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It’s a mark most journeys hit at one point or another.  As we get closer to our destination, wondering what is ahead takes on new urgency.  What is it really going to be like there?  Will we find our way smoothly or will we get lost?  What if we arrive too early or too late and there is no one there to meet us?  These disquieting questions are stirred about until they reach a boiling point which can be summed up in those four words.  Are we there yet?!

In Shelach Lecha, this week’s Torah portion, the Israelites are very much at that stage of the journey.  So, a group of representatives are sent forward, to scout out the land of Canaan.  They too were full of questions: “… are the people who dwell (there) strong or weak, few or many?  Is the country in which they dwell good or bad? … is the soil rich or poor?”[1]

So, off the scouts went on their mission -- and alas, returned with the most dismaying feedback.  “Oh, the people are powerful all right,” they reported.  “So powerful that we will never be able to fight them!  In fact, they are so large, so mighty that we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves … and so we must have looked to them.”

The Israelites were seized with fear and trembling when they heard this.  But there is a wonderful piece of midrash on the portion.  The rabbis imagine the Holy One saying to the scouts, “You don’t know what you have just let your mouths utter!  I am ready to put up with your saying, ‘We were in our own eyes as grasshoppers.’  But I do take offense at your asserting, ‘And so were we in their eyes.’  Could you possibly know how I made you appear in their eyes?  How do you know but that in their eyes you were like angels?”[2]

Shelach Lecha reminds us that the phenomenon of seeing and being seen, the process of discerning truth and of doing our work in this world is a complex one.  And at moments of transition, with the unknown spread before us, comes that constant dance of questions.  “What will be?  How do I know I can rise to the task?  How can I… how can we, best go forward… especially during times the world frightens us in new ways every day. 

When we are able to look at each other and be open to what we are seeing, some measure of peace and direction may light our way.  Acquaintances or even strangers who pass by, people who push our buttons, good friends.    You are seeing someone’s son or daughter.  Someone’s sister or brother.  Someone’s father.  Someone’s mother. 

You are seeing someone with a yartzheit approaching, and someone who just celebrated a family simcha.  Meet those eyes.  In all of them, there are stories we are sure we know, and ones we will never guess at.

Here at Temple Beth David, my prayer for this Shabbat is that you will see what I see: not grasshoppers, but human beings and fellow Jews deeply committed to this place, struggling with and treasuring our shared values.  In this spirit, even when the chips are down and the wilderness is foreboding, like our ancestors may we walk forward together towards a promising future. 

Shabbat Shalom,