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Parsha Ponderings – Shelach- Turning “What in Heaven’s Name!?!” to “What? in Heaven’s Name!”

ויהס כלב את העם אל משה ויאמר עלה נעלה וירשנו אותה כי יכול נוכל לה



And Calev hushed the people toward Moshe, and said,

“We shall surely ascend and conquer it [the Land], for we can certainly overcome it!”

 

The spies had returned, and the Israelites gathered round, anxious to hear the first eyewitness reports from the land of their dreams. Yet in a few short sentences, the spies turned euphoria to hysteria. True, they reported, the land flowed with milk and honey, yet the people are strong, the cities are fortified, and capturing it seems all but impossible. Chaos reigned. Dreams were shattered, spirits broken, and a wave of dismay threatened to engulf the entire nation. Only one man, Calev, was brave enough to stand up to the masses, mustering up every ounce of courage he possessed to declare that they were all making a tremendous mistake.

Silencing the crowds, he protested: “We will ascend, we will conquer it, and we certainly can overcome its inhabitants!”

Elaborating on Calev’s assurances, our Sages quote him as telling the masses, “Even if God were to instruct us to bring ladders and ascend to the heavens, we would succeed in doing so!”

While that certainly sounds like a good pep talk, there is something odd about the exact hypothetical scenario Calev chose to express his point.

Ladders to heaven? While that would certainly be a prime example of a leap of faith (p.i.), the ladder seems kind of superfluous, (not to mention supernatural) given the distance. What could possibly be Calev’s intention in giving such an outlandish example to demonstrate God’s heavenly capabilities?

Apparently, the intent here is as follows.

At the Splitting of the Red Sea, the Israelites were told that “God will fight for you, and you shall remain silent”. In perfect faith, they did just that. Pragmatism off, faith on, mouths zipped, and into the water they marched.

Yet when it came to conquering Israel, they were suddenly worried. Why? What was difference?

Simple. Israel, they knew, was to be captured by means of war. God would not fight while they remained silent. They were to arm themselves, prepare for battle, and attack.

Okay, they thought, that’s fine. Obviously, God wants us to do this ourselves. Faith off, pragmatism on, and let’s roll. First off, they reasoned, we’ve got to scout out the territory. After all, this is war, not Operation Magic Carpet-bombing.

And so they did. And naturally, when the spies returned with their reports, they were devastated. Naturally, it seemed, they didn’t stand a chance.

Yet they had made a grave mistake, and Calev was trying to point that out.

When God tells you to capture the land, said Calev, He is not telling you to leave Him out and go it alone. He is simply telling you to take a ladder to heaven, which is not that different than when He told you to jump in the lake (or, in this case, the Red Sea). Except that it’s a lot easier to do the latter, than to climb that ladder.

When you jump in the lake, you know that nothing but God can save you, so you turn off your iTunes and upload a Godcast. When you’re supposed to take a ladder to heaven, however, you are using a tool which appears natural, and you therefore forget about God, thinking that it is you who is to produce the results, and are thus left looking at the ladder and wondering how in heaven’s name it will get you to heaven.

Yet the highest form of faith is precisely that: To engage physical means in pursuit of a goal, yet remain fully conscious that nothing you do can possibly achieve that goal without the express will of God. Climb that ladder as if it were perfectly capable of bringing you to space, yet realize just how preposterous that notion is, in absence of Godly intervention.

This was Calev’s message. When God told you to capture the land by way of war, He did not mean that your efforts would produce the result. To the contrary. God was simply challenging you to fully retain the awareness that nothing but God’s will is really producing the results, while engaged in the apparently result-producing act of physical warfare, and the spies’ report is therefore no reason for despair.

It’s simple enough to believe that God is at work when we are not. Yet true faith means knowing  that even what we do do, we simply don’t.

It’s all Him. Thinking otherwise is sin.


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