Parshat Shlach

Parshat Shlach--June 4, 2010

In the parsha, Moses sends out twelve spies to scout out the Land of Israel, and ten of them bring back a negative report. Sending out scouts wasn’t necessarily a bad thing--Joshua sent spies to Jericho (they brough back an encouraging report). Just because God says to conquer, you don’t do it blindly. The real issue is the false, slanderous report--the dibah (by the way, a lot of ink has been spilled about the fact that dibah is used in Gen 37:2 to mean a true but negative report. Most mefarshim argue that the meaning of dibah depends on the whole phrase):

(כז) וַיְסַפְּרוּ לוֹ וַיֹּאמְרוּ בָּאנוּ אֶל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר שְׁלַחְתָּנוּ וְגַם זָבַת חָלָב וּדְבַשׁ הִוא וְזֶה פִּרְיָהּ:

(כח) אֶפֶס כִּי עַז הָעָם הַיּשֵׁב בָּאָרֶץ וְהֶעָרִים בְּצֻרוֹת גְּדֹלֹת מְאֹד וְגַם יְלִדֵי הָעֲנָק רָאִינוּ שָׁם:

(כט) עֲמָלֵק יוֹשֵׁב בְּאֶרֶץ הַנֶּגֶב וְהַחִתִּי וְהַיְבוּסִי וְהָאֱמֹרִי יוֹשֵׁב בָּהָר וְהַכְּנַעֲנִי יוֹשֵׁב עַל הַיָּם וְעַל יַד הַיַּרְדֵּן:

(ל) וַיַּהַס כָּלֵב אֶת הָעָם אֶל משֶׁה וַיֹּאמֶר עָלֹה נַעֲלֶה וְיָרַשְׁנוּ אֹתָהּ כִּי יָכוֹל נוּכַל לָהּ:

(לא) וְהָאֲנָשִׁים אֲשֶׁר עָלוּ עִמּוֹ אָמְרוּ לֹא נוּכַל לַעֲלוֹת אֶל הָעָם כִּי חָזָק הוּא מִמֶּנּוּ:

(לב) וַיֹּצִיאוּ דִּבַּת הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר תָּרוּ אֹתָהּ אֶל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֵאמֹר הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר עָבַרְנוּ בָהּ לָתוּר אֹתָהּ אֶרֶץ אֹכֶלֶת יוֹשְׁבֶיהָ הִוא וְכָל הָעָם אֲשֶׁר רָאִינוּ בְתוֹכָהּ אַנְשֵׁי מִדּוֹת:

(לג) וְשָׁם רָאִינוּ אֶת הַנְּפִילִים בְּנֵי עֲנָק מִן הַנְּפִלִים וַנְּהִי בְעֵינֵינוּ כַּחֲגָבִים וְכֵן הָיִינוּ בְּעֵינֵיהֶם:

The spies start out with a balanced report, thinking will go one way. Joshua steps in and encourages the people, and the tide turns against them. So what do they do? They exaggerate, saying the land "eats its inhabitants." According to Rashi, they see funerals everywhere, so they assume it's such a terrible place. The irony is, God had made a miracle, and arranged these funerals so the spies wouldn't be noticed. They took a blessing and saw a curse! Similarly, Nahmanides says that they saw this huge produce, and saw that the people were huge, and said "only big people can survive here"--when really the land was so rich that it made them big. Again, they took a blessing and saw a curse. They weren't intentionally lying, they were just foold (see Midrash Rabbah 16:2).

We do this with individuals. When someone we dislike does something nice, we assume negative or selfish motives. Sometimes a situation may really be for the best, we just see the negative. It is difficult--but our parsha tells us to do this-- to reserve judgment until the facts are known.

I was very impressed by President Obama’s response to this week's incident with the flotilla headed for Gaza, waiting until all the facts come out until rushing to judgment. It turns out that the people who were killed were members of a jihadist moslem group from Turkey, the IHH, who attacked the police officers as they boarded the boats, and then lied to the world about being shot at from the sky by the helicopters (as my friend Ruben Modeck pointed out, if they were being shot at, why were they all standing around on the top deck of the ship). NPR, reporting the incident, said that commandos raided a humanitarian boat, killed "nine innocents." Sometimes we do not even know when we rush to judgment--we are blinded by our own prejudices.

This parsha calls us to reserve judgment, to evaluate the facts objectively, and to be able to see God's blessings when they come into our lives.