Tammuz 27, 5777/July 21, 2017
This week's double Torah reading, Matot-Masei, with which the book of Numbers concludes, brings the children of Israel right up to the doorstep of the land of Israel. Encamped just east of the Jordan River, opposite Jericho, the children of Israel, pumped and primed to enter the land, will have to wait for new leadership to take them across. Moshe, the man who took them out of Egypt, across the Sea of Reeds, to the foot of Mount Sinai, and now to the fields of Moav, will address Israel one last time before passing from this world, and handing the mantle of leadership to Yehoshua bin Nun, the leader whom will orchestrate the conquest of the land of Canaan.
Israel possesses the numbers and the military might to conquer and settle the land. This is not an issue. But faith in the righteousness of their path and trust in G-d are inner qualities that wax and wane with time, and G-d Himself must frequently remind Israel of His constant presence in their lives, and also of the consequences they will face lest they stray from the path He has set out before them, or fall short of their own obligations.
This week's reading contains one such warning: "But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the Land from before you, then those whom you leave over will be as spikes in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they will harass you in the land in which you settle. And it will be that what I had intended to do to them, I will do to you." (Numbers 33:55-56)
Anyone even casually aware of what is taking place in the land of Israel in these very days, bears witness to the painful truth of these words, some 3,500 years after they were first spoken. Spikes and thorns, rocks and molotov cocktails, knives and bullets, car rammings and suicide bombings, the list goes on.
But this week's parashah also contains a sweet reminder: "And you shall not defile the land where you reside, in which I dwell, for I am HaShem Who dwells among the children of Israel." (ibid 35:34)
G-d dwells among His people Israel here in the land, His presence emanating from Mount Moriah, also known as Har HaBayit (the Temple Mount), here in Jerusalem, the Place He chose from before the beginning of time and creation, for His presence to dwell eternally.
When we fully absorb and embrace this cosmic truth, nothing can stand in our way. The spikes and thorns which otherwise blind and cripple us, lose their sting.
Our current dilemma is not so much the "inhabitants of the Land" whose presence is as "spikes in our eyes", but the very eyes through which we see ourselves and our covenant with G-d. The Hebrew word used in the verse quoted above, "tzninim," which is translated as "spikes," is not commonly used today. But the word "tzninim" sounds very much like a word that is commonly used today in Hebrew, "tzini," which means "cynical." As human beings we grow old, we grow world-weary and war-torn, and the constant negativism that bombards us from every front every day causes us to lose our way and to lose our trust that G-d is still "HaShem Who dwells among the children of Israel."
To regain our strength, our conviction, our faith and our trust, we need to take a moment and see the world of reality and the world of possibility through the eyes of children, through the eyes of our own inner child. In doing so we remove the spikes of cynicism from our eyes and the thorns of self-doubt from our sides.
-The Temple Institute
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