Nobody's perfect. In the course of Jewish history, we've made a lot of great decisions as a people, but we've also made some really bad ones.
Perhaps our biggest blunder was the miscue of the m'raglim, recorded in this week's Sedra. Poised at the threshold of Eretz Yisrael, ready to march into our Land and set up shop, we suddenly self-destruct. We start to doubt our own abilities, to doubt Moshe and Yehoshua's leadership, to doubt G-d Himself. We bad-mouth Israel, we fight among ourselves, we lose our way.
It will take 38 years and almost 600,000 deaths until we finally make it to the Holy Land. The legacy of the episode of the spies still haunts us: we fail to fully appreciate Israel, we tend to accentuate the negative, we freak out when the "A" word - Aliya - is mentioned.
How did it happen? How did the creme de la creme of Jewish leadership lose heart?
While the commentators offer numerous opinions, I believe the answer lies in one key pasuk: "The land we traversed and scouted devours its inhabitants; the people we saw there were anshei midot." (13:32)
"Anshei midot" is generally translated as "men of measure," or "huge people." Yet, the more literal rendering would be, "people with (good) midos," people whose personal character traits are exemplary.
It would seem the m'raglim were "projecting," as their therapists would say. They were revealing that they were lacking in their own midot - faith in G-d, self-confidence, bitachon (trust) - and so they doubted they "had what it takes" to conquer Israel and sustain life there. Never mind that Hashem had told them it could be done, that He promised to help them. Never mind that they had dreamt of this opportunity a million times while enslaved in Egypt. When push came to shove, they lacked the resolve to pull the trigger and make it happen.
How sad for them! The promise of Israel turned into a plague, in which these leaders all perished. Yet though they are gone, their legacy, alas, still lives on: how many Jews still talk about Israel in idealistic, flowery terms, yet utterly refuse to come visit, let alone live here? How many are privileged to make Israel their home, yet, while they are here, complain incessantly about every facet of life? How many yeshivot have the audacity - let alone the utter contempt of Hashem - to refer to Jerusalem as, "Galut - with a Kotel"?
Let's all check our Israel midot and be sure we "measure" up.
Scout's honor.
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Rabbi Weiss is Director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra?anana.
Perhaps our biggest blunder was the miscue of the m'raglim, recorded in this week's Sedra. Poised at the threshold of Eretz Yisrael, ready to march into our Land and set up shop, we suddenly self-destruct. We start to doubt our own abilities, to doubt Moshe and Yehoshua's leadership, to doubt G-d Himself. We bad-mouth Israel, we fight among ourselves, we lose our way.
It will take 38 years and almost 600,000 deaths until we finally make it to the Holy Land. The legacy of the episode of the spies still haunts us: we fail to fully appreciate Israel, we tend to accentuate the negative, we freak out when the "A" word - Aliya - is mentioned.
How did it happen? How did the creme de la creme of Jewish leadership lose heart?
While the commentators offer numerous opinions, I believe the answer lies in one key pasuk: "The land we traversed and scouted devours its inhabitants; the people we saw there were anshei midot." (13:32)
"Anshei midot" is generally translated as "men of measure," or "huge people." Yet, the more literal rendering would be, "people with (good) midos," people whose personal character traits are exemplary.
It would seem the m'raglim were "projecting," as their therapists would say. They were revealing that they were lacking in their own midot - faith in G-d, self-confidence, bitachon (trust) - and so they doubted they "had what it takes" to conquer Israel and sustain life there. Never mind that Hashem had told them it could be done, that He promised to help them. Never mind that they had dreamt of this opportunity a million times while enslaved in Egypt. When push came to shove, they lacked the resolve to pull the trigger and make it happen.
How sad for them! The promise of Israel turned into a plague, in which these leaders all perished. Yet though they are gone, their legacy, alas, still lives on: how many Jews still talk about Israel in idealistic, flowery terms, yet utterly refuse to come visit, let alone live here? How many are privileged to make Israel their home, yet, while they are here, complain incessantly about every facet of life? How many yeshivot have the audacity - let alone the utter contempt of Hashem - to refer to Jerusalem as, "Galut - with a Kotel"?
Let's all check our Israel midot and be sure we "measure" up.
Scout's honor.
-------------------------------------------------
Rabbi Weiss is Director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra?anana.