It's not every day you get to
watch the world change before your eyes. Yet, late last week and onto this week,
the world has watched as seventy years of an organizing principal has started
to unravel. Since the conclusion of
WWII, it has been assumed that a closely knit Western Europe would serve as a
preventative from any one European nation from becoming too overly
nationalistic, overly aggressive, and overly domineering. Also a closely knit
Western Europe would serve as a counterbalance to Stalin and the Soviet Union’s
Iron Curtain. As a result NATO, the
European Common Market and eventually the European Union came into being. Well
NATO still exists; however after BREXIT, the European economic alliance has
been severely diminished because of Great Britain’s desire to leave the
economic union. It has been fascinating
to watch the immediate fall out. Pound Sterling has lost more than 10% of its
value. The British Prime Minister has
announce his resignation; the Labor has lost a
“no confidence” vote, British business
whose market is the Continent is in a state of paralysis, and non
British who were able to move freely to Britain with only a European passport,
sit in “immigration” limbo. Scotland and Ireland want to remain part of the EU
and now will plan a referendum about remaining part of Great Britain. When the
week began, there was enough “buyer’s remorse” that more than three million
signatures signed a petition calling for a revote.
This Shabbat we read from Parsha
Shlach Lecha. The Parsha is highlighted by the narrative of Moshe’s sending
twelve spies into Eretz Canaan and then to report back to him. The spies scout
out the land, they return with a negative report. The people challenge Moshe’s
leadership. God gets angry and wants to destroy the people. Moshe defends the
people and God decides upon a less severe punishment. Following the narrative God instructs Moshe
regarding the Mitzvot of the Libations Offering, taking Challah, public
atonement for unintentional idol worship, an individual’s idol worship of an
unintentional and intentional nature. There is the brief narrative of a man
gathering sticks on Shabbos and the ensuing punishment. The Parsha concludes
with God giving Moshe the Mitzvah of Tzitzit.
The punishment that results from
the narrative of the Twelve Spies is particularly troubling. The spies return
and offer a report not only to Moshe and Aaron but to the entire assembly. The people are scared and a wave of national
hysteria sweeps over the community. They beg to be returned to Egypt. God’s
anger is not so laser focused. God’s anger is aimed at everyone except for
Joshua and Caleb, the two spies who issued a positive report. The other ten
spies and the entire community are threatened with extinction. Essentially this punishment would have meant
that there would not have been a viable community to inherit God’s covenant.
Moshe convinces God to rethink the punishment and now God issues a formal
decree. The generation of adults that left Egypt would be prohibited from
entering into Eretz Canaan; meaning there would be forty years of wandering
until that generation died out. Upon hearing the decree, VaYashkimu VaBoker VaYaalu El Rosh HaHar Leimor
Hinnenu V’ALinu El HaMakom Ahser Amar HaShem Ki Chatanu – They awoke early in the morning and ascended
toward the mountain top saying: “We are ready and we shall ascent to the place
of which Hashem has spoken, for we have sinned.” Moshe tells them to stand
down, that it is too late and the punishment has been meted out. VaYapilu
LaAlot El Rosh HaHar Va’ Aron Brit Hashem U’Moshe Lo Mashu MiKerev HaMachaneh
– But they defiantly ascended to the
mountaintop, while the Ark of Hashem’s covenant and Moshe did not move from the
midst of the camp. The Amalekite and the Canaanite who dwelled on that mountain
descended; they struck them and pounded them until Hormah (Num. 14:40-45).
They had already voted. They had already violated the sanctity of their
relationship to God by expressing a desire to return to Egypt. They can’t take
back their words. This is a group of people that will always express spiritual
weakness and will not be able to make it in Eretz Canaan. They express their
own “buyer's remorse” and decided to begin journeying towards Eretz Canaan.
However without the Ark of the Covenant and without Moshe, the people cannot
and will not survive. The organizing
principal is the Ark of the Covenant, and Moshe's leadership and the peoples
Emunah, their faith. Even with their
expression of buyer’s remorse God understand that the people are not equipped
for the relationship and the covenant.
It will be months if not a few
years before we see all the ramifications for Great Britain’s historic vote.
However, one thing is clear. The world has just become a little more unstable.
The world has just become a little more dangerous. The rise of nationalism, the
fear of immigrants, the rise of demagogues not only bodes ill for the future
but it serves as a reminder of Europe’s very troubled past before its enlightened attempt to create a more
unified Europe where no one European nation became too large that the entire
world was threatened.
Peace
Rav Yitz
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