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.
My commentary from a year ago:
Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 20 Sivan, 5782
A new Parsha begins today!
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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