Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 17 Sivan, 5784
Parsha Shelach-Lekha – “Send For Yourself”: (Numbers 13:1 – 15:41)
First Portion: Numbers 13:1 – 13:20
Good morning! We are moving into a new week and a new Parsha. This week’s Parsha is “send for yourself.” Yesterday we finished the journey of “When You Fire Up!” And we saw that the first two journeys for the Children of Israel was navigating their cravings and ego. They have dealt with them, and we start this week in a new camp. What is the lesson of this camp? Let’s dig in and find out:
1The Lord spoke to Moses saying,
2″Send out for yourself men who will scout the Land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel. You shall send one man each for his father’s tribe; each one shall be a chieftain in their midst.”
Interesting. They were camped – but they were not stuck. Hashem told Moses to send 12 men to scout the land ahead. The future.
3So Moses sent them from the desert of Paran by the word of the Lord. All of them were men of distinction; they were the heads of the children of Israel.
“Men of Distinction” – wow. Surely these were the best of the best. And. I am reflecting. Ego? Is this going to be a practical lesson on ego? Let’s see:
4These are their names: For the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zakkur.
5For the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori.
6For the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jepphunneh.
7For the tribe of Issachar, Yigal the son of Joseph.
8For the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun.
9For the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu.
10For the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi.
11For the tribe of Joseph, for the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi.
12For the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli.
13For the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael.
14For the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi.
15For the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi.
So it’s interesting. I had to count and recount. Because I did not see Levi, and only saw Joseph’s name once. Connected to the tribe of Menasseh. I see how Ephraim did not get connected to Joseph. It makes me wonder if Hoshea is someone to keep an eye on. Let’s keep going:
16These are the names of the men Moses sent to scout the Land, and Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua.
The Torah is pretty cool, isn’t it? Like there are these hidden gems to find. I would have expected verse 8 to match verse 11:
8For the tribe of Joseph, for the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun.
That is NOT what was written. We are meant to see this difference.
17Moses sent them to scout the Land of Canaan, and he said to them, “Go up this way in the south and climb up the mountain.
18You shall see what [kind of] land it is, and the people who inhabit it; are they strong or weak? Are there few or many?
19And what of the land they inhabit? Is it good or bad? And what of the cities in which they reside are they in camps or in fortresses?
20What is the soil like is it fat or lean? Are there any trees in it or not? You shall be courageous and take from the fruit of the land.” It was the season when the first grapes begin to ripen.
Moses sets them out with a purpose. Here are the questions to ask:
- What does the land look like?
- Who are the people who live in it?
- Are they strong or weak?
- Few or many?
- What is the land like?
- Good or bad?
- The Cities? Are they fortresses or camps?
- What is the soil like?
- Fat or lean?
- Trees?
He tells them to take fruit from the land. Be courageous.
Courage. That is the theme today.
Cravings. Ego. Courage. We seem to be moving along on our journey.
These are my thoughts. What are yours?
Here are my thoughts from the past two years:
Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 22 Sivan, 5783
Today we start a new portion – “Send for yourself” (Shelah-Lekha or Shlach)
Right after Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses, Hashem tells Moses to send spies into the land of Canaan – that Hashem was giving to the Israelites. Hashem had already provided the blessing. The abundance. And yet? They didn’t believe it.
How much do we not trust that Hashem is working all things FOR us – and things in our world are happening to us for our benefit?
Hashem gives us grace in this. He encourages us to send out “feelers” to see if He is working for our good.
What is it we desire? Maybe we are called to explore that in our mind? To look within to determine whether our desires our good? To send for ourselves within “spies” to explore each and every desire we have – and whether they are good for us.
Have you spent time thinking about what you desire? What you want? Or are you afraid to enter into that “space” in your mind? Something to chew on today.
Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 20 Sivan, 5782
A new Parsha begins today! It is also the day we celebrate fathers. Finally Juneteenth is the day we celebrate the freedom of Black folx in America – even though it took a long time for the emancipation proclamation to make its way to Texas. But not only is it a celebration- it’s a reminder of our troubled past as a country, recognizing for us (as white folx) what collectively happened – I’m assuming much like Germans must process about the Holocaust each year.
We can’t be bound by our past, and at the same time we need to own our past, and work to reconcile it.
Think about this in the context of what we have been reading in the Torah. We read last week, that there were Egyptians who were with the Children of Israel. Moses invited them to join them on their journey to the promise land. This is the reconciliation and the healing that can happen. And the Egyptians didn’t ask Moses to lead; they followed instead. We could learn a lesson from that.
Ok. Let’s dig in.
This weeks Parsha is ”Shelah-Lekha” which means “send for yourself.”
This week we will process the story of the spies who go into the promised land. We’ve come out of Egypt; we have achieved freedom. But that’s not the end of the story. We wandered in the desert, and we received directions for our lives; but now it’s time to live it out.
Todays portion starts with God telling Moses to “send out men for yourself to explore the land of Canaan.”
Moses selected 12 men from each of the tribes. And we learn that one of the men, who was named Hosea (from the tribe of Ephraim), was renamed Joshua by Moses. He did this by adding the Hebrew letter yod in front of the name. This now meant that his name began with the word for God (yod and he).
Moses sent them with the following questions:
- What kind of land is Cannan?
- Are the people who inhabit it strong or weak?
- Are there few or many people?
- How is the land they inhabit?
- Does it have good springs and wells or bad ones?
- How are the cities in which they live?
- Are they unenclosed cities or in fortresses?
- What is the soil like?
- Is the soil fertile or barren?
- Are there any righteous people there?
Then he gives them a directive – take some of the land’s fruit. Because it was the season when grapes first ripen.
As a leader, I’m struck by Moses giving a clear mission and directive to the spies. They knew their mission and calling. They didn’t have answers; they didn’t have an agenda. but they had purpose.
What are your thoughts?
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