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A Vulnerable Moment is a Powerful Moment

 

The spies were sent to Eretz Yisrael to find out about the land and then report their findings to the people.  And this is exactly what they did.  They told the people about the extraordinary quality of the land's produce, how it is a land "flowing with milk and honey."  And they also told the people about the nations who lived in the land – about their very large, well-trained militaries, and about the enormous, fortified walls protecting their cities.

 

So why were the spies punished?  If they saw that the nations in Eretz Yisrael were too powerful, that they could not be defeated, then why were they wrong for sharing this information?  Wasn't this exactly their job?

 

A number of commentators explain that the very purpose of this scouting mission was for the meragelim (spies) to see that it was humanly impossible to conquer Eretz Yisrael, that the inhabitants were too powerful, that Beneh Yisrael could not prevail without Hashem's help.  The goal was to enhance the people's bitahon, their trust in Hashem, to reinforce their awareness of their reliance of G-d's assistance.  The meragelim were to come back with greater bitahon, not less.  They were to come back with greater enthusiasm, with greater positivity, not with negativity and discouragement. 

 

The point of this mission was to make the people feel vulnerable – because moments of vulnerability are powerful moments, moments when a person can reinforce his faith and trust in Hashem, and feel closer to Him than ever before.  Tragically, the meraglim did just the opposite.

 

This is why Hashem punished the people for their sin – listening to the spies and deciding that they could not enter the land – by spending forty years in the desert.  For forty years, they lived in an area where naturally a person is incapable of living.  For forty years, they lived under Hashem's miraculous care and protection – to build their bitahon.

 

When we confront a difficult reality, when we feel hopeless, when we feel lost, when our lives or the world seems completely out of control and upside-down – this is a powerful moment of vulnerability.  This is a time for us to let go, to reaffirm our belief that Hashem controls the world, that nothing is random, that everything is under His control.

 

We read in Sefer Bereshit (21:14) that after Abraham Abinu sent away Hagar, ותלך ותתע במדבר באר שבע – she got lost in the desert.  Rashi explains this pasuk to mean that Hagar worshipped idols.  The pasuk does not seem to say anything about idol-worship, but somehow, Rashi understood that this is what it means.  The explanation is that when a person feels "lost," this shows a deficiency in his emunah, in his faith in Hashem.  If we truly believed that Hashem controls everything, then we will never feel "lost" under any circumstances.  No matter how chaotic the world seems, no matter what life throws at us, no matter how uncertain the future appears – we will feel calm and reassured, recognizing that everything is under control.

 

We must try to live with this sense of calmness and serenity.  We should not be wasting our time or emotional energy trying to figure out what is going to happen, what the future will bring, how events will unfold.  The future is G-d's problem, not our problem.  Our responsibility is to do our best in the present, and to leave the rest to Him. - Joey Haber

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https://itorah.com/weekly-inspire/a-vulnerable-moment-is-a-powerful-moment/15/31479