Parashat Hashavua: Sh’lach
In the Lower School, studying Torah begins with the words lekh lkha, as Avram sets out on a journey to the land of C’na’an with nothing in his proverbial backpack but faith. And this year, we will end our year of studying Torah with the words shelakh lkha, marking the beginning of the end of the journey to the Eretz Yisrael that Avram began all those years ago, as the the first members of b’nai yisrael, the spies, finally enter the land.
The bookends of the journey are linguistically linked by the word “lkha.” They are also thematically linked by the comparison between Avraham in Parashat Lekh Lkha and Calev and Yehoshua in this week’s parasha. In parashat Shelakh, the spies go into the land and 10 of them bring back the following report: “the country that we traversed and scouted is one that devours its settlers. All the people that we saw in it are of astonishingly great size.” Translation: we will be defeated if we try to vanquish them. But Calev and Yehoshua see the situation differently. Like Avraham, they view the world through the lens of faith in God. Here are their words:
“The land that we traversed and scouted is an exceedingly good land.If pleased with us, GOD will bring us into that land, a land that flows with milk and honey, and give it to us; only you must not rebel against GOD. Have no fear then of the people of the country, for they are our prey: their protection has departed from them, but GOD is with us. Have no fear of them!”
At the risk of mixing the sacred and the secular, I try to imagine what it was like in the locker room at half-time on Wednesday night. They were facing a GIANT lead. What gave them the courage to look the situation in the eye and say, “We got this”? For that matter, what gave Calev and Yehoshua the same spirit of faith and courage, in contrast to their fellow tribal leaders?
As our students head out onto their summer journeys, they will face new challenges. May the spiritual giants of our sacred tradition, and our own very tall hometown heroes be inspirations for them in facing those challenges with courage and faith.
Rabbi Anne Ebersman
