20 Jun Shlach; The Spies and 40 Years Wandering in the Desert
There is commentary that teaches us that there are 4 Great Sins in Torah; This sin of Adam and Chava eating the fruit, the sin of the Golden Calf, the sin of Joseph’s brothers throwing him into the pit and the sin of the Spies.
The leaders (princes) of each of the 12 tribes were to ‘go out to survey ‘, not spy the land in order to satisfy any doubts the Nation might have had of the Land of Israel that G-d was giving them. This doubting of G-d’s gift reveals a lack of trust, faith and lack of gratitude towards G-d who had shown them many miracles including having witnessed the 10 Plagues, being redeemed from enslavement in Egypt, and having had the Revelation of Torah at Sinai, however G-d and Moses agreed that they may survey the Land.
The basic mission to survey was simple. They were to see the Land and report back, ‘is it good or bad’? However their mission to survey the Land changed when their objectivity of what benifits they had in the desert was to be lost should they enter The Land. Accordingly they returned with a subjective corrupt and negative report in an effort to dissuade Moses and the Nation from entering The Land. This changed their mission from ‘surveyors to spies’.
So long as the tribes were in Bamidbar (the desert) their connection to G-d was most intimate. The princes of the tribes had a princely status, the Nation did not want, nor need effort for food, shelter or clothing.
Once they entered The Land there was a concern that the status of the Princes would change.The Nation would need to make an effort for their necessities such as food, clothing, shelter and their spiritual connection as it was in Bamidbar would change too.
The most difficult thing about change is the unknown of not knowing what will happen when change is made. That is why having a conscious connection with G-d, to acquire faith and trust in Him is so important.
It was the inability to see the power and benefit of the changes that came with acquiring the Land of Israel and moreover it was the lack of faith and trust in G-d that contributed to the Sin of the Spies. They reported back to the Nation a negative self serving corrupted bias report.* The consequence was that the generation would wander the desert for 40 years and die out in the desert never to enter the Land of Israel. Joshua and Calev however returned with a righteous favourable report and were able to enter The Land of Israel.
Tshuvah and 40 Wandering the Desert
The Jews wandered in the desert for 40 years until those (adults) who were of the generation of the Sin of the Spies died out. The following reveals powers of the number 40 and its relationship to tshuvah;
40 is a significant number. Among the relevant events associated with 40 are;
-the letter MeM has a value of 40 and is primarily associated with water, mayim
-the flood of Noah, 40 days and 40 nights
-the minimum amount of purifying water in a mikvah is 40 seah
– 40 is the cumulative number of the 10 sefirot descending through each the 4 worlds associated with the tetragrammaton Havayah, Y-K- *-*;
1 Atzilut/Emination-10, 2 Beriyah/Creation-10, 3 Yetzirah/Formation-10 , 4 Asiyah/Action- 10 = 40. When each of these 4 worlds of 10 sefirot are rectified and elelvated, they become elevated and interincluded as One- Echad.
– 40 reveals the purification process of ‘death to life, from impure to pure’.
We continue today to rectify these sins and myriad of the shards of these sins that are the worlds blemishes. As a ‘chosen people’, we were chosen to Live, Learn and Teach the principles of righteous living to the world.
We can see the failure of this in the social media of our world today. Like the surveyors who became self serving spies with a corrupted message, we are bombarded with corrupted messages that are politically and or economically self serving as disinformation; obfuscation, exaggeration, embellishment and hyperbole This detracts from the ability to establish an authentic and elevated reality , to a negatively impacting counterfeit one.
We must strive for righteous messaging. The Torah teaches us to be critical thinkers, to investigate, compare and challenge ideas in order to elevate the truth. In Chassidut critical thinking may be referred to as ‘holding opposites’ or ‘standing in the questions’. When this is done with a conscious connection to G-d and His Righteous Wisdoms, a higher truth can be found.
At the most basic level of scrutiny, Critical Thinking needs to be applied to the differentiation between facts and opinion.
From Perkei Avot -Mishna Torah 2;1 Maimonides (pp) and ‘The 6 Constant Mitzvot’ we learn;
Do not be led (or lead others) astray by the fancies of your mind.
It is our purpose to rectify and elevate ourselves and the world , Tikun OIam;
To Be a Holy Spy.
Leib Getzel (Lawrence) Lax
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