Laant
Shlach
June Norman 18,1$5
1. The central theme of our Sidra this motrning POVOITOB is the reconnaiasance mission of MERAGIIM which Moses sent into Canaan to spy out the Land and see if it can be taken by the Israelites grouped in tte desert, at its borders, as G-d had promised. These MERAGLIM were important people, people held in respect by their peers and leaders of their tribes. When they returned from their tour of duty they reported to Moses and to Israel: the Land is rich - it is indeed a Land flowing with milk and honey. They brought back tremendous clusters of grapes to prove its fertility and the richness of its natural resources. However, they said, the Land was inhabbitted by a race of giants who dwarfed the Israelite* and made them look like locusts. They were a mighty people, heavily armed and their cities powerfully fortified. By no stretch of imagination, by no exercise of military optimism is it conceivable, they reported, that this band of newly freed Semite slaves could fight and beat the race of armed Canaanite giants. This is what they had seen, and so had they reported. As a consequence of their report, the anger of G-dwas kindled against the entire people, and especial^ the MERAGLDI. It was then that G-d determined the punishment: l|0 years of circuitous and tortuous travel in the great burning desert. Plague was to strike these people, and this entire generation would die out in the desert, not one of them would ever set foot on the Promised Land of Canaan, only their children, who had not been partner to this pessimistic Peport, only they would eneter Canaan. 2.1t is a story which is well-known but which is puzzling. They were punished in a most harsh manner - an entire generation killed off. And we sometimes womder at the justice of the penalty: did the ^eraglim not tell the truth? They reported just what they saw. They did not lie, they did not tell one untruth. A H was truthful. Ihy should people be punished for telling the truth?
3In the answer to that question, supplied by the eminent Rabbi of Kotzk,lies a whole Weltanschauung a whole view on life. It is true, he says, that the Meraglim did not lie; it is not true, however, that they told the truth. One can refrain from lying, and still not be telling the truth. EMESS, truth, is more then an accurate recital of facts. Rendering the facts precisely down to the last detail means that one has not lied and that he has acheived accuracy* But EMESS - truth - that is a religious and moral technique, a G-dJ-y essence, and not a scientist's instrument. EMESS, he says, means not only finding and telling the facts as they appe ar, but finding and telling the facts as they bring out the m i l of G-d; it means raising appearances until they become one with the view of G-d; it means finding the hidden G-dliness in anysitauation. That i s EMESS, the Seal of G -d. And that was the sin of the Meraglim. They reported accurately, but not truthfully. To give the EMESS, they should have reported the fertility of the Palestinian soil and the power of its inhabbitants, as they did, but they should have added: these giants are only men. US/here there is the Will of G-d no giant can resist it. It is indeed the Land which G-d has promised us, and so let us go up and take it. It is a Land worthy of the Divine Name, let therefore the will of G-d be acheived. Instead of seeing only clusters of grapes and walls of cities and tall men and many weapons, they should have e**e seen the figure of Abraham as G-d promised him this land; they should have heard the Divine Word foretelling its future as the Land of Israel; they should have felt the Divine presence already penetrating it. That would have been EMESS. But they failed EMBSS, tho they did not lie, and hence the terrible punishment and the death of DCK HA'MIDBAR. U. Take that criterion of EMESS and you see howit applies to every aspect of our contemporary life. The American Jew who visits Israel today - the modern counterpart of the HE1AGLIM who comes back from the Hdly Land and does not fabricate any stoires, can do one of two things: he can be just accurate, or he can give EMESS,Truth. The traveler who is merely accurately will come back armed with statistics and anecdotes - he will tellyou the level of unemployment, the terrible drinking water, the new construction, the emenite habits, the many languages, the Haddassahs hospital, the high political tension, the extroaely tense religious situation between extremists on both sides, the communal ife of the kibbutzijn etc. ii is a report you could hear about any small country, newly formed, in a process ofrapia and attimes uncontrolled development, i'hat in mere accuracy.
TRUTH, however, EMEES, should make these people detect H the U H of G-d in the turmoil that is modern Israel. EMESS means to understand that History is a gradual process leading to a definite goal, and that tie Designs of the Aliigihty are accomplishedonly thru mighty wranglings. It means to understand thst here is being forged a rejuvenation of Torah, that out of this tumult and tempest, even out of the positive neagativism twoards religion adopted bythe ruling party, even out of the very cynicism and hypocrisy of the leftist groups who crusade for so-called Freedom of Religion while denying it to new immigrants* even out of all this shall arise the splendor of Torah, the visions of our Prophets realized. BMBSS means that the visitor must come back reimbued with Torah ideals, understanding that this is not merely an Eastera station overflooded with &ast ^ropean Jews. This the Holy Land, 195>3 and the Holinessshould be evident on every inch of its soil. To be able to detect and reoprt that is EMESS.
.le are all in a sense MERAGLIM. Our lives seem to be spent in a desert, in a wildersness of purposelessness, but occasionally, tho rarely, it is given to us to make a spiritual expedition, a religious reconnaisance of another kind of world, of the Canaan of our souls, of thedelights and heights of a different and higher kind of life and living. Some of us make this trip into greater spirituality during great religious moments - the time of Shofar blowing or Kol Nidre or Neilah might provide some people with a deepened sense of G-dliness, or with a heightened sensitivity to the call of Torah, with all the ecstaJfey and spritual delight it signifies. Others might find it in the study of Torah, in the comprehen of one of itsbgreat and eternal truths. Others might experience this sudden reconnaiance in agreater and much different world at a time of personal significance - a Bar Mitzvah or wedding or, may Heaven forbid, a tragedy, such as the passing glimpse of Eternity some of us get as we stand beside the coffin of a beloved one. It is what happens when we get back to the mundane routine of daily living and when we then considerthis special experience that determines whether we have acheived EMESS. If we pass it off as a psychological release or emotional experience, it might not be inaccurate. But we have then lost EMESS. EMESS means to understand that t is glimpse can become a stare, and the stare van become a lifetime of higher and greater experiences. EMESS means to act so that this land we have reconnoitered become sour o\<m. It means that t|ie inspiration becomes permanent so that greater and deeper awareness of G-d will result. 6. In a similar fashion, I can understand someone talking about Kodimoh and desribing it in one of two ways: accurate - or EMESS. It is not inaccurate to say that the foremost Orthodox synagogue in Springfield is housed in an...