Drawing an Imaginary Line in the Sand

Exile and Redemption represent two mindsets. Exile mentality creates dichotomies. To be spiritual, the exile mindset requires separation from the world. The Redemption mindset is one of unity. The same G-d who is supernatural created the natural order as well.

Too Powerful. For Whom?

One of the arguments the “Ten spies,” who were sent by Moses to Ca’na’an to survey the land was that the inhabitants of the land were too powerful to be conquered. The precise expression they used was that the inhabitants of the land of Ca’na’an “were stronger than Him.” According to Rashi they actually meant to say that the residents of Canaan were mightier than G-d!

The question that arise here is obvious. How could ten men hand-picked by Moses the greatest of all Jews, degenerate to the point of uttering such blasphemy? Moreover, how could they have forgotten the incredible miracles that G-d wrought when He took them out of Egypt? Could not the same G-d that brought the ten plagues, split the Red Sea, rained manna from heaven etc. also defeat the armies of the Canaan?

End of Age of Miracles

Chassidic thought explains that the spies were, in fact, sophisticated people. They knew that G-d could do anything He chose. No miracle is beyond G-d’s capacity to perform.

But, they also believed that the age of miracles was going to end with their conquest of Canaan. In a sense, they were right. Before they entered the Promised Land, the miraculous Manna ceased. Moreover, the very objective of conquering Israel was to bring Torah “down” within the confines of the natural order, so that the mundane world would become imbued with G-d’s presence.

They mistakenly thought that when G-d is in His supernatural mode, then there is no miracle too big for G-d. However, when G-d consented to send spies and was preparing the Jews for a major transition from the realm of the supernatural to the world of nature, the spies drew a philosophical line: In the desert where Jewish life was not subject to the laws of nature, they had faith in G-d’s ability to perform miracles. But, once that line would be crossed by the Jews going into Israel, where they would not be receiving the manna from heaven, rather they would be tilling the soil, etc.; there the spies felt, G-d was constrained by the natural laws He set into motion.

Furthermore, Chassidic thought explains, their concern was not only for the actual military conquest of the land. They were also concerned that their spiritual status would be destroyed. They felt that the materialistic preoccupations of the new land would overwhelm them. Had they remained in the desert where the material realm was weak and did not assert itself, they had the capacity to be spiritual. How can we be spiritual under the conditions of Canaan when they would be immersed in the material pursuits that go along with conquest and habitation of a new land?

No Artificial Divisions

The lesson for our times is that we often create an artificial division with respect to G-d. We frequently act as if we believed that G-d’s ability to prevail did not extend to the normal, weekday, natural and physical reality.

Exile and Redemption parallel these two mindsets. The exile mentality creates dichotomies. To be spiritual, the exile mindset requires separation from the world.

The Redemption mindset is one of unity. The same G-d who is supernatural created the natural order as well. With the coming of Moshiach all of us will see how the supernatural and the natural are inseparable.

From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Shlach by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.