Leah’s Blog – Parashat Shlach 2024
Leah’s Blog – June 2024 -Shlach – DARE TO DO IT
Return to Zion always carries the theme of leaving the realm of familiar and entering the unknown. It starts with Lech Lecha as Avraham trekked along with his wife to Eretz Yisrael, the Promised Land, for he is promised that Land for the nation that would come out of them. It was a return to the garden that Adam was expelled from. Droughts, famine, abductions and war are what our forefathers faced here on one hand yet supernatural appearances of angels bestowing blessings, together with their own initiatives in taking action sealed the Land covenant between Israel and G-d. In many ways it did not seem realistic to take such a journey or such a gamble. The story of Avraham is about one individual who put one foot forward into the unknown. Lech Lecha – go to yourself, grow, for the common good. The book of Genesis is full of chaos, yet the sphere of worry and doubt is overridden by the sphere of faith and pro action.
It is hundreds of years later – Israel is freed from bondage and on the trek home to the foundation stones set up by Avraham Yitzchak and Yaakov. In a persistent theme they dimly remembered the promise of Hashem to Avraham. The goal set before Am Yisrael : to reappear on this Promised Land in mass numbers as they have grown from a family into a nation. A return to Eden. It was time to step into a new realm, unlike the one they lived in for hundreds of years, a new reality that had on one hand worries about the future and on the other, a covenant of Torah that taught what how and where to carry out responsibility. Then the peculiar report their leaders brought back and the argument that ensued between two against ten. A crucial lesson for all generations. How do we perceive. How do we grow?
The circumstances in our lives occur in a sequence in time. A continuous thread weaves forward. Looking back, “the time machine” predicted all of this, yet you had to take action to be exactly where you are now. Fear of the unknown, if conquered, has made you grow and stunted you if you gave into it. That is the lesson of the sin of the spies. Returning to the garden is a return to the original state of perfection but requires you to move out of your comfort zone.
We are in a return to Zion moment now. We face many of the things that Abraham experienced upon entering the unknown. There are wars. The economy is frightful. There is chaos. Yet this is the Promised Land dripping with milk and honey. Most of the spies failed to see that putting a foot forward into the unknown means restoration. What can we do? What should we do? We must put one foot forward now. Walk in faith.
Parshat Shlach has us understanding the difference between two approaches- one of Joshua and Caleb who said “DARE DO IT- we can and we will conquer it. The Land is GOOD VERY GOOD” and the ten others who became intimidated by change, adverse to risk who said, “The land is good, so good that as a matter of fact- see this supernatural fruit. It is a land that eats its inhabitants.” Of course the fruit is supernatural- it is growing in the Garden of Eden! The story continues- the exceptions to the generation that withered away in the desert were Joshua and Caleb. Their willingness and eagerness led to their living a full potential. Always a developing story, the Torah spills into the book of Joshua and on.
“You can’t just be stable, and secure, and unchanging because there are still vital and important new things to be learned. Nonetheless, chaos can be too much. You need to place one foot in what you have mastered and understood and the other in what you are currently exploring and mastering. Then you have positioned yourself where the terror of existence is under control and you are secure, but where you are also alert and engaged. That is where there is something new to master and some way that you can be improved. That is where meaning is to be found.” (Jordan Peterson) This is when you grow and prosper.
THANK YOU FOR MAKING OUR JOINT EFFORTS POSSIBLE OUT HERE IN RESTORATION– Blessings to all our dear friends- Leah
עלו נעלה וירשנו אותה
Post a Comment