David spoke about our fundamental belief that Hashem is the creator of everything. He spoke about how Hashem introduced into his world, human beings, who are agents with free will. With free will, we are not compelled to make decisions one way or another. Although Hashem gave us free will, he certainly does have preferences, as outlined in our Torah and unique plans he has for each of us.
We discussed why it is that Hashem didn’t simply create us to automatically follow his will. The answer seems to be, that in creating us to function as do automatic train sets, no purpose would be served.
One of the most important decisions we use our free will to make, is whether or not to believe in Hashem. As we know, many people choose not to believe in Hashem. David shared what his father, Rav Dr George Schlesinger (Ha Rav Nattan ben Ha Rav Shmuel), would say that many people choose not to believe in Hashem, because belief in him means we have to take responsibility and be accountable. Many choose not to have this responsibility.
We discussed in Parsha Shelach, how 12 spies were sent into Israel, and 10 of them came back with a bleak report. We discussed from Rav Yeager that there is some disagreement on specifically what constituted our sin, but there is agreement that our lack of faith in Hashem was sinful. This lack of faith in Hashem, can hurt us in the lives we lead today, just like it did back in the times of the parsha. We discussed that some hold that our sin was thinking we needed spies in the first place, whereas others hold that sending spies was ok in order to formulate a strategy of conquering the land, in which case coming back with a bleak report is the sin.
Yaki had an interesting take on this, pointing out that the spies we sent in were in their 70’s, and not youngsters. Yaki shared his thoughts that the purpose of the spies was not to see how we would conquer the land physically, but how we would conquer spiritually. The purpose of sending in the spies was to get a feel for the nature of the morality of the people currently residing there.
Regardless, as we discussed, 10 of the spies came back with a bleak report. We discussed how this number 10 is also the number of men that we need to make minyans. And Dave W pointed out that 10 is the numeric value of the letter yud, that was taken from Sarah’s name and put at the end of Joshua’s (Yehoshua’s) name by Moshe in this week’s parsha.
Our names can influence us a great deal. The yud added to Yehoshua’s name may have given him extra spiritual energy, which resulted in his not going along with the other 10 spies. Dave W pointed out that this was not the first parsha in which yud was added to his name.
We discussed how the sin of the Golden Calf represented a lack of faith in ourselves, whereas the sin of the Spies represented a lack of faith in both ourselves and in Hashem. David spoke about the importance of having faith in ourselves, as well as faith in Hashem. We discussed that it is important to not have self-limiting beliefs, which can take many forms. Some examples of self-limiting beliefs including thinking we can not do something, or thinking we are simply worthless.
We discussed the halakuh of giving bread to the Kohen’s, which we do even outside of Israel. We discussed that bread is special, because it is something that involves both creation by Hashem, and creation by man. We, of course, do not have bread trees. However, we do have grape trees, and the mitzvah of giving of fruits we only do in Israel.
From Rav Malamed, we discussed the mitzvah of honoring our parents. We discussed that sometimes conflicts can come up between this commandment, and other commandments. A parent may forget all the halakuh, and ask us to do something that is a Torah or Rabbinic violation. In this case, we should nicely remind our parent why we cannot comply with their request.
We discussed how the sin of the Golden Calf represented a lack of faith in ourselves, whereas the sin of the Spies represented a lack of faith in both ourselves and in Hashem. David spoke about the importance of having faith in ourselves, as well as faith in Hashem. We discussed that it is important to not have self-limiting beliefs, which can take many forms. Some examples of self-limiting beliefs including thinking we can not do something, or thinking we are simply worthless.
We discussed the halakuh of giving bread to the Kohen’s, which we do even outside of Israel. We discussed that bread is special, because it is something that involves both creation by Hashem, and creation by man. We, of course, do not have bread trees. However, we do have grape trees, and the mitzvah of giving of fruits we only do in Israel.
From Rav Malamed, we discussed the mitzvah of honoring our parents. We discussed that sometimes conflicts can come up between this commandment, and other commandments. A parent may forget all the halakuh, and ask us to do something that is a Torah or Rabbinic violation. In this case, we should nicely remind our parent why we cannot comply with their request.
This is a summary of what we discussed. No halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred.
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