By Zev Dever
Ok so a lot of stuff happened in this weeks parsha. Here's the link to chabiddies if you want.
And here's the parsha in a nutshell:
General Overview: Moses sends scouts to Canaan and all of them -- except Joshua and Caleb -- bring back frightening reports. The people react fearfully and rebelliously. G‑d decrees a forty year delay until theIsraelites will enter Canaan, during which time all males between the ages of twenty and sixty will perish. Many Israelites then attempt to unilaterally proceed to Canaan, but are cut down by the Canaanites. Various laws are discussed: libations, giving part of the dough ("challah") to a Kohain (Priest), certain sin sacrifices, and the mitzvahof tzitzit. A Jew is found desecrating the Shabbat and is executed.
My first thought is that g-d seems like a pretty vengeful figure in this parsha. But then I guess the Israelites were being pretty disobedient, and sometimes you gotta lay down the law, ya know? so what can we learn from this going into our summer? 1.) you probably shouldn't make any edicts or threats that your not willing to back up with a good smiting. 2.) you probably should not be willing to give out any good smitings.
seriously though this can have echos for the kind of authority figures we want to be. Early in the parsha, the israelites are eager to roll into canaan swords blazing, though god forbids it, they still want to see for themselves and god gives moses permission to send the scouts in order to appease their curiosity, though god clearly already knows they are not ready. sometimes no matter how much you tell someone something, they're going to have to learn it on their own to internalize it (and sometimes they need to learn it more than once). there is a juxtapozition in this instance between god being understanding of the israelites frustration and impatience, and later
harshness in dealing with them (these scouts that were permitted to go, other than joshua and caleb, died immediately upon returning frightening reports, and the hebrews were granted one year of wandering for every one day of exploration...).
So which kind of leader do we want to be? the one who lets the chanichim see things for themselves, even if they get a few skinned knees or slaughtered tribes? or the one who obviously knows what's best and enforces the rules with fear and punishment? Personally I think both are necessary from time to time, but where possible and non life threatening i'd dare say we all prefer to let kids learn through their own experience, and what they can uncover for themselves. It's an delicate line we walk to encourage this style of education, while at the same time subtly structuring experiences, and we certainly have limits to what we are willing to tolerate outside of our desired structures.
The next thing that struck me as particularly interesting was the bit about a 40 year delay. for one it seems like this 40 year wandering period has had as much impact on jewish consciousness as the actual entering of the Israel has had. For time immemorial, before and after egypt, part of the jewish psyche has been dominated by the thoughts and emotions associated with waiting for the promised land. For those of us who wish to reform israel, I think this is still just as prevalent, if not more so, than any sense of liberation at attaining a homeland.
what also hit me was the edict that everyone between 20 and 60 should die before the jews went into canaan. This made me feel old as shit. However, I only