Posted on 05/04/2018 3:22:41 PM PDT by Read Write Repeat
G-d told Moses: "Send forth men, if you please, and let them spy out the Land." He chose distinguished princes and instructed them to determine whether the inhabitants were strong or weak, few or numerous. They reported back that the Land flowed with milk and honey, but that the cities were fortified, their inhabitants powerful: a Land of Giants.
Caleb and Joshua calmed the people and assured them of victory. The others, though, gave an "evil report," that the Land devours its inhabitants. They complained bitterly that it would have been better to have died in Egypt.
Having reported their "honest" assessment of impending doom, G-d became angry: All of those above the age of twenty would die in the wilderness. Further, as punishment, because the spy mission took forty days, the nation would wander aimlessly in the wilderness for forty years. The spies themselves would die in a plague.
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Lesson One: When human beings, of limited intelligence and perception, receive instructions from the One who knows all, they ought to stick to what they're told to do, and not embellish upon G-d's command with their own ideas of how to serve Him.
Lesson Two: The hustle and bustle of material life can not be allowed to disturb you from a spiritual, Torah-based lifestyle. Rather, it's there waiting to be imbued with the Truth, by the Jew who is conscious of his mission in life.
Lesson 3: Don't despair because of your past mistakes. They serve only as a springboard to bring you to even greater heights. In the words of the Talmud (Sanhedrin 99a): "Where the penitents stand the perfect saints cannot."
But regarding the spies ... We send spies, we call them reporters, to places we cannot view ourselves, and they have a poorer accuracy record than the ones Moses sent in the Promised Land.
ML/NJ
Parashat Emor is very important. Sometimes current events require faster reading.
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