Parashat BeShalah

By Rabbi Shlomo Zargari

Shalom, in this weeks parasha we learn about the event of ” The Spies ” which were sent to Eres Yisrael to check it out and see how the inhabitants and living conditions are . When they returned, they gave a negative view of the Holy Land : ” They brought forth to the Children of Yisrael an evil report on the land that they had spied out, saying, The Land through which we have passed, to spy it out, is al land that devours its inhabitants…”(13,32). Rashi explains that everywhere they went they found them to be burying , but they didn’t realize that Hashem caused many Canaanites to die during the spies mission in order to divert the populations attention from the spies. The question is what is wrong with this picture ? They understood the situation this way and the failed in their interpretation but what the saw was the truth !!  Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk(1787-1859) says, not everything that’s not a lie is the truth. One who reports on something he saw, we won’t call him a liar but we can’t call him ” A Man of Truth” either. And what  is the “Truth” and who is “The Man of Truth”. This is a person who won’t be satisfied with the superficial view of things and won’t judge with just what he sees, he looks for the truth and the deeper meaning of things and won’t rest until he will get to the bottom of the matter. This was the root of the sin of the spies. They didn’t lie, they didn’t reach the truth either because they weren’t looking for it and that’s why they failed to see the great miracle that Hashem made for them. Yehoshua and Kalev searched the truth with all their heart and did not stay with the superficial,   ” …Yehoshua son of Nun and Kalev son of Yefuneh lived from among those men who were going to spy out the Land”(14,38).

Shabbat Shalom

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