Our Parashah Shelah Leha from the book of Numbers is one not to be missed. In it, the lives of a whole generation, and probably the future history of the Israelites as well, were changed.
And it all started so well. After so many challenges, quarrels and a long journey the people had almost reached the Promised Land. 12 trusted leaders from each tribe were appointed to go and scout the land. Such a hopeful and joyful moment for exhausted people.
The scouts came back with no photos but very positive reports about the land as well as some real examples of prosperous abondance in the promised land: fruit of pomegranate, grapes and figs. What is not to like!
There was only one disadvantage of the Promised Land. The people who resided there! According to the report of the 10 scouts they were strong and giants.
I could talk now about why God took his chosen people to the land which was already occupied by other people. I could also speculate why Moses, as a good leader, didn’t use this tragic situation to our advantage by turning in the other direction to a land of oil rather than milk and honey.
But I would like to talk to you today about the people and not their leaders. Because God made that dramatic and fateful decision of stopping a whole generation from entering to the Promised Land because of the Israelites’s lack of faith and cowardliness.
What went wrong on that fateful day?
There were 10 leaders in the group who brought back a negative and fearful report. There were fewer, to be precise only two leaders, who were positive and encouraging in their report. Both encouraged people to have faith in God and themselves.
The Israelites, probably following a typical mob mentality, followed the message of fear and lies.
We like blaming our leaders but we, the people, have the power to make a choice between fear and hope, between cowardliness and courage. Most of us have that inner moral compass to know that “love is more powerful than hatred; truth sets us free; forgiveness liberates both sides; unconditional love heals, courage empowers and the essence of Divinity/Reality is peace.”
So when in our Torah reading today, both Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes in an act of desperation in front of all the people and made the last very powerful appeal to people’s pragmatic and logical thinking saying: we made it this far, God is with us, don’t you that think God looked after us all the way until now and brought us here for a reason. Now, for the first time since the Exodus, we have to rise to the occasion and to help our God in making his promise a reality. We can do it, be courageous and have faith.”
What did people choose? Fear and lies. Nothing new.
Of course, one can argue that courage belongs to heroes. Real courage belongs to true leaders, those kind of super-humans which each generation produces but in very small numbers. Mob mentality is rarely courageous…
So does it mean that our strife for a better life, more equal society, peace in the world, positive and fulfilling relationships is pointless and suffering and self-destruction is our human fate?
No, it does not. So many people have and do inspire us with their strength and courage. Probably most of us have a courageous role-model to inspire us. When we, the people, choose courage over fear than God is with us too.
And indeed, each of us can be a hero. Many of us were inspired by the courageous leadership of the Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski and his team but it is the Ukrainian people, who supported him and stood up to the aggression of Russia, often at the cost of their own lives, are the real and yet the still unsung heroes of this terrible war.
But sometimes just living our lives on a daily basis requires a lot of heroism: facing the loss of a loved one and accepting a new reality at times requires a lot of courage; facing illness is tough and a battle for one’s life can require a lot of courage and sometimes on a daily basis. A loss of a job, broken relationships, mental health problems, crazy inflation at the moment and our real concerns for our household finances. And the fear of unknown is real struggle for all of us.
Judaism believes that courage is a virtue that can be nurtured and developed.
Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik points out in his essay “Catharsis” that from the point of view of heroism courage can be often seen as an end in itself. So Rabbi Soloveitchik points out that Judaism holds a slightly different perspective on courage[1]. Heroism demands self-discipline. As the Mishnah in Pirkei Avot teaches: “Who is strong? One who can control his [evil] inclinations”[2]
So when we have small wins over our fears and anxieties about the unknown future we become more and more courageous. As Philosopher, Professor David Hawkins remarks in his book “Power vs. Force”: “We change the world not by what we say or do but as a consequence of what we have become.”
I became a more courageous person after being harassed by a large group of girls for being Jewish when I was a teenager. I did my best in the situation but didn’t really stand up for myself and no one else did. So, I decided there and then to have more courage in life and to stand up for others. And so I did.
Four years later, when I was a student, I stood up for my younger colleague to the director of the company I worked for in front of other people. He asked my surname at the end of our exchange and I wasn’t offered a job the following summer.
I became even more courageous after giving birth to my son. One of the latest adventure was venturing to Ukraine just before the war to get him out of there. I was proud of how my family and I handled our escape. The most scary part was the unknown future. So many things can always go wrong. What gave us strength, was the history of our family. Their escape from Ukraine before the Second World War wasn’t a success because they didn’t have enough courage to leave the safety of their home.
But being scared does not stop one from being courageous too. It is the choice which sometimes we have to make on a daily basis. Some days we succeed more and some days less. But when we do and rise to the occasion with determination and strength, then we help ourselves and as a result of it others too to make that last part of the journey into the Promised Land, whether it is just making it through a day or achieving one’s dreams or making our world or our society a better place. When we support other people’s courage, we empower ourselves to be stronger as well.
[1] Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, The Courage of Ordinary People, Jewish journal, December 9th, 2022.
[2] Mishnah, Pirkei Avot 4:1
