Shlach Lecha. Send out for you, to you, for your sake, for your good. This parasha is perhaps one of the most crucial yet most ambiguous in the Torah. Reading Rashi, whose words are meant to illuminate - the picture becomes less and less clear. On the one hand, here is this group of unbelieving Israelites, who, after having seen all the miracles in the world, still seemingly don't trust G-d with "the Promised Land". On the other hand - these people were "anashim" - a term Rashi understands to mean "kosher people" - the leaders , supposedly the tzaddikim of the generation. They had full intent of bringing back a bad report, says Rashi, and Moshe seems to know this and yet Rashi tells us he treats them like a merchant trying to sell off his merchandise, hoping they'll buy it. On the one hand they ask to go, on the other hand it's G-d who's sending them, choosing them out.
This week we learned in the Midrash of another "shlach"- another sending out - that of Adam and Chava from gan Eden. In the midrash, Rabbi Yehuda feels that this was an everlasting exile - in this world and the coming. Rabbi Nechemia however feels that the sending out was only in this world - they can still make it back in the world to come. There are perhaps many ways of understanding this - but one thing is clear - for Rabbi Yehuda - sending out - shlach - implies negativity, whereas for Rabbi Nechemia it implies an eventual return to where you come from.
Perhaps we can say that shlichut, sending out on a mission, is a double-edged sword. On the one hand you give the ability for someone to accomplish - to reach a place they couldn't reach on their own. On the other hand a shaliach, a messenger, can easily hide that which he's being sent for. Inherent in the shlichut is the taking over of someone else's position. In fact the Talmud says that if one sends a shaliach to betroth a woman for him, if the shaliach marries her himself - the marriage stands, though it is considered an ugly act.
It is this ambiguity that inherently darkens our whole existence. For are we not shluchim, messengers, all of us - sent down here by our Source to accomplish what we must and what we can, and what we want before we return? And how glorious that can be - how beautiful the Promised Land that we find if we truly search. And yet how ugly and twisted the shlichut can become, deciding to stay stuck in where we are, instead of moving beyond ourselves to our inheritance. Is this shlichut desired, with all its dangers, and potentials? Or perhaps we should prefer to stay where we are and let G-d do the work for us and not risk fouling up our chances of redemption.
It is not so clear from the Torah, and yet I believe the Torah gives us a clue - two of them in fact - Yehoshua and Calev. There is a way to be a shaliach and yet maintain the inherent direction - the return to your Source in a holy way, in a way of thankfulness, in a way of building and not destruction. It seems from the Rabbis that these are two ways - Yehoshua representing the connection to holy people (Moshe's blessing that protected Yehoshua from falling), and Calev representing prayer and faith (he prayed in Chevron to be spared the darkness of the other spies). To whichever one or both we attach ourselves, may G-d bless us all to hold on and to allow us to access this on our path in this world, and make us true malachei hashalom - angels, and messengers of peace, shluchei derachmana, messengers of the Merciful One.
Rav Raz Hartman
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Rav Raz Hartman, born to Israeli parents, grew up in Southern California. He was attending U.S.C., majoring in Music Peformance, when he met Rav Natan Greenberg. That meeting eventually result in Raz's coming to the Bat Ayin Yeshiva, where he studied for six years and was given Semichah in 2003. He is married to Leah, and they live, with their three children, in Nachla'ot, Jerusalem. Raz serves as Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Simchat Shlomo, and founder of the v'Ani Tefillah minyan. He has produced several albums of Jewish music. |