Hello and welcome to another episode of Covenant and Conversation with me, Rabbi Sachs.

In each new episode, we'll explore a Jewish idea from the Hebrew Bible based on the Torah reading of the week.

Shlachlachar, fear of freedom. The episode of the spies was one of the most tragic in the

entire Torah. Who sent them? And to what end is not entirely clear? In this week's

parish of the text says that it was God who told Moses to do so. In Deuteronomy, Moses says it was the

people who made the request. Either way, the result was a disaster. An entire generation was

deprived of the chance to enter the promised land.

The entry itself was delayed by 40 years.

According to the sages, it cast its shadow long into the future.

Moshed told the spies to go and see the land and bring back a report about it.

The people many or few, strong or weak. What is the land

itself like? The spies returned with a positive report about the land itself. It is indeed

flying with milk and honey and this is its fruit. They then followed one of the most famous buts in

Jewish history. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities

are fortified and very large. We even saw the descendants of Anak, the giant there. Sensing that their

words were demoralizing the people, Calave, one of the spies interrupted with a message of reassurance. We should go up and take possession

of the land, for we can certainly do it. However, the other spies insisted, we can't attack

these people. They're stronger than we are. All the people we saw there are of great size.

We seemed like grasshoppers. The next day, the people persuaded that the challenge was completely beyond them,

expressed regret that they'd ever embarked on the exodus and said,

let's appoint a leader and go back to Egypt.

Thus far the narrative.

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