06/08/2023 05:00:08 PM
In this week's Torah portion, Sh'lach, we encounter the Israelites nearly reaching the promised land. They've traveled from Sinai and are about ready to enter. Moses sends in scouts, and most come back with a negative report. They tell the people they look like grasshoppers compared to the giants that live in the land. Our sages tell us this is the great sin that kept the Israelites from the land for 40 years. No, it wasn't their refusal to conquer the land. It was how they saw themselves that was the great sin. The Israelite's failure to understand their power and strength is what got in their way.
We all have our promised land in life, a place or way of being we strive to find and enter. We may encounter obstacles along the journey, but at least part of getting there is believing it's possible and remembering not to hold ourselves down. As much as we try, we cannot control everything in life, that is certain, but we do get to decide who we see when we look in the mirror. We are no grasshoppers.
