On the weekly Torah Portion
And what the land is...where there are trees or not (Num. 13:20)
When the Canaanites living in the Land of Israel heard that the Jews had left Egypt and were on their way, they uprooted and destroyed all the fruit trees in the land so that the Jews would not benefit from them. This was one of the things the spies were sent to investigate. (Midrash Raba)
And G-d spoke to Moses saying: Send out some men to spy out the land of Canaan (Num. 13:1, 2)
According to Rashi, "send out" means "send according to how you see fit." The Hebrew word for send--shelach--implies a sense of mission and purpose. Every Jew is entrusted with a Divine mission to transform his surroundings into a "Land of Israel," by bringing the light of Torah and mitzvot to even the most remote and isolated locations. This mission, moreover, must be accomplished "according to how we see fit." G-d has given man intelligence to be utilized to that end. (Lubavitcher Rebbe)
That you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of G-d (Num. 15:39)
Why do we need a large tallit to pray if we can remember the commandments by looking at the tzitzit, the fringes which are already attached to our tallit katan, the four-cornered undergarment worn under the clothes? A tallit totally envelopes the individual and symbolizes that which cannot be understood or encompassed by the human mind. It reminds us that the 613 mitzvot of the Torah stem from a source far greater than mere human understanding. (Likutei Sichot)
That you shall not seek after your heart and after your eyes (Num. 15:39)
Why does heart come before eyes? Do not the eyes first see and then the heart desires that which is forbidden? Sometimes the process works in the other direction as well: an individual first gets an urge to sin and then looks around where he shouldn't to fulfill that urge. (Lubavitcher Rebbe)
