This Shabbat we study the Parshah Shelach, meaning “Send” (Numbers 13:2). Moses sends twelve spies to the land of Canaan. Forty days later they return, carrying a huge cluster of grapes, a pomegranate and a fig, to report on a lush and bountiful land. But ten of the spies warn that the inhabitants of the land are giants and warriors “more powerful than we”; only Caleb and Joshua insist that the land can be conquered, as G-d has commanded. The people weep that they’d rather return to Egypt. G-d decrees that Israel’s entry into the land shall be delayed forty years, during which time that entire generation will die out in the desert. A group of remorseful Jews storm the mountain on the border of the land, and are routed by the Amalekites and Canaanites.

Chabad.org

The spies' reconnaissance mission to Canaan was intended to gather intelligence information about the enemy. They were told to scout the lay of the land, as well as its natural and man-made fortifications. They were to report on the enemy's strengths and weaknesses, and the natural resources they could rely on during times of battle. This information would be used by the Israelite military brass to formulate an appropriate combat strategy for the impending battle to conquer the Holy Land.

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The spies – all of whom were upright and pious people with unquestionable integrity – faithfully went about their task, but what they saw made their stomachs churn: the Canaanites were a powerful nation, gargantuan people with awesome strength. There was no way, the spies concluded, for the Israelites to achieve a natural victory against the formidable Canaanite foe. G-d was highly displeased with their report and the reaction it engendered, and it caused the premature demise of the entire generation which left Egypt. 

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Where did the spies go wrong? The Rebbe explains that the spies erred in assuming that they had to reach a conclusion. They were told to go to Canaan and bring back dry facts: the nature of the land and its population etc. They were not asked to render a decision regarding the feasibility of conquering the land. G-d had promised the Jews a military victory against the Canaanites, and therefore that was not a debatable issue. The question wasn't if it could be done, but rather how it would be done.

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The same is true with our personal lives. We all are "sent on a mission" to this world, to illuminate our surroundings with the radiance of Torah and mitzvot. Often the opposition seems to be too formidable; the obstacles to implementing G-d's appear to be insurmountable. When these thoughts enter our minds we must remember that if G-d charged us with the mission it certainly can be carried out. Our job is only to figure out how to do it.

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From an article by Rabbi Naftali Silberberg

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« Je réveillerai l’étoile du matin !» (Psaumes 57 :9). Ainsi a dit le roi David : « Plutôt que le matin me réveille, je réveillerai le matin » (Talmud de Jérusalem)

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Réveillez-vous le matin et décidez quel genre de journée vous allez passer aujourd’hui. Ne vous réveillez pas parce qu’il fait jour. Laissez-le être le jour parce que vous êtes éveillé. Car si vous êtes éveillé uniquement parce que le soleil vous a dit de vous lever, alors vous dormez encore. La sensation d’être éveillé, c’est le jour qui vous suspend au-dessus de votre lit. Le « vous » intérieur sommeille encore. Mais si le soleil brille parce que vous êtes éveillé, alors vous vivez une vraie journée. Réveillez-vous le matin et dites au soleil de se lever. Décidez quel genre de journée vous allez passer et faites en sorte qu’elle se produise.

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Rabbi Tzvi Freeman

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The Messianic Era is the consummation of our relationship with G-d, and to earn this privilege we have to prove that the relationship is real to us, part and parcel of who we are, so much so that we steadfastly maintain this relationship even in the absence of any revealed reciprocation from G-d. Even when remaining loyal to him costs us dearly.

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Two thousand years of spiritual blackness have not deterred us. Through fire and water we've proved our fidelity beyond the shadow of any doubt. Galut (exile) has outlived its usefulness—it's time for the Redemption!

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Chabad.org

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There is a story about Rabbi Mendel Futerfas, a Russian Jew who later emigrated to Israel. Mendel spent many years in jail in Russia for spreading Judaism, and for helping Jews escape from behind the Iron Curtain. He was a special Jew who placed his life in danger for the other.

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Mendel came out of Russia in the 1970s; when I was still a young girl in New York, he had just come out. At that time his wife was living in England, so when he left Russia, he first came to London to be reunited with her. The next holiday he traveled to the Rebbe, in New York, for the very first time. You can imagine what an emotional event it was, not just for Mendel, but for everyone else who knew his story and the tremendous sacrifice he had, to bring Judaism to Jews under the worst circumstances.

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Mendel was sitting on the plane going back from New York to London, which is about a five or six-hour flight. He barely knew English — he had only been in London for a few weeks, and in New York for another few weeks, but even so he had spent most of his time speaking Yiddish and Russian. On the plane, he looked over at his neighbor, who looked to him to be Jewish — he didn’t ask him his name, but he could tell he has a Jewish face. Reb Mendel, being so full of enthusiasm for Judaism and so full of life, not try to make contact with this Jew? But how will he talk to him? He can’t speak English! So he thought and thought, “It must be Divine Providence.” It can’t be for no reason that this person is sitting two inches away from him for six hours! Finally, he got an idea. He took out his tefillin, phylacteries, and pointing to them, he said to the man sitting next to him, “I Jew, you Jew. I tefillin, you tefillin.” His neighbor consented and donned the tefillin. With these few words of English, he got this Jew to put on tefillin — without any eloquent English oratory.

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So I think we have to take Reb Mendel’s lead and say: it’s Divine Providence that this person lives next door to you, or that storekeeper happens to be on your block. They are people that G-d planted in your life. You know it’s not a mistake if there is an old lady who just happens to be part of your world. Just smiling, or giving a hand to her is a start. They may be little to you, but very big to the person next to you.

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Of course, making choices in life is not so simple. Very often, there seem to be many obstacles standing in our path when we want to do what G-d wants. We sometimes feel it’s not fair that G-d asks us to do these things and then makes it so hard for us to do what He wants us to do. As the Rebbe would says that very often these difficulties are partly in our minds. If we see them as difficulties and as obstacles, that is what they will be. But if we decide that they just don’t exist, then it’s like what Rabbi Mendel did in Russia when he said, “Look, the Czar has his thing to do and I have my thing to do. Let him do his thing and I’ll do mine. I’m not going to let him prevent me from doing what I have to do.”

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This is how you should feel about all those people that laugh at you, all those people that want to make life difficult. Just say, “Well, that’s their job; they’re here to make life difficult for me. Let them go ahead and try. But I know what I have to do.”

Your attitude is all important. If you have the attitude that, “I know what I have to do,” and you go ahead and do it, you’ll see those obstacles will just vanish, or diminish into nothingness. Many people can attest to this in their own lives. The Spies saw the giants as an obstacle. Other people would see them and say, “We’re soon going to witness G-d just dissolving these giants; it’s nothing!”

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This is our challenge in life. And we have the strength to see it through.

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From an article by Nechoma Greisman.

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