Trust

Do you ever get exasperated when no matter how many times you have saved your child or loved one from a predicament, they continue to doubt you?

How many times do you have to prove yourself till your loved one fully lets go and trusts you?

The biggest disappointment with having someone doubt you is not necessarily the negative feeling it gives you. 

It is much deeper than that. 

The big loss is that you cannot make progress together on the big ideas you have. 

If your partner or protégé is skeptical about your abilities, you cannot move forward and be successful.

The Jewish people disappointed Hashem in this week’s parsha by believing the ‘spies’ who reported back that Israel was unconquerable by them. 

The reporting spies assessed the situation. They said with decisiveness that the local populace was too strong. 

Hashem reacted very sternly and said:

all the people who perceived My glory and the signs that I performed in Egypt and in the desert—and who nonetheless challenged me these 10 times and did not listen to My voice—

will not see the land that I swore to their fathers. All who provoked Me this time will not see the land, 

Hashem is saying ‘enough is enough’. After I took the people out of Egypt and wrought incredible miracles, which they all saw and experienced firsthand, and they went ahead and challenged me TEN TIMES, they have lost their chance to have a happy ending and enter the promised land. Rather I will wait for the generation of Exodus to pass away – by the age of sixty – and forty years later, the new generation will enter Israel.

This was already a much more benign outcome then Hashem’s initial response.

Initially Hashem had said in response to the moaning of the Jews about going into Israel:

They have betrayed their mission in this world, so I now have only one choice: I must strike them with pestilence and annihilate them! As for My oath to the patriarchs to give the land to their descendants, I will make you into a nation, greater and stronger than they." 

Moshe prayed on their behalf and averted that punishment. Yet, even after Hashem forgave the people thanks to Moshe intervention, the forgiveness only helped to ward off the immediate death punishment. They lived till the age of sixty. It did not however earn them the G-dly gift of going into Israel.

Why not?

The Rebbe explains that not allowing them to enter Israel was a consequence rather than a punishment.

Simply put. The spies were not wrong. To conquer the land of Canaan you had to be exceedingly mighty as the inhabitants of the land of Canaan were strong. Beyond normal human strength. One would need supernatural strength. 

Conquering the land would require G-dly intervention. 

Miracles.

When they heard that according to the laws of nature their attempt at conquering the land would be disastrous, they cried and said, ‘we don’t want to go to the land’.

Hashem accepts this. It is true. Naturally, they do have reason to be fearful. 

So why is their behavior considered sinful if they correctly assessed the impossibility of conquering the land? 

Because why in the world are they projecting using conventional thinking? What about all the miracles Hashem has done for them. Haven’t they realized by this time that the Jewish people are not bound by the laws of nature?

G-d responds by telling the Jewish people that they have shown that they don’t have the belief in G-d’s powerful abilities to rout out the resisting kingdoms.

There is a consequence to that.

If they don’t believe in the power of G-d sufficiently, and they are closing their minds and viewing themselves as a people who operate only under the ‘laws of nature’, they cannot be the ones to carry out G-d's miracle-based goals and vision. 

What seems to be most irksome is that they actually do believe in G-d. How could they not? They had witnessed Exodus, splitting of the sea, miraculous raining down of Manna. Yet, they were skeptical even as the miracles were pouring down.

For example, one of the ten challenges to G-d was when Hashem told them not to collect the Manna on Shabbat and they disregarded that command and went out to search for Manna to gather on Shabbat.

Additionally, they were told not to keep any leftover Manna for the next day. Hashem would give them fresh daily Manna. Yet they couldn’t resist trying to hoard some.

Can you imagine the absurdity?

G-d is creating this incredible heavenly food. Raining it down from Heaven. It has literally a ‘heavenly taste’. Whatever one wanted the Manna to taste like, it adopted that taste.

And yet, while ‘seeing’ and ingesting the glory and miracles of G-d, at that very same time they were weak in their belief and skeptical of G-d’s abilities. They went out to forage on Shabbat and tried leaving leftovers.

This is what singles out the ‘sin of the spies’ from other transgressions. 

The Jewish people believe in G-d. they are eating his heavenly bread. They have just witnessed the splitting of the sea. The most epic miracles possible.

Yet, they remain skeptical.

To the point that they now challenge whether going into Israel is possible,

The spies speak about it being naturally impossible to conquer Canan.

G-d agrees.

It is impossible. Unless you believe in Me and in my miracles.

You, the people who have witnessed the closest relationship with me have now made a grave mistake. You have stated that you are unable to surrender and say “G-d, we will allow ourselves to be taken in your miraculous enveloping cloud to triumphantly and supernaturally enter Israel’.

And if you are not able to go along with my miraculous plan, says G-d, then indeed, you will have your wish. I will withdraw my G-dly protection, you will thus remain bound to the laws of nature and die here in the desert. 

To which Moshe replied, if the agenda of Hashem is to engender belief in Him, to the extent that Hashem is disappointed and ready to let the entire Jewish people perish, how will that ignominious ending help the overall agenda of belief in G-d.

To quote Moshe’s words:

If You kill this nation suddenly, as if You were killing one man, the nations who have heard of Your reputation will say as follows:

'Why didn't He wait to punish them until He brought them into the land, as He promised? It must be that since God was unable to bring this nation to the land which He swore to them, He slaughtered them in the desert. The inhabitants of Canaan are strong, and it is harder to battle a number of kings than it is to battle one Pharaoh.'

Hashem accepts this line of reasoning by Moshe.

The Jewish people continue to live. Albeit they are no longer able to be implementers of G-d’s supernatural plan of entering Israel.

This is such a clear and empowering message.

An eye opener when one looks at oneself in the mirror.

We may find that in some way we also underestimate G-d’s powers even after being blessed by them in an open way.

Mediate on it for a moment.

Think about everything Hashem has done for you.

You may be focused on the things you DON’T have. 

Don’t feel bad if that is your default. It is human nature to be mindful of the problems and challenges of your life. We tend to take for granted the things that are going right.

But if you stop and meditate you will see a different picture. 

For everything that is going ‘wrong’ in your life at this minute, there are trillions and trillions of things that are going ‘right’. Like every breath you take. Like the microbes in your body functioning. The electricity that you are using as you read this. The food that you ate last meal and the drink that is keeping you hydrated. 

Granted, there are irritating and irksome things in your life and G-d forbid perhaps even painful things. But that does not erase all the good things that are happening.

Let us get even more mindful. Bigger picture things.

May I humbly suggest that you try this exercise:

Reflect on the last five years of your life. 

What were your challenges five years ago. Maybe you have old emails, or hopefully your memory is still good, and you can recall your experiences of five years back.

Depending on your age and stage in life you most likely had various concerns. 

I think you will be quite surprised to note how many of your major concerns and worries that you were praying for, Hashem answered your prayers and solved the issues.

Ask a high school student if their worries in elementary school still worry them or if things worked themselves out. 

Whatever stage you are at in life, look back five years and see if those things are still problems.

Or have you been blessed by Hashem that they worked out?

So now the question is why are you so worried now about your current challenges?

Why don’t you trust in Hashem (while of course doing what you can to solve them with the tools you have) and rid yourself of unhealthy anxiety?

You may say ‘it’s my prerogative if I want to be anxious and downcast over my challenges and what difference will my attitude make on the outcome’.

This Parsha highlights that 

1. Hashem has good things in store for you if you have faith and trust in Him. So its simply not good practice to worry. Much more effective to trust in Hashem that things will be good. This itself will lead to a favorable outcome.

2. It is downright not ‘menschlich’ and grievously foolish to doubt Him after all He has done for you. In a way it is even ungrateful to not rely on Him after all the myriads of things He has done and is currently doing for us.

My friend, even when things look challenging put your chin up and place your trust in Hashem.

On a national level, we as a people have been blessed and will continue to be blessed. The People of Israel especially in the land of Israel are under the constant direct supervision of G-d. We have seen that throughout the last decades time and time again. He will continue to bless us and protect us everywhere. Especially in the Holy Land. 

Yes, we must do everything we can naturally to protect ourselves and secure our future.

And then we must pray. And BELIEVE in Hashem's protection and blessings.

Our prayers are with Israel. The soldiers, the hostages, the wounded and the regular citizens.

Additionally, we facilitate and invite Hashem’s blessings to us, by believing in the blessings of G-d to the Jewish people for eternity.

Adopt this too in your own personal life. Allow the miraculous energies of G-d to uplift you and carry you, by brushing away destructive skepticism and heightening your faith and belief in Him.

Think GOOD because you believe in Hashem who is GOOD, and it will be GOOD. 

GOOD - Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Yosef Kantor