'Save me from the spies' council...'
'Save me from the spies' council...'Gili Yaari/Flash 90

When we hear the Torah being read, we need to update our mental check list.

B'REISHIT BARA ELOKIM... Do I believe that G-d created the world and everything in it? Yes, good. CHECK.

V'SHAM'RU V'NEI YISRAEL ET HASHABBAT... Do I keep Shabbat the way I shoulod? Yes. CHECK. Room for improvement? Also yes. Ok, get to work.

KABEID ET AVICHA V'ET IMECHA? V'AHAVTA L'REI'ACHA KAMOCHA? Get the idea? Okay, Heeeeer's Sh'lach!

Pay attention. 119 p'sukim. 78 of them involve CHEIT HAMERAGLIM. The sin of the spies that opened the Pandora's box that is Tish'a b'Av.

Here are a bunch of questions for your checklist.

Do you see from this sedra and many elsewheres in the Torah, that it is R'TZON HASHEM - G-d's Will, that His People should live in Eretz Yisrael? Yes? Good. It's a start. No? Problem.

Have you fulfilled G-d's Will by coming to live in Etertz Yisrael? Have you, at least, pointed yourself and your family in the direction of Aliya? Or... do you feel it is too dangerous to think of living in Eretz Yisrael?
Do you realize that thinking like that perpetuates the Sin of the Spies and G-d's anger at Bnei Yisrael who panicked that first time around and continue to do so throughout the generations? And that's no good.

Do you feel like the Ten men of great stature that one can be a better Jew in the Midbar (substitute your Diaspora community for Midbar)? That's CHEIT HAMERAGLIM alive and well today... In You? Hope not.
Let Parshat Sh'lach focus your thinking and relive the choice of Dor HaMidbar. Follow the Ten... or Kalev & Yehoshua.