Present Within Nature - שלח

Present Within Nature 

The episode of the biblical spies is a dramatic and tragic story. The spies dispatched to scout the land of Israel returned to the Jewish people in the desert and convinced them that they would be unable to conquer the land. The subsequent complaints led to G-d’s decree that the entire generation would perish in the desert and only their children would merit to enter the promised land.  

We cannot read the story without addressing the obvious question: how is it possible that the very people who experienced the miracles of the exodus from Egypt, the splitting of the sea, and the journey through the desert, would deny G-d’s ability to conquer the land? 

The Torah describes their claim: 

But the men who went up with him said, "We are unable to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. (Numbers 13:31)

Rashi explained that the word translates as “(stronger) than we”, in fact, means “(stronger) than He”, stronger than G-d himself:  

for they are stronger than we: Hebrew מִמֶּנּוּ, [which may also be interpreted as, they are stronger than he.] They said this in reference to the most High , as it were, [as if to say that the people are stronger than He.

It seems impossible that the spies and their audience would claim that the inhabitants of Canaan were more powerful than G-d! 

The Talmud (Sotah 35a) explains their claim. They said: ”Even the Homeowner, , is unable to remove His vessels from there, as it were.” They acknowledged that G-d is the “homeowner”, G-d is the creator and he can shatter the laws of nature, probabilities and statistics. Yet, they argued, the conquest of the land, which they were expected to achieve through a natural battle using military might and tactics, is different. Nature, they argued, is “His vessels”. While G-d can suspend the laws of nature when he chooses to, He values the laws of nature and allows them to play out in a natural way. The miracles of the exodus, therefore, are necessary for the chances of their success in a natural war. 

When Moses prays for forgiveness for the sin of the spies, he evokes not the name Hashem, which describes G-d’s compassion, revelation, expression, but rather, surprisingly, the name A-do-nai which is the name describing G-d’s disciple and power of concealment. Moses says: “Now, please, let the strength of the A-do-nai be increased.” Moses understood that the mistake of the spies was that they misunderstood the quality of G-d expressed by the name A-do-nai. They understood that G-d can express his infinite might by performing miracles, but they did not understand that G-d is present within the limited, finite, laws of nature which He created. Moses pleads that the name A-do-nai be strengthened. That the Jewish people recognize and perceive that presence and salvation of G-d present not only in the open revealed miracles but also in the daily natural events in our lives. 

Adapted from the teachings of the Rebbe, Likkutei Sichos 18 Shelach 4