Who is your tour guide?

• Author: Rabbi Yonatan Kirsch
• Date: 08 June 2021
• Published date: 08 June 2021
• Publication title: Israel National News (Israel)

This parable can also explain to a degree what takes place in this week's parsha with the story of the 'spies' (meraglim). Perhaps, we can learn how one should deal with the challenges in life. How should we approach difficult situations in our journey towards "Tikkun Olam"?

Who Is Your "Tour Guide"?

It all begins when Am Yisrael sends leaders of the tribes to survey the land of Canaan (Bamidbar 13:2). Why is this so significant? That is because this action is so different from the original plan. Just one week ago, in Parshat Behaalotecha, we read that only two years after leaving Egypt, G-d's plan was to have Am Yisrael enter the Land of Eretz Yisrael within three days! Therefore, Hashem had them walking three times faster than a regular human pace. Surrounded by a special cloud and the Divine presence, they were heading straight to Eretz Yisrael (Rashi Bamidbar, 10:33). A miraculous anan (cloud) leveled mountains and raised valleys. In this ideal protected atmosphere, they were not even supposed to use weapons (Rashi: Devarim, 1:8). They were simply commanded to enter the land and settle it. Hashem was going to take care of all the hard work for them. The "tour guide" was not a human being-- but rather the Holy Ark. The Torah even uses the same verb as the spies to describe the Ark's function- "latur", or 'search out' (Bamidbar, 10:33). The Ark was three days ahead of them, already waiting for them in Eretz Yisrael. Moshe even asked for the Aron (Ark) to wait for the people (Rashi, Bamidbar 10:34).

Now we can understand the trouble the nation is heading for. Is the tour guide human or is it the Ark? If led by human guides, they will end up analyzing and opening on the current situation or things to consider, i.e., will it be easy to capture in battle? Is it good for agriculture? What are the consequences? What will the future bring?

The Gap between Heaven and Earth

When the spies arrive in Israel (Canaan) they see a large population of giants. The people and the fruit are massive (Bamidbar 10: 23-28). These dimensions are unrelatable to the Jewish people. How could they ever "jump" into such great shoes? This can resemble the struggles that every one of us has in life where we don't feel that we are capable of "jumping " higher to get to our next stage. How do we respond? How should we respond? The parsha gives us a few "models":

Model A

Some of the Jewish people demand to return to Egypt (14:4). How can this be so! They were lowly slaves over there...