Shelah L’khah

A half century ago, there was a very popular television quiz program called “Who Do You Trust”, originally called “Do You Trust Your Wife”.  The contestants on each show were three couples.   The host (Johnny Carson, before “The Tonight Show” fame) told the male contestants the category of the question and he would have to decide whether to answer the question himself, or “trust” the woman to answer it.  It made for good television, but it also raised an important question:  Whom do we trust when we have a big decision to make?  Whom do we trust to do the right thing?  Do we trust our parents; our spouse, partner, or significant other; a close friend; the media; the government?  How often have we heard that someone has betrayed a trust.
In this week’s Torah portion – Shelah L’kha – the issue of whom to trust is played out in several ways.  It begins with words reminiscent of God’s words to Abraham, then known as Avram.  But where Abraham was told: “lekh l’kha — go for yourself”, Moses was instructed: “shelah l’kha — send for yourself.” The great biblical commentator, Rashi, noted that Moses was not commanded by God, as was Abraham; rather, it was his choice to send the twelve scouts on their mission.  Moses chose them and, presumably, he trusted them to do their job.
When they returned from their mission, the scouts reported to Moses and the whole Israelite community as they had been charged to do.  But when Caleb urged that the Israelites should go up and gain possession of the land, ten of the scouts reacted strongly: “We cannot go up to the people; for they are stronger than us. . . .  The country . . . is one that devours its settlers. . . .  All the people that we saw . . . are men of great size . . . and we were like grasshoppers in our eyes; and so were we in their eyes.”  (Num. 13:33)  And then the Israelites rebelled.
They relied, not only upon the facts related by the scouts, but upon their personal opinion as well.  In doing so, they betrayed Moses’ trust in them, for he had requested only a factual report.  And as a result, a second trust was breached — the one between the spies and God.  As Nehama Liebowitz has noted, the scouts’ “sin lay in making their own selfish calculations . . . .” And there is yet a third breach of trust — between the Israelites and God.  God asks: “How long will [the Israelites] spurn me and how long will they have no faith in me despite all the signs that I made in their midst?” (Num. 14:11)
Abraham’s journey led ultimately to the establishment of the Israelite nation.  Both Abraham and the Israelites were faced with similar choices: return to the familiar, though harsh, or venture into the unknown.  Abraham, unlike the Israelites, placed his trust in God.
Life is a journey, or perhaps more accurately, a series of journeys most into the unknown.  With each journey comes a decision — do we go?  We leave home to go to college, into the armed forces, to get married.  We have children.  We change vocations, or employers.  And some, even later in life, leave the comfort of a chosen career to embark on another.  How do we decide?
We acquire information.  Perhaps we ask others for information.  But would we ask others what we should do?  Perhaps, like the scouts, those whom we would ask have a selfish reason for advising us one way or another.  Whether we call it a “sixth sense,” or that “little voice” in our head, there are signs that point the way for us, just as God provided signs for the Israelites.  And when we, as did they, ignore those signs and heed the opinions of others, who may not have our best interest at heart, we, too, will find that our journey has an unhappy end.
This Torah portion ends with the familiar third paragraph of the Sh’ma.  In commenting upon the words: v’lo tatutu aharei l’vav’khem — “and you will not search after your hearts”, Rashi notes that those words are similar to “from spying the land”, harkening back to the scouts’ expedition.  We must resist the blandishments of the scouts.   We must rely only on facts.  By doing so, we then put our trust in ourselves and, ultimately, in God, and, as a result, our journeys, like Abraham’s, will successfully reach their promised destination.

Rabbi Michael G. Kohn is spiritual leader of Temple B’nai Abraham in Meriden.