָ֖ן עַל־פִּ֣י יְהֹוָ֑ה כֻּלָּ֣ם אֲנָשִׁ֔ים רָאשֵׁ֥י בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל הֵֽמָּה:

In Lech Lecha we have one person, Abram (later called by Gd Abraham) who is told by Gd that he is to go live in a certain place which Gd will show him. That ends up a very straight forward story, since Abraham consistently does whatever Gd says.

But a few generations later, Abraham's descendants aren't as obedient.

• Although the Land is beautiful and fertile, they are distracted by the residents. 
• Although Gd had just rescued them from slavery to Pharaoh in Egypt and rescued them from Pharaoh's army, they feared confrontation with those in the Land Gd was sending them to.

Of the twelve tribal heads, only two, Joshua and Caleb, trusted that they could really live in The Land. The majority voted "no."

The Jewish People, recently freed from slavery followed their tribal leaders and then were condemned to wait another generation, forty years, before entering the Land.

I've been living here in Israel longer than forty years. We're soon to celebrate forty-eight 48 years since our aliyah. One of the best things, OK the best thing, we ever did was to make aliyah right after our wedding. Many of our friends talked about it, and some also came soon after getting married or finishing university or even just came without any degree or spouse. But there were many friends who took their parents' advice to "first..." and are still in America. In some cases their children and grandchildren are here in Israel, but others have found themselves still enslaved.

The crucial words in Gd's instructions are:

וְיָתֻ֨רוּ֙ אֶת־אֶ֣רֶץ כְּנַ֔עַן אֲשֶׁר־אֲנִ֥י נֹתֵ֖ן לִבְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל, who will scout the Land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel

Gd commanded that each tribal leader choose an area in which to settle his people. I translate and explain וְיָתֻ֨רוּ֙ as to "stakeout" choose where you want to settle and claim it. Today, we'd call this a "pilot trip." Most Jews from the western world schedule and budget in a pre-aliyah trip to Israel to choose where they will live. That's what Gd commands the tribal leaders to do in Parshat Shlach.

They weren't commanded at all to discuss the merits of living in the Land, the pros and cons. They were shown a large present and told to divide it up among themselves.

Why, davka, do I like this  Torah Portion so much? It's because it's so relevant to modern day. Living in the Holy Land is as much a Mitzvah/Commandment today as it was then. Considering that the Israel of today is one of the most advance/modern in the world, the old rationales/excuses for not living here aren't relevant. And considering that Israel is a vibrant and ever-changing democracy, whatever complaints you have can be worked on when here.

The worst thing would be to act like the ten tribal leaders who sinned and refuse to come, rationalizing like they did. That's why this Torah Portion is known as "The Sin of the Spies."

Portable Biblical Tabernacle, Mishkan,

Yesterday at our women's Shabbat Torah Class, we talked about the Mishkan, Tabernacle, which is the main topic of the Book of Vayikra,  Leviticus which we just finished reading. The neighbor who spoke to us started by reminding us that there isn't a clear chronology in the Bible. That means that events didn't happen in the order we read them.

A few years ago I studied Bamidbar, Numbers, in Matan, taught by Atara Snowbell, and  one of the important things she began with was to say that Vayikra and Bamidbar happened simultaneously. The books each cover different aspects of that time period.

Back to Vayikra and the Tabernacle. Yesterday we were reminded that the "Sin of the Golden Calf" occured right after the Jewish People escaped from Egypt, before the building of the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle in the wilderness was to remedy the people's need for a place to worship, even before entering the Land of Israel. Of course, parallel to this was the "Sin of the Spies," when the people and tribal leaders voted that they weren't ready/capable of the challenges of entering the Promised Land and defeating those there.

In short, those two major sins, the "Golden Calf" and "the Spies" were the reasons why we not only had to wait forty years for a new generation to be ready to enter the Land, but we had a place to worship Gd, the Tabernacle as a central meeting point. Not only was the forty years a time for the twelve Jewish tribes of former slaves to become a People, but the early form of community Judaism developed then, too.

I photoshopped the Tabernacle onto the spot in Tel Shiloh, it is believed to have been in Biblical times.

"Be strong and courageous!"

Today as I read through the Torah Portions, Nitzavim-Vayelech, in synagogue, I suddenly read:

Deuteronomy Chapter 31 6Be strong and courageous! Neither fear, nor be dismayed of them, for the Lord, your God He is the One Who goes with you. He will neither fail you, nor forsake you."

וחִזְק֣וּ וְאִמְצ֔וּ אַל־תִּֽירְא֥וּ וְאַל־תַּֽעַרְצ֖וּ מִפְּנֵיהֶ֑ם כִּ֣י | יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֗יךָ ה֚וּא הַֽהֹלֵ֣ךְ עִמָּ֔ךְ לֹ֥א יַרְפְּךָ֖ וְלֹ֥א יַֽעַזְבֶֽךָּ:

That is exactly what comes to my mind every time Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, other politicians, media, academics etc try to tell us that we can't institute the policies that would make the State of Israel stronger and safer. They use it as an excuse for not building the quantity of homes in Judea and Samaria that would lower prices all over.

We're back to the notorious "sin of the spies," which delayed the entrance to the Land of Israel by forty years. Ten out of twelve tribal chiefs insisted that the "giants" who occupied the Promised Land were too strong for the Jewish People. Those ten frightened the people, and only a tiny minority trusted that Gd would help.

As the Jewish Year 5777 is in its final days, and we are reading the very end of the final and fifth book of the Torah, the Chumash. The forty year delay is over, and the Jewish People are about to enter the Land led by Joshua. Moses is soon to die and not enter with his people. He led the Jewish People as they escaped from Pharaoh in Egypt, and he led them through the wilderness helping them prepare for the next stage, entering the Land of Israel.

A new generation is to enter the Holy Land, and they are reminded yet again that Gd will be with us, to help and not forsake us. Here we are thousands of years later. We read the Torah through every single year. And most of the Jewish People still need reminding and reassurance.

Gd willing in the upcoming year, 5778, the Jewish People and the Government of Israel will have the faith in Gd to think of what's best for the Jewish People and State of Israel, and not what "the world" may say or do. When we act assured with full confidence and sovereignty, like we did in those first few hours of the 1967 Six Days War, the world will accept and respect us. They will be in awe of our Gd given power. That is the "light" we must shine on the world.

Shana Tova One and All

The "Demographic Threat," Another of Those Myths

Another "myth-busting" post.

Long before the Zionist Movement ever began, people have been fearing the "demographic threat" sic. I'd even say that the seeds for this fear are from Biblical Times when Moshe Rabanu, our leader Moses, sent the twelve tribal elders to stake out the Land as depicted in the Weekly Torah Portion Shlach. Ten out of twelve, the majority, aka democracy, insisted that the Land was populated by giants and they'd swallow us up. For that sin, obeying/believing in the "demographic threat," we were punished with wandering the wilderness for thirty-nine 39 years, instead of immediately entering the Land after the exodus from Egypt.

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog, named after his esteemed grandfather, who had been Chief Rabbi, is a man of weak faith. He believes in the "demographic threat."

Israel needs to make a deal with the Palestinian Authority right away, it it wants to survive as a Jewish state, said Zionist Union/Labor Party head Yitzchak Herzog Sunday. Speaking at the Herzliya Conference, Herzog said that Israel faced a “demographic emergency,” and that within a decade there would no longer be a majority of Jews between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. (Arutz 7)

Yes, Herzog is among those who believe in throwing out the baby with the bath water.

Herzog is among those terrified to live with Arabs and want a tiny Jewish only ghetto-like country as the State of Israel.

Ever since the Jewish People began returning in numbers and began to be the majority in portions of the Land of Israel, there have been fearmongers warning that there's a "demographic threat," and soon the Arabs will take over.

The truth is that it hasn't happened and won't happen as long as we behave as a sovereign independent state. The Arab birthrate has been dropping. I see it among my Arab customers in Yafiz, Sha'ar Binyamin. Many come to get baby and children's clothes. They tell me that ours are much better than what is available in their shops. I see that the families are small, and the children are often spaced far apart. They are ambitious for their children. That's a good sign. It reminds me of the famous Golda Meir quotation:

"Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us."

Golda Meir, 4th Israel Prime Minister,17 March 1969 – 3 June 1974
Statement to the National Press Club in Washington, D. C. in 1957,
as quoted in A Land of Our Own: An Oral Autobiography (1973) edited by Marie Syrkin, p. 242

Experts have been predicting the demise of the State of Israel due to "demographic threat" sic for as long has it has been in existance. If it was to happen, it would have happened already.

Parshat Shavua "Shlach," Who Asked Your Opinion?

Parshat ShelachJune 13-14, 2014 – 16 Sivan 5774
Haftarah:Yehoshua 2:1-24
OU

Yes, this week's Torah Portion, Shlach, is one of the most timely and misunderstood. First of all it's known as the "Sin of the Spies," Chet Hamiraglim, חט המרגלים even though the word "spies," "Hamiraglim" or "מרגלים" never appears in the Biblical narrative. Bamidbar 13:2

ב  שְׁלַח-לְךָ אֲנָשִׁים, וְיָתֻרוּ אֶת-אֶרֶץ כְּנַעַן, אֲשֶׁר-אֲנִי נֹתֵן, לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל:  אִישׁ אֶחָד אִישׁ אֶחָד לְמַטֵּה אֲבֹתָיו, תִּשְׁלָחוּ--כֹּל, נָשִׂיא בָהֶם.	2 'Send thou men, that they may spy* out the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel; of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a prince among them.'
ג  וַיִּשְׁלַח אֹתָם מֹשֶׁה מִמִּדְבַּר פָּארָן, עַל-פִּי יְהוָה:  כֻּלָּם אֲנָשִׁים, רָאשֵׁי בְנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל הֵמָּה.	3 And Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran according to the commandment of the LORD; all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel.

*that's the popular translation, though it isn't the definitive one.

We must remember that from the early chapters of the Bible, when G-d commands Abram (Abraham) to "go," lech,  לך to the "land I will show you,"  "el Ha"Aretz asher erecha," "אֶל-הָאָרֶץ, אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ." This is non-negotiable. Bereishit 12:1

א  וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל-אַבְרָם, לֶךְ-לְךָ מֵאַרְצְךָ וּמִמּוֹלַדְתְּךָ וּמִבֵּית אָבִיךָ, אֶל-הָאָרֶץ, אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ.	1 Now the LORD said unto Abram: 'Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee.
ב  וְאֶעֶשְׂךָ, לְגוֹי גָּדוֹל, וַאֲבָרֶכְךָ, וַאֲגַדְּלָה שְׁמֶךָ; וֶהְיֵה, בְּרָכָה.	2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing.
ג  וַאֲבָרְכָה, מְבָרְכֶיךָ, וּמְקַלֶּלְךָ, אָאֹר; וְנִבְרְכוּ בְךָ, כֹּל מִשְׁפְּחֹת הָאֲדָמָה.	3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.'

I consider it the theme of the entire Bible, not just the Chumash, the first five books. We, the Jewish People, are supposed to make this Land our home. If there is trouble with other residents, as long as we do our part, G-d will make sure that we are victorious, just like He did in 1948, 1967, 1973 and now, too.

Nefesh B'Nefesh,
Photo Batya Medad

At the point in our history when "Shlach" happens, we the Jewish People have left Egypt and can enter that Land. That's the plan, G-d's plan. The tribal leaders who weren't hiding, weren't acting as spies were sent to stake it out, to each choose a section of the Land for his tribe. They were supposed to cheer on their people and encourage them to take that next step as G-d's chosen people in the Land.

The leaders were supposed to be the middlemen, following G-d and leading the people. They were not supposed to create doubt in the minds of the former slaves. They were not to evaluate nor give an opinion about feasibility.

Unfortunately, today we're still suffering from the same mind-set, the same sin. The Jewish People have not come to the Land en masse. Jewish religious and communal leaders, today's tribal leaders,  have not given the order nor shown by example. They are more occupied preserving and fundraising for their diaspora institutions. They are full of noble sounding excuses just like the tribal leaders of old.

Nefesh B'Nefesh, Photo Batya Medad

Come already! Stake out your place in our wonderful Land! Then we can celebrate together. And then we will recognize the Moshiach who has been waiting for us here. And then our Land will flower and give us all of the food we need. Don't worry. Then will take care of the details and save us from our external enemies. First we must defeat our internal enemies, those who are keeping the Jewish People in the diaspora.

ripe grapes in my garden, Batya Medad

Shimon The Dangerous Peres, Wrong Again

Hat tip: Rafi, Life in Israel

President Shimon Peres,
2012 President Conference
Photo Batya Medad

40 years have passed. Most of Israel's citizens did not personally experience the shock of the fearful siren, wailing up and down, that at 2 PM ripped through the silence of the holiness of Yom Kippur. The nation was wrapped then in its fast, gathered in the synagogues, or in the privacy of their homes. The gates of heaven were not open that day, the prayers were not answered, the war broke out. The fire was on two fronts, the north and the south, by the time the siren sounded, the first soldiers had already fallen. Israel had made a mistake and was surprised, and her children gave their lives with amazing heroism and saved it from the valley of tears.  -- President Shimon Peres, at memorial ceremony on Har Herzl for the fallen soldiers of the Yom Kippur War

Israelis, like many other people tend to credit themselves and other humans for good things and blame G-d for the bad.  I see like in the complete opposite direction. We humans tend to misuse our gift of Free Will and make the wrong decisions.  I'm not talking about buying the wrong color dress,  a boring book or even a lemon  of a car.  I'm talking about dangerous things, like the Israeli Government decisions that caused the horrendous death toll in the first days of the 1973 Yom Kippur War and almost caused the destruction of the State of Israel.

Immediately after the 1967 Six Days War, the country was filled with signs thanking the IDF for the victory, even though the great victory bore no relation to the battle plans.  In simple terms, G-d took over steering the ship.  While the Israeli Labor-ked Government had always made it clear that it was perfectly satisfied with the Land under Israeli control since the 1949 ceasefire, G-d decided otherwise.  And instead of recognizing that G-d knows more than man, successive Israeli governments for the past forty-six 46 years have been begging the Arabs to take back the Land we won in a fighting for our lives and existence defensive war in exchange for a "peace treaty."

Shimon Peres personifies that faulty reasoning.  For whatever reason, G-d has made him one of the last, if not the very last of that generation that refuses to accept G-d's will.  And Peres, instead of recognizing and admitting his mistakes has continued for almost half a century taking credit for our survival and promoting his faux peace.

I'm not as optimistic as MK Elkin who thinks that Israelis have "sobered up" and recognize the futility of their quest for peace.

I think a serious step would be when we hear Israeli and Jewish leaders thank G-d for stopping the Holocaust and blaming human free will for causing the death of millions.  All of this philosophy and history are related.  That's the key.  We're still stuck in the syndrome of the "Sin of the Spies," when ten out of the twelve tribal leaders feared the challenges of liberating aka conquering the Promised Land, and they sold their faulty opinion to the masses of recently enslaved Jews.  It seems we're still sentenced to wander the desert and await a Joshua to lead us into Jewish Sovereignty in the Holy Land.

"Peace" at Any Cost- Is it PEACE?

The slick advertising campaign has begun!

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been saying that he'll ask the Israeli public to approve any drastic (is that the right adjective?) "peace" sic treaty his staff comes up with.

According to sources in the Prime Minister’s Office who spoke to Hebrew Daily Israel Hayom, the move aims to advance the diplomatic process, and shows how serious Netanyahu is about resuming talks.

Whenever he talks about "painful concessions" I and he knows too that he's just weakening Israel for defeat at war.

"We must ... find a way to forge a lasting peace with the Palestinians," says Netanyahu, and that will mean "painful concessions" on Israel's part that include ceding some places that are part of the Jewish homelands.

There is no way that a true, genuine peace agreement can be painful.  And  there's no way that a shrunken, amputated Israel will be secure and safe.  The word "peace" has become a euphemism for an Israel on the way to destruction, G-d forbid.

In the meantime, the Israeli Left is trying to brainwash the nation that "everyone" wants peace at any price.  IMRA posted an interesting post about the public relations campaign now going on to distort the news of Israeli opinion polls:

Haaretz cooks poll question to show support for deal - while 61%:26% Israelis
oppose deal
Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA 24 July 20013

The folks at Haaretz needed a poll showing that the public supports a peace
agreement but they had a problem:

The moment that you actually say anything about the agreement, the public is
overwhelmingly opposed.

That's what Maagar - Interdisciplinary Research and Consulting Institute
Ltd., managed by Professor Yitzhak Katz found in a poll of 503 Israelis they
carried out on 22 July for Channel 10
In principle, are you for or against signing a full peace agreement with the
Palestinians on the basis of the 1967 borders, including the exchange of
territory and release of prisoners?
Total: For 29% Against 57% Other replies 14%
and it gets only worse when you spell it out even more:
Are you for or against signing a peace agreement with the Palestinians on
the basis of the 1967 borders, including the evacuation of communities with
the exception of settlement blocs, exchange of territory, Palestinians
recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish People, and release of
Palestinians with "blood on their hands".
Total: For 26% Against 61% Other 13%

So here is the propaganda piece that Haaretz commissioned in a poll carried
out 23 July - by Dialogue under the supervision of statistics professor and
pollster Camil Fuchs of a representative sample of 511 adult Israelis
(including Israeli Arabs). Published in Haaretz on 24 July 2013

Assume that the Prime Minister reaches an agreement with the Palestinians
and brings it to a national referendum, would you support or oppose it?
Support 39% Think support 16% Think oppose 5% Oppose 20% Don’t know 20%

What's the problem with this question?

There are, no doubt, many respondents who were in the "plus column" who
support Netanyahu and were thinking that, in the absence of information
about the deal, that a deal that Netanyahu brings to a national referendum
would have to be radically different than the kind of deal that the talking
heads have been outlining for the last two decades. Take note the huge
"Don't know" response.

The Haaretz poll is meaningless because if and when we reach the point that
there is a national referendum the details of the deal will very much be the
subject of considerable debate.

Remember that democracy is the rule of fools, and most people are easy to trick.  I am not optimistic about the results of such a referendum, and that's for a few reasons.

1. It will be professionally worded to give the impression that the result will be peace.
2. The campaign will stress that if we don't sign two terrible things will happen.  One that  the world will hate us and two that there will be immediate war.

In the time of the Bible, very soon after Moses led the Jewish People from slavery to Pharaoh in Egypt, he sent out twelve tribal leaders, one from each tribe, to stakeout the Land in preparation for immediate entry.  Ten out of twelve came back with frightening reports that although the Land was rich and fertile, there was no way the Jewish People could win any war against the present residents.  Democracy! The two dissenting leaders, Joshua and Caleb tried to convince the people otherwise and were voted down in that early referendum.  Democracy!

As a result, G-d punished the people by declaring that they must wait in the wilderness until another generation would be born. 

Today we are physically in the promised Land, the Land G-d gave us, but ideologically, spiritually and emotionally, we the Jewish People are still not ready for the gifts G-d has given us.  Peace will not come from concessions to our enemies.  Peace will only come from our being truly sovereign in the Land of Israel, G-d willing.

Salute to Israel Parade, Memories

Today in New York there will be the Salute to Israel Parade.  Just the name of it brings back such vivid memories.  I marched and danced at/with/in all the early parades from the first until 1970.  There were years I did it twice, rushing back to the start off.  First I marched/danced with NCSY and then I'd march with Betar.  I had such energy then.

There's only one picture I have of myself participating in the Salute to Israel Parade. It's the one that the Jewish Agency used in its poster to advertise the following year's parade.

Can you guess which dancer is me?  I'm still very close friends with the friend I had danced with then.  She also lives in Israel, not far from me.  We even sometimes take the same Bible classes.

Just recently she confided that it was the Israeli folk dancing which I had gotten her involved that brought her to Zionism and Israel.  We were privileged to represent NCSY in the Fred Berk Leadership and Choreography Course, 1967-68, which was held in the 92nd Street Y each year.  The following year we led the NCSY Dance Group in the big Folk Dance Festival that Fred was in charge of.

When I look back on my life, these events were definite highlights. All of the young Zionist activists took part in one way or another. We got to know each other in person.  In those days there weren't any cellphones or computers, internet etc.  If you corresponded you used paper and stamps.  Even phone calls were expensive.  There weren't any security concerns.  Terrorism was unheard of.  It was truly a great time to be growing up in.

I was a young high school student when the parade first began.  I traveled to the city with friends from my NCSY chapter of the Great Neck Synagogue. They were all older than me and possibly I was the only girl in the group.  They also knew their way around Manhattan and navigated, finding where we started to march.  And when it was over, they made sure I got home safely.

Almost fifty years later, Jews from all over are still marching in the parade, which makes me very happy.  Enjoy!  But remember, marching in the Salute to Israel Parade isn't a substitute for making aliyah and living in Israel. 

The message of this week's Parshat Shavua, Torah Portion of the Week is that you're not supposed to think of the pros, cons and difficulties.  Just come here and live in the Land G-d promised us.

Sin of the "Spies," A Misnomer

This week's Parshat HaShavua, Torah Portion of the Week is Shlach Lecha Numbers 13,1-15,41.  If you read through very carefully, you won't find the word מרגלים miraglim, spies any place in the text.  It is a Biblical word, because it appears in the Haftara, the passage from Joshua 2,1-24 read after the Torah.

Here's from Bamidbar, Numbers:

Numbers Chapter 13 בְּמִדְבַּר

א  וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה, אֶל-מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר.	1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying:
ב  שְׁלַח-לְךָ אֲנָשִׁים, וְיָתֻרוּ אֶת-אֶרֶץ כְּנַעַן, אֲשֶׁר-אֲנִי נֹתֵן, לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל:  אִישׁ אֶחָד אִישׁ אֶחָד לְמַטֵּה אֲבֹתָיו, תִּשְׁלָחוּ--כֹּל, נָשִׂיא בָהֶם.	2 'Send thou men, that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel; of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a prince among them.'

And here's from Joshua:

Joshua Chapter 2 יְהוֹשֻׁעַ

א  וַיִּשְׁלַח יְהוֹשֻׁעַ-בִּן-נוּן מִן-הַשִּׁטִּים שְׁנַיִם-אֲנָשִׁים מְרַגְּלִים, חֶרֶשׁ לֵאמֹר, לְכוּ רְאוּ אֶת-הָאָרֶץ, וְאֶת-יְרִיחוֹ; וַיֵּלְכוּ וַיָּבֹאוּ בֵּית-אִשָּׁה זוֹנָה, וּשְׁמָהּ רָחָב--וַיִּשְׁכְּבוּ-שָׁמָּה.	1 And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two spies secretly, saying: 'Go view the land, and Jericho.' And they went, and came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab, and lay there.
ב  וַיֵּאָמַר, לְמֶלֶךְ יְרִיחוֹ לֵאמֹר:  הִנֵּה אֲנָשִׁים בָּאוּ הֵנָּה הַלַּיְלָה, מִבְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל--לַחְפֹּר אֶת-הָאָרֶץ.	2 And it was told the king of Jericho, saying: 'Behold, there came men in hither to-night of the children of Israel to search out the land.'

They are not the same words.  I prefer looking at the Hebrew before the English. 
 אֲנָשִׁים, וְיָתֻרוּ אֶת-אֶרֶץ כְּנַעַן  anashim-people viyaturu-?  Later in the verse we are told that these people are tribal heads, important people.  They didn't hide.  They wandered the Land in public view. 

One of the men who was sent by Moshe was Joshua, who took over as leader after Moshe's death.  He gave different orders and to שְׁנַיִם-אֲנָשִׁים מְרַגְּלִים  anashim meraglim, spies.  Another difference was that it was in secret.

I believe that Moshe had sent his tribal heads to stake out  the Land.  Moshe rather naively expected all twelve of them to understand that this was the "mother of all" pilot trips.  They were supposed to claim their areas and come back giving the greatest, most convincing PR ever to excite and enthuse the tribes to hurry and settle the Land ASAP.

Only Caleb and Joshua understood their task.  For that reason, Caleb's tribe Judah was given Hebron, which he had claimed during the mission.

The lesson we Jews today must learn from this is that our job isn't to decide the pros and cons of living in Israel.  We must just pick the place in the Land of Israel where we will live and make it all work out, with G-d's help.

Have a wonderful week.

If Only...

Chazal, our wise men, say that coincidence is just a message from G-d.

Davka today, just hours before Shabbat Shelach, the Torah Portion when we read of the "Sin of the Spies, in which the most distinguished and honored of the Jewish Nation reported back to Moshe and the People that it would be too difficult and dangerous to live the Land G-d was sending them to, I got the YU Bulletin.

Now, Yeshiva University is a very impressive university with massive campuses, world renown undergraduate and graduate schools offering the most impressive academic opportunities. This isn't the first time we've received this publication, but today I was trying to think of a way to bring Parshat Shelach to modern life and blog.

If only...

If only all of that great energy, investment, enthusiasm and vision had been in Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel. Just think of the magnificent opportunities, the attraction for potential olim (immigrants.) The world would have been a different world. Israel would have been a different country. World Jewry, Torah and academic, would be centered here in the Holy Land.

Phil Chernofsky expresses it well in Torah Tidbits:

This issue of TT is the 17th one for Sh'lach and the number of times we've tried to make the point that living in Israel is essential to G-d's Plan for His Nation is far greater than 17. And each time, we try to say it in a different way. Maybe one way will hit home with the person who needs the message.

Try this: When a generally observant Jew reads/listens the Torah, he reacts positively to ZACHOR ET YOM HASHABBAT L'KAD'SHO, remember the Shabbat, etc. And he reacts negatively to this week's episode of the "wood gatherer". He neither admires nor emulates the M'koshesh Eitzim (Tz'lofchad, according to Tradition).

How does (should) this same basically observant Jew react to the passages in the Torah that speak of G-d's "desire" that we follow His Torah and be faithful to Him in Eretz Yisrael? How does he react to the episode of the M'raglim (also from this week's sedra, of course)? Is he as appalled at the behavior of the 10 M'raglim as he is about the Shabbat desecrater or the one who "blessed" G-d's name? Does he admire Kalev who risked his life to passionately plead with the people to listen to G-d? And who does he emulate: Nachbi b. Vofsi or Kalev b. Yefuneh?

Over forty years ago, when I announced to my parents that I planned on making aliyah, moving to Israel, I told them that to me living in the Land of Israel was a mitzvah, G-d given Commandment, no different than kosher food and Shabbat.

Israel is the way it is because of the results of our decisions and actions. When I was much younger I studied dance. My dance movement expert, (Alan Wayne), taught us that every movement, even the very slightest change in position will have very different results. If the hard-working visionaries who built Yeshiva University had decided that it must be in the Land of Israel, today's State of Israel would be totally different. And while I'm at it, I must say:

If the Chareidi rabbis had seen serving in the Israeli Army as a crucially important mitzvah, today's IDF would be a strong Torah Defense Force!

Judaism never accepts that things can't be fixed or changed. That's what tshuva, repentance, is all about. We must constantly strive for a higher level of Jewish Life and to correct our, yes, our, mistakes.

Shabbat Shalom U'Mevorach
May You Have A Complete and Blessed Sabbath

Winograd--The Nitty Gritty

If you scrape off the political "conclusions" from the Winograd, you do get a strong condemnation of Olmert and the way his government ran the war. This editorial from Ha'aretz, hat tip IMRA, says it well.

The people didn't want a poltical report, but Olmert appointed the committee.

This reminds me of the Sin of the Spies, in the Bible. The twelve tribal leaders were only asked to report the situation, not to draw conclusions. The Land was rich. The fruit brought back proved it, but instead of using that to encourage the People, they frightened the People by ignoring G-d's power and all that had happened up to then.

Ten of the spies spoke logically, as if the Hebrews were ordinary people, not G-d's chosen. As reasonable pragmatists, they insisted that there was no way we could defeat the powerful locals.

Winograd describes a totaly faulty government with "disabled" thinking processes which turned what should have been a victory into defeat. But then it follows the "party line" and explains that compromises must be made for "peace," and that it's good that the war brought international forces to "protect" us.

Davka, that's the biggest tragedy of the Second Lebanese War. The State of Israel gave up on sovereignty. Just like the punishment in Biblical times, when our entrance to the Holy Land was delayed for decades, Peace will now be delayed as punishment for the sins of Winograd and Olmert.