Shlach - The Anava Experience of Eretz Yisrael - Rav Shlomo Katz

Description

BS’D R’ Shlomo Carlebach z’l Shlach – What stops you from trying again? Imagine I take upon myself to keep Shabbos, and even though I'm working really hard on connecting to it, and it just doesn’t go. What happens to me then? There are two ways before me: I might come to the conclusion that this isn’t for me. Or maybe I’ll make myself stronger, and say to myself, “I got to try again.” If I try and I end up being disappointed in myself, I’ll end up dropping Shabbos altogether, since I cannot walk around hating myself. Therefore, I have to make an excuse saying, “it is what it is, I’m just not up to Shabbos.” But if I am strong enough, I say, “okay, take a deep breath. It didn’t work the first few times, but I will try again.” So the Alexanderer Rebbe says (Yismach Yisrael Shlach, ‘Lehavin’) that this is essentially the difference between Moshe Rabbeinu and the spies. Moshe Rabbeinu’s anava was that he realized that he hasn’t served G-d the way he should, but he was a savlan about it, he could bear it. The spies were very holy but they were not on this level. For them, if they felt that they couldn't overcome that which they were working on, they understood it to mean that it’s not for them. Here they are coming into the Holy Land, they see it’s a totally different story from that which they were used to. In the desert we had no problems. Food was coming down from heaven, we had water from the well of Miriam. A cloud would come down every Friday afternoon, washing you clean. Your garments would grow with you, everything was absolutely miraculous. When the spies came to the Holy Land, they realized that it’s a different story. In the land of Israel G-d wants you to plow your field, food doesn’t fall down from heaven. But you see what it is, to feel high in Israel takes more than whatever you thought. Eretz Yisrael is a different kind of high. Imagine a mathematical problem is placed in front of me, and I really don’t know anything about mathematics. If I'm a mentsch, I admit I don’t know and I ask for help. But if I think I am the greatest mathematician in the world and I can't solve it, I would say that it’s simply impossible. Since the mergalim thought that they were so great, they assumed that Israel is a country where you simply can't be high. But if they would have been real students of Moshe Rabbeinu, they would have been tuned into the midda of savlanut. The question is, after you tried once and you couldn’t do it, what stops you from trying again? The Alexanderer says that this stems from utmost arrogance. What makes you think that if you tried and it didn’t go, it means you can't do it or that it can’t be done? Parshas Shlach shows us the way of entering the Holy Land. As hard as it is to be a good Yidele outside of Israel, in Israel it’s absolute murder. Why is it so hard to bring Yiddishkeit in Eretz Yisrael? I might be able to turn on all of Brooklyn to Yiddishkeit, but it’s very hard to turn on all of Tel Aviv because this is really where it’s at. If it's where it's at – the harder it is. Sometimes you go to Israel and you don’t feel anything. You come to the holy wall, and you are a stone. The wall is not the stone, you are the stone. This simply means that you got to try more. What was the holiness of Yehoshua? Yehoshua was Moshe Rabbeinu's pupil, and Moshe Rabbeinu’s pupil knows that you always have to try again. This is how Yehoshua conuers the land. The holiness of Eretz Yisrael is that it is the place where we always try again. All of Yiddishkeit, the holiness of us Yidden, our mission to the world is ‘try again, be humble and bear it’.