The Leader's Faith
His daughter asked him if she should try out for the sports team. He thinks she is not up to the task. He wants to protect her from failure. He tells her not to try. He tells her that it will be too difficult. He tells her that the sport is not that much fun anyway. He tells her that she will be much happier if she would just do something else.
His employee approached him with a brilliant new idea. He loves the idea, but he does not believe his team could pull it off successfully. He tells them it’s too risky, too much work, and ultimately it is not a good idea to begin with.
He is acting like the Biblical spies.
In what was the most disastrous episode in their lifetime, the Jewish people traveling through the desert, requested of Moses that he should dispatch spies to the land of Canaan, to scout out the land and its inhabitants. Moses hand-picked twelve leaders, one per tribe, and sent them off. They return to Moses and the Children of Israel and report, that despite G-d’s assurances, conquering the land was impossible:
“We came to the land to which you sent us, and it is flowing with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who inhabit the land are mighty, and the cities are extremely huge and fortified, and there we saw even the offspring of the giant… We are unable to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.
They spread an [evil] report about the land which they had scouted, telling the children of Israel, "The land we passed through to explore is a land that consumes its inhabitants”.
Virtually all the commentators ask the same question: how is it possible that the spies have a complete loss of faith, despite all the miracles of the exodus which they experienced firsthand? How is it possible that great men, hand-picked by Moses, failed to maintain their trust in G-d?
Perhaps we can suggest that the spies never lost faith in G-d, nor did they lose faith in his ability to perform miracles.
They trusted G-d, but they did not trust the people.
Sure, they thought, G-d is perfectly capable of performing miracles if he wishes to do so. The problem, the spies thought to themselves, was that there was no chance the people would remain loyal to G-d and deserving of his protection. They therefore concluded that conquering Canaan is impossible, because the people were not up to the task.
Seeking to protect their beloved people from failure, the spies react like the father trying to discourage his daughter in order to protect her from failure. They say that the task is too difficult: “We are unable to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we”, and they tell the people that the land is not desirable in the first place: “The land we passed through to explore is a land that consumes its inhabitants”.
The spies may have acted out of love, but they failed both the mission and the people they were meant to serve. When someone is facing a challenging moment a leader must lift up, inspire, teach, encourage, and show him or her how to discover the reservoirs of faith, courage, and strength hidden within his soul.
Each of us are leaders in our circle of influence. Our family and friends look to us for guidance. We must remember never to underestimate and discourage as the spies did, for we must always be like Moses Joshua and Caleb, who believed in the people and sought to discover within the people the treasures which lay hidden deep within the people’s soul.
In 1974, Rabbi Moshe Yitzchok Hecht, the Rebbe’s emissary to New Haven, CT, sent a letter to the Rebbe in which he described the difficult challenges he was facing, and asked the Rebbe to do something to help him, implying that he (Rabbi Hecht) felt that he was unable to carry out the mission successfully.
The Rebbe wrote back:
I preempted you and responded even before you made your request. I already did precisely as you advised. Rabbi Moshe Yitzchok Hecht was sent to your city. It appears from your letter (and from your previous one) that you are unfamiliar with Rabbi Hecht or the abilities and powers he has been granted. In any event, endeavor now to acquaint yourself with him, and immediately everything will change - your disposition, your trust in G-d, your everyday joy etc.
The portion of Shelach is read in proximity to the Rebbe’s Yahrtzeit on the third of Tamuz. Like Moses in his time, the Rebbe believed in every Jew. Like Moses in his time, the Rebbe taught us to believe in ourselves. The Rebbe taught to never judge ourselves or others based on external appearances, but rather to believe in, and therefore work to discover, the spark of infinity within ourselves. The infinity of our soul.