09 Jun DANCE TO THE BEAT OF CREATIVITY WHY WERE THE SPIES CONDEMNED FOR REPORTING THE FACTS?

The difficult we do
immediately; the
impossible takes a
little longer.
— General
Montgomery

The Hole in the Roof
A rabbi stands before his congregation
and reports to them that a massive hole
has been found in the roof of the shul.
“Now I have good news and bad news for
you,” the Rabbi continues. “The good
news is that we have the money to repair
it; the bad news is that the money is in
your pockets.”
Twelve Jews on a Mission
This week’s parsha, Shlach, tells the story
of 12 men who were dispatched by Moshe
from the desert to go and survey the Land
of Canaan and its inhabitants. The purpose
of their journey was to prepare the Jewish
people for the subsequent conquest and
settlement of the Land.
Upon discharging the spies on their

mission, Moshe presented them with a list
of questions they needed to answer. “See
the Land,” Moshe said to them. “How is
it? And the nations that dwell in it—are
they strong or weak? Are they few or
numerous? And how is the land in which
they dwell—is it good or bad? And how
are the cities in which they dwell—are
they open or are they fortified?”
When the twelve spies returned from their
40-day tour of Israel they presented to the
people a report of their findings.
“We arrived at the Land to which you sent
us,” the spies said, “and indeed it flows
with milk and honey and this is its fruit.
But the people that dwell in the land are
powerful, the cities are greatly fortified
and we also saw the offspring of the
giants. We cannot ascend to that people
for it is too strong for us,” they proclaimed.
The report demoralized the Jewish nation
and drained it of the motivation to enter
the Land. As a result, the spies died, and
much of the generation died in the desert,
never making it into the Promised Land.
Only 39 years later, in the year 1276

B.C.E., did the children
and grandchildren of this
generation cross the
borders and settle in the
Promised Land.
Kill the Messenger?
One of the many questions
raised by biblical
commentators concerns
the reason for the spies
being condemned to
punishment. Moshe gave
them a detailed list of
questions about the Land; he instructed
them to make their own observations as to
what will await the people upon their
arrival.
This is exactly what the spies did. They
came back with an answer to all of
Moshe’s questions and reported what they
perceived to be the reality. If Moshe
expected them to cover up their
observations — that the Land was inhabited
by mighty men and its cities were greatly
fortified — he should have never sent them
in the first place!
Why were the men faulted for relating
what they had seen? Is this not a case of
“kill the messenger?”
Introducing Paralysis
The answer is that if the spies had
merely related to Moshe and to the
people the reality of the situation as
they saw it, everything would have
been fine. But they did more than that.
They used the difficulties they observed
as an excuse to capitulate in the face of
fear.
Had the spies returned and said, “Hey
guys, we have seen a mighty people
and well-protected cities in the Land,
so now we need to devise an effective
strategy of how to go about our
challenging mission,” they would have
fulfilled their task flawlessly. The
moment they responded to the obstacles
by saying “We cannot do it anymore,”
they swayed an entire people to
abandon their G-d-given destiny.
The spies are condemned for
substituting the legitimate and
important question “How will we do
it?” with the despairing and helpless
conclusion, “We can never do it!”
Conquering Your Darkness
Each of us has a domain in our life that
needs to be conquered, a terrain that

needs to be transformed into a “holy
land.” Some of us need to confront trauma,
fear, insecurity, temptation, addiction, or
shame. We must confront challenges
within our psyches, our marriages, and
our families. Since the challenges that lay
in recovery’s path are at times frightening,
we are naturally tempted to believe that
we are incapable of overcoming our
darkness and we surrender to the obstacles.
The feeling is understandable, but if you
surrender to it, it will rob you of the
opportunity to liberate your life and arrive
at your personal “Promised Land.” The
option of resignation compels you to
remain stuck in a barren desert made up of
the stuff of shame and despair.
The question ought not to be, “Can I do
it?” Because that’s the question coming
from my inner sense of incompetence.
G-d conceived you in love, and the day
you were born is the day He declared that
the world is incomplete without you. As
the saying goes, sometimes when you find
yourself in a dark place you think you’ve
been buried, but you’ve actually been
planted. The resources to repair the “hole
in our personal roof” are present. I am
empowered to leave my wilderness and
discover my light, joy, and wholeness. G-d
has sent me into each of my life’s journeys
with the power to bring light into my
darkness and discover my own inner
infinity, as a Divine ambassador of love,
light, healing, and hope.
The story of the spies is our personal story.
My trauma tells me, “I can’t,” and I have
all the emotional evidence and data to
support my conclusions. But with lots of
empathy and faith in my inner Divine self,
I can discover a deeper untarnished,
unfearful core that has the power to say: I
can, and I will; now let me figure out how.
I want to dance to the beat of creativity
and connection, not despair to the beat of
survival and loneliness.
Ask not “whether,” but rather “how.”