25 Jun SHLACH: 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.”
If We Win?
It’s an old anecdote. Years ago, the Israeli
parliament, or Knesset, convened an
emergency session to figure out a solution
for the Israeli economy.
One brilliant minister said, “Let’s declare
war on the U.S., and then, in the wake of the
utter destruction America will bring upon us,
we will receive billions of dollars for
reconstruction, like Germany and Japan.”
“Sounds great,” responded another member
of the Knesset. “One problem: What will we

do if we win the war?”
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.”