Four Catholic mothers and a Jewish mother were having coffee together.
The first said, “My son is a priest. People call him ‘Father.’”
The second said, “My son is a bishop. They call him ‘Your Grace.’”
The third said, “My son is a cardinal. They call him ‘Your Eminence.’”
The fourth smiled and said, “My son is the Pope. People call him ‘Your Holiness.’”
They all turned to the Jewish mother.
She replied, “My son is argumentative, confrontational, self-centered, impossible, and irrational. When he walks into a room, people say, ‘Oh my G-d!’”
The joke is funny because it contains a deeper truth. Jews have never been ordinary. We question, struggle, challenge, persevere, and refuse to disappear.
That is precisely the challenge at the heart of this week’s Parshah, Shelach.
The spies returned from the Land of Israel and convinced the nation that the mission was impossible. Fear spread through the camp. The people cried, rebelled, and lost confidence in the future. As a result, G-d decreed that they would remain in the wilderness for forty years.
Their tragedy was not merely fear of entering the Land. It was a failure to believe in their destiny.
Throughout Jewish history, this challenge has repeated itself. Whenever exile became too painful and the journey too long,
Jews searched for alternatives. Some sought to abandon Judaism. Others attempted to separate Jewish nationhood from Torah.
Still others tried to reshape Judaism to fit the spirit of the times.
Then came the Rebbe.
The Rebbe looked at a generation wounded by assimilation, communism, the Holocaust, and the many challenges after October 7th,
facing the Jewish people, and delivered a powerful message:
Do not abandon your roots.
If you want to influence the world, become more Jewish, not less.
If you want a stronger connection to Israel, connect the Land of Israel to the Torah of Israel.
If you want to inspire the next generation, teach authentic Judaism with confidence, depth, and pride.
But the Rebbe taught something even deeper.
The greatest danger of exile is not suffering.
The greatest danger is settling for less than redemption.
Yes, the State of Israel is a miracle. Yes, Jewish success around the world is a blessing. But after thousands of years of exile,
persecution, expulsions, pogroms, the Holocaust, and the sacrifices of countless generations, our dream cannot simply be survival or comfort.
We are here for something greater.
We are here to bring redemption.
One story captures this message.
A year after the Rebbe’s passing, two young Chabad rabbis stopped at a gas station near Daytona, Florida.
The owner led them into a back room where an elderly man was sitting.
Pointing to the two Chassidim, he said:
“Dad, they came to get you.”
The old man began to cry.
Before the Holocaust, he had been raised in a Chassidic home. After losing his family, he abandoned Judaism
and moved to a remote town where no Jews lived. He never even told his children that he was Jewish.
Years later, he happened to see the Lubavitcher Rebbe speaking on television. During the talk,
the Rebbe said that no Jew would ever be forgotten and that when Moshiach comes, every Jew will be gathered home.
Those words pierced his heart.
The next morning, he told his family that he was Jewish and added:
“One day, the Rebbe promised that someone would come for me.”
Years later, when those two Chassidim walked into the gas station, his son looked at him and said:
“Dad, they came to get you.”
That story captures the Rebbe’s vision.
He never gave up on a Jew.
The spies saw giants; the Rebbe saw greatness.
The spies saw obstacles; the Rebbe saw opportunity.
The spies saw a wilderness; the Rebbe saw a path to redemption.
That is the challenge of our generation.
Never settle.
Never surrender.
Never forget who you are.
Every Jew matters.
Every mitzvah matters.
Every soul matters.
And redemption matters.
May we merit very soon to hear the call for which the Jewish people have waited throughout history:
“They came to get you.”
And this time, they have come to bring us home.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yoseph Geisinsky
Natasha Thompson wrote...