Parshat Shlach Lecha 5768: 12 Great Angry Men

The meraglim (spies) were exceptionally great people to start with and that is the hardest part of the story.

I cannot imagine the gedolim (great Torah leaders) of our generation doing what the meraglim did. I certainly cannot imagine it of thegedolim of the generation in Europe before the war, and earlier. We couldn’t picture the Chofetz Chaim or the Vilna Gaon, the Rishonim,Amoraim, or Tana’im, doing what the meraglim did. Then how can we picture the gedolim of the generation who stood at Sinai stooping to such levels?

Different individuals who go through the same situations or see the same sights may experience those situations or sights very differently from one another. We should not assume that we understand what another person has experienced or is experiencing even if we have been through exactly the same situation. We are different from one another and we experience the world and life differently.

Ten spies reported an insurmountable enemy of vast strength and fortification. Two spies, Yehoshua and Kalev saw an opportunity for a G-dly nation to overcome a G-dless enemy that is so filled with fear that they fortify endlessly. The ten saw defeat. The two saw victory.

The ten meraglim saw the same land that Yehoshua and Kalev saw. But they experienced it differently. The differences in their experiences were not caused by anything different in the objects of their experience but in their subjects. It was something inside each of them that caused them to experience the same land so very differently.

The differences between Yehoshua and Kalev and the other ten, were not differences in intellect or in belief in G-d. All twelve of them were equally great in both. The Targum Yonattan refers to them aschariffin (of sharp intellect), Rashi talks of their importance as people and leaders. The differences were in an emotion: they were in different emotional states in that moment and this caused their different experiences of the same event. The ten felt fear. The two felt courage. The ten absorbed their experience into a space of fear and interpreted it there. Yehoshua and Kalev absorbed it into a space of courage, and interpreted their experience as they felt it in that place of courage.

We observe facts; we experience emotions

We often think that we interpret facts, but the story of the meraglimteaches us the fallacy of that assumption. We observe facts but we interpret our experience of those facts not the facts themselves. Our experience of the facts depends on our emotional situation at that time. If we are insecure we could even experience another person’s greeting as inauthentic and manipulative. When secure within ourselves we could experience that same greeting warmly. Themeraglim were dispatched in order to observe and report facts. They returned with interpretation, interpretations rooted in their own emotions: fear on the one hand and courage on the other.

Fear and insecurity sours every experience and encounter we have. Courage enhances them. An opportunity for a promotion at work is a cause for anxiety to a person who is in a space of fear. It is a cause for excitement for one who feels secure and courageous. Fearful people dislike and avoid change. Secure people embrace it.

When we are insecure we need to control others, manipulate them and sometimes even abuse them. Most of all we need to undermine their value, in our eyes and in the eyes of others. Lashon Harah andHotza’at Sheim Rah (slander and libel) are the biggest symptoms of insecurity and fear. In combating a tendency for Lashon Harah we should combat our insecurities if we crave victory.

Fear and Bitachon

The level of fearfulness we experience emotionally at any given point is a function of our theocentricity. If G-d is the center of our universe and we feel connected to Him like a planet orbiting our center, Hashem, then we feel stable, secure and courageous. If our feeling is one that places us at the center with everyone and everything else including Hashem orbiting around us, then we feel fearful and react with symptoms of insecurity. The feeling of a G-d-centered world is just that: a feeling. In the same way the feeling of an I-centered world is a feeling too.

Put a little differently, we may look at how intimate and how close we feel to Hashem at any given moment. If I feel a closeness to Him, I will feel secure and courageous. If I am feeling fear, I am feeling distant from Him. This is how R. Volber treats the meraglim[1] issue. Yehoshua and Kalev felt a closeness to Hashem, the ten did not.

Closeness to and distance from Hashem are emotions too. They are not functions of geographical distance but rather of intimacy. Two people can feel an intimacy even if they are continents away whereas so often intimacy evades two people who even share a home together. Whether or not we feel close to Hashem depends on the feeling we have. This is Bitachon (security in Hashem). UnlikeEmunah (belief in Hashem) that is an idea, a belief, Bitachon is an emotion[2].

We feel close to one another when we are caring for their needs. We feel close to Hashem when we care for His needs. The formula for courage and inner-security is therefore quite a simple one. Take some time to focus on what Hashem needs out of the situation that faces you. Get closer to Him by some meaningful learning of an idea in the Torah, some Tefillah or even going emotionally deeply into a chapter of Tehillim. Feel that closeness to Hashem, visualize your desired outcome and stride forward toward your vision of success. Then successful you will be.

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