17 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.”
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.