The Meraglim and their complaints against Hashem make for an awesome story. There is a lot for us to learn from it.
In Sefer Devarim, it is recounted as follows, after the Jewish people heard the Spies’ report:
You grumbled in your tents and you said, “Hashem brought us out of the land of Egypt because He hates us.”
This is a shocking thing to say. Hakadosh Baruch Hu brought us out of Egypt with open miracles. He split the Sea for us. He fed us Mon and cared for all our needs in the Wilderness in a most wondrous and miraculous way. And why did He do all this – because He hates us?! That makes no sense.
This is why He carried us on eagles’ wings to bring us to a land flowing with milk and honey?! And they said it after they saw samples of the Land’s amazing fruit with their own eyes. Why did Hashem do it? “To give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.”
This is so ridiculous. They really had such a terrible imagination.
And what about us? We do something similar every day. We live in a world that Hashem created for us. We have health, we have food, we have family... We have thousands of good things in our lives.
And then some little thing happens that we aren’t happy with. Let’s say a person runs at the last minute to take care of some business in the bank before it closes, he rushes up huffing and puffing, only to see the doors locking right in front of him.
Indeed, sometimes it is a little more serious than that. A person might suffer a loss, whether material or spiritual. Or he might fall ill. And what conclusion does he immediately come to? Hashem doesn’t love me...
We learn from this parshah not just how ridiculous and nonsensical it is to think this way, but also how dangerous it is.
“The whole congregation raised their voice and the people cried on that night.” Chazal say that the night they cried was the ninth of Av. Since they cried needlessly on that night, Hashem designated it as a night of crying for generations. At that time began the decree for Beis Hamikdash to be destroyed and the Jewish people to be exiled.
Chazal say that this may be compared to a king who summoned a person for judgment, and the person was so distraught and hopeless that he cursed himself that he should be judged to such-and-such a terrible punishment. The king said to him, “I sentence you to what you said. That which you said is what will happen to you.” The point of the allegory is that if you think the king is so wicked, if you imagine that he will do such-and-such to you, what you said will in fact happen to you.
Every morning, before reciting Shema, we say the blessing of Ahavah Rabbah (or Ahavas Olam): “You love us with a great (or eternal) love.” Then, in the Shemoneh Esreh prayer, we thank Hashem “for our lives that are delivered into Your hands, and for our souls that are deposited with You, and for Your miracles that are with us every day, and for Your wonders and good acts every evening, morning and noon.” Then, during the course of the day, when things happen, we tend to forget what we said, and instead think, “Hashem is angry with me.” At that point, we need a lot of mercy that we should not be treated as in the above-mentioned allegory about the king and the hapless man summoned for judgment.
Furthermore, the “bad event” that took place is often a very good thing that we simply failed to interpret correctly, as was the case with the Meraglim. They said:
The land that we went through, to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants.
As Rashi explains, everywhere they went they saw funerals. Hashem was actually doing them a big favor. It was so the Canaanites would be so occupied with mourning for their dear departed relatives that they would not even notice the Meraglim walking around.
It is the same with us. Many times, things that we thought were terrible in fact turned out to be very good in the end. There are so many stories about things like this. We need to remember this message during the tough moments, and keep in mind that Hashem loves us with a great and eternal love.
Nothing is more dangerous than forgetting that Hashem loves us. A person who remembers Hashem’s love at the difficult moments in life will always be accompanied by His love, and all the troubles will turn out to be good events in disguise, and he will experience yeshu’os and great kindness from Hashem.
