I received this message on my Whats-App: Born before Sep. 4, 1998? Congratulations! You are older than Google.
So I just told my kids I’m older than Google. They think I am joking. I told them: Actually, I’m like Google’s granddaddy. Yet Google knows me better than my wife knows me.
The purpose of their journey was to prepare the Jewish people for the subsequent conquest and settlement of the Land.
The mission ended in disaster. The spies inculcated fear and despair among the Jews, resulting in national hysteria and refusal to continue the journey to the Promised Land. Yet there is a sequel to the story, recorded in the second chapter of the book of Joshua, and it is read in the haftarah of Shelach. 39 years after the first episode with the spies, Joshua—the successor of Moses, and one of the original 12 spies sent by Moses—sent his own two spies to scout the land of Canaan. This time, though, the mission ended in success. They returned to the people with an optimistic message, encouraging and empowering the people to reach their destination.
What was the difference? Moses was the greatest prophet and leader of Israel. Yet his spies failed miserably. Joshua was a disciple of Moses, and not on the same level as his master. Yet his spies were successful. Why?
In the words of General Montgomery: The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer.
We shall present an explanation by Reb Levi Yitzchak of Barditchov, who gives a powerful insight into a strange Midrash about Joshua asking the spies to become deaf.
Sometimes, I go to a big event—a wedding, a bar mitzvah, a dinner, a reception, or another big event. I come home, and I find myself in a bad mood, exhausted, depleted. I used to blame myself and try to figure out what happened to me?! Why am I such a mess?
Then I learned this truth: it is not always me. Sometimes I brought home the energy of other people present there and I am confusing it with my own energy.
In life, our energies mix with each other. I pick up your energy, you pick up mine. If I am in the presence of someone who experienced a lot of toxic energy, I may absorb it, and then I am blaming myself for something which does not belong to me.
What’s the solution? Awareness. Knowing that this is not my energy, and I must differentiate between who I am and who I think I became, and not fall prey to the toxicity which attached itself to me.
Everything changes when you start to emit your own frequency rather than absorbing the frequencies of others around you when you start imprinting your intent on the universe rather than receiving an imprint from existence. You are responsible for the energy that you create for yourself, and you’re responsible for the energy that you bring to others.
So Joshua said to them, you must be deaf—deaf to the energy of the spies who were once here and plotted the slander against the Holy Land.
To be nobody-but-yourself—means to fight the hardest battle that any human being can fight, and never stop fighting.
A rabbi stands before his congregation and reports to them that a massive hole has been found in the roof of the synagogue.
"Now I have good news and bad news for you," the Rabbi continues. "The good news is that we have the money to repair it; the bad news is that the money is in your pockets."
This is the first message Joshua shared with his spies. Do not make this mission about yourselves; it is not about you—it is about what you represent. Success in your mission will only come about If you are completely loyal to the mission you represent, to the calling given to you, to the work asked of you.
If you will allow your egos to become the center of the mission, fear, insecurity, social pressure, and other forces, might paralyze you.
This is true for all of us. Lots of things can paralyze you in this world, from inner trauma to deep fear, insecurity, and all types of forces inside and outside. When you take yourself less seriously and take your mission more seriously, it is the greatest antidote. Because then it is not personal. It is not about me; it is about what I summoned for. That makes all the difference.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yoseph Geisinsky
Jason Bennett wrote...