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Shelach: Touring the Land · A Thought for the Week

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to a Thought for the Week, a Torah in
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  Speaker 1: Motion podcast. I'm Jake Hellman, founding director of Torah in Motion,
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  Speaker 1: and it's a pleasure to have you here with us.
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  Speaker 1: One of the perhaps frustrating but powerful and meaningful aspects
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  Speaker 1: of the Torah is the fact that it rarely passes
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  Speaker 1: judgment on events or people. It tells us what happened,
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  Speaker 1: but it doesn't tell us if the people acted appropriately.
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  Speaker 1: Just to said a few examples from the beginning of
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  Speaker 1: the Torah, was Avraim right to leave Israel right after
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  Speaker 1: he went there and there was a famine. Should Sarah
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  Speaker 1: have offered Hagarth Abraham as a wife a mate servant?
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  Speaker 1: Should Jakhov have stolen the blessings? Was it correct for
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  Speaker 1: she went on lavy to attack the people in scam?
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  Speaker 1: The tour does not give us definitive answers to these questions.
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  Speaker 1: At times, the torres hints at answers, but generally these
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  Speaker 1: points are debated among the commentaries. Now, obviously this is intentional.
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  Speaker 1: The Torah didn't have to do that. They could have
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  Speaker 1: been much more clear. But it obviously wants us to
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  Speaker 1: see both sides of these issues, and every issue because
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  Speaker 1: the tour fundamentally is a book of current events, and
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  Speaker 1: these story serves as instructions, as guide. That's what the
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  Speaker 1: reretor means to guide instructions. So the tour always wants
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  Speaker 1: us to look at the different angles of the story,
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  Speaker 1: and in some applications it's one angle is correct in
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  Speaker 1: a different time, in a different place, for a different person.
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  Speaker 1: A different aspect of the Torah or a different attitude
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  Speaker 1: towards that story is key. So the Torah allows that
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  Speaker 1: and obligate to, you know, view this in many different
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  Speaker 1: ways so we can apply it to all kinds of
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  Speaker 1: different situations. There's a lot of work got to work
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  Speaker 1: to do that. Further, where the tour is ambiguous, very
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  Speaker 1: often we don't even know what happened. Just to say,
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  Speaker 1: one example, it's very unclear who sold Josef, what the
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  Speaker 1: brothers or the ishmaelates. The tour is not clear. And
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  Speaker 1: even when the tour has a punishment, and we don't
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  Speaker 1: even know necessarily what exactly was done wrong. If there's
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  Speaker 1: a punishment, presumably something was done wrong. But toy doesn't
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  Speaker 1: tell us necessarily what another gonter view do wrong? What
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  Speaker 1: did motion do wrong? When he hit the rock everybody
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  Speaker 1: has a different explanation, meaning we don't really know. And Moreover,
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  Speaker 1: the stories in the tour are often repeated, often with
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  Speaker 1: many differences or even contradictions. No greater example than the
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  Speaker 1: two contradictory stories of creation, where, for example, in chapter one,
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  Speaker 1: man and woman they're not named are created at the
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  Speaker 1: same time, and in chapter two that's just one of
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  Speaker 1: the many differences. In chapter two, first Adam is created
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  Speaker 1: and then Eve is you know, taken from his rib
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  Speaker 1: Which is it? Of this all over the place. This
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  Speaker 1: just serves as an introduction to sat humaragnium, the Sin
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  Speaker 1: of the Golden cap. It has pretty much all of
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  Speaker 1: the above. It's not clear who did, what's wrong, what
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  Speaker 1: exactly even happened, why they were punished? Was Mosha wrong
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  Speaker 1: to send the spies? Not clear? What do the spies
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  Speaker 1: do wrong? Aren't they supposed to give an honest report?
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  Speaker 1: Was the report true or false? Was there anything wrong
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  Speaker 1: with it? Should the people not have listened to the
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  Speaker 1: majority report? What expected people to do? Whose idea was it?
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  Speaker 1: And it's interesting Safer Davarn presents the story very differently
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  Speaker 1: than how it's presented in our Partian In Schlakokhan. For example,
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  Speaker 1: in Safer environ it's the Jewish people approached Mosha and
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  Speaker 1: our partia God tells Mosha. And even there the commentary's
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  Speaker 1: debates Lachlka got told him, but he didn't really want it.
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  Speaker 1: Most you should do it and say, Fritzvarn the land
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  Speaker 1: is a great line. There's not one negative point that
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  Speaker 1: is said. It's presented very differently. We can't and won't
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  Speaker 1: answer all these questions. I don't nor should we, because
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  Speaker 1: there are there is no answer. There are approaches and
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  Speaker 1: ideas and lessons we are to learn, and these multiple approaches.
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  Speaker 1: That's the Jewish way alu alu, very different approaches that
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  Speaker 1: work in different times, places and for people. What we
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  Speaker 1: have to do is study the stories in depth with
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  Speaker 1: sophistication and reflect and see how does it speak to
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  Speaker 1: us in twenty twenty six. So let's just highlight very
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  Speaker 1: quickly a couple of points that the idea that there
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  Speaker 1: are two stories. So Kamaliuitz quotes repdubriks vy Hoffmann, the
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  Speaker 1: great German rabbinic authority and biblical commentary, that he distinguishes
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  Speaker 1: between the Book of Dvarim and Bambar. But me versus
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  Speaker 1: historical book what happened to the Jewish people in their
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  Speaker 1: sojourn in the desert, Savor d rhyme is very different.
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  Speaker 1: Savor Drome is a mussach moss as we would say.
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  Speaker 1: It's mostly giving a sermon to the Jewish people. Don't
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  Speaker 1: repeat the mistakes in the past, what you've done wrong
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  Speaker 1: when you give a sermon, when you want to inspire
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  Speaker 1: people and you're giving them a pep talk before their
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  Speaker 1: length Israel, it's not a historical summary of what happened.
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  Speaker 1: You only highlight certain things that the people should learn.
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  Speaker 1: So from the perspective of the next generation and safer
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  Speaker 1: envirome not the people who heard the report of the spies.
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  Speaker 1: They have to hear the land was a good land
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  Speaker 1: and the people didn't want to go in. It's true,
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  Speaker 1: it's not historic. It's not the complete picture, but that
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  Speaker 1: doesn't matter. Each book serves as its own purpose and
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  Speaker 1: we have to understand it in that context. Okay, just
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  Speaker 1: something to think about a little bit. I want to
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  Speaker 1: spend a couple of minutes discussing the coach of the
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  Speaker 1: Malbing that's Mayor Lavish Benethiel Michelweiser. I believe it's his
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  Speaker 1: last name. A great Romanian biblical commentary of the nineteenth century.
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  Speaker 1: So he explains, it's just think about it's pretty obvious.
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  Speaker 1: I think there are basically two types of missions that
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  Speaker 1: you send people about, you know, the land. First, you
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  Speaker 1: send people to find out is it a good land?
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  Speaker 1: Is it a place we want to go to? Is
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  Speaker 1: do we want to settle in that land? That's latour
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  Speaker 1: to urts, you know, to investigate and see the land,
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  Speaker 1: and to send people on that mission. When we call
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  Speaker 1: a pilot mission, you send people who the people will trust,
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  Speaker 1: they'll take their report seriously. You send a lot of
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  Speaker 1: people because you've got to look at all kinds of
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  Speaker 1: different aspects, because different people have different needs. This one
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  Speaker 1: wants a hot climate, a cold climate, a farmer or fisherman.
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  Speaker 1: So is the land? Who's the land good for? And
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  Speaker 1: you do it with you know, fanfare, and you highlight
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  Speaker 1: the best parts of the land for each group. And
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  Speaker 1: that's exactly what Mosha sent the spies let arts to
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  Speaker 1: see if the land is good, and therefore he sent
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  Speaker 1: spiritual leaders. He sent great people. The names are known
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  Speaker 1: to each of the tribes, and each tribe is to
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  Speaker 1: look what would be good for them. But there's a
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  Speaker 1: second type of messenger that one has to send, and
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  Speaker 1: that's sending somebody on a spy mission. And when you
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  Speaker 1: send somebody on a spy mission, they have to figure
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  Speaker 1: out the best way to conquer the land. That you
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  Speaker 1: do secretly. You don't send twelve different people. You send
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  Speaker 1: one or two people. You send them secretly. You don't
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  Speaker 1: know who they are, you don't mention their names. They
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  Speaker 1: don't report back to the people. They report to the
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  Speaker 1: chief of staff, and they're looking for the worst part
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  Speaker 1: of the land where it'll be easy to conquer air
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  Speaker 1: better arts. The tragedy of the Maruglim is they were
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  Speaker 1: sent on mission A and they did mission by. They
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  Speaker 1: were sent to see how you know, the land is good.
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  Speaker 1: They weren't sent to figure out how to conquer it.
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  Speaker 1: They weren't going to do that because God was going
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  Speaker 1: to help them conquer it as miraklem which that word
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  Speaker 1: has never used, as spies. Their report was correct. It
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  Speaker 1: was be pretty much impossible to conquer the land on
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  Speaker 1: natural level. That is a correct report for mirak Limb.
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  Speaker 1: But the tarm for those who are touring the land,
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  Speaker 1: and of course we have that same word in English.
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  Speaker 1: Then their report was totally false, the same report. But
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  Speaker 1: the question is what is the mission had It was
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  Speaker 1: basically they were the right people for the wrong mission
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  Speaker 1: or the That is key. Everybody knows when you run
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  Speaker 1: a business and run anything, whatever you do, you have
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  Speaker 1: to have the right people in the right job. So
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  Speaker 1: you have the greatest people. But if they're a miss fit,
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  Speaker 1: it's a failure. That's exactly what happened here. For military matters,
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  Speaker 1: you send army generals. That's what Yoshua did when they
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  Speaker 1: were about to conquer the land forty years later. By
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  Speaker 1: the way, it's very interesting of Yoshiwa is the only
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  Speaker 1: one who had any military experience, Like he's one of
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  Speaker 1: the people who came back. You know, he's the only
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  Speaker 1: person on military experience, and he knew there's no way
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  Speaker 1: they could win militarily, which is why when he and
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  Speaker 1: Kelly were saying we can conquer it, he says in
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  Speaker 1: Cafe Spanowship, if God wants us to, it's not going
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  Speaker 1: to be us. If God is going to lead us
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  Speaker 1: miraculously into that, and then we're going to have to
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  Speaker 1: learn eventually to live a natural existence. So perhaps the
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  Speaker 1: message of the Miraculi. One of the messages and messages
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  Speaker 1: you know changed time, place, and person, is that we
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  Speaker 1: all have to figure out our roles. Every one of
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  Speaker 1: us has a role went to apply it. We all
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  Speaker 1: have talents and we just have to use our talents
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  Speaker 1: where they are. And it's a terrible tragedy when people
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  Speaker 1: have talents that are misplaced and misused and not actualized,
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  Speaker 1: and a tremendous blessed seeing when people are in the
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  Speaker 1: right person for the right job. At We hope you
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  Speaker 1: enjoyed a thought for the week at torah in Motion podcast.
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  Speaker 1: thank you very much, looking forward to learning with you
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  Speaker 1: next week.