This past Shabbat, a young man, Isaac Wallsten, celebrated his becoming a Bar Mitzvah.
This past Shabbat, a young man, Isaac Wallsten, celebrated his becoming a Bar Mitzvah. Held at Sanctuary, he read beautifully from the opening verses of the Parsha, Shlach L’cha. Part of his Dvar Torah is below.
God speaks to Moses, telling him to send twelve scouts, one from each tribe, to explore and scout out the land of Canaan. “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? Is the soil rich or weak? Does the land of trees or not?” Moses asks the scouts. The people can’t simply walk into the land blindly, so they send a representative of each tribe.
Ten of the scouts came back with similar reports, those being; the land is abundant in resources, but the people living there are giants, with fortified cities. These ten scouts argued that the Jews shouldn’t go to Canaan, as they’d get crushed. Meanwhile, Caleb and Joshua, the two other scouts, desperately tried to calm the madness, arguing that Canaan was the promised land that God had given the people, and, with faith, hope and courage, God would protect them. But the people were angry and argued. There was no progress, or healthy conversation…seems familiar- more on that later. At that point, God had had enough, appeared in front of the people, frustrated that they had doubted, punished the people and the scouts who had doubted "Him".
Let’s put this into the context of the world. We’re in the thick of it right now. What if an alien from outer space came to scout out the earth? What would they see? Polarization. A pandemic. War. Poverty. Racism, anti semitism, misogyny, climate change, and mass shootings. The list goes on. A scout from outer space might think similarly to those 10 scouts. Why inhabit such a sick, horrible place? They might give up, no hope for the future.
However, maybe they look closer. Maybe they see the beauty, and hope there is for the world. Maybe they see the beautiful property we stand on today. Maybe they see the wonders of the world; some of the beautiful places I’ve had the pleasure of traveling to. Maybe they see the love that so many people have in their hearts, the kindness that, although concealed, is warm, and makes our world a better place. Maybe they see that yes, there is hope. Maybe they think similarly to those two scouts, and decide to inhabit the earth, attempt to help make it what it has the potential to be.
This, is the importance of hope. If we give in to despair, as ten of the scouts did, there is no hope for the future. The Earth will become uninhabitable, gun violence will only get worse, the pandemic may never end, those in poverty will suffer forever, sabotaging generation after generation of equal opportunity. With hope, we can make progress, and make the earth a better place for generations to come, and this is the message I see in the Torah portion, Shlach L’cha.
Thank you, Isaac. There is much to learn on the journey to our own Lands of Promise.
We are now past the midway point on our mini journey to raise funds for Am Kolel, to support our work and the vision we have come to cherish. We are short of our goal. Please don’t wait. Help us address all those concerns that Isaac mentioned above. With faith, hope and courage we can make the world a better world.
Kadimah, in faith and community,
Reb David