Emet Inspire - Rabbi Mordechai Kraft - Parashat Shelach

[Music] Welcome back to this week's eminence fire para shell. In this week's para we have the the story of the spies and originally the plan was to go right into the land of Israel but as a result of the evil reports that the spies brought back. We know that Hashem decreed there would be 40 years in the desert. Rashi asks a question right at the beginning of the para and the question is paras the para's Miriam is why is the para of the spies juxtaposed directly connected to last week's para which talks about the lash that Miriam spoke about Moshenu and Rashi says we know that she was she received saras that she had to remove herself from the camp because she spoke debauch spoke lush and har she didn't judge Moshenu favorably it says says these spies and rashies of the risho they saw it these evil people saw and they didn't learn from it they didn't understand the damage that occurs when one speaks lash it says that's why place the two back to back. In other words, the fact that spoke spoke badly of and received the punishment of the as we call it that everyone should understand how serious it is a serious a a a sin it is to speak. [Music] person speaks. They just have to reflect on what happened to Miriam. But apparently these men these spies, they didn't want to learn from it. So Rashi from the outset is trying to understand what's the connection between Miriam lash and the spies and he finds a very direct connection that had the spies had the MGA thought deeply about the land of Israel had they looked more carefully they wouldn't have spoken badly. In other words, just like Miriam didn't think deeply enough about Mosher Rabenu, she judged Mosher Reno a little bit too quickly. She assumed that Moshenu was doing something wrong by having separated from his wife Sepra when in fact it was the command of Hashem. He was a special type of Na'vi. And had the spies learned a lesson from that that you have to think deeply about what you see that you can't just judge on any sort of superficial appearance. they would have come to a different conclusion about what they were actually seeing in the land of Israel. So we learn many things from this. Number one, we understand that really what is behind lash harra is that we're not looking deeply enough. We're looking superficially at a person. If we would stop and think and understand that there's so much that we don't know, we wouldn't be so quick to to assume and to to think that a person is doing something wrong. So really what's behind Lash and Harura in many cases a lack of introspection, a lack of using the mind to think deeply of what you're seeing and how the spies understood that in a deeper way. Of course, they were great people as we know, but had they just had been more inspired by this just a little bit more, they would have understood that that which they're seeing in front of them wasn't necessarily negative and they would never spoken the diva, the lush heart about the land. In fact, what did they see? In fact, he said they were concerned, for example, that they saw that it was a country was a land where they were burying the dead. There was a plague and they were burying the dead. And they came back with a report that said it's a land that wants to devour its inhabitants. When in fact, what was really happening, Koshu was creating a type of sickness, endeavor, a plague in the land in order that the people be so involved with their burial that they wouldn't notice the spies. But instead of stopping to think and to look carefully and to reflect on it, he jumped to a conclusion. It was instead of seeing Hashem's, they saw it as a land that was devouring its inhabitants. This is really the lesson of teaches us that that we have to be so careful and understand that what we see with our eyes is not always the reality. say our sages very beautiful. They say there's a chord that connects the eye directly to the heart. In fact, they utilize this particular statement in trying to determine if the eye is an external organ or an internal organ. And has to do with different laws on Shabbat. If the eye is an external organ, there are different laws regarding being Shabbat to save an external organ. And if it's an internal organ, then of course we're much more more strict about violating Shabbat to save internal organs. And they look at the eye and they say, since the eye is connected to the heart, it's an internal organ. But I'll say you something even deeper than that. If something is true physically, it's also true spiritually. If there's a physical connection between the eye and the heart, it also means there's a spiritual connection. Which means that which the eye sees often times is influenced by our emotions, is influenced by our desires. We're not as objective as we think we are. And therefore, it's so important when we see something to stop and to think and to reflect. Am I seeing the whole story? And had the spies learned that lesson from Miriam, they would come to a different conclusion as to what they were actually seeing in the land of Israel. And we take this lesson to heart and to understand when we see people and we see things that perhaps we observe that we don't understand and they don't look proper, they don't look correct. Let's stop to think for a moment and understand maybe we're not seeing the whole story and we have to work a little bit harder to judge favorably and by doing so we should build we should stop any form of negative speech and only have positive speech and build and love between Israel and the we should only see good things for the people of Israel in the land of Israel. Build this photo. [Music]