The Courage of a Simple Heart - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

shalom my friends when you're tasked with a lofty mission in the world which all of us are it's critical not only to stay focused on that mission but to make sure you know what the mission is because as they say if you don't know where you're going you're sure to get there now for me ari abramowitz on a personal level the entire torah in many ways revolves around this parsha parashat the torah portion of shelach because by looking deep within this parsha i believe we can understand not only the calling of our generation but the mission of the jewish people in the world since the beginning of time as you'll hear about in this fellowship the sages of israel explain and in many ways the roots of the pain and punishments and exiles that the jewish people have experienced throughout history are found in this parsha and therefore viewed with the right eyes the root to our healing and redemption are found in this torah portion as well so we all know the story of the spies 12 of them one from each tribe they were actually very holy men princes of their tribes but 10 of them came back with an evil fearful report of what happened in the promised land now how did this happen how could something like this happen well to understand one of the great roots of their initial mistake the initial misunderstanding of their mission the english translation will not suffice you need to look in the original hebrew because in hebrew the word to spy aspires a mirage to spies la ragel which implies to see the nakedness of the land a spy looks and sees the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the land but that is not the word moshe used when he sent them into the land he used the word la tour which actually means very similar to the english sounding word to tour to be tourists and what do tourists do they go and they see the richness of the land and the beauty of the land a tourist goes to explore the goodness of the land they were being sent to see the greatness of the land and to encourage the nation about its beauty and its plenty and its fruits and its resources but that is not what they did they went in with a different set of eyes all together so what i'd like to focus on right now was the initial dialogue uh from the spies and from caleb to the nation of israel so chapter 13 verses 27 through 31. now here's the way it played out they reported to him and said we arrived at the land to which you sent us and indeed it flows with milk and honey and this is its fruit but the people that dwells in the land is powerful the cities are very greatly fortified and we also saw there the offspring of the giant amalek dwells in the area of the south the hittite the jebusite the amorite dwell on the mountain and the canaanite dwells by the sea and on the banks of the jordan verse 30 caleb silenced the people towards moshe and he said we shall surely ascend and conquer it for we can surely do it but the men who are with him verse 31 the men who had ascended said we cannot ascend to that people for it is too strong for us they went on to talk about how the land devours its inhabitants and those living there are giants and that not only did they feel like grasshoppers in their own eyes but they felt like grasshoppers in the eyes of the inhabitants as well which of course they couldn't know and it was only projection they couldn't possibly know that but we also know from many numerous places especially two weeks from now that they were wrong that people were terrified of them rather than going in to see the beauty and majesty of the land in order to encourage and motivate the nation to conquer it they went in looking for threats and challenges they went in looking for the strategic practicality of the conquest was this a practical war was it realistic and all they saw was strength and so they came back sharing the report of what their eyes saw and what was the conclusion which they shared with the nation with which they demoralized an entire people causing them to wander in the desert for 40 years what was their advice that the land was unconquerable that it was destined to be a failed mission now rav biederman shares a very beautiful teaching what was caleb's response to the very clearly thought out list of practical strategic reasons which the spies presented did he say that any of their points were factually incorrect did he present an alternative strategic approach to conquering the land no he merely said alona we will go up and we will inherit the land because we can because we can we don't need to know how caleb was saying it's enough for us that hashem said he's with us we can do it that was his tactical strategic advice now later on in the parsha we received the mitzvah seat a portion of the torah so fundamental you know ct the fringes that we were on our garments it's a portion of the torah so fundamental that we say it morning and night as the third and final paragraph of the shema prayer and the sphadamed points out a connection that i never saw between the spies and the seat seat and one of the reasons given for wearing the tsiti hashem tells us that you shall not stray after your hearts and after your eyes that you should not be deceived by your eyes we can't be deceived by our eyes that we should not be deceived by the limitations that we perceive on a situation that just because we may not see a way out here that just because we may not see a solution we should not be deceived by the limitations of our eyes god is much greater than us and it's at those times when we don't see a way a way out that we must exercise our faith in that moment when the israelites were struck were stuck between the the sea and the oncoming egyptian army they must have felt the same way there's no way out there's no imaginable way we could be saved right now that's the time to turn your heart to god that's the time to act in faith that's the time to walk into the sea so deep that you drown then god will bring redemption but he wants our hearts and he wants our faith and he wants our trust to this very moment he cherishes that day we followed him faithfully into an eretz lozrua into an unsewn desert that is what hashem loves that's what he seeks from us perhaps rabbi sachs what he teaches is also true that the spies weren't really afraid of failure but they were afraid of success that they were holy men that cherish their time in the desert surrounded by this divine cocoon of god's protection of being led by clouds during the day in a pillar of fire at night that they wanted to continue being hand-fed the man in the desert by god himself that they were afraid of the challenges involved in entering the land and the agriculture and the military and the economy the physical challenges but also the challenge to faith a challenge that we've discussed very much of about thinking our victories are the victories of the strength of our own hands but they were mistaken they didn't understand the mission not only their mission but the mission of the jewish people and our mission is not to stay in a heaven-like cocoon in the desert and disconnect from the world in an ashram somewhere but our mission is to fully immerse ourselves in the physical world and to infuse it with godliness and spirituality our mission is not to go up to heaven but to bring heaven down to earth and how do we do that through faith by following the will of hashem with the courage of simple hearts hashem we find ourselves surrounded by enemies that are seeking our destruction our government and our politics is confused and it's in shambles jews around the world are being attacked and are living in fear we don't really know what to do give us the courage hashem to put our faith in you even if we don't see a way out of this difficult situation place within us simple hearts hearts of flesh and hearts of faith hearts that will follow your will even if we may not have the eyes to see from our limited perspective and understanding how we will be saved but we know that we will be because you are with us thank you hashem and thank you my friends in this fellowship and thank you jeremy back to you this highlight was taken from the land of israel fellowship every week hundreds of families from literally around the world come together on our live zoom sessions to strengthen each other to inspire each other and to learn torah from the land of israel in which we connect the dots between the bible the hebrew language and the confusing events of our times go to www.thelandofisral.com backslash fellowship or click on the link below to join thank you