Shaarei Tzedek – Orthodox Judaism in Downtown Toronto

© Rabbi David Lapin, 2008 (http://iawaken.org)

Seeing Different vs. Looking Different

The meraglim (spies) were exceptionally great people to start with and that is the hardest part of the story.

I cannot imagine the gedolim (great Torah leaders) of our generation doing what the meraglim did. I certainly cannot imagine it of the gedolim of the generation in Europe before the war, and earlier. We couldn’t picture the Chofetz Chaim or the Vilna Gaon, the Rishonim, Amoraim, or Tana’im, doing what the meraglim did. Then how can we picture the gedolim of the generation who stood at Sinai stooping to such levels?

Different individuals who go through the same situations or see the same sights may experience those situations or sights very differently from one another. We should not assume that we understand what another person has experienced or is experiencing even if we have been through exactly the same situation. We are different from one another and we experience the world and life differently.

Ten spies reported an insurmountable enemy of vast strength and fortification. Two spies, Yehoshua and Kalev saw an opportunity for a G-dly nation to overcome a G-dless enemy that is so filled with fear that they fortify endlessly. The ten saw defeat. The two saw victory.

The ten meraglim saw the same land that Yehoshua and Kalev saw. But they experienced it differently. The differences in their experiences were not caused by anything different in the objects of their experience but in their subjects. It was something inside each of them that caused them to experience the same land so very differently.

The differences between Yehoshua and Kalev and the other ten, were not differences in intellect or in belief in G-d. All twelve of them were equally great in both. The Targum Yonattan refers to them as chariffin (of sharp intellect), Rashi talks of their importance as people and leaders. The differences were in an emotion: they were in different emotional states in that moment and this caused their different experiences of the same event. The ten felt fear. The two felt courage. The ten absorbed their experience into a space of fear and interpreted it there. Yehoshua and Kalev absorbed it into a space of courage, and interpreted their experience as they felt it in that place of courage.

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By Simon Jacobson (http://meaningfullife.com)

Companies often advertise themselves as “in business for 89 years,” “brewing beer since 1874,” “loyally serving you for six decades.” By invoking generational continuity these businesses are trying to elicit confidence. We tend to trust something that has lasted for an extended time period. It means that the company is time tested, has weathered ups and downs while others failed and has the experience and know-how that you can depend upon. That’s why it has lasted so long.

Never mind that many of these companies have changed hands and are no longer owned or controlled by the founding family. Still, the mere mention of longevity engenders trust in the brand.

That’s why I always feel proud to emphasize that the traditions and ideas conveyed in this column go back thousands of years in an unbroken chain.

This year we celebrate the 3320thyear since the Torah was given at Sinai. Not 89 years, not 1874, not six decades. Three thousand three hundred and twenty years that we have been “in business.” And despite all the radical changes through the millennia and the extreme challenges – through genocides, expulsions, oppressions and every form of assault that brought the Jewish people to the brink of extinction – we stand tall today 3320 years later and live to tell about the events that transpired 3320 years ago.

Not just live to tell about it, but we have a book – actually the best-selling book of all time – that documents in detail a blueprint of how civilized people ought to live.

We study and pore over this book, just as our parents and grandparents did, just as their ancestors did day after day, year after year, century after century, millennium after millennium, all the way back to Moses and his people on that fateful day when they stood at Sinai receiving the Torah.

If this does not inspire awe what does?

It’s true that many people advocating Torah may be doing it an injustice and may be distorting its message. Many others study Torah and follow its guidelines mechanically and often lack soulfullness and personal integration. Some have used Torah in despicable ways.

But all this does not take away from the enduring power of a tradition that has made it through history and stands strong today, as the most influential document of all time – one that serves as the basis of modern democratic institutions and constitutions, advocating principles of virtue and generosity, honoring the equality of all people, the absolute dignity of every individual created in the “Divine Image,” caring for the less fortunate, living in peace with each other while maintaining our individual rights and offering a comprehensive system to spiritualize the material universe in which we live.

Yes indeed, we are “in business” for 3320 years and counting.