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| the 12 Spies bring back their report |
You may know
Israeli Jews as a patently fatalistic lot.
It is difficult not to be, living in such a land. A land that, despite being the closest
embodiment of liberal values on the planet, is commonly despised by the world’s
Left. A land that, despite the
sometimes-fabulous wealth and political power of its Arab minorities, is
frequently seen as a land where its minorities are confined to a series of
Soweto-like slums. A land whose army is
probably the most moral in the world, whose soldiers ae held to
sometimes-impossible standards in the conduct of combat operations where their
enemy exhibits no moral scruples whatsoever, yet much of the world views that
army as tantamount to Jack the Ripper and its Hamas enemy as the embodiment of Mother
Theresa. A land seen by much of the
world as backward and hopelessly mired in thinking from former centuries yet
whose research institutes have come up with an incredible number of the
technologies that make our lives ever easier and healthier.
Given all this, it should not come as
a surprise that Israelis develop a jaded view of the world, and a fatalistic
view of themselves. Modern Israeli Hebrew
is full of expressions of exasperation and resignation to one’s fate. But none sums up that spirit more than the
phrase, ארץ אוכלת
יושביה (eretz ochelet yoshveiha) – a Land
that devours its Inhabitants. Every time
an Israeli encounters some senseless behavior among his countrymen, or
senseless conflict between them, he is likely to shrug and mutter, eretz
ochelet yoshveiha. It’s as if to
say, we can’t help it. We live in a
place that devours its inhabitants.
The expression, eretz ochelet
yoshveiha, is actually found in the Written Torah, in the thirteenth
chapter of the Book of Numbers, in this week’s Torah reading, Shelach Lecha. It is part of the gloomy report brought back
to Moses, Aaron, and the entire people Israel by the Twelve Spies whom Moses
sent to scout out the Land so that the War of Conquest could be planned. Actually, by the Ten Spies – since two
of their lot, Joshua bin Nun and Caleb ben Yefunneh, reported positively. The other ten reported that the land they’d
been sent to scout out, was a land that devours its inhabitants. Further, they reported that the land current
inhabitants were giants. They – the Israelite
spies – were viewed by them as grasshoppers.
What could the Spies have meant in
declaring that the land devours its inhabitants? Inhabitants who, in the next breath, they
identified as giants? Were they trying
to say that conditions in the land were such that there was an overabundance of
conflict and misery among its inhabitants?
The text, as in other places, leaves us hanging.
But Rashi fills in the lacunae. He asserts that eretz ochelet yoshveiha is
a response to the Spies’ observation that there seemed to be an awful lot of
funerals during the Spies’ sojourn. If
so, that was a slim evidence that the land devours its inhabitants. And Rashi goes on to assert that the
profusion of deaths among the Canaanites during the time of the Spies’ visit
was even caused directly by Hashem, in order to provide cover for the Spies’
mission. If so, the Spies were being
fatalistic about a phenomenon that was for their very benefit.
I’ve always found this Torah portion
particularly fascinating and, given my own history in military intelligence, I’ve
worked hard to understand exactly what was the Spies’ sin. The sin so grave as to cause Hashem to decree
the passing of a generation before the conquest could begin. In the past, I focused on the negativity of
their report and how it ‘infected’ the entire people with a negatively that
would make the conquest fail with absolute certainty. I know from my own experience, that an
intelligence analyst’s job is to report the facts and reasonable conclusions
concerning the enemy. But it is not his
job to discourage the commander from launching the operation. His job is to help the commander decided how
to succeed. The reality is that the
commander probably has no choice concerning whether to prosecute the battle. He doesn’t need naysayers. As we see in this Torah portion, naysayers
have a tendency to infect the rest of the troops with their pessimism. And any military man will tell you that the
unquantifiable factor in any operation is the belief among the troops that they
will succeed. It’s unquantifiable, but
it is essential. As soon as the army
believes it will fail, it will! That’s
why generals and other leaders are known for their colourful pep-talks to the
troops on the eve of the battle. As
George C Scott, playing General Patton, famously delivered in the opening
minutes of the movie Patton. Scott’s
soliloquy was taken directly from the text of Patton’s talk to his men as they
prepared to deploy from Ft Benning for the launching of the North Africa
campaign.
But before, I’d missed Rashi’s explanation, which does clarify matters. A Land that devours its Inhabitants as
a reflection of a large number of funerals whilst the Spies were on the scene. And the Spies’ completely missed that the
deaths were caused specifically to assist them in their mission!
Given this, eretz ochelet yoshveiha is not an understandable expression
of fatalism. Rather, it is completely irrational
given the facts. And the truth is
that most fatalism is irrational. And
its result is predictable: the breaking
down of morale. Unfortunately, we are
all in danger, each and every one of us, of falling into fatalism. No matter what land we dwell in. And it’s always irrational. Because fatalism is a self-fulfilling
prophecy. Defeatism brings about
defeat. More than any other factor. In an army preparing or war. In a nation preparing for success. In a family striving for a good future. Fatalism itself is the most accurate
predictor of failure.
I’m almost embarrassed to offer the natural lesson from this, it is so self-evident.
It is incumbent upon us to be optimistic! We plan and we scheme and we strive. And if we truly believe that we will
succeed, then we will! Perhaps
that success will not look exactly as it did in our plans. But our belief in ourselves will lead
us to a positive end.
And what about our Israeli cousins? Truth be told, they’re not really given
to fatalism. The expressions of
fatalism that thy predictably make, are really expressions of wonderment. Of lack of comprehension as to why things are
the way they aree. But the truth is that
Israelis as a lot are no more fatalistic them others, and far less so than
most. So many Israelis ae aware of
this. I have been told time and again by
Israelis that one must be patently optimistic to live in their land.
But our Arab cousins are, in contrast, most assuredly fatalistic. Far more so than many other peoples. And that is certainly one of the primary
reasons why there is so much misery in the Arab world. But our Arab cousins can’t seem to see
that. Instead they see the relative joy
of the Israelis, which so contrasts with their own perceived reality. And they blame the Israelis for all their
problems. Or the Crusades, which ended more
than seven centuries ago. And this
propensity to blame their present day troubles on a tiny nation of eight
million, and at the same time on a war 700 years ago (which they won!) is
about as irrational as it gets.
So let’s take the lesson. The
result of fatalism is fatality. And
therefore, let’s believe. Shabbat
shalom.
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