Parsha Devarim – Jewish Teaching & Torah: The Sin That Still Shapes Jewish History

0:00 SPEAKER_00: A man joins a monastery where the monks take a vow of silence.

0:04 SPEAKER_00: He's told he may speak only two words every ten years.

0:09 SPEAKER_00: After ten years he says, bed hard.

0:12 SPEAKER_00: Another ten years pass.

0:14 SPEAKER_00: He says, food cold.

0:16 SPEAKER_00: Another ten years.

0:18 SPEAKER_00: He says, I quit.

0:20 SPEAKER_00: The abbot replies, I'm not surprised.

0:23 SPEAKER_00: You've done nothing but complain since you got here.

0:26 SPEAKER_00: On Shabbat Khazan, the Shabbat before Tishabaav, we always read Pasha Devarim, which contains the sin of the Moraglim, which was the first Tishaba.

0:37 SPEAKER_00: We're told in Pasha Shalachlacha that after the Maruglim brought their report about the land, the people wept that night.

0:45 SPEAKER_00: The Gomorrah in Tanit 29 Ahmed Alaf tells us that Hashem said, You wept needlessly that night, and I will therefore establish for you weeping in future generations.

0:57 SPEAKER_00: This is Tisha Ba'av, a day where we have experienced many tragedies, including the destruction of both the first and second Beit Hamidash, the lost battle of Beitar in the Ba Kokhba revolt, the expulsion of Jews in England in 1290, the day by which the Jews had to leave Spain after the expulsion in 1492, and the outbreak of the First World War, among others.

1:21 SPEAKER_00: But is this fair?

1:23 SPEAKER_00: Khalishael made one mistake.

1:26 SPEAKER_00: They cried inappropriately one night in one generation.

1:30 SPEAKER_00: Consequently, we have had thousands of years of Jewish suffering.

1:34 SPEAKER_00: How can that possibly be just?

1:37 SPEAKER_00: So what is the truth of the sin of the Moraglim?

1:41 SPEAKER_00: Why is it still relevant?

1:43 SPEAKER_00: Why are we still suffering?

1:45 SPEAKER_00: And what does it mean for us today?

1:49 SPEAKER_00: In his recounting of the story of the Moraglim in this week's Pasha, Moshe says that after the spies returned, Bene Israel slandered in your tents, saying, Because of Hashem's hatred for us, he did take us out of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorite to destroy us.

2:08 SPEAKER_00: Imagine.

2:09 SPEAKER_00: Yesterday man fell.

2:12 SPEAKER_00: Yesterday you drank from Miriam's well.

2:15 SPEAKER_00: Yesterday your clothes grew with you.

2:18 SPEAKER_00: Yesterday clouds protected you.

2:20 SPEAKER_00: Then today Hashem hates us.

2:24 SPEAKER_00: How can someone possibly believe that?

2:27 SPEAKER_00: Rashi brings down on that comment from the Midrash in Sifray Devarim that the opposite was true.

2:33 SPEAKER_00: Hashem loved the Jewish people.

2:36 SPEAKER_00: Rather, it was they who hated him.

2:39 SPEAKER_00: As a common proverb says, What is in your own mind about your friend, you imagine is what is in his mind about you.

2:48 SPEAKER_00: Modern psychology, of course, calls this projection.

2:52 SPEAKER_00: It is a defense mechanism.

2:54 SPEAKER_00: A person unconsciously attributes their own uncomfortable thoughts or feelings to someone else.

3:01 SPEAKER_00: What was going on?

3:02 SPEAKER_00: In Egypt, Khalishrael had experienced the most amazing miracles.

3:07 SPEAKER_00: In the Midbar they experienced the same.

3:10 SPEAKER_00: The Jewish people were surrounded by the Ananna Hekavod, the clouds of glory.

3:15 SPEAKER_00: They ate the man that fell every day, they drank from Miriam's well, wore clothes that grew with them, and were protected by Hashem.

3:22 SPEAKER_00: But now they would go into Eritrael.

3:25 SPEAKER_00: This meant working the land for food, providing an army for defence, building homes, engaging in politics and serving Hashem amidst the routines and struggles of ordinary life.

3:37 SPEAKER_00: When a parent who carried their child everywhere makes it walk and won't carry it, the child can feel like the parent no longer cares.

3:47 SPEAKER_00: In fact, the parent makes the child walk because they care, not because they don't love the child, but because they do.

3:56 SPEAKER_00: The people took the next stage of their development as abandonment.

4:00 SPEAKER_00: But Hashem was giving Khlali Shuel a greater sense of autonomy because he loved them, not because he didn't.

4:08 SPEAKER_00: Do we make the same mistake?

4:10 SPEAKER_00: Do we sometimes rage against the challenges, difficulties, and hurdles that we face and feel Hashem is letting us down or not helping us when the opposite is true?

4:23 SPEAKER_00: If I asked you why did Hashem take us out of Egypt, most people would answer to receive the Torah, which is true, but not complete.

4:32 SPEAKER_00: The Torah itself gives an additional answer.

4:35 SPEAKER_00: The first time Hashem ever speaks to a Jew, Avraham Avenu, he tells him, Lechla, go for yourself, and he says, To the land that I will show you.

4:47 SPEAKER_00: This is Eritz Ishrael.

4:49 SPEAKER_00: When Avraham arrives in the land, Hashem tells him that it would give the land to Avraham's descendants.

4:56 SPEAKER_00: And when Hashem makes a Brit, a covenant with Avraham, Hashem tells Avraham that although his descendants will be slaves in another land, they will return to Eritz Ishrael.

5:08 SPEAKER_00: Similarly, the first time Hashem speaks to Moshe to tell him that he is going to rescue Klali Ishrael from Egypt, he also tells Moshe that he is going to bring the Jewish people to Eretz Ishrael, a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

5:26 SPEAKER_00: And this is reiterated after the first time Moshe and Aaron go to see Pharaoh, and he rejects Moshe's request to let the people go for three days.

5:35 SPEAKER_00: Hashem tells Moshe, I shall bring you to the land about which I raise my hand to give it to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaqov, and I should give it to you as a Morashah, a heritage.

5:47 SPEAKER_00: I am Hashem.

5:50 SPEAKER_00: Yet Siat Mitzraim was never simply about leaving Egypt.

5:54 SPEAKER_00: It was about becoming the Kohenim of the world and serving Hashem in Eretz Yishrael.

6:00 SPEAKER_00: Without that destination, the journey loses its covenantal purpose.

6:06 SPEAKER_00: Eretz Ishrael is the physical expression of Hashem's Brit, his covenant with the Jewish people.

6:12 SPEAKER_00: Therefore, rejection of Eretz Yishrael was not simply the rejection of a land, it was the rejection of a destiny.

6:21 SPEAKER_00: To refuse the Lamb was to refuse the covenant, and to refuse the covenant was to refuse Hashem himself.

6:28 SPEAKER_00: That is why in Pasha Shalachlacha, Hashem does not say, How long will the people despise the land?

6:36 SPEAKER_00: Rather, he says to Moshe, How long will this people despise me?

6:41 SPEAKER_00: The deepest issue is not geography, but faith, trust, and acceptance of Hashem's covenantal mission.

6:49 SPEAKER_00: This is why in this week's Pasha, Moshe says, But you did not wish to ascend and you rebelled against the word of Hashem.

6:58 SPEAKER_00: The spies made a fundamental mistake.

7:02 SPEAKER_00: They stopped looking at the world through the eyes of the covenant.

7:06 SPEAKER_00: They saw giants instead of the promise.

7:09 SPEAKER_00: They saw danger instead of destiny.

7:12 SPEAKER_00: They saw ordinary life instead of a place where holiness could be created.

7:16 SPEAKER_00: They saw abandonment instead of Hashem's love.

7:20 SPEAKER_00: They saw fear instead of faith.

7:23 SPEAKER_00: And that is why their sin has never really disappeared.

7:27 SPEAKER_00: Every generation has to decide whether it sees Jewish history through the eyes of the spies or through the eyes of Yahushua and Caliph.

7:37 SPEAKER_00: Failure to see the world through the eyes of the covenant meant that this was not simply a misjudgment of military strength.

7:44 SPEAKER_00: It was a denial that Jewish history is guided by Hashem.

7:48 SPEAKER_00: It was a denial of our covenantal mission.

7:51 SPEAKER_00: Instead, they were relying on expediency, politics, and military calculations.

7:57 SPEAKER_00: And what about today?

7:59 SPEAKER_00: What considerations do we take into account when we are surrounded by enemies?

8:06 SPEAKER_00: Do we talk about our covenant with Hashem, our duty to Torah and the unique mission of the Jewish people?

8:13 SPEAKER_00: Or do we instinctively think in terms of armies, diplomacy, and politics?

8:18 SPEAKER_00: Do we worry more about whether we are fulfilling our duties to Hashem as the Jewish people?

8:24 SPEAKER_00: Or who is in the White House?

8:26 SPEAKER_00: When decisions about Erit Ishrael are discussed today, how often do we hear the language of covenant and destiny?

8:33 SPEAKER_00: And how often do we hear only diplomacy, military strategy, and international opinion?

8:41 SPEAKER_00: Hasidic thought explains that the Maruglim wanted to remain secluded from the world.

8:46 SPEAKER_00: They were aware that everything would change once they entered Eritz Ishrael.

8:51 SPEAKER_00: In the Midbah they lived a purely spiritual experience.

8:55 SPEAKER_00: In Eritrael they would have to encounter the mundane.

8:59 SPEAKER_00: They would no longer receive the mum from Shemayan.

9:02 SPEAKER_00: Rather, they would be compelled to farm the land.

9:05 SPEAKER_00: Instead of wearing garments that would last and grow with them, they would be forced to make their own clothes.

9:11 SPEAKER_00: They feared that living ordinary lives would detract from their relationship with Hashem.

9:17 SPEAKER_00: They would fall from the high level of spirituality at which they lived in the Midbah.

9:22 SPEAKER_00: When the Maraglim described the land as Eretz Ochelet Yoshveha, a land that devours its inhabitants, they meant that this earthly ordinary existence would devour them and make them lowly and unspiritual.

9:39 SPEAKER_00: Once Bene Ishrael arrived in Erit Yishrael, all the miracles of the Midbar would end and the land would devour them, putting an end to their spiritual progress.

9:49 SPEAKER_00: The Maruglim were willing to forgo the numeritz mitzvot that can only be performed in Erit Ishrael to spend more time focusing on the divine.

10:00 SPEAKER_00: The Moruglim made a fundamental mistake.

10:03 SPEAKER_00: Judaism does not want us to connect with Hashem by abstaining from the ordinary and mundane.

10:10 SPEAKER_00: We are not only connected with Hashem when we are governing or learning Torah.

10:15 SPEAKER_00: Hashem wants us to interact with the mundane and elevate it.

10:19 SPEAKER_00: We can work in business and undertake the menial tasks that are essential to life.

10:25 SPEAKER_00: However, by undertaking these activities, following Torah and mitzvot, for example, treating workers fairly, paying wages on time, being honest in the way that we trade, we can elevate the mundane.

10:40 SPEAKER_00: The Moruglim feared losing their spirituality by entering ordinary life.

10:46 SPEAKER_00: There are some Jews that fear this today.

10:48 SPEAKER_00: However, we also face another related issue.

10:53 SPEAKER_00: That is, some Jews fear bringing spirituality into ordinary life.

10:59 SPEAKER_00: They are happy for Torah to be in the Beithamidrash, in Shul and in the home on Shabbat.

11:05 SPEAKER_00: However, they say don't bring Torah into politics, don't bring Torah into the army, don't bring Torah into commerce and business.

11:12 SPEAKER_00: Religion must be reserved for certain facets of life.

11:16 SPEAKER_00: The spies were scared of the mundane, losing spirituality to normal everyday lives.

11:23 SPEAKER_00: Today, we're scared of the spiritual, losing our regular everyday lives to the spiritual, both the two sides of the same coin.

11:35 SPEAKER_00: If the mistake of the spies is that they stop looking at the world through the eyes of the covenant, then perhaps we can understand a remarkable statement in the Yur Shalmi.

11:44 SPEAKER_00: It says in Talmud Urshalmi in the first chapter of Yoma that any generation in which the Beit Hamidash is not rebuilt is considered as if they had destroyed it.

11:55 SPEAKER_00: In other words, our generation is not suffering solely because of the mistakes of the past.

12:02 SPEAKER_00: We bear responsibility for our own spiritual condition.

12:07 SPEAKER_00: When the Moraglim said that we could not conquer the land, it was a rejection of the idea that Jewish history is guided by Hashem.

12:15 SPEAKER_00: What do we think today?

12:18 SPEAKER_00: Do we live as though Jewish history is guided by Hashem?

12:21 SPEAKER_00: Or do we debate and talk about politics and human actors without any references to Hashem?

12:27 SPEAKER_00: What do we really believe drives the Jewish future?

12:31 SPEAKER_00: The Moruglims saw Eretz Hishrael as a barrier to their spirituality, that it would inhibit who they could become, not enhance who they could become.

12:41 SPEAKER_00: And today?

12:43 SPEAKER_00: Do we see Eritrael as a burden or a fulfillment of Jewish destiny?

12:48 SPEAKER_00: Do we, like the Moruglim, sometimes speak negatively about the land?

12:52 SPEAKER_00: Do we see living in Eritrael as an opportunity to bring growth and spirituality and Torah into all facets of our lives?

13:03 SPEAKER_00: Rabbi Shimshon Penchas points out that when we attend a wedding, even if our connection to the Khatan and Kala is quite distant, we can eat and dance and participate and genuinely feel joy.

13:17 SPEAKER_00: Yet, when we attend a Shiva house, if the connection is distant, it is almost impossible to cry with the Availim.

13:26 SPEAKER_00: In other words, the emotion of sadness is a much deeper one than that of joy.

13:32 SPEAKER_00: For the generation of the Moruglim to weep that night of Tishaba Av meant that they genuine believed, even if it was momentary, that they would be better off going back to Egypt than going into Eritz Ishrael.

13:47 SPEAKER_00: As they said, let us appoint a leader and let us return to Egypt.

13:52 SPEAKER_00: Even if temporary and in the moment, they were prepared to abandon the covenant, Torah and Hashem.

13:59 SPEAKER_00: And today we cry now because we should not have cried then.

14:05 SPEAKER_00: But do we cry?

14:08 SPEAKER_00: Do we genuinely learn for the Beit Hamiddash?

14:12 SPEAKER_00: Do we really appreciate what we are missing?

14:15 SPEAKER_00: Have we truly understood and internalized that all of Jewish suffering, the anti-Semitism, pogroms, the need to flee different lands, the Holocaust?

14:26 SPEAKER_00: They're all an outcome of the destruction of the Beit Hamiddash and exile.

14:31 SPEAKER_00: The generation of the Moraglim were punished because they cried when they shouldn't have done.

14:37 SPEAKER_00: Today we don't cry when we should.

14:41 SPEAKER_00: In Pasha Bahukatai, during the Taha, the Torah repeatedly uses the word Keri, which Hazal explained means happenstance, casualness, seeing events as coincidence rather than providence.

14:55 SPEAKER_00: Hashem says, if you behave casually with me, then I too will behave towards you with casualness.

15:04 SPEAKER_00: Kerry means seeing history through the eyes of coincidence rather than through the eyes of the covenant.

15:10 SPEAKER_00: That is precisely what the Moraglim did.

15:14 SPEAKER_00: The generation of the Moraglim engaged in an exercise of cognitive dissonance.

15:20 SPEAKER_00: At the very time Hashem was providing with the Man every day, Miriam's well, the Anane Hakavod, clothing that grew with them, and divine protection in a hostile environment, they were doubting Torah, the covenant, and Hashem's plan.

15:35 SPEAKER_00: This is treating Hashem with casualness, as a given, as if this level of care is nothing.

15:42 SPEAKER_00: Today are we in danger of doing the same?

15:45 SPEAKER_00: The Jewish people are a tiny people, making up 0.2% of the world's population.

15:51 SPEAKER_00: We have been persecuted more than any other nation on earth, and yet we outlast every other nation on earth.

15:59 SPEAKER_00: We return to our land 2,000 years after exile, reviving our language and building a state.

16:05 SPEAKER_00: No other nation has ever done that.

16:07 SPEAKER_00: And despite being surrounded by enemies who want to wipe us out, Erit Ishrael does not only survive, but it thrives with population growth, a strengthened economy, and incredible cutting-edge technology and inventions that contribute to the world.

16:23 SPEAKER_00: Yet do we believe that Hashem is running the world?

16:26 SPEAKER_00: Do we act as if we do?

16:28 SPEAKER_00: Do we genuinely believe in Jewish destiny and redemption?

16:33 SPEAKER_00: Are we truly striving with all our energy to bring about the rebuilding of the Beit Hamiddash?

16:41 SPEAKER_00: The spies looked to Eritz Ishrael and saw giants.

16:45 SPEAKER_00: Yahushua and Kalev looked at exactly the same land and saw a promise, destiny, the Jewish future.

16:53 SPEAKER_00: The spies looked at the land and believed the promise had become impossible.

16:58 SPEAKER_00: We have witnessed something the spies never did.

17:01 SPEAKER_00: Two thousand years later the Jewish people returned.

17:05 SPEAKER_00: The language returned, the desert blooms, Torah has never been stronger, millions of Jews live once again in Eritz Israel.

17:13 SPEAKER_00: The spies stopped looking at the world through the eyes of the covenant.

17:17 SPEAKER_00: Yoshur and Kalev never did.

17:19 SPEAKER_00: 3,000 years later, nothing has changed.

17:23 SPEAKER_00: Every generation has to decide which eyes it will use.

17:28 SPEAKER_00: And perhaps this is why we read this pasha every year before Tisha Ba'av.

17:35 SPEAKER_00: Not to remember their failure, but to decide whose eyes we will use to look at Jewish history.

17:42 SPEAKER_00: The eyes of the spies or the eyes of Yahshua and Caliph.