Positive Outlook – Parshas Shelach 5771
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One of the most challenging episodes in the Torah to understand is that of the Meraglim, the Spies. Let us begin with three basic questions.
1) Hashem commanded Moshe to send spies in the first place, the first words of the Parsha say, “Send men to spy out (Viyasuru) the land,” why does Hashem seem to say that He never agreed to send them?
2) Why are they called Meraglim, the first words of the Parsha command the Jews to send “Yeesurim, spies,” the word Meragel is only introduced in Devarim (1:24) when Moshe describes the fiasco.
3) What did they do wrong in their report, they simply stated the facts of what they saw. This was their exact job? They reported that the land produced giants and was impenetrable.
The Kli Yakar sheds beautiful light on this entire matter with one answer that resolves and brings together everything. The difference between Yeesurim and Miraglim is the crux of the matter. Yeesurim are spies that seek out the Yeser, benefit and good, of the land that they are exploring. Meraglim are spies that are “Holchei Rachil, tale-bearers, who seek out the negative in everything. The root of the word Meraglim represents an evil gossiper who expresses only negativity and criticism.
So the explanation is:
1) Hashem agreed to send Yeesurim, an envoy that would seek out the good and benefit of the land, but they on their own volition became Meraglim, slanderers, this was exactly what they did wrong. Hence, the first command of the Parsha was never fulfilled and their negative envoy represented Klal Yisrael’s own negativity. The night they came back became the most tragic day of Jewish history, Tisha B’Av.
2) They were told to be Yeesurim and look for the good, but they chose to be Meraglim and focus on the bad.
3) Their job was to look at the benefits of the land, instead they made a slanderous report against Hashem and disheartened the entire nation. It thus ends up that there were 10 Meraglim who saw the bad and only two Yeesurim (Yehoshua and Kalev) who focused on the positive and were thus rewarded.
In life, we have a choice as to how we look at every situation and every person that we interact with. We can see the positive and uniqueness of people or we can become distracted by the negative. The difference in focus determines how much success and happiness we will experience.
Categories: Parshas Shelach
