Showing posts with label Shelah Lekha. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shelah Lekha. Show all posts
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Scouting Out Your Life - Thursday Kavvanah, 6/14/2012
The Torah tells us this week in Parashat Shelah Lekha that Moshe sent out twelve men on a reconnaissance mission to the land of Canaan. Their assignment: to survey the situation and report back. Ten of them return fearful and pessimistic; only two, Caleb and Joshua, are hopeful. But the negative report had already sown concern and despair, and as a result God decides that the Israelites are simply not ready to inherit their land.
One might say that this does not work out so well for the Israelites, freed slaves who are desperate for their own homesteads. Forty years in the desert is a punishing sentence. But we might find here an important personal message: that occasionally we have to scout ourselves out.
Every now and then, it is essential to take stock of where you are: what have you accomplished, what is your current outlook, where are you going? Had I not been open to that more than a dozen years ago, I would not have left engineering, ultimately to become a cantor and a rabbi. Today I am much happier and more fulfilled where I am, and I would not have arrived here without some serious introspection. Our post-Exodus ancestors needed to investigate themselves just as much as the Land of Israel, and while the land was found to be flowing with milk and honey, the people's state of mind warranted two generations of waiting.
Perhaps this is the time to ask yourself, "Do I need to perform some internal reconnaissance?" Send out the scouts. Behatzlahah! Good luck.
Shabbat shalom!
~
Rabbi Seth Adelson
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Thursday Kavvanah, 6/16/2011 - Just Say Yes!
Parashat Shelah Lekha, which we are reading this week, features the tale of the twelve "spies" sent by Moses to check out the land of Israel while the Israelites are still wandering in the desert.
Ten of the twelve return with a bad report: the inhabitants of the land are fierce giants, and they would surely overwhelm the Israelites. Two of them, Joshua and Caleb, are optimists who declare that the Israelites should march into the land and take it. The storyline of the Tanakh (Hebrew bible) goes with the optimists; Joshua himself leads the people into the land.
No matter how bleak the future may look, no matter how many declare a particular task impossible, there is always a chance that the glass may be at least half full. It is always a good idea to listen to life's naysayers, just so that you might have the opportunity to prove them wrong. Say yes!
Ten of the twelve return with a bad report: the inhabitants of the land are fierce giants, and they would surely overwhelm the Israelites. Two of them, Joshua and Caleb, are optimists who declare that the Israelites should march into the land and take it. The storyline of the Tanakh (Hebrew bible) goes with the optimists; Joshua himself leads the people into the land.
No matter how bleak the future may look, no matter how many declare a particular task impossible, there is always a chance that the glass may be at least half full. It is always a good idea to listen to life's naysayers, just so that you might have the opportunity to prove them wrong. Say yes!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
The Optimists Emerge Victorious
(Devar torah for my son's berit milah, 6/19/2009)
One of the beautiful things about fatherhood is the opportunity to consider what goes on in a baby’s head. What could s/he possibly be thinking? All the more so, what is going through the baby’s head right before birth, and right after?
In this week’s Torah reading, Parashat Shelah Lekha, we read about the twelve scouts that are sent by Moses to scope out the situation in the land of Israel. The Israelites are wandering in the Sinai desert, preparing to enter the land, but they need to know what their chances are of conquering the Canaanite peoples that reside there. Ten of the scouts come back with a pessimistic report, but two of them, Caleb and Joshua, are optimistic. The pessimists outweigh the optimists 5-to-1, despite the fact that God has already more or less predicted the outcome.
So it might be easy, looking at today’s world, to be pessimistic (and I’m not going into why right now; I’ll leave that for you to discuss at breakfast). But little Zev Isaac could have popped his head out, looked around, decided that it’s just not worth it, and turned right back around to return to the womb, much to the consternation of the assembled medical personnel, not to mention my wife.
But of course, he did not do so. He joined the rest of us out here to become a willing participant in our berit, our covenant with God. This serves as a reminder to me that it is only we adults who understand suffering and disappointment; that life includes a healthy dose of misery along with joy.
But for a baby, there is only the good. There is only the full glass of optimism. There is only the simple wonder of going from darkness to light. There is only the beginning of Creation, when God says, “Let there be light.”
I suppose that it is this simplicity that causes us to continue bringing children into this very complicated world. The child’s optimism trumps the adult’s pessimism.
One of the beautiful things about fatherhood is the opportunity to consider what goes on in a baby’s head. What could s/he possibly be thinking? All the more so, what is going through the baby’s head right before birth, and right after?
In this week’s Torah reading, Parashat Shelah Lekha, we read about the twelve scouts that are sent by Moses to scope out the situation in the land of Israel. The Israelites are wandering in the Sinai desert, preparing to enter the land, but they need to know what their chances are of conquering the Canaanite peoples that reside there. Ten of the scouts come back with a pessimistic report, but two of them, Caleb and Joshua, are optimistic. The pessimists outweigh the optimists 5-to-1, despite the fact that God has already more or less predicted the outcome.
So it might be easy, looking at today’s world, to be pessimistic (and I’m not going into why right now; I’ll leave that for you to discuss at breakfast). But little Zev Isaac could have popped his head out, looked around, decided that it’s just not worth it, and turned right back around to return to the womb, much to the consternation of the assembled medical personnel, not to mention my wife.
But of course, he did not do so. He joined the rest of us out here to become a willing participant in our berit, our covenant with God. This serves as a reminder to me that it is only we adults who understand suffering and disappointment; that life includes a healthy dose of misery along with joy.
But for a baby, there is only the good. There is only the full glass of optimism. There is only the simple wonder of going from darkness to light. There is only the beginning of Creation, when God says, “Let there be light.”
I suppose that it is this simplicity that causes us to continue bringing children into this very complicated world. The child’s optimism trumps the adult’s pessimism.
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