Shlach,  שְׁלַח-לְךָ  "Send Out!"  Numbers 13:1-15:41

The Shluchim: A Redemption Story

Poetic notes on parashat Shelach*

Twelve Shluchim*,

twelve leaders of Israel… sent out

to scout out heaven on earth

Recon soldiers for the Army of Heaven,

sent to spiritually survey the land of Canaan,

to envision the land as promised to Abraham,

as the land of heaven on earth

No star accomplishes only its own purpose

A star shines from its furnace

against the gravity of darkness

never knowing that a certain blade of grass

takes comfort in its light

Twelve officers of thousands stood before HaShem

Even the sun shines according to its own wisdom

and does not know that it shines especially

for the sake of the poorest soul of life

But the twelve knew that they went out as sent out 

With their heart held strong they stepped out

to do their job under the command of Moshe,

according to the word of God

They went out as sent out,

but upon reflection ten shluchim said,

“This Land is greater than Gan Eden,

How great was Gan Eden?

Gan Eden could cause to live or die

This Holy land can eat its inhabitants alive!

Pharaoh publicly wore an ornamental brick 

hanging around his neck

By this he boasted that all Israel was enslaved to him

and that he ruled over them as one master

By the great weight of this brick he baptized himself

in the waters of Israel's redemption 

and he did not emerge

So also, anyone who baptizes themselves

in the crushed out wine of Israel

will never emerge again,

unless, when they fall beneath the floods

they repent with awe,

facing the land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”

Then all twelve shluchim of Israel said,

“The land cleanses itself by the Holy spirit,

like a land cleansed by the floods of creation!

Does it not do this for us?

It is certainly in order to prepare a place for us

that the Holy land cleanses itself!”

Only the ten said,

“If the land does this for us,

will it not do this to us when we also stumble?

When we fall short to HaShem’s glory,

will we not then face remaining or returning

giants and demons which we have found in this land,

who stand ready to judge and molest us?”

Then the ten said,

“It is a most bountiful land

with a promise of the world to come

But heed our apocalyptic warning!”

Then no one spoke

As if Caleb’s God could not hear them…

As if Joshua’s God would be simply silent…

But when the knees of the people shook with fear,

they said, “Is it not with a well-grounded foundation

that we fear of the Holy land?”

Then the Temple stones, though still in the earth,

shook with fear together with the living bones of Israel

For it was on the anvil of this fear

that faith would be hammered out like steel

For in the end, Israel’s faith would be made strong

and true, like the living sword of God!

At first their faith was untempered

They saw the land of God with a scandalous, 

fearful eye, and this is why,

after just 40 days in its embrace,

they accused the land of scandal

The scandal was not in the land; it was in their eye

They were called to the witness stand, 

to be the nation of truth,

testifying in the covenant land of Abraham

But a testimony was then denied to them

It was not yet their time to be called to the stand

Their faith was not yet as strong as the land

It is only the face of the firm believer

that can openly face 

the Divine Presence

and reflect, without concealment, 

the light of the justice and mercy of Truth

Israel, like a beloved child,

was then taken to be homeschooled by God

to be prepared for the day when they as one people

would need to take the witness stand

Until then, they were taken from the courtroom

where the trial of the nations

was to be conducted

For forty years they were hidden in a private place

A place prepared for them in the wilderness

Just forty years

But it seemed to stretch until the end of time

On the foundations of their faith 

operations were performed

Surgeries were done

Every doubt was repaired

No one repents without a firm foundation

No one conquers God’s Holy land

without pure repentance,

without holy corrections,

without Menachot corrections,

without Challah corrections,

without Shabbat corrections,

without corrections of the eye,

and corrections of the tongue,

without having learned from Miriam the tzaddik,

in the spirit of Moshe Mashiach

She was not afraid to be corrected

for the thoughts of her children

A divine daughter was kidnapped 

from the threshold of the Sabbath rest

by a great lying rogue

What father would not run after her?

Praying he would save her legally 

in the eye of judge and jury…

When the ten trembling shluchim spoke

God deafened Himself and heard nothing

He heard no fear and no faith from them

He did not hear that they were yet old enough

to take the witness stand

The father took his daughter's hand in silence

His silence created a great quiet all around

But what if fearful eyes observing were offended?

What if the lustful giants appeared to win?

One could think, the Rebbe said,

the Torah could have been intended

not to offend

even the eye of an offender

Thus he elevated the holy lesson of Miriam,

(which it may be the Saturday Rogue,

a Sabbath pretender, cannot learn),

which the eye studied in Torah learns

From Miriam they learn

that the righteous are corrected openly,

to save the sinner

from uttering an unpardonable offence

Joshua and Caleb spoke softly to the people

The children of Israel will be taught how

to mend the torn feathers

of the angels of Canaan,

their wisdom explained

Righteousness is veiled a little with gentle grace

Only the scandalous eye is blinded by grace

The Holy land is trampled by the nations,

until the fear of the children

is hammered with tender love into faith,

faith like the hardened steel of a two-edged sword,

faith with much greater power

than the power of the waster

that God created with the power to destroy

To see it is the quiet joy of the elders of the Supernal Torah

They watch her prepare twelve renewed Shluchim,

twelve emissaries of HaShem, to carry the Holy spirit in

to greet the Holy land in wedded love