Shlach L'kha (Send for yourself)
So this post was written in advance, but I just felt it needed to be said. So it's been waiting patiently for this weeks Torah portion.
This week's Torah portion is about bad reports and their effects. Yet essentially its about not being ready to grow. So the skinny:
The children of Israel get freed from slavery in Egypt. They cross the Red Sea, go to Sinai, get the Ten Commandments and G-d himself walks among them in their camp. It's now time for them to go to the place He promised them, Canaan. Yet before they go in, they want to check it out first. Are the people there really hostile? If they are, can they kick our hides? What's the deal? G-d is like, hey... if that's where you are in your relationship with me? Fine. Send the spies (hence, "Send for yourselves"). The spies spend forty days and nights in the land and come back with grapes the size of basketballs. They tell the people the land is awesome. Milk and Honey. Pomegranates. Figs. The works. Essentially, California minus the brush fires. Now this is where we have a split. Ten of these guys then go on to report how tall and strong the natives are and that they (as spies) feel like insects compared to them. Two are like, "Hey if the Holy One (Blessed Be He) said He was giving us the land... then He's giving us the land. Period." The Children of Israel complain and refuse to go into a place where they'll die and their children get taken captive. So. G-d says, "[Fck It]. You don't want to go in you wont. You dont want to die in the place I promised you. You'll die right here in the desert and those kids you were freaking out about? They'll inherit the land. Not you. Get out my face"(emphasis supplied). The People start crying and say they're sorry and try to take the land without G-d's help and get their behinds handed to them soundly. So they turn back and sadly walk the damn desert for FORTY YEARS.
My Drash:
As an instructor once told me, "The individual is a genius. The mob is a pack of idiots." You ever read the Hebrew Scriptures and notice how for the most part everyone gets killed off and it's always a remnant, a minority, a small leftover group that gets saved? It's not because G-d doesn't want to be saved. It's only a small group that WANTS to be saved. Most folks are reveling in their own destruction. If it isn't by flame, water, or brimstone, its by drugs, sexual disease or a small sad boring life of mediocrity and missed chances.
People genuinely DON'T want to be better.
People talk about how they don't believe in religion. They want to talk about spirituality. I deal with this all the time with a friend of mine. She hates Theology and attaches to that word everything she hates surrounding religion. Theological debates. Church rifts. Burdens in Practicing one's faith. Yet what's religion really about? Helping the masses get to a better level than they are because the masses wont do it by themselves. Pastors, Rabbis, Imams hold the people accountable because the people would go back to Egypt (slavery) in a heartbeat for some watermelons. Also, yes, the children of Israel really did complain about being out of slavery cause they wanted watermelons. Which just proves how black the original Israelites were.
I was talking to a Christian girl and she said that she hated feet. She cant stand touching other peoples feet or being touched by them. To hear her describe it, she almost had a full phobia of feet. So, I pointed out how in the New Testament J-s-s says that if he washed feet, then his followers were to wash each others' feet. It's not a maybe, or a suggestion. It's a commandment, a mitzvah, the same as loving your brother. Yet she couldn't abide the very idea of it. I've heard it from others. She is not alone. I've talked to my wife about this Mitzvah and it's Christian roots aside, the symbolism is powerful enough that we've actually incorporated it in our Passover Seder. Yet folks can't go beyond their own revulsion, or their own fears of inadequacy, or being open and vulnerable with another, to do such an act as pouring water on someone's feet and wiping it with a towel. Hell, it was such an issue it was a big deal at the last supper. Yet here we have someone, that a third of the world calls G-d Himself, himself washing feet, and asking us to do the same, and we'd sooner make excuses than wash or be be washed.
To bring us back to the Parasha, the People are shown ample reason to take the land by force. They have the experiences the personal history to know they can do it. They are told that G-d is going in ahead of them to drive out the people. They've seen miracle after miracle. They have fought people stronger and more prepared than them, and had those same folks delivered into their hands. They've seen the army of their captors wiped out through no hand of their own. Yet at the doorstep to their new home their faith falters. They walk away from signing their home-buyer's agreement because of the words of some realtors when the Appraiser tells them it's fine.
They just aren't ready.
Here is their chance to step out in faith. Like Luke Skywalker after seeing the power of tiny Yoda lifting an X-Wing, their words are "I don't believe it".
And that is why they fail.
As I told my wife, what if I'm supposed to go an extra twenty steps. Will it kill me if I don't go those extra twenty steps? No. Will it kill me if I go the extra twenty steps? No. So what's the sum difference of going the extra twenty? Knowledge. The knowledge that I can. As Dr. Lael Caesar once said to me, "I make my bed for the Angels". It's the personal accountability to be more than you are at that moment. Every step upon the path less traveled is an exercise of such. Thereby the drive for you to be better is the goal of every Good Teaching, Ethical Hermeneutic, Moral Theology, that G-d has allowed good men and prophets to teach. So at the end of the day whom will you serve? Whether the the fears, bigotries, and presuppositions of your forefathers who perished on the other side of your personal Exodus, or the pundits and the bloggers of the people in whose land you dwell. But for me and my House? Our power level's OVER 9000!!!
One last thought. Of everyone of the Children of Israel who made it out of Egypt, the only one's to enter into the Promised Land were Joshua and Caleb. The two spies who gave good reports. Interesting that out of even Moses himself, the only one's to go into the promised land didn't send spies for themselves. They themselves were the ones that were sent. They themselves went for themselves. Hm.
As always I'm k5h4w, and you've been Kreemed. Happy Sabbath.
This week's Torah portion is about bad reports and their effects. Yet essentially its about not being ready to grow. So the skinny:
The children of Israel get freed from slavery in Egypt. They cross the Red Sea, go to Sinai, get the Ten Commandments and G-d himself walks among them in their camp. It's now time for them to go to the place He promised them, Canaan. Yet before they go in, they want to check it out first. Are the people there really hostile? If they are, can they kick our hides? What's the deal? G-d is like, hey... if that's where you are in your relationship with me? Fine. Send the spies (hence, "Send for yourselves"). The spies spend forty days and nights in the land and come back with grapes the size of basketballs. They tell the people the land is awesome. Milk and Honey. Pomegranates. Figs. The works. Essentially, California minus the brush fires. Now this is where we have a split. Ten of these guys then go on to report how tall and strong the natives are and that they (as spies) feel like insects compared to them. Two are like, "Hey if the Holy One (Blessed Be He) said He was giving us the land... then He's giving us the land. Period." The Children of Israel complain and refuse to go into a place where they'll die and their children get taken captive. So. G-d says, "[Fck It]. You don't want to go in you wont. You dont want to die in the place I promised you. You'll die right here in the desert and those kids you were freaking out about? They'll inherit the land. Not you. Get out my face"(emphasis supplied). The People start crying and say they're sorry and try to take the land without G-d's help and get their behinds handed to them soundly. So they turn back and sadly walk the damn desert for FORTY YEARS.
My Drash:
As an instructor once told me, "The individual is a genius. The mob is a pack of idiots." You ever read the Hebrew Scriptures and notice how for the most part everyone gets killed off and it's always a remnant, a minority, a small leftover group that gets saved? It's not because G-d doesn't want to be saved. It's only a small group that WANTS to be saved. Most folks are reveling in their own destruction. If it isn't by flame, water, or brimstone, its by drugs, sexual disease or a small sad boring life of mediocrity and missed chances.
People genuinely DON'T want to be better.
People talk about how they don't believe in religion. They want to talk about spirituality. I deal with this all the time with a friend of mine. She hates Theology and attaches to that word everything she hates surrounding religion. Theological debates. Church rifts. Burdens in Practicing one's faith. Yet what's religion really about? Helping the masses get to a better level than they are because the masses wont do it by themselves. Pastors, Rabbis, Imams hold the people accountable because the people would go back to Egypt (slavery) in a heartbeat for some watermelons. Also, yes, the children of Israel really did complain about being out of slavery cause they wanted watermelons. Which just proves how black the original Israelites were.
I was talking to a Christian girl and she said that she hated feet. She cant stand touching other peoples feet or being touched by them. To hear her describe it, she almost had a full phobia of feet. So, I pointed out how in the New Testament J-s-s says that if he washed feet, then his followers were to wash each others' feet. It's not a maybe, or a suggestion. It's a commandment, a mitzvah, the same as loving your brother. Yet she couldn't abide the very idea of it. I've heard it from others. She is not alone. I've talked to my wife about this Mitzvah and it's Christian roots aside, the symbolism is powerful enough that we've actually incorporated it in our Passover Seder. Yet folks can't go beyond their own revulsion, or their own fears of inadequacy, or being open and vulnerable with another, to do such an act as pouring water on someone's feet and wiping it with a towel. Hell, it was such an issue it was a big deal at the last supper. Yet here we have someone, that a third of the world calls G-d Himself, himself washing feet, and asking us to do the same, and we'd sooner make excuses than wash or be be washed.
To bring us back to the Parasha, the People are shown ample reason to take the land by force. They have the experiences the personal history to know they can do it. They are told that G-d is going in ahead of them to drive out the people. They've seen miracle after miracle. They have fought people stronger and more prepared than them, and had those same folks delivered into their hands. They've seen the army of their captors wiped out through no hand of their own. Yet at the doorstep to their new home their faith falters. They walk away from signing their home-buyer's agreement because of the words of some realtors when the Appraiser tells them it's fine.
They just aren't ready.
Here is their chance to step out in faith. Like Luke Skywalker after seeing the power of tiny Yoda lifting an X-Wing, their words are "I don't believe it".
And that is why they fail.
As I told my wife, what if I'm supposed to go an extra twenty steps. Will it kill me if I don't go those extra twenty steps? No. Will it kill me if I go the extra twenty steps? No. So what's the sum difference of going the extra twenty? Knowledge. The knowledge that I can. As Dr. Lael Caesar once said to me, "I make my bed for the Angels". It's the personal accountability to be more than you are at that moment. Every step upon the path less traveled is an exercise of such. Thereby the drive for you to be better is the goal of every Good Teaching, Ethical Hermeneutic, Moral Theology, that G-d has allowed good men and prophets to teach. So at the end of the day whom will you serve? Whether the the fears, bigotries, and presuppositions of your forefathers who perished on the other side of your personal Exodus, or the pundits and the bloggers of the people in whose land you dwell. But for me and my House? Our power level's OVER 9000!!!
One last thought. Of everyone of the Children of Israel who made it out of Egypt, the only one's to enter into the Promised Land were Joshua and Caleb. The two spies who gave good reports. Interesting that out of even Moses himself, the only one's to go into the promised land didn't send spies for themselves. They themselves were the ones that were sent. They themselves went for themselves. Hm.
As always I'm k5h4w, and you've been Kreemed. Happy Sabbath.