Thursday, June 14, 2012

Beit Orot: Orot Haparasha - Shlach

Can we do תפילות prayers for:

Beit Orot?

So that through them The האור Light, רפואה The Healing and The ואהבה Love of ישועת יהוה Yeshuath YHWH may come back to הארץ The Land of Israel?

The Irving Moskowitz Yeshiva & Campus
Yeshivat Beit Orot - The Hesder Yeshiva on Har Hazeitim in Yerushalayim
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OROT HAPARSHA
Parshat Shlach
From the teachings of Rav Dani Isaac, Rosh Hayeshiva
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Moshe Rabeinu sends spies to tour the land and commands them to check it out: "See what kind of land it is. Are the people who live there strong or weak, few or many? Is the inhabited area good or bad? Are the cities where they live open or fortified?"

When the spies return from their mission, in theory they provide precise answers to Moshe's questions, noting that the land "flows with milk and honey and this is its fruit," and that "the people dwelling in the land are aggressive and their cities are large and well fortified. We also saw the descendents of the Anak there."

This makes Calev's reaction difficult to understand: "Calev calmed the people against Moshe and said, 'Let us go up at once and possess it because we can do it." Only after Calev's words does the Torah state, "the men who went with him said, 'We will not be able to go up against the people because they are stronger than we."

A closer look at the language of the spies' answer, however, reveals their sin. They add one word that changes their whole response, "Effes, (Nevertheless) the people is strong..." This means that they indeed describe the land but also interpret what they saw. With the word effes they are actually claiming that Am Yisrael will not succeed in vanquishing the residents of Canaan because they are strong and dwell in fortified cities. The interpretation is subjective and they were not sent for that purpose. They were sent to "tour" Canaan, i.e. to examine it objectively, to "photograph" the land but not to analyze their findings.

The interpretation and analysis of the findings are dependent on the strength of ones inner faith. Thus the Sifri darshans the pasuk at the end of our parsha "You shall not wander after your hearts, meaning that the eyes follow the heart. And if one says that the heart follows the eyes, there is a blind man who does all the abominable things in the world. From this we learn that the eyes follow the heart." The more ones heart has complete faith in the Kadosh Baruch Hu, the more the eye views the world correctly.

Chazal teach us in Midrash Rabba "when the spies would enter a city pestilence would strike its residents and they would be busy burying their dead and would not see the spies. Hashem did them a favor in order to trouble the city's residents with their mourning so that these would not notice those, but the spies said 'it is a land that consumes its inhabitants." Via the test that Hashem made for them they spoke ill of the land. This means that Hashem performed a miracle for their benefit, but they in their lack of faith analyzed the events in a twisted manner and thereby spoke ill of the land.

Only Yehoshua and Calev, from the depths of their faith in Hashem, said, "The land is very very good," and at the end of their delivery they say "and Hashem is with us, do not fear them."

Yehoshua draws his faith from his deep connection to Moshe Rabeinu and from his pure love of Torah, as it states, "...and Yehoshua, a young man who did not leave left the Tent.(Ohel Hamoed)"

Calev alone goes to Hebron to prostrate himself on the graves of the Avot, as we find in the Gemara in Sotah (34) on the pasuk, "They went up to the Negev and he came to Hebron..." the pasuk opens in the plural "and they went up" and continues in the singular "and he came." From this we learn that only Calev went in order not to be negatively influenced by the other spies' counsel.

When Calev arrives in Hebron, to the resting place of the Avot, he feels a connection with Hashem's promise to give Am Yisrael the land. This promise was given to Avraham and was repeated to Yitzhak and reiterated to Ya'akov, and they, with all their trials and tribulations remained true to their faith. Thus it says of them at the beginning of Parshat VaEra, "I revealed myself to Avraham, Yitzhak and Ya'akov as El Shaddai, and did not allow them to know me by my name Hashem." Here Rashi explains, "I appeared to the Avot and I made promises to them... but by my name Hashem I was not known to them, meaning that I was not recognized by them in my attribute of "keeping faith," by reason of which I am called Hashem, to verify what I have said, because I made promises, but did not fulfill them [during their lifetime].

On that pasuk the Midrash Rabba says, "The Kadosh Baruch Hu told Moshe, 'It is a shame regarding those who are gone and are no longer here. How often I revealed myself to Avraham, Yitzhak and Ya'akov as El Shaddai and they never wondered about my attributes.'"

It is this pure faith of the Avot that is aroused in Calev because he chose to join himself to them.

Via this concept we can understand Moshe's tefilla for Yehoshua, that he not succumb to the other spies' counsel. "Moshe named Hoshea Ben Nun Yehoshua." The Midrash Rabba explains that this means "He prayed to Hashem to save him from the spies' counsel." This raises the question that if Moshe knew that the spies would sin, why did he send them. The reason is that it was not certain that the spies would sin and everything depended on how they felt in their heart, so Moshe davened that Yehoshua would be zocheh to examine reality in the correct way, through the depth of his faith.

Rav Kook explains the connection between Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael as a living bond, which is an internal and essential bond and not an external connection serving as a means for the general unification of the people and the reinforcement of its physical or even spiritual existence. Therefore in order to clarify whether Am Yisrael feels and lives this bond with Eretz-Yisrael, Moshe sent the spies, and if the were to be taken aback and would not want to enter the land, this would be a sign that the time had not yet arrived.

Thus the punishment for the sin of the spies is much more severe than that of the sin of Golden Calf. Here Hashem states, "In this desert shall your corpses fall," "Parallel to the number of days you toured the land, 40 days, one year for each day shall you bear your sins, 40 years..."

The sin of the Golden Calf is seemingly worse than the sin of the spies, but from the language of the punishment we can understand that it is necessary for Am Yisrael to traverse the desert and feel cut off from Eretz-Yisrael, and thereby to increase its inner yearning for the land and understand our bond to the land. This will lead to the banishing of all fear and trepidation and Am Yisrael will reach its land and fight for it with Oz and Gevura (daring and courage).

Yehoshua sends two spies from Shittim and they arrive at the home of a woman named Rahav. This story is astounding. Why would Yehoshua send spies after he himself had experienced the failure of the spies whom Moshe sent? And why did the Navi take the trouble to tell us that the spies were sent from Shittim, and was it an accident that they slept there in the home of a prostitute?

This can be explained in that davka Yehoshua, who experienced the initial examination of the bond between the nation and its land, understands that it is necessary to check whether 40 years of wandering in the desert had any effect, and whether Am Yisrael is now capable of entering the land and fighting against the same nations that they previously feared. The bond with the land, which is a living bond, must be revealed and used to activate all the vital powers of Am Yisrael and to direct them to kedusha. The nation living in its land does not have to neutralize any of its strengths, but must rather join them together with even more strength toward avodat kodesh.

There are two strong powerful Yetzarim (urges) in man, Yetzer Harayot (sex drive) and Yetzer Avoda Zara (idolatry). When these yetzarim are harnessed to kedusha they bring life and elevate or avodat Hashem.

In Shittim Am Yisrael began to commit harlotry with the daughters of Moav (Bamidbar 25:1). There they were likewise drawn to Ba'al Pe'or (pasuk 2). It was davka from there, from the place where we were undone by those forces, that Yehoshua sent the spies to Eretz-Yisrael, in order to check the internal bond with the land, which if it exists will naturally elevate those yetzarim to kedusha.

The spies arrive at the prostitute's home and she brings them up to the roof, where she hides them, saying that if vital powers are elevated to their divine source, the receive the validity of kedusha. And she in fact asks to join Am Yisrael when Jericho is conquered.

The two spies return to Yehoshua and say, "Truly, Hashem has delivered all the land into our hands, and moreover all the inhabitants of the land are filled with terror because of us." If the spies had not acted through great faith in Tzur Yisrael (Hashem), and had not understood that all vital forces, which in the meantime were manifest in a negative fashion among the land's inhabitants, would revert to kedusha and acts of gevura, they would have interpreted what had happened to them negatively and would have claimed that the people were very hostile and prepared for battle, which is why the king of Jericho discovered them immediately. Their eyes, however, followed their faithful hearts, so the said that the fear of Israel had fallen on the inhabitants of Canaan.

The spies that Moshe sent and the spies that Yehoshua sent, which represent two opposites, can be found even today, when Am Yisrael returned to Eretz-Yisrael. There are people whose analysis is allegedly real, such that they contend that we will not succeed in gaining sovereignty over all parts of Eretz-Yisrael. This, however, is a lack of faith.

The true believer sees the niflaot of Hashem, who is gomel chessed with us, and who is putting us to a great test of faith. But we are sure that "a time of trouble for Ya'akov but he will be saved out of it," means that our yeshua will be revealed from out of the troubles themselves, because it will become clear that all the complications are just a crane that requires us to go higher and higher in the spiritual and material construction of the nation.

"And he who acted with Hashem will come and take his reward from Shalem."

Shabbat Shalom from Beit Orot in Yerushalayim

--------------------------------------------------------------
Beit Orot
"Building & Reclaiming Yerushalayim"
----------------------------------------------------------------
On the Web:

www.beitorot.org
E-Mail: info@beitorot.org
----------------------------------------------------------------
In Israel:
The Irving Moskowitz Yeshiva & Campus
Beit Orot
1 Shmuel Ben Adaya Street
The Mount of Olives
Jerusalem 97400
Tel: 972-2-628-4155
Fax: 972-2-627-6673
----------------------------------------------------------------
In the United States:
American Friends of Beit Orot
162 Cedar Lane
Teaneck, NJ 07666
Tel: 1-201-530-0210
Fax: 1-201-353-2335
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Please feel free to forward, print and redistribute this document without modification, "as-is."

Please Say Yes to Abba Yahweh and His Laws special in this time when Abba Yahweh is 'testing' us:

Hab 1:12 Art thou not mikedem (‘everlasting’ also said of Moshiach, indicating Moshiach’s eternal divine nature: Dan 7:14 And there was given Him (Moshiach) dominion, and honor, and sovereignty, that all people, Goyim, tongues, should pey-lammed-chet. [1](worship as deity) (see Dan 3:12, serve, reverence as deity Him (Moshiach). His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His (Messianic) Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.]see Michoh 5:1[2]; Yahweh Elohai (my Elohim) Kedoshi (my Holy One)? We shall not die. Yahweh, Thou hast appointed them (these Chaldean) for mishpat (ordinance); O Tzur, Thou hast ordained them (these Chaldean) for reproof.

(Please read the whole book of HaNavi Habakuk?)

Please take it serious what Abba Yahweh is telling us in:

Deu 18:15 Yahweh Eloheicha (your Elohim) will raise up unto thee a Navi (prophet) from among thee, of thy achim (bretheren), kamoni (like me Exo 32:30 The next day Moshe said to the people, "You have committed a terrible sin. Now I will go up to Yahweh; maybe I will be able to atone for your sin."); unto him ye must listen;

Deu 18:16 According to all that thou desired of Yahweh Eloheicha (your Elohimin) Chorev in the Yom HaKahal (day of the congregation), saying, Let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh Elohav (your Elohim), neither let me see this eish hagedolah (‘great fire’) any more, that I die not.

Deu 18:17 And Yahweh said unto me, They have well-spoken that which they have spoken.

Deu 18:18 I will raise them up a Navi (prophet) from among their achim (brethren), like unto thee, and will put My words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him [Yn 10:18].

Deu 18:19 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not listen unto My words which he shall speak Bishmi (in My Name), I will require it of him.

Joh 8:28 Therefore, Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach said to them, When you perform the hagbah (lifting up) of the Ben HaAdam, you will have da'as (knowledge) that Ani Hu [YESHAYAH 41:4; SHEMOT 3:14-16], and from myself I do nothing, but as HaAv (the Father) of me taught me, these things I speak.

[1] Dictionary of the Talmud. M. Jastrow p. 1178 פלח