For your Own Good (and my Honor!) – Shelach

This week is the story of the spies who brought back a bad report on the Land of Israel.

The 12 spies were very important, upright, men. They were told by Moses to go to the Land of Israel (known then as the Land of Canaan) and bring back a status report: Are the people strong or weak? Are the cities open or fortified?

Instead, 10 of the 12 spies came back with an opinionated recommendation that the Children of Israel NOT go up into the Land of Israel.

Why did these great men commit this very grievous sin?

The Zohar – Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (died about 1900 years ago on the 33rd day of the Omer) – states that the reason for this behavior was that the men currently held important positions. They realized through prophecy that once the Jewish Nation entered the Holy Land (which could be in a matter of days), they would lose their positions of leadership! There was a hidden agenda to keep the Jews in the desert for a longer time so that these great men could retain their positions of power and honor. But don’t think that they got together and said, “We want to keep our positions so that we will continue to be honored by all the people – let’s do something to prevent the people from entering the land!” No. Instead, they thought that what they were doing was for the benefit of the people: “Let’s protect the nation. We can remain on a higher level here in the desert, closer to G-d Himself. In any case, the land is too harsh and the people will not be able to conquer it. So this is a win-win situation!”

How often do we see this desire to have honor in ourselves and others?

My Rabbi told me of a scribe who wrote sefer Torahs, Tefillin and Mezuzahs with a beautiful script. His work was in tremendous demand, and he commanded a great deal of respect from everyone. Unfortunately, as he aged, his writing deteriorated to the point that one client had the work checked and found it to be so full of errors that it was invalid. But this scribe wanted this honor, continued to write, and would not step down from his honorable position (even if it meant that people who bought his “holy” merchandise would not be able to fulfill any mitzvos with it).

Imagine the president of a corporation who is told by accounting that he needs to cut back on personnel due to the current financial situation of the company. It would be rare that a person who is commanding such respect from every employee would consider eliminating his own position to cut costs.

What can we take out from this? When we are faced with a decision in life, do some introspection first. Do you have an agenda? Are you doing something because it is easy (but not the right thing to do), or perhaps one should do what the Torah demands, even if it is more challenging? Are you doing something because you want to maintain your honor and position, or are you perhaps afraid that the alternative would remove you from your position and silence your voice.

Let us all try to do the right thing and not get blinded by honor.