Responding to the spies’ claim, Yehoshua and Kalev answered: “If Hashem desires us, He will bring us to this land... you will not {need to} fear the people of the land, for they are {as} our bread... Hashem is with us.”
While angels’ descent into the physical world makes them Nephilim (falling from their previous level), the Jewish people are different. This is because with the Jewish people,
“Hashem desires us” — His desire and enjoyment are tied to us and our service in this (lowly) world. Because of this, the Jewish people possess far greater power than angels. A Jew’s soul is “truly a part of Hashem above,” and the Jewish people and Hashem are, so to speak, one. Therefore, the Jewish people possess Hashem’s power to bridge two opposites, uniting the physical and the spiritual through the spirit overpowering {the physical} (and the form {the spiritual elements} within physical objects {overpowering the physical aspects}).
{By tapping into this ability,} a Jew reaches the state where not only is he able to remain connected with spirituality while in the physical world, but furthermore, he is able to transform the physicality of the world and turn it into a dwelling place for Hashem.
And this is what Yehoshua and Kalev were alluding to when they said, “If Hashem desires us, He will bring us to this land...”: Since “Hashem desires us,” we have no need to fear the people of the land. Furthermore, “they are {as} our bread.” Not only will it not be “a land that devours its inhabitants,” but on the contrary, the (people of the) land “are {as} our bread.” The Jewish people can repair and purify them by taking charge of the physical world and transforming it into a dwelling place for Hashem.
See Tanya, “Likkutei Amarim,” ch. 32: “{his body is} despised... secondary... to elevate {the soul high} above {the body}...”; this is not the place for an extended discussion of this concept.
Tanya, “Likkutei Amarim,” beginning of ch. 2.
See Likkutei Torah, “Brachah,” p. 98a; and explained at length in many places.
Bamidbar 14:8-9.
— From a talk delivered on Shabbos parshas Shelach, 5742 (1982)
