Parashat Shelach includes the story of the spies. Everyone grapples with understanding how the Jewish people, after all that they saw, still doubted Hashem and challenged God’s leadership and direction through the desert.
Rav Moshe Feinstein, in his Sefer Kol Ram explains that the Jewish people, when living in Egypt, took upon themselves the Egyptian way of thinking and belief. It’s the natural way of a people in a host country to automatically be influenced. We have seen this more recently with the Jews that were stuck in communist Russia for 70 years. Their belief system and views became very much like the Russians Although they might have had thousands of years of Jewish education, 70 years in another country can influence the way that one thinks. How much more so for the Jews who were stuck in Egypt for 210 years, and even more so because they were slaves. A slave, by nature, takes on the mindset of his master. As Rav Moshe quotes from Rashi in Parashat Vayikrah:
In a case where a slave is sold to a gentile master, the Torah specifically warns us not to act like the master, because he might think he can do as his master does.
Thus the Jews had to be trained and educated in the ways of God.
Rav Moshe says further, that the problem was that what the Jewish people saw throughout, was miracles, but if you see a miracle without delving into the message behind it, you might think, “God can bring bread from heaven. But does that mean that He can bring meat? Does that mean that He can bring water? At each point, they questions. They did not apply one miracle to the other, nor did they come to the conclusion that God is in control of everything and that He can do anything. Rather, they kept on doubting.
We might think this sounds strange, and we might think that the people of those times were very weak. But we have to ask ourselves about our own lives. How many times in our own lives has God helped us through challenging situations?
We are in a time of much turmoil and unknown. What is going to be with the economy? With inflation? With the recession? People have worries about their businesses. But we have to stop and think-Didn’t God protect us during the pandemic? Didn’t your business do unbelievably great over the past two years, when you thought it would be horrible after your business was closed? You had the best two years you’ve had in a decade. You have to think- if God could do that, and take care of me in a pandemic, can’t He also take care of me during a recession?
We keep having questions and thinking, Just because God did that, does it that mean that He can do this thing and the other thing?
If one doesn’t keep on delving into the miracles, they don’t get the lesson and they keep on testing God. And that’s with open miracles. We don’t have open miracles. We have hidden miracles. We have to think into them, delve into them, and understand them.
He says that if we pay attention, throughout the 40 years in the desert it was always the same point. We were testing God. In Shemot (17/7) they called the place Masa Meriva/ Arguments and Contention.
Why?
עַל־רִ֣יב ׀ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל וְעַ֨ל נַסֹּתָ֤ם אֶת ה׳
They were arguing with God, and testing God.
They were giving God a test- Could God do this?
David Hamelech says in Tehilim (95,8)
אַל־תַּקְשׁ֣וּ לְ֭בַבְכֶם כִּמְרִיבָ֑ה כְּי֥וֹם מַ֝סָּ֗ה בַּמִּדְבָּֽר
Don’t have a heart like the people of the desert.
אֲשֶׁ֣ר נִ֭סּוּנִי אֲבֽוֹתֵיכֶ֑ם בְּ֝חָנ֗וּנִי גַּם־רָא֥וּ פׇעֳלִֽי׃
Your forefathers tested Me..
They are testing Me, I keep having to pass My tests.
אַרְבָּ֘עִ֤ים שָׁנָ֨ה ׀ אָ֘ק֤וּט בְּד֗וֹר וָאֹמַ֗ר עַ֤ם תֹּעֵ֣י לֵבָ֣ב הֵ֑ם וְ֝הֵ֗ם לֹא־יָדְע֥וּ דְרָכָֽי׃
For forty years, They were people of a wayward heart, and they don’t know My ways.
It’s the job of a person to be able to apply the different things that God has done for us up until now, and the many times He has gotten us out of trouble until now. We should not be doubting whether He can also do this or that. “Can He also set up a table in the desert?”
What kind of question is that?
If He can split the sea, He is in control and if He is in control, He can set a table in the desert.
They focused on each individual act, as “Ok He can do that.. Ok He can do this…” without thinking into it.
The point is that we can’t just look at the surface level of how God did this or that. We have to get to the point of seeing that God is in total control. He has never changed, He will never change and there is nothing that can stop Him. So why do we suddenly think, “Now I have a problem! Now I have a business challenge..Now, now, now.”
But nothing has changed, if you understand and delve into the miracles.
This is a beautiful an important lesson from Rav Moshe Feinstein in this week’s Parasha, and it is extremely timely for us, as we question and doubt from one situation to another.
May we all be zoche to see the depth of God’s hidden miracles and come out strong. Have a Shabbat Shalom.