Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re exactly right.
(WK-HK:A OYRBD) „...TWLEL OTYBA ALW .WNL ITN WNQLA ÂH RwA JRAH HBWU WRMAYW...‰ “And they said, “The land that Hashem is giving us is very good,” but you didn’t want to go up and you rebelled against the word of G-d...” (Devarim 1:25-26)
When Moshe recounted the story of the spies, He only says the Jews got a good report but didn’t want to go up to the land Hashem had promised them. Rashi says the good report came from Kalev and Yehoshua. The Ramban quotes this and asks an obvious question. True, two spies brought back a good report, but TEN spies argued with them! Why on earth should it be expected that the Jews would listen to two men over ten men?!
He answers that since Hashem had already told them it was good, and now these righteous men concurred based on their sojourn there, that should have been sufficient to outweigh the words of the ten spies, especially since they spoke out of ulterior motives.
Further, says the Ramban, when the spies saw Yehoshua and Kalev encouraging the people and telling them they could inherit the land, the ten spies went behind Moshe’s back and frightened the people by saying that they were too weak to defeat the Canaanites.
So let’s face it. There were ten great men scaring everyone. Why should the Jews be blamed for being afraid? Yes, Hashem said it would be good and so did two spies, but once you hear something so awful as the giants and people dying, how can you unhear it?
Moshe, here, was teaching us that we have a choice. When faced with a situation and the option of looking at it positively, or being negative and anxious about it, we should choose to see the good and not the bad. In Tehillim (34:13), Dovid HaMelech says, “Who is the man who desires life, who loves days to see good?”
This can also be read not as an interrogatory, but as a statement. “Who is the man who truly desires life? The one who loves days [so that he may choose] to see good.” When the spies came back, many of them were negative. They predicted the evil that would befall the Jews if they tried to conquer it. But there were some who disagreed. “No! The land is great and Hashem wants to give it to us. We can conquer them easily.”
Who do you listen to? Not the greater numbers, but the ones who have a positive outlook. Seeing the good in life is powerful, and it’s a choice that we make. When we do, that’s how Hashem guides us. If we trust Him and look forward to His goodness, He showers it upon us. If we don’t, and we worry about terrible possibilities, Hashem waits until we’re ready to trust Him, and then He will save us. Moshe was telling us to save ourselves the pain and be positive because that is what will make good things happen.
While teaching in New York in 1957, a young man from Israel received a letter from home saying his father had suffered a heart attack and was in critical condition.
At a time when overseas phone calls were rare, the young man’s anxiety was deepened by the thought that his father may have already passed away. Devastated, the young man wrote a note to the Lubavitcher Rebbe explaining the situation, ending with the words, “I don’t even know what to think at this point!” In his response, the Rebbe underlined the man’s final sentence and wrote next to it, “Shocking!!! Because the instruction of our Sages in such situations is well known: ‘Think good and it will be good.’”
A few tense days passed, and finally the young man reached his mother by phone. “How is Father?” he asked. “He’s out of danger!” “When did this happen?” “Thursday night.”
After hanging up the phone, the young man went to 770 for Mincha. On his way out, the Rebbe turned to him and asked, “Nu, do you have good news for me?”
“Yes!” he responded. “I just phoned home and was told that my father is out of danger.”
“Since when?” asked the Rebbe. “Since Thursday night.” “And when did you begin to ‘tracht gut’?”
“When the Rebbe told me to do so,” said the young man. “And when was that?” the Rebbe pressed gently. “Thursday evening.” Smiling, the Rebbe concluded, “May such things never happen again. But you must always remember to think positively.”
©2024 – J. Gewirtz
