Shelach Lecha tells the story of the spies sent by Moses to survey the land. Ten of the twelve men return with an ambivalent and fearful report: the land is good but the people are giants and their cities impregnable. Two men, Joshua and Caleb, argue to the contrary – but their confidence is ignored and the people, fearful and…
…learn the lesson of that episode and carry it with them always. They needed faith and courage. Perhaps that has always been part of what it means to be a Jew. But the story of the spies as he tells it here is very different indeed from the version in Shelach Lecha (Bamidbar 13-14), which describes the events as they…
…subconsciously, of what we believe. That is precisely the psychology behind the mitzvah of tzitzit in this week’s parsha of Shelach Lecha: This shall be your tzitzit and you shall see it and remember all the Lord’s commandments and keep them, not straying after your heart and after your eyes, following your own sinful desires. Thus you will be reminded…
One of the most powerful addresses I ever heard was given by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, on this week’s parsha: the story of the spies. For me, it was nothing less than life-changing. He asked the obvious questions. How could ten of the spies have come back with a demoralising, defeatist report? How could they say, we…
…Shelach Lecha (Num. 13-14), which describes the events as they happened at the time, almost 39 years earlier. The discrepancies between the two accounts are glaring and numerous. Here I want to focus only on two. First: who proposed sending the spies? In Shelach, it was God who told Moses to do so. “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Send men…”…
The twelve men sent by Moses to explore the land of Israel came back with a wholly misleading report. They said: “We cannot go up against those people, for they are stronger than us . . . The land which we have journeyed through and scouted is a land that consumes its inhabitants; and all the people we saw were…
…The Core Idea Understanding our life’s story is important for making the right decisions. Sometimes we need to ask “What is going on?” before deciding how to react. We can learn this by studying Shelach Lecha We may think that we already know this story. Moshe sent twelve spies to explore the land. Ten of them came back with a…
The Parsha in a Nutshell This summary is adapted from this week’s main Covenant & Conversation essay by Rabbi Sacks, available to read in full via the left sidebar (or below, if you are viewing this on your phone) The Lubavitcher Rebbe famously raised the questions we might all ask about the story of the spies. How could ten of…
…the book of Joshua, in the passage read as the haftarah to Shelach Lecha. When Joshua sent spies to Jericho, the woman who sheltered them, Rahab, described for them what her people felt when they heard that that the Israelites were on their way: I know that the Lord has given this land to you. A great fear of you…
The Summary This summary is adapted from this week’s main Covenant & Conversation essay by Rabbi Sacks. When twelve men were sent out from Bnei Yisrael to scout the land of Canaan, ten of them returned with a very misleading report. In truth, they were afraid of the Canaanites, not realising that the Canaanites were fearful of Bnei Yisrael too….