Don’t Exaggerate
The more Divine and real an obstacle is, the greater the power we were given to overcome it!
Up to the Heavens!
In this week’s Parsha, Moses recounts the tragic saga of the Jewish people in the desert. Moses recounts how when the spies returned from their mission to scout the Land of Canaan, they described the land in the most foreboding of terms, precipitating a mass rebellion and resistance to going to the Promised Land. Moses describes the outcry of the Jewish people: “Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our heart melt saying: The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to the heavens…”
The Talmud (Chullin 90b), cited by Rashi, comments that their characterization of the cities as “fortified up to the heavens” was an exaggeration.
We must understand why the Torah chooses to exaggerate. Is the Torah not G-d’s wisdom and language? Why would the Torah employ hyperbole when it is always insistent on being absolutely precise?
One could easily dismiss these questions by claiming that the description of the cities reaching the heavens was made not by G-d or Moses but by the evil spies and their followers. But, if this is so, why would the Talmud ascribe any significance to their exaggeration?
Panim Yafot (a Chassidic commentary, authored by Rabbi Pinchas Horowitz, colleague of Rabbi Schneur Zalman, the founder of Chabad Chassidism) explains that by saying that the cities reached the heavens they intended to convey a theological message. When they said “heavens” they actually meant the spiritual realm, not the sky above. It was their contention that the fortified cities derived their strength from “above,” from G-d Himself.
Since it was G-d that bestowed strength to these people and their cities, how would it be possible for the Jewish people to conquer them. They felt that once G-d gave someone power, even G-d Himself would be incapable to take it away from them.
Their Error
Their error stemmed from their comparison of G-d giving power to that of a human being. Once a person invests his power in a certain function, he cannot retract it. For example, once a person shoots an arrow, he can no longer retrieve it. Similarly, they reasoned, once G-d invested His power in a given area, He Himself would be incapable of recalling it.
Thus, by stating that the cities ascended to the heavens they were making a powerful assertion, that the cities and their inhabitants possessed Divine strength that could not be vanquished.
Their mistake was that they compared G–d’s efforts to human endeavor. The difference is that once a human being creates, his creation can stand independently. By contrast, everything that G-d created, He must continuously create it anew. Thus, all that exists, exists solely because G-d is continuously imbuing it with life. Were G-d to withdraw His life-force from an object for one instant, it would cease to exist. Therefore, no matter how powerful G-d would make something, by simply desiring that thing to no longer be, it could not exist.
This then is what our Sages had in mind when they asserted that the description of the cities as reaching the heavens was an exaggeration. To suggest that the cities of Canaan were invincible because they possessed a G-d given power, was an exaggeration. Nothing can stand in the way of G-d, even G-d’s own bestowal of power onto something.
G-d Given Obstacles
Frequently we are overcome with apprehension that we cannot meet the challenges that G-d has given us. The lesson we can learn from our Parsha is that the belief that a G-d given road-block is impassable, is simply an exaggeration! No matter how formidable the challenge, even if the A-mighty Himself created the obstacles, they are surmountable.
Of all the G-d created impediments, the existence of exile that began on Tisha B’Av (the national day of mourning, that we will be observing this Thursday, commemorating the destruction of the Holy temple in Jerusalem) is by far the most formidable and daunting one. Yet, to yield too much power to the forces of exile, to ascribe to them G-dly license and therefore invincibility, is also an exaggeration.
The Birth of Moshiach
To highlight this idea, our Sages tell us that during the first Tisha B’Av, as the Temple was being destroyed, the Moshiach was born. This statement perhaps was intended to reinforce the notion that we do have the power to overturn the destruction of the Temple, despite the fact that it was sanctioned by G-d. For the same G-d that “ordered” the destruction of the Temple simultaneously created the Messianic remedy for its restoration.
To be sure, every obstacle — particularly the existence of exile — was initiated by G-d. But, simultaneously, G-d also initiates the means through which we can surmount the obstacle and reverse all of the negative energy of the past.
May we thus celebrate this Tisha B’Av as the first Holiday of the imminent Redemption, in accordance with Maimonides’ ruling that in the Messianic Age, it — along with all fast days — will become a major festival.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Devarim by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
