Parshat Shlach
SAN DIEGO — Life is filled with rules. There are rules at school, rules at home and rules to keep everyone safe. Different religions have rules also. Jewish rules can be found in the Torah, five books describing Jewish history from the world’s creation through story of Moses. Sometimes the rules are spelled out.
Do not steal.
Do not tell lies.
But most of the time, the stories in the Torah lead us to discover the right path on our own. Each week tells a different story. We’ll look at a few of these stories each month.
The Torah is read from beginning to end each year. We are about three-quarters of the way through now. Rather than wait until September, to start at the beginning, let’s jump into this week’s parsha, or section. It’s a spy story filled with action and adventure.
The Jewish people have followed Moses, out of their enslaved lives in Egypt. They head across the desert to find Israel, a land, according to the Torah, the Jewish people are destined to live in. In this parsha, they come to the great, walled city of Jericho, gateway to Israel.
Moses chooses twelve men to slip into the city as spies. They’ll gather intel to see if the city is safe to conquer. Two spies, Joshua and Caleb, return with good news. “If God is on our side, we can take over the town.”
Ten spies return, quivering and complaining. “There are giants in the town. We will lose everything if we try to enter.”
Moses and the people have a problem. One group is not telling the truth. Who should they believe?
Instead of conducting a further investigation, the people side with the ten spies. They raise their voices. “Oh, no! We won’t go!” they tell Moses.
But their actions, their unwillingness to check to see if the facts are correct, leads to sad consequences. In the Torah story, God grows angry and tells the Jewish adults they will not be allowed to enter Israel. They will all wander in the desert for forty years until the adults all grow old and die. Their children will then return and enter Israel.
What happened here? The Jewish people chose to believe a small group of men without any fact-checking. Their hasty decision had life-changing consequences.
What can you do? When faced with a decision, be sure to check out the information carefully. Make your decision based on facts you have researched yourself.
Two more interesting facts about this parsha:
This is also the section that instructs us that when we bake challah, we should take off a small piece to offer as a gift to God.
In addition, it instructs Moses to tell the Jewish people to make a fringe on the “corners of their garments” (for example, on the tallit), to remind them to be Jewish and follow the Torah’s commandments.
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Marcia Berneger is a retired elementary school teacher as well as a teacher at Torah school. She is the author of such children’s books as Buster the Little Garbage Truck, and A Dreidel in Time. She may be contacted via marcia.berneger@sdjewishworld.com