In Numbers 13, the spies return with their grim but exaggerated report from the Land of Israel. Though the country is bountiful, its cities are marred by security walls and its people are fanatical, powerful and violent. It is a Land whose graves open to devour the innocent – a place of fear and disaster. Given reports like these, how could the people not despair?
The Torah refers to the spies’ account as dibah – whispers, lies, slander. The desert generation believed this slander and were therefore denied access to the Land. Rebbe Nachman of Breslov described this collective failure as “a blemish in sight. Just as when a person cries, their sight is distorted.” The effects of traumatic news are synesthetic – at times, the lies we hear destroy our ability to see any path forward.
The vicious pogrom of 10/7, a truly disastrous war, a palpable rise in antisemitism, an unjust occupation, a democracy crumbling from within: these are our desert. The incessant news reports, the social media chaos, all the billions of words which paint a hopeless picture of Israel/Palestine: these are the dibah of our own age. How can we possibly expect to resist despair in times like these?
Some hope may be found in the first word of this week’s parsha – שׁלח (sh’lach) – “send forth” — which occurs here in reflexive form: שלח־לך. We read not “send spies” but “send for ourselves spies.” In other words, do not outsource our own thinking/feeling/action on these matters. The Torah challenges each of us to perceive for ourselves the internal and external realities that confront us. It demands that we work to resist the self-serving propaganda and oversimplification that block insight. And when, despite our tears, our blemished sight is restored, we must find the courage to do what our ancestors (to their ruin) could not.
The spies have returned. The news is awful. There is death, there is fear, and there is danger.
How will we respond?