Thursday, June 19, 2008

Thursday Parsha Tidbits - Shelach

The following is a brief summary of a thought said over by R' Frand in his shiur this evening. I have attempted to reproduce this vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistencies are the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

Parshas Shelach begins with the story of the meraglim (spies) that were sent to reconnoiter the land of Israel while the Jews were still travelling in the desert. The first pasuk indicates that Hashem told Moshe to sent the meraglim that will spy on the land - using the verb "Viyasuru" for their actions. The verb is used again in Shelach 13:17 where it states that Moshe sent them out "Lasur" (to spy). It then arises again in 13:21 where the Torah states "Vayalu Vaysuru" that the men went up and spied.

The root "sur" is also found at the end of the parsha. In Shelach 15:39 it is written by tzizis that a man sees his tzizis and remembers the commandments and will not spy after your heart and after your eyes - utilizing the verbiage "V'lo Sasuru Acharei Levavchem V'Acharei Eyneychem..." Rashi on this pasuk makes the connection to the meraglim in the beginning of the parsha (through the use of Sur) before citing to the Medrash Tacnhuma that the heart and the eyes are spies for the body.

The questions that R' Frand asked on the pasuk were: (1) it appears that the pasuk is out of order since one generally sees before one's heart desires something; (2) Why does the Torah use the plural form of Levavchem and Eyneychem - a person has two eyes, but only one heart. The Torah should have said Libchem (your heart in singular form).

R' Frand answered the question by making reference to the sefer Shemen Hatov from R' Weinberger [ed. note, I do not know which R' Weinberger he was referring to]. He indicated that R' Weinberger writes that the multiple "Levavchem" indicates that one should worship Hashem with both his yetzer hatov and yetzer hara. In general a person may know what is good and what is bad. However, sometime the yetzer hara will make something that is bad "appear" in one's heart to be a good thing. This was the problem that the meraglim had. They actually believed that they were doing the right thing. As was taught by the Gerrer Rebbi in the Chidushei Harim, the meraglim thought that it was bad to go into the land of Israel. While they were in the desert, the Jews' clothes did not wear out and the manna fell from heaven. The Jews did not need to work or involve themselves in earthly pursuits. Instead, they were able to devote all their time to learning Torah and serving Hashem.

The Chidushei Harim writes that the meraglim were concerned that once the Jews went into Israel they would no longer be able to spend their time in heavenly service and would have to spend significant time working the land. As such, they felt that entering the Land of Israel would not be a good thing and they believed that their yetzer hatov was urging them to find ways to avoid leaving the midbar stage. This feeling created a hidden agenda which impacted on their view of the Land of Israel, causing them to have a negative take on what they saw during their trip.

It is for this reason that the Torah uses the double language of not being affected by your "hearts" because the yetzer hara may come under the guise of being the yetzer hatov and will poison your eyes' view of the situation. A person needs to be aware that his yezter hara may be masquerading as a yetzer hatov in order to influence his position on what his eyes are seeing. If a person is able to put aside the hidden agenda of his yetzer hara then he will be able to avoid being swayed by what his hearts are telling him that he sees.

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