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Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Bamidbar
- Shlach Lecha
Chait Ha’m’raglim, the sin of the spies, as recorded in our Sedra. As a result of this game-changing event, the nation will wander in the desert for 40 years & 555,000 people will die. Worse yet, this is "the sin that just keeps on sinning."
What went wrong? Why did the nation – led by spiritual giants that have never been equaled since – lose their faith, slander the Land of Israel & go against Hashem?
I suggest one approach is hinted at in a seemingly innocuous statement. Near the Sedra’s start, we are told that the scouts "carried a cluster of grapes between two
poles," along with pomegranates & figs. Rashi, bothered by the strange double-language phrase, "Va’yisa’ehi va’mot bi’shnayim," remarks that there were really TWO double poles that crisscrossed, requiring 8 spies to carry it; while 2 other spies carried a giant fig & a giant pomegranate.
This accounts for 10 of the 12 meraglim; the other 2 scouts, Calev & Yehoshua, refused to carry the fruit; they knew the other spies would use this against the Land, claiming, "just as the land’s fruit is strange (or extraordinary), so are the people!" And they wanted no part whatsoever of this calumny.
But there is a deep message here. The spies were insinuating that, to live & survive in Israel, one has to be different, extraordinary, exceptional, abnormal. "This is not a place," they say, "where normalcy reigns! And that’s not what we want! It’s too much pressure on us; we want to be a normal country & lead normal lives, just like the other nations!"
The fact is, in this respect the spies were 100% right on target. We ARE an extraordinary people; & Israel is indeed not a "normal" country! This is a land of intense holiness; guarded perpetually by the Almighty. None of the "normal" rules of history apply to us! We skew all the graphs, beat all the odds, confound all the experts. At the same time, we DO have to be quite exceptional in speech & deed, to meet the very highest standards, in order to merit our special status. And that is a formidable challenge, one which intimidated the scouts and precipitated their negative report. They could not accept the "ground rules" that were being thrust upon them, the challenge of living "abnormally" in the rarified air of extreme Kedusha.
But this is precisely the way Hashem wants it to be! He tells the spies - & all their modern-day descendants: "Stop crying, & stop trying to be like everyone else – you’re not like everyone else! Yes, I set the bar exceptionally high, but you can do it! You have what it takes to excel & to elicit My special blessings, 24/7. Just stop trying to be normal, & instead, start trying to be…..Israel!"
The challenge, my friends, is as real today as it was then.
Rabbis in Midrash
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The Land of Israel LGBT'S IN ISRAEL
The question was asked, how can one make Aliyah with the LGBT parades?
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 7 - Five Accumulative Proofs of G-d
As a preparation for the Kuzari's classic proof of G-d from the mass-revelation at Sinai, we start here with 5 other directions to strengthen our belief which also contribute to what the Kuzari will present as well.
Ein Aya Muscle & Meaning: The Dual Nature of Gevurah (Physical Strength)
Is physical strength and fitness a necessity or an ideal? Although it if often totally overlooked among topics of Judaism, Rav Kook writes that it clearly is also a necessity to deter the many enemies of Israel, but even in Y'mot HaMashiach, in the Messianic era, to a certain extent, it's ideal continues even after our enemies will have been finished off.
Chukat "HOW ENTEBBE STOLE THE BICENTENNIAL
The Difference Between Historic & Eternal"
As we approach America's 250th birthday, it's worth remembering her 200th Bicentennial birthday, on Jul. 4th 1976, when Israel "stole the show" by shocking the world & miraculously saving 101 hostages in a foreign continent. As Pres. As Pres. Trump decides which countries get priority in his new Middle-East, it's worth reminding him of the difference between historic events and eternally historic ones. This obviously connects with this week's parsha, as well!
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 6 - The Parable of the King of India
The advantages of testimony over circumstantial evidence or philosophical speculation.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 5- "Proofs of G-d"
This may be the most important class of the entire book, where we finally get to the Jewish proof of the existence of G-d and truth of the Torah. We should follow His own direction where He tells us how to get to Him: through the Nation of Israel: Jewish history, Jewish prophets (and today, prophecies fulfilled), and national reward & punishment towards Am Yisrael.
Ein Aya One Humanity, One Creator, One Jerusalem
Rav Kook innovatively and beautifully explains this aggadeta where our sages say that after Jerusalem was destroyed her cinnamon fragrance is only found locked in a particular kingdom's treasury.
