Parshas Shelach
Who Are You Going to Believe, Me or Your Own Eyes?1
By: Daniel Listhaus
“...We were like grasshoppers in our eyes, and so we were in their eyes!”
-Shelach 13:33
The Medrash2 tells us that there is nothing loved before Hashem as much as one who is a sh'luach mitzva (someone sent to do a mitzva) and who puts in tremendous efforts to carry out the mitzvah. This is why sh'luchei mitzvos are exempt from doing other mitzvos3. As an example, the Medrash provides the story of the spies sent by Yehoshua, which we actually read in this week's Haftorah4. The Medrash, though, also does not fail to mention that the story of the spies in this week's parsha, reflects a polar opposite case to the Haftorah, and is far from showing an example of sh'luchei mitzvah.
The question is, what did the meraglim (spies) that Moshe sent do wrong? A spy's job is to determine the strengths and weaknesses of enemy countries5. Did theses meraglim not do exactly that? They found the strengths and weaknesses of Eretz Yisroel, even if the negative strengthens happened to enormously outweigh the good news. What more could be expected of them? They were sent to determine the enemy's strategic position and they did just that. It should not be their fault that the giants living in Eretz Yisroel had prospered tremendously.
The answer to what the spies did wrong lies within the very report they gave to the people. “...We were like grasshoppers in our eyes, and so we were in their eyes”. What does it mean that they were like grasshoppers in their own eyes? Granted they had a strong reception when it came to delivering the news back to the Jews, but that is no reason for them to think they sprouted antennas! Surely they knew that they were human, so why did they say that they seemed as grasshoppers in their own eyes?
Furthermore, how did they know how the giants perceived them, that they had the confidence to declare, “...and so we were in their eyes.”?
The cheit ha'meraglim (sin of the spies) was as follows. Hashem had already promised the Jews that they would enter Eretz Yisroel and that it contained nothing but pure goodness. The meraglim, though, did not go forth with their mission with the perspective of being messengers from Hashem. Rather, they went looking through their own glasses, which was the foundation of their mistake. Hashem gave them a choice, “Are you going to spy out the land coming from the perspective that on your side there is an Almighty G-D, before whom everything else is puny like insects before Him? Or, will you be the insects – grasshoppers, standing on your own, without fully appreciating Hashem's Power, and perceive every molehill as a mountain.
Unfortunately, the meraglim did in fact choose to view themselves as the grasshoppers, utilizing the middah (character trait) of anavah (humility) incorrectly, and viewing themselves as grasshoppers. Once they made this choice, they caused themselves to be viewed in the eyes of the giants as little insects as well. Perhaps this is an alternative way to understand the passuk. That “...We were like grasshoppers in our eyes, and therefore we were in their eyes as well”. In other words, because the meraglim felt insecure, due to their lack in belief of Hashem, the giants, in response, realized that they had nothing to fear about these “human-looking creatures”, for they were nothing but puny grasshoppers.
Had the meraglim trusted in Hashem completely, instead of their own eyes, they would have seen the truth about Eretz Yisroel. They would have come back alongside Yehoshua and Calev, confirming how prosperous and beautiful the land is. The giants and their fortified cities would have seemed like nothing more than midgets behind sticks.
At the end of the parsha, we find the last paragraph of kriyas shema. As we know, the last paragraph of shema talks about the mitzva of tzitzis. After the Torah's actual commandment for one to attach tzitzis to a four-cornered garment he is wearing, the Torah provides the reason for the mitzva - “It shall constitute tzitzis for you, and you shall see it and you shall remember all of the commandments of Hashem and perform them; and you shall not spy after your heart and after your eyes after which you stray.”6 We are supposed to look at our tzitzis and remember the mitzvos of Hashem7 and perform them in the correct way. What would be the incorrect way of doing the mitzvos? Rashi explains8,that the heart and eyes are the “spies” of the body. Following with the explanation we said before, when we look at this world through our own glasses instead of properly using the instruction manual, the Torah, which Hashem provided us, then we end up straying. Only if we accept da'as Torah and seek ratson Hashem will we achieve the level of the next verse in kriyas shema, “...so that you...be Holy to your G-D”9.
So, “Who are you going to believe?”, Hashem asks us every day, “Me or your own eyes?”
1This line was said by Groucho Marx.
3Gemara (Mishna) Succah 25a
4Yehoshua 2:1-24
5This idea is also seen in Mikeitz 42:12 When Yosef, under disguise as an Egyptian, accused his brothers for being spies and trying to discover the weaknesses of Egypt, he attributed that as the reason why each of the tribes entered through a different gate.
6Shelach 15:39
7We remember the mitzvos by recalling that tzitzis = 600 in gematriya (numerical value) + five knots + eight strings = 613. Also, when we look at the t'cheiles (blue-dyed string on tzitzis), which is made from the chilazon (a type of sea-snail), our memory gets triggered to think about the blue ocean which reflects the Heavens and reminds us of Hashem and his mitzvos.
8Shelach 15:39
9Shelach 15:40
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