The spies are sent by Moses to reconnoitre the Land and bring back a accurate and dispassionate report. Instead they give a highly coloured opinion, emphasising their own weakness and their enemies strength. If we look at the basic source of this failure, we can see it in the fact that they compare themselves unfavourably to the inhabitants of the land. Rather than merely reporting that the people were of large stature, they declare that ‘we were as grasshoppers in their sight’. They thus subsume their own identity and own strength to that of their enemies, causing them to make a fatal strategic error. This is a common problem. Often, rather than concentrating on our own strengths and personality, we insist on constantly comparing ourselves to others. This, for the last two centuries, has been a major problem in the traditional or ‘Orthodox’ Jewish world. The rise of the Reform movement caused traditional Judaism to define itself in contrast to it. Too often this has meant defining what we are not, rather than what we are and acting in order to counter the other, rather than out of our own conviction. Nowhere has this constant comparison to Reform been more pernicious and damaging, than in the realm of Halakhah. The Halakhic system has been undermined by referral to the practices of the Reform movement as a basis for prohibition, rather than true Halakhic norms. Rabbis have objected to women saying kaddish or holding prayer services, not on the basis that they are inherently forbidden, but on the fear of ‘imitating the reformers’. This is a weak argument, that actually serves to undermine the integrity of the tradition it seeks to defend. This is not, however, a new problem in Judaism. Our Sages outlawed various things as being the ‘ways of the Amorite’ or non-Jewish religious practice or superstition. Looking at the Halakhic literature we see that some tried to outlaw certain things, such as decorating the synagogue with greenery on Shavuot, for example, because the non-Jews did it. Yet the majority of authorities rejected this view, holding that if Jews have their own reason for doing something, the fact the non-Jews also do it is irrelevant. We should do what is right and Halakhically correct, irrespective of what anyone else does. That is true traditional Judaism.

 ALIYAH BY ALIYAH SYNOPSIS 

Rishon	Moses sends spies to reconnoitre the Land.
Sheni	The spies report that the people of the Land are too strong to overcome.
Shelishi	The people refuse to go forward. G-d is annoyed and swears that they will not enter the Land.
Revi’i	The people must wander forty years in the wilderness till that generation has died out.
Chamishi	The drink offering to be offered with sacrifices.
Shishi	The law of Hallah and the communal sin offering.
Shevi’i	The individual sin offering and the law of Tzitzit.
Haftorah	Joshua 2;1–24: Joshua sends spies who report that the inhabitants are terrified of the Israelites.

 Sidra Statistics

Parshat Shelach

·               has 119 verses;

·               is the  4th  in Numbers,  37th  in the Torah

·                5th  longest in Numbers,  19th  longest  in the Torah  

·                has 3 pos + 1 neg =  4 mitzvot.