Dear TBZ Community,
In this week’s Torah portion, Sh’lach L’cha, we read the story of the scouts that are sent into the Promised Land to bring back a report to the people of Israel. The story is known. At the end of forty days the scouts returned: two say yay, ten say nay. They all see the same, the difference is how they experience themselves in what they see.
It is not the accounts that are different, but the perspectives.
Yehoshua and Caleb say that the people who inhabit the land are powerful and that the cities are well fortified. They also say that it is a land of honey and milk. Yehoshua and Caleb encourage the people to go forward and to conquer the land. They recognize the challenges and they step up with courage and hope.
On the other hand, the other ten scouts see the same challenges but their perspective is very different.
וַנְּהִי בְעֵינֵינוּ כַּחֲגָבִים וְכֵן הָיִינוּ בְּעֵינֵיהֶם
…we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves,
and so we must have looked to them.
“We looked like grasshoppers to ourselves” is the essence of the scouts’ failure. The ten scouts see themselves as much too small and the challenges much too great. They imagined that the situation was doomed. They can not imagine being able to move forward.
But Yehoshua and Caleb don’t see it differently; they agree and say that the people who inhabit the land are powerful and that the cities are well fortified. But they also see the possibilities and potential, not just the challenges; they say that it is a land of honey and milk. Yehoshua and Caleb encourage the people to go forward and to conquer the land. They recognize the challenges and they step up with courage and hope.
This story is, in many ways, one of perspective, about how different people face the same situations in different ways. The difference of perspective is often a manifestation of our own story and of our own background. We can respond in a totally opposite way to someone else, because our lives and our stories brought us to that place.
On a personal level, I am sure many can relate. When you are in disagreement with a loved one about something, it can feel impossible to have such opposite views. At that moment, being able to hear the other person’s story and sharing our own can help us appreciate the different points of view and can be helpful in finding understanding and compassion.
Think about the words “point of view” and imagine what it means. It might mean that you stand on one side of a room looking at something and the other person is looking at the same “something” from the other side. Because you happen to be standing in different parts of the room, you see things differently. So many times we blame the other for standing on the other side of the room, and we don’t ask why or how they got there.
But there is something else. The questions asked of the scouts before going on this journey allowed them to only have two options, two possible places to stand, two answers. The system and framework limited the scouts to just two possibilities. Moshe asked:
וּרְאִיתֶם אֶת־הָאָרֶץ מַה־הִוא וְאֶת־הָעָם הַיֹּשֵׁב עָלֶיהָ הֶחָזָק הוּא הֲרָפֶה הַמְעַט הוּא אִם־רָב. וּמָה הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר־הוּא יֹשֵׁב בָּהּ הֲטוֹבָה הִוא אִם־רָעָה וּמָה הֶעָרִים אֲשֶׁר־הוּא יוֹשֵׁב בָּהֵנָּה הַבְּמַחֲנִים אִם בְּמִבְצָרִים. וּמָה הָאָרֶץ הַשְּׁמֵנָה הִוא אִם־רָזָה הֲיֵשׁ־בָּהּ עֵץ אִם־אַיִן
and see what kind of country it is. Are the people who dwell in it strong or weak, few or many? Is the country in which they dwell good or bad? Are the towns they live in open or fortified? Is the soil rich or poor? Is it wooded or not?
Moshe’s questions seem to offer only two options. Moshe asks simply, “are things good or bad there?” There are not many options for answers: either the people are weak or the people are strong; either there are a lot or just a few; either it is good or it is bad. Either we can do it or not. This framing creates the different narratives that we hear from the ten scouts and then from Caleb and Yehoshua. Framing in such a binary, black and white, good and bad, is what creates these two different accounts.
I wonder what would have been the response if they had been sent without specific questions. What if Moshe had said, “Go, scout the land, see what you see, experience what you experience, and tell me what you find.” Would the answers have been different? Would there have been more than just two options? Would some of them have seen the complexities of the land and the complexities within themselves? Would some of them be able to approach this mission with different eyes?
I know that, like many people, I tend to think in binary ways regarding the realities that surround me. I constantly fall into binary thinking, in my personal life, in my work life, in my view of the world around me, and definitely in my politics. Often I need to remind myself about this teaching. In that way, I think the focus is not the failure of the scouts to see hope and good, but that the questions of Moshe lack curiosity. And it is that lack of curiosity which did not allow the scouts to have a wider perspective.
We live in a very divided world. And the lack of curiosity is perhaps what creates more division and more hatred. Having curiosity does not mean not feeling strongly about an issue and having clarity between what is right and wrong, but being able to stay curious, to develop that muscle that allows us to see the other, even the other who sits on the other side… Believe me… I am not always sure how this is done. But I am always grateful to this Torah portion for reminding me to cultivate this capacity.
May this Shabbat bring renewal and blessings to all of you and your loved ones.
May we find strength, courage, and patience, and open our hearts with generosity.
May all those who are ill find healing. And may we have a joyful, sweet, and peaceful Shabbat.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rav Claudia