Shelach Lecha – A thought for the week by Mike Lewis

This is the Sedra where we talk ourselves out of going into the land which had been promised to us. It is the story of the ten spies who spread fear and the two who provided encouragement. It can be seen as our betrayal of God by doubt. That is something to which we can all relate. It is the pleading of Moses which causes God to relent although we would face forty years of wandering.

Why did this happen? Fear of the unknown and not wanting to move from what we knew? Fear that God, who was with us in the wilderness, was now asking us to become practical. We are being asked to take on the burdens of our own land?  To grow up and act on what we had been taught.

Towards the end of the Sedra is the commandment of fringes of blue tzitzit. Every day in the Shema we recite:

לְמַ֣עַן תִּזְכְּר֔וּ וַֽעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם אֶת־כָּל־מִצְו‍ֹתָ֑י וִֽהְיִיתֶ֥ם קְדשִׁ֖ים לֵאלֹֽהֵיכֶֽם So that you shall remember and perform all My commandments and you shall be holy to your God.

I think we can all recall being children and playing with our parents’ Tallis in Shul. Winding the tzitzit, in our fingers and feeling secure.

We should not doubt ourselves. We become adults. We can move on with our families, with faith and trust in who we are.