Dvar Torah for Shabbat Shelakh Lekha (Numbers 13:1 – 15:41)
(Composed and delivered at Temple Israel on Friday evening 6/28/2024, the day after the first Biden-Trump debate of the 2024 election season.)
The first two thirds of this week’s Torah portion, Shelakh Lekha, contain the story of the 12 scouts, who are recruited to carry out a reconnaissance mission of the Promised Land. Upon their return, all of them seem to agree that it is a wonderfully fertile place, a land
זָבַ֨ת חָלָ֥ב וּדְבַ֛שׁ
“flowing with milk and honey.”[1]
At least, that’s what the majority reports, and Caleb and Joshua don’t argue otherwise.
But Caleb and Joshua’s analysis diverges sharply from that of the other 10 scouts with respect to the military challenges ahead. The 10 who form the majority describe the land as one that devours its inhabitants.
Those ten argue that the Israelites would not have the ability to overcome the Amalekite and Canaanite tribes against whom they would have to battle in order to gain their foothold in the land that God had promised to them.
But Caleb responds:
עָלֹ֤ה נַעֲלֶה֙ וְיָרַ֣שְׁנוּ אֹתָ֔הּ כִּֽי־יָכ֥וֹל נוּכַ֖ל לָֽהּ׃
“We can surely go up [to the land] and gain possession of it for we are surely able to overcome it.” [2]
(And for you Hebrew grammar mavens, note that there are two examples of infinitive absolute verbs in that one verse.)
But the majority get the last word, despairingly claiming that the people they saw there were veritable giants and that
וַנְּהִ֤י בְעֵינֵ֙ינוּ֙ כַּֽחֲגָבִ֔ים וְכֵ֥ן הָיִ֖ינוּ בְּעֵינֵיהֶֽם׃
“we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves, and so we must have looked to them.”
In the Talmud we learn that a minyan, the required quorum for public prayer, requires ten people because God, later in the parasha, refers to those ten scouts who gave the majority report as an “edah” or congregation. [3]
So we have this idea that ten people can form a representative microcosm of a congregation at large. And, indeed, the Israelites at large who are gathered around these returning scouts immediately turn on Moses and Aaron and Caleb and Joshua and threaten to stone them to death, and loudly demand that a new leader be chosen to lead the people back to Egypt.
It seems like the Torah is saying that subjective perceptions can bring about objective realities. The pundits say the task is hopeless and so the public at large accepts as objective fact what might otherwise be viewed as simply opinion and analysis.
Let me try to connect this to current events without being too explicitly partisan about it:
This morning, after last night’s first Presidential debate of the 2024 election season, pundits of all political stripes are tripping over themselves to be the first to declare that President Biden’s performance shows that he is incapable of defeating his opponent.
Meanwhile, pundits who oppose the former president have been arguing for years already that if former President Trump were returned to the White House that this would spell the end of American Democracy.
How true either of these propositions might be is a matter of deeply divided opinion in our nation, even if many of us often silo ourselves among folks we agree with and distance ourselves from those who could possibly think otherwise.
In our Torah portion it all turns out disastrously. God decrees that the generation that has come out of Egypt and that has become convinced by the pessimistic majority report -- this generation of self-described “grasshoppers” -- will never see the Promised Land. That they will have to wait for the next generation. A journey from Mt. Sinai to the Promised Land which should have taken eleven days[4] will now require an additional 38 years to complete. The entire generation of pessimists, with the exceptions of Joshua and Caleb, will be doomed to die in the wilderness.
Today as I was studying the Torah portion I found myself dwelling on the immediate aftermath of God’s frightening decree. One would think that the people would just cower in depression --- just like many supporters of President Biden have been doing in the past twenty-two hours. And, indeed, the Torah reports that the immediate response of the Israelites after Moses relays God’s judgment is that
וַיִּֽתְאַבְּל֥וּ הָעָ֖ם מְאֹֽד׃
“The people mourned greatly.”[5]
But the tone is different the next morning. The people rally! As it says in the very next verse:
וַיַּשְׁכִּ֣מוּ בַבֹּ֔קֶר וַיַּֽעֲל֥וּ אֶל־רֹאשׁ־הָהָ֖ר לֵאמֹ֑ר הִנֶּ֗נּוּ וְעָלִ֛ינוּ אֶל־הַמָּק֛וֹם אֲשֶׁר־אָמַ֥ר יְהֹוָ֖ה כִּ֥י חָטָֽאנוּ׃
They arose early the next morning and went up towards the crest of the hill country, saying, “Hinenu”/ “Here we are” -- we shall go up to the place that Adonai has spoken of, for we have done wrong”.[6]
(i.e., done wrong in despairing of the hope of success and in calling for returning to Egypt.)
Driving to Temple today I was listening to CNN on the satellite radio in my car. They were broadcasting live a spirited Biden campaign rally in North Carolina. The buoyant, combative mood of that rally reminded me of the same psychological “reset” from the previous night that we find in our parasha, with the Israelites bewailing “we are like grasshoppers” but only hours later reversing course and arguing HINENU VE’ALINU --- WE ARE HERE AND WE WILL INDEED GO UP TO THE LAND!
It's so interesting to me that the response of Moses, and God, Aaron and Joshua and Caleb to the people’s change of heart is decidedly not --- OKAY, WAY TO GO! LET’S DO THIS!
Rather, their response is – nope, nope, nope --- You showed your true colors last night. This is a hopeless endeavor and we’ll get slaughtered if we try to follow through with the original plan. And, indeed, the Torah reports that they try to advance but the Amalekites and Canaanites slaughter the fighting forces.
And that’s the end of the story.
In the next chapter the Torah switches gears and talks about random legislation that will come into force when the next generation eventually gets to the Land of Israel – but end of story for this generation.
If you want to read this as a parable that can teach our political pundits and operatives anything, you might conclude that a terrible debate performance means that the path you’re on is doomed to failure, despite subsequent attempts to reset the narrative.
But I don’t know.
There’s also this pesky detail in the parasha.
At Numbers 14:44 it says that when the Israelites’ fighting forces advanced in battle, despite having been previously told that it would be useless, that at that time
וַאֲר֤וֹן בְּרִית־ה֙’ וּמֹשֶׁ֔ה לֹא־מָ֖שׁוּ מִקֶּ֥רֶב הַֽמַּחֲנֶֽה׃
“Neither the Ark of the Covenant of Adonai nor Moses stirred from the midst of the Camp.”
Moses (and the Levites under Aaron’s command) stayed put. They followed the analysis of the Divine Pundit and gave up.
And so, the campaign failed.
One might respond – well, God is not just a divine pundit – God’s word is law and that’s that.
That would be the traditional pious response.
However, from a contemporary literary perspective, we understand that the Torah is made up of various narrative sources spliced together. Indeed, there are some narrative inconsistencies in our parasha itself.
So, what’s the real story?
Is the narrator always reliable?
Is there another way?
As far as Parashat Shelakh Lekha is concerned, we don’t know because Moses and the Ark stay put and do not stir, while the rest of the folks try to reset the narrative but, of course, are unable to do so without the continued commitment of Moses and without the presence of that Ark.
Meanwhile, for all of us, if the past week has been challenging, may the arrival of Shabbat provide us with the blessing of being able to reset the narrative.
Shabbat shalom!
© Rabbi David Steinberg (June 2024/ Sivan 5784)
[1] Numbers 13:27
[2] Numbers 13:30
[4] See Deuteronomy 1:2
[5] Numbers 14:39
[6] Numbers 14:40
