D'var Torah

This week's Torah portion describes how the twelve spies, each representing a tribe, scout the Land of Israel. After forty days, they return. Ten of them report that the land is fruitful, but its cities and countryside are filled with powerful warriors—giants. Two of the spies, Caleb and Joshua, disagree. They urge the people to conquer the land. Hearing the divided report, the people protest against Moses and Aaron, telling them: "let us go back to Egypt." This upsets God tremendously; God threatens to abandon the people for their disloyalty and to create a new people for Moses to lead. As he often does, Moses pleads with God to pardon the people, pointing out that God's reputation is at stake.  He argues that if the people are destroyed, it will appear that God freed them from Egypt only to crush them in the desert.  God heeds Moses' words, but he punishes the people nonetheless. They are told that, because of their lack of faith, they will die before entering the Land of Israel, and only after forty years of wandering in the desert will their children conquer the land.

When I read back this short overview of this famous story, it seems overwhelmingly negative. But for me, Parashat Shelach-Lecha is an inspiring and positive story. Twelve people go out to look (essentially) into the future. They go to see the land which has been promised to them. Although they'll have to work for it, the Land of Israel is their future. It is more than a dream; it is a glimpse into the true potential of what lies ahead. Most people who experience this new land come back focused on only the negative aspects of the place. Fearful and discouraged, they share this news with the people who, naturally, are disheartened and become discouraged. But two people, well, the minority, see things differently. They see the good and hopeful aspects of the land. Somehow, through their spirit and attitude, they convince the people that they have got it right and the other ten have it wrong.

This is a story about the strength of positive thinking; it is about attitude, hopefulness, and self-confidence. It is also about faith in the future. Today, it seems that all the news comes to us through the eyes of the ten spies who can only have a gloomy vision of that which is ahead. Rarely do we hear the voices of a Joshua or a Caleb showing us that there is hope for our world.  It feels overwhelming to open the paper each morning to the tragedies and horrors of our own country and many others as well. I look through the pages each day for the one story about an individual or community, or new project that can be seen through a prism of hope - something that will enable me to feel positively about the future. I am grateful to be part of this Temple community where we have not embraced the negativism that seems to be in most of the air. We will continue to work, like Joshua and Caleb to embrace a positive view of what is ahead.

Joshua and Caleb are the only two members of the community of Israel who left Egypt who had the honor of entering Israel. May we, too, be blessed with the honor of seeing a positive future made real in our life times. Like both of them, we must work to make this happen.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Amy Schwartzman