Shabbat Lech Lecha: All About Spirit
This week’s Torah reading is dominated by the story of the 12 men sent by Moses to scout out the Land of Canaan. There’s a dispute as to whether they went to tour, to undermine, or to spy. The Torah uses all three words.
These representatives of each tribe went into the land of Canaan, looked at the layout of the country and the people and when they came back, the first group of ten delivered their report. They agreed that the land was amazing, but they said that it was going to be very, very difficult to conquer because the people were so strong and their cities so well protected. The reaction of the people was to panic. They had thought it was going to be easy. They were not mentally prepared for a fight.
The report of Joshua and Caleb confirmed that it was a great country and it’s true that the people there may be strong, but that doesn’t mean they could not go in and conquer it. The people listened to the majority report, and morale plummeted, they were expecting it to be easy, and now all of a sudden, they realised it might be difficult, and they panicked. They said let’s go back to Egypt.
God’s reaction was to destroy everyone and rebuild the people with Moses. Moses interceded. God relented. But decreed that it would take another 40 years for that generation to die out and for a new Israel to have the courage to do what these earlier ones had not and be ready psychologically to fight to enter the land of Canaan.
The Children of Israel turned around and headed back to Sinai. However, a small group of men wanted to try to put things right by going against the decision to retreat and invade, even though Moses warned them not to. It was not the right moment. They ignored him and went up the mountain to invade.
The Amalekites and the Canaanites came down at them, smashed them to pieces and they retreated to a place called Horma ( Numbers 14:45). Acting out of desperation is never a good tactic. And they failed. A generation would pass before they were ready and this time they invaded as a unified body, psychologically prepared. And that happened. This time they avenged the earlier loss and defeated the Canaanites at the very same place Horma where they had been defeated 40 years earlier (Numbers 21:3).
What was the difference between these two occasions? In the first case, it’s clear that the morale wasn’t there. The people were not yet united even though they experienced something amazing at the Red Sea and on Mount Sinai. It still wasn’t enough to give them the confidence that they could go forward and win. In the second stage after 40 years, they were more united, stronger, and better prepared and they realised that they could go in and win.
The moral of the story is that we human beings when faced with a challenge, can react in one of two ways. We can either see it as an excuse for giving up. Or we can see it as an opportunity and challenge to overcome. But at the same time acting out of desperation is never a good idea.
We all face challenges and setbacks at some time. Life does not always go smoothly. We can lash out and complain and react out of anger and frustration. Or we can sit back and say there’s nothing we can do and there’s no point even in trying. But we could also determine to be positive and find ways of overcoming the difficulties. It might not always work the first time and if it doesn’t, we persevere and try again. There are no guarantees, but patience and perseverance will at least give us a sense that we knew we tried our best.
Numbers 13-16
Rabbi Jeremy Rosen lives in New York. He was born in Manchester. His writings are concerned with religion, culture, history and current affairs – anything he finds interesting or relevant. They are designed to entertain and to stimulate. Disagreement is always welcome.
