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This week's Torah portion is a turning point for our Israelite ancestors wandering in the desert. They have witnessed the unimaginable. Freedom from Egypt, crossing the sea on dry land, literal mana raining from the heavens, water following them on their journey through a barren landscape and all being led by a pillar of fire and cloud of God’s presence manifest in their midst. But as the 12 spy’s return from scouting the promised land, the majority say “it is a land of milk and honey…but the people living in the land are aggressive…the men we saw there were huge...we felt like grasshoppers.” 10 of the 12 return from scouting fearful, unready to take a risk to settle in the promised land. The Israelites in response, in fact try to find a leader who will return them to Egypt.

As you might recall 2 of the spy’s Calab and Joshua, say we can do it, with God with us, we can do it! They put aside whatever fear they may feel, including the fear of countering the scared and angry masses, and they speak up to put their faith in God.

I’ve been thinking about this Torah portion and the world right now, which decisions are based on fear, which are based on the minority report. Is there space to support a small number of actions of a leader who I generally disagree with? Is there space to support a community, even when some actions are wholly out of my comfort zone?

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes of two counter interpretations of the Spy’s response to scouting the land. The traditional opinion represented by Maimonides is that the spies lacked faith, in spite of having lived through miracles, they couldn’t leave behind their slavery mindset. The community of Israel needed a generation of growing to learn to have a freedom mindset. But Rabbi Sacks raises the counter mindset taught by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, that it is not a lack of faith, but in fact too much faith and too much comfort. They live with God in their midst, moving into the land will necessitate concentrating on the mundane, societal needs, it may cause a separation between the people and God, and the fear of this separation is what caused the spies to fear entering the land.

Seeing these two opposite interpretations made me wonder about the way I interpret the world today. As it has been for so much of the last two years, Israel has been very much on my mind. On the one hand, I dislike most of Netanyahu’s policies and his coalitions goals, I disliked them before October 7th, and I feel they share a significant part of the blame for October 7th. I also may feel that going to War in Gaza was justified, but I have many questions about how the war is being enacted, and the language coming from coalition partners does not make me more confident that the IDF is taking the precautions and the ethical choices that my Israeli friends tell me is standard (even if unseen by our media). And yet, when I was in Israel last summer, we had the opportunity to meet with Liberal member of Knesset and only Reform Rabbi to serve as MK, Gilad Kariv, he echoed the sentiments of much more right wing colleagues, and tour leaders, that the real danger is Iran, and everything else we were seeing was just part of Iran’s greater plan against Israel. Hearing the same fears, and the same rhetoric from the left and right sides of the political spectrum made me re-think my assumptions. They did not necessarily agree with who to do about the threat, but they were in 100% alignment on the nature of the Iranian threat. 

So, again last week when missiles started falling, I turned to my Israeli news agencies and podcasts, many of whom are extremely critical of the Netanyahu government, and while they all fear for themselves and their families, what this war means. None of them are arguing against it. There is near unanimity amongst Israeli Jews that a pre-emptive strike on Iran was necessary, and that the methodology has been a tremendous success. Think about what that means, two Jews three opinions, Israel which has had government protests for nearly the last three years, over judicial reform, then the hostages, and on and on, this divided society is strongly supportive of dismantling Iranian nuclear capacity even as rockets are getting through Israeli air defense systems. 

Does this represent the majority spy report, one which is based in existential fear of Iran, or does this represent the faith and hope filled minority report, which is based on the hope that with God on our side, we can overcome enemies which are stronger, larger and truly far away.

Does my opinion of this action take a negative influence because it is being enacted, and bringing victory, to politicians I disagree with? Or should it permit that even people I dislike can sometimes do the right thing for the right reasons?

Today on a zoom call with the Israeli ambassador to the US, one of the Rabbi’s wrote into the chat that he believes the strikes on Iran are simply a way for Netanyahu to coalesce power and obfuscate from the humanitarian disaster happening in Gaza (after all I don’t see that story on the top of the newspaper anymore). Is this view the moral minority, speaking against the powerful, believing that humanity can and must be better, or is this the fear-based logic, bread by so much lack of trust of the Israeli government?

Sh’lach l’cha is a parsha which changes the course of our people’s history, without it we would have entered the promised land, not after 40 years, but after 2, without it, we either would not have had a slave mentality, or we would have conquered the land but continued to live without the tools of a freedom mentality. While God’s reaction in Torah makes it clear that the 10 spies were wrong, and the elevation of Joshua, confirms that he was the true believer following Gods desired path, we can never know what the outcome of an Israelite conquering prior to being ready would have lead too, just as we can never re-write the history of our modern times, we must try to learn from it. I am comfortable knowing that I might be wrong. In supporting Israel in its pre-emptive strike against Iran, I might be following a fear mindset, causing harm to untold Iranians and Israeli’s alike. But it is also possible, that my conclusion, which goes against my instinct to mistrust Natanyahu, might be based on hope and faith, that this (God willing) short term pain and destruction, will in fact set the table for a long term freedom, freedom for the people of Iran, freedom for the people of Israel living in the shadows of a dangerous Iranian regime, and even perhaps freedom for the Palestinian people. None of us can know the future. Which spies will you be listening to?

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