Are we ignoring or making excuses for the fact that actually:
We Can Bring Moshiach, We Can Change the World
By Rabbi Shimon Raichik
This week is Shabbos Mevorchim Chodesh Tammuz and parshas Shelach. How is this Shabbos connected to and prepare us for Gimmel Tammuz?
Moshe Rabbenu sent emissaries to scout the land. Ten out of the twelve returned with a bad report, saying that the land was unconquerable. How did they make such a mistake? Didn’t they see the slitting of the Red Sea? Weren’t they present when the manna fell as well as witnesses to all the miracles in the desert that were all brought about by Hashem through Moshe Rabbenu? What happened to them along their journey that they seemingly forgot about all of this?
The ten spies were missing the essential ingredient. They did not place ‘we will do (naaseh)’ before ‘we will understand (nishma)’. They had seen all the miracles during the exodus and in the desert. They surmised that these miracles occur when Hashem takes care of everything and then no scouts are necessary. Their idea was that since now they were being sent to scout out the land to see in a natural way they best way to conquer, this means that they are supposed to act on their own according to their own logic and reach their own conclusions. In their minds this included even if they should or could conquer the land altogether. They were no longer in that miraculous era and now could no longer expect a sea to split and food to fall out of nowhere.
They looked around and concluded that they didn’t have the physical wherewithal to conquer the land and the giants that lived there. Even on a spiritual level they saw that it was a land that consumes its inhabitants, meaning that the environment was so thick and contaminated with foreign ideas that its atmosphere would destroy Judaism and what it stands for. They therefore concluded that the best way for the people to survive on all levels was to remain in the desert.
Kalev realized on his own that what we needed more than anything else was to be connected to Moshe Rabbenu and that it is essential is to keep 'we will do (naaseh)’ before 'we will understand (nishma)’. He knew and connected to the fact that whatever Moshe Rabbenu said was the truth. He said that we could conquer the land. Even with the giants, since we have the strength that Hashem has given us through Moshe Rabbenu nothing can stop us. Even within the natural order there are miracles that will cause us to be victorious because a Jew is above nature even while he is within nature. This is what we have been taught by Moshe Rabbenu.
This is why Kalev used the analogy of even being able to scale staircase to heaven if necessary if Moshe said its possible. Do such things happen? Are we being asked to scale a staircase to heaven? The point he made was that if Moshe Rabbenu told us to we would be able. This is the most important thing to take from our experience of the exodus, the receiving of the Torah and our experiences in the desert. All of this has revealed the true nature of Hashem’s involvement in our affairs, the truth and reliability of Moshe’s Torah and directives and the true nature of a Jew.
But where did Kalev get to this realization and how was he able to stand up against all the others? We understand how Yehoshua was able because Moshe Rabbenu davened for him to be saved from the advice of the meraglim. Rashi describes how Kalev went to Ma’aras HaMachpelah to daven. He had what to daven for. He had enough of his own challenges. But he did not daven for this. Instead he davened for one thing only: to be true to his mission and be connected to Moshe Rabbenu. After this he went forward as Moshe’s shliach to accomplish his mission and he was successful.
This is the lesson that parshas Shelach teaches us about Gimmel Tammuz. The Rebbe told us about the coming of Moshiach and that we have a mission. We look all around and we see a world filled with distractions and naysayers. With a pure and simple emunah in Hashem and his servant Moshe, the Moshe Rabbenu of our generation, we can break through, we are not alone. We are not grasshoppers rather we stand on the shoulders of giants, the true giants. We come with the might of the Rebbe, his Torah and his directives and with it we can break through all the barriers and obstacles that stand in the way of the Geula Ha’amitis. By doing our part we are joined by our children and our families and our entire environment and together we can change the world. We can conquer the world and reveal that it is a fitting dwelling place for Hashem
A Good Shabbos