NUM131 See [[NUM105]] Numbers 12:2 only AMJV 75-6

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NUM130 See [[GEN1081]] Genesis 20:7 intercede TOLVOL1 165

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NUM132 The concept of seeking God's blessing for the sick is rooted in the Torah. When God strikes Miriam with illness for having spoken unfairly of her brother, Moses, it is he who prays to God on her behalf [this verse].

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NUM133 R. Yaakov said in the name of R. Chisda: One who implores mercy for his friend need not mention his name, as it is written: "L-ord, I pray You, heal her, I pray You," Miriam not being mentioned by name (Berachoth 34a)

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NUM134 See [[NUM105]] Numbers 12:2 only AMJV 75-6

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NUM135 We must learn to see the good in everything and everybody. Rashi cites the Midrash Tanchuma for the reason why the section of the Torah dealing with sending the spies to the land of Canaan is next to the section of Miriam's speaking loshon hora. Even though Miriam was publicly punished for speaking against her brother, these wicked people who witnessed her punishment did not learn a lesson. A question arises. How could the spies be expected to learn from Miriam's loshon hora? Miriam spoke against a person, while they spoke against a land. Rabbi Yisroel Ordman, of Telshe Yeshiva in Lithuania, offered the following explanation. One must acquire the attribute of always seen the good in everything. A person who finds fault with things (meals, accommodations, etc.) will also find fault with people. Conversely, a person who always seeks to find the good in all phenomena will also see the good in his fellow man. That is the lesson the spies should have learned: to notice virtues rather than to seek out faults. As a pious man once noted, "We were given two eyes: one very powerful for introspection, so we should find our smallest faults; the other very weak, for viewing others. Only, too often we switch their functions."

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NUM136 … concern[ing] the ten spies sent by Moses to spy the land of Israel [e]ach of these people was the leader of his tribe and was called a "special" and distinguished person in the Torah (Numbers 13:2-3 with Rashi commentary on verse 3). How, then, did these men fall so quickly and bring back a bad report about the land of Israel, which caused the people to believe them and sin? The Torah gives us a clue to the answer. It was due to low self-esteem that they developed, despite their previous high position among the Jewish people. When telling over their exploits to the Jews, these spies describe the inhabitants of the land of Israel as "giants" of men. The verse says, "We were like insects in their eyes, and also in our own eyes" (Numbers 13:33). We can understand how these people imagined how the others pictured them, but how did they know for sure how they appeared and were evaluated? Rashi offers one explanation that the spies actually heard the inhabitants speaking about the spies as "ants" (Rashi commentary on Numbers 13:33). But other commentaries simply say that this was all in their imaginations. And later on, when the next generation actually fought and conquered these people in land of Israel, it does not say anywhere that all of the Canaanites were giants. Since they felt so humbled and imagined themselves to be so low, both physically and psychologically, the Torah ends with the words "and so we were in our own eyes." This experience turned these leaders into ants-In their own minds. They now had such low self-esteem, all imagined, that they could no longer say anything positive about their experience or about the land of Israel as a place that God would help them conquer. So it was low self-esteem that turned these experienced leaders into scared individuals. We can learn from this that only if the person feels himself or herself to be worthy will he or she indeed become that worthy person.

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NUM137 On the one hand, the intent underlying every mitzvah and act of the Divine service should aim [to bring about] the ascendancy of the glory of the Divine Presence, and this will be accomplished by His creatures' [efforts] to please Him. On the other hand, there is anguish and supplication concerning the ascendancy of His glory, which awaits its consummation through the ascendancy of the glory and tranquility of Israel. There is however, a second rationale behind the virtue of piety, and that is the [concern for the] good of the generation. For it is befitting that the actions of a pious person should be directed toward the good of his entire generation – – to enhance their standing and to shield them [from punishment]. This is expressed in the verse (Yeshayahu 3:10): "Praise the righteous for the good [he has done], for they eat the fruit of their deeds," i.e., the entire generation eats of his fruit. Similarly our Sages of blessed memory have said (Bava Basra 15a), "'Is there a tree there?' [this verse] means: Is there anyone who shields his generation the way a tree gives shelter?" And note that it is the will of the Divine Presence that the pious of Israel should transfer merit to, and atone for, the other strata around them. This is what was said by our Sages of blessed memory with reference to the [four] species within the lulav (based on Vayikra Rabbah 30:12): "Let these come and atone for those." The Holy One blessed be He has no desire to have the wicked perish. Rather, it is incumbent upon the pious to try and enhance their standing and to atone for them.

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NUM138 "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who shall know it?" said Jeremiah (17:9). One of the blessings and curses of human nature is that we use our power of reason not always and only to act rationally, but also to rationalise and make excuses for the things we do, even when we know we should not have done them. That, perhaps, is one of the lessons the Torah wishes us to draw from the story of the spies. Had they recalled what God had done to Egypt, the mightiest empire of the ancient world, they would not have said [this verse]. But they were in the group of fear. Strong emotion – – fear especially--distorts our perception. It activates the amygdala, the source of our most primal reactions, causing it to override the prefrontal cortex that allows us to think rationally about the consequences of our decisions. Tzitzit, with their thread of blue, remind us of heaven, and that is what we most need if we are consistently to act in accordance with the better angels of our nature.

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NUM139 See [[NUM112]] Numbers 12:3 humble TOLVOL1 243

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