17 Jun SHELACH: HOW WE SEE WHAT WE SEE

Parashat Shelah tells the
tragic story of Chet
HaMeraglim – the sin of the
spies. Moshe sent twelve
spies into the Land of Israel
to see what it was like before
Beneh Yisrael proceeded to the
land. Ten of the twelve spies returned with a
negative and frightening report, and the
people decided they did not wish to proceed.
Hashem responded by decreeing that the
nation would wander for forty years in the
desert, until that entire generation perished,
and only their children would enter Eretz
Yisrael.
In delivering their report to the people, the
spies said about the land, “It is a land that
consumes its inhabitants” (13:32).
The Gemara explains that during the time the
spies spent in Eretz Yisrael, they observed
funerals taking place all over. Hashem wanted
to distract the inhabitants so they would not
notice the presence of twelve strangers, and
He therefore brought a deadly plague in the
land. Many people died, and the inhabitants of
Eretz Yisrael were preoccupied with tending
to their deceased that they did not notice the
spies. But the spies saw this differently,
concluding that Eretz Yisrael was a place that
kills the people who live there, where people
cannot survive.

Rav Shimshon Pincus explained the spies’
mistake in light of a passage in the famous
work Hovot Ha’levavot, which tells the tale
of a wise man who was walking outside with
his students, when they saw an animal carcass
lying on the ground.
The wise man turned to his disciples and
asked, “What do you see?
“A revolting, smelly carcass,” they said.
The wise man replied, “Look how white its
teeth are. I see beautiful white teeth.”
So many of us are addicted to negativity. So
much of our conversation is devoted to
complaining – about the weather, about
politics, about the rabbi, about other people,
about everything under the sun. For some
reason, we love pointing out what is wrong.
Rarely, if ever, do we point out the “white
teeth,” the good in people, and ignore
everything else.
This was the spies’ mistake. Hashem
performed a great miracle for their benefit,
but they saw it as an indication that the land
was terrible.
The Torah tells that the spies showed the
nation the fruits of Eretz Yisrael, and the
Midrash explains that these fruits were
unusually large. The spies showed the people
the fruit to convince them that the land was
weird, that it wasn’t a normal place where
they would want to live. These fruits were a

testament to the land’s exceptional quality –
but the spies said that to the contrary, the
fruits proved how bad the land was.
The Rabbis speak of Chet HaMeraglim as
lashon ha’ra, negative speech. The way they
spoke about the Land of Israel resembles the
sin of lashon ha’ra – speaking negatively
about other people. In light of this comparison,
we can explain that lashon ha’ra is about the
way we see what we see. When we speak
lashon ha’ra about somebody, we’re doing
what the spies did – finding the negative
instead of focusing on the positive; seeing the
“carcass” instead of the “white teeth.” It’s
about how we view other people, zooming in
on their faults and mistakes, rather than
focusing on everything good about them.
I once received a startling phone call from a
man who said that he needed to speak to me
because he had a problem. He explained that
everything in his life is wonderful. He has a
wonderful marriage, wonderful children, a
wonderful community, and a wonderful
income. He has time to learn Torah.
“So what’s the problem?” I asked.
“My wife is 20 lbs. overweight, and it really
drives me crazy. I just can’t get over it.”
Amidst my conversation with this fellow
about his “problem,” I told him that the vast
majority of people in the world would give
anything to have as good a life as he has.

When I hung up the phone, it occurred to me
that as peculiar as this was, almost all of us
are guilty of the same kind of thing, of
ignoring the “white teeth,” of focusing on
what’s wrong about our lives and about the
people around us, instead of appreciating all
that is good.
Let us ask ourselves honestly, how do we see
what we see? Do we notice all the beautiful
blessings in our lives, and all the beautiful
qualities of our family members and friends?
Or do we choose to focus on the negative
aspects, on everything that is wrong?
Hashem gives us many “large fruits,”
countless wonderful blessings. The problem
is that instead of recognizing them as
blessings, we turn everything into a complaint.
Let us learn the lesson of the meraglim, the
ten spies, and correct this terrible ill. Let us
see all that is beautiful in the people and the
world around us, and always focus on what
there is to praise and to feel good about, rather
than focusing on what there is to complain
about.