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0:00 Dear friends, welcome to this week's virtual dasha. This week we have the incredible privilege paras. And the Torah contains what could only be described as one of the most dramatic and traumatic stories of the entire the sin of the spies. 12 men tribal leaders go out on a reconnaissance mission ostensively to figure out the best way to enter into the land. Now when it comes to this story, like many stories in the Kish, because we know how it 0:23 ends, we often analyze the entire story through the lens of the conclusion of the story. And this story ends in such a tragic way. The spies come back deliver the disastrous report about the land and that report about the land essentially becomes an indictment of Mosha and unfortunately about himself. The lack of the lack of faith just leads to a total 0:47 spiritual and national unraveling. We become unhinged. Everything goes off the rails. And as a result deemed us unworthy to enter into the land. For the next 40 years, we were condemned to wander the desert. The entire generation 20 and above were to die out in the desert. And Israel would only be given to the next generation of the Jewish people. But if we look at the story 1:10 through its initial lens, not through the lens of how it ends, but for how it begins, something very different occurs. First of all, interestingly enough invar which in general is just a retrospective safer. Most of is moshab reflecting on what's occurred over the last 40 years. 1:28 Moshab tells the story of the Moragim and in fact the says this is invar skipping ahead a little bit perf chapter 1 verse 22 is retelling the story remember again invar he's telling it now to the second generation because the generation which sinned with the miraculum already died out this is the next generation so he's 1:51 telling him your parents they came to me sent people before us. Let them spy out the land. They'll come and they'll relay back information. They'll tell us what path should we take. 2:09 What what cities? How should we go? Moshu says, "They came to me and he asked for a reconnaissance mission. Let's go and figure out the best way to conquer the land." Moshabu's response. I thought it was a great idea. I thought it was a great idea. 2:31 So it's incredible because says he says explicitly see in our parl you don't see this part of the story but in Mosh reflects on what happened I thought it was a good idea I thought it was actually a really a really good idea and therefore again I dispatched it. Come back now to our para. How does our para begin? 2:55 Hashem says to send for yourself people. Send for yourself people. But cannot let them spy out the land. Again, one one leader perhap doesn't say. He doesn't say send people, but rather he says send for yourself. What does it mean? 3:18 Sense for yourself says that this is 34bs. Hashem says to Mosha, "Look, if you want to send, go for it." Why? He says, "Hashem essentially says Mosha, look, I told you the land is great. I told you everything is fantastic. I'm gonna be by your side. and help you fight the 3:46 battles. Says, as far as I'm concerned, you don't need a reconnaissance mission. If you want it, go for it. Go for it. And what happens? And says, so remember again, Rash actually now references and says, I thought this was a great idea. 4:10 But Mosh says was a good idea for me, but obviously Hashem didn't really like the idea. So they try to figure out what's unfolding over here. So remember obviously the entire reconnaissance mission ends with disastrous results. But what was happening over here in the beginning? The Jewish people approached Moshabenu. We want to send a scout. We want to send a scouting team or reconnaissance team to figure out how to go into the land. Mosha thinks this is a 4:33 great idea. Why? Because Mosha like Khal understood that upon entry into there was going to be a fundamental transition. We were going to transition from a supernatural way of life where God took care of everything. where there was a cloud on top of us by day, a fire in front of us at night, and we're going to have to transition to a quote unquote normal natural lifestyle. That type of lifestyle where a man has to be involved is not going to quote unquote just take 4:57 care of everything. Mean sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. The days of splitting seas were coming to an end. The days of m coming down from the heavens were coming to an end. Man's got to take a man's got to take responsibility. So therefore, when says, "Hey, Moshe, let's send a reconnaissance team." Mosha's like, "This is a great idea." Not just Mosha saying, "Okay, I went along with it." [clears throat] 5:19 I thought it was a great idea. But then the in the beginning of already indicates resistance to it. Hashem doesn't say, he doesn't say, "Okay, if you want it, if you feel you want it, go for it." Asks [clears throat] such a simple question. Excuse me. 5:41 King of kings right decide what you want. Make it tell Moshe either Moshe sure go for it or Moshe don't do it because it's a bad idea. But almost like why this almost like o almost like a a a a divine ambivalence. 6:05 Okay, if you want it. So again when we look at the story for through the lens of the conclusion like oh that's right was reluctant because he knew it was going to end so badly if you know it's going to end so badly tell us tell us not to do it tell there are plenty of times that intervenes and tells when something is a bad idea. So just tell us 6:28 either either get on board, get on the Moragim wagon and say yes Moshe, this is a great idea or head it off at the pass and say Moshe this is a disaster waiting to happen this is a bad idea unless you think that God doesn't like to get involved in things it's not true there are plenty of plenty of stories plenty of circumstances plenty of situation who 6:51 inserts himself and says please this is not a good idea please don't do this so asks but what's happening over here why almost like the divine ambivalence the divine almost like yeah if you want to Moshe thinks it's a great idea thinks it's a great idea if you want to do it do it either tell us yay or nay and the says something so beautiful yet so 7:14 simple he says I'm going to quote you from theem is The says something amazing. What does want for us more than anything? He wants us to figure it out. 7:40 Doesn't spoon feed us life. Doesn't spoon feed us answers and he does not spoon feed us direction. Instead, what he gives us is the co-host, the abilities and the tools to make informed decisions. And he wants us to go figure it out. 7:59 Says, like, okay, okay. Does God know it's a bad idea? Of course not. God knows it's a bad idea. God knows everything. Just like parents who often see their children making a decision and parents like, "It's not going to end well. It's not going to be good." But every parent knows there's that moment where you just got to let your kid figure it out 8:22 because if they don't take the to figure it out, they're never going to self-actualize. They're never going to mature it was going to be a disaster. But thought it was a good idea. Thought it was a good idea. And gives us the ability and not just the ability, not just the license, but the mandate is to figure stuff out in life. The Reb goes on a person can think to themselves 8:48 person might think you know what my job in life is to wait for explicit divine instruction for every detail that what's going to happen every generation has au I'm I'm just going to rely I'm going to rely ultimately again on Mosha to tell me what I so to speak to tell me what I should do. 9:12 What should I say? What should how should I how should I behave? The Torah is teaching us. So much of life is thinking about things and struggling to make a decision on your own. Figure it out. Figure it out. 9:31 Every person has to contemplate their circumstances. to contemplate the the options, the opportunities that are all around me. What is the best option for me to fulfill the word of God? What do I do in order to conquer? What do I do in order to succeed? What do I do in order to be successful in life? 10:01 Says something being difficult being passive aggressive. If if you want to of course go right ahead. This is not absenting himself from the process. Just the opposite. This telling Moshe this what this what this is right now. This is life. This is life. Think it's a good idea. You think it's a good idea. I'm 10:24 God. I know everything. But I need to give you the room to figure it out. And that's what life is about. Life is about taking the information that you have around you and it's making the best decision you can. Sometimes you make good decisions, sometimes you make bad decisions. Moshabenu made a bad decision. [snorts] He mo would be the first person to say the miraculum did 10:47 not work out as he had intended. He could have never known that it would have gone off the rails. But one can make the argument in retrospect. Clearly not the right decision, but he made the best decision in the moment with the information he had at hand. and says the Rebba, that's life. That's life. Because if you're going to wait to make decisions in life until you have explicit clarity, if you're going to wait to make decisions in life until you 11:11 have all your ducks on all of your information at hand, right? You're going to wait to analyze every single thing, you're going to end up doing nothing. You'll be a victim of analysis paralysis until 120, never doing anything, never accomplish anything, never getting anywhere. Life is about taking the reigns and making a decision. And sometimes you're right and sometimes you're wrong. But says is something 11:34 amazing. Do you know that doesn't simply judge us on results. He judges us on initiative. Knows already beforehand which decisions going to be good, which is going to be bad. But he wants to see am I courageous enough to make them? Am I courageous enough to make those decisions? Do I have do I have the backbone? Do I have 11:58 the confidence? Do I have the based on the information I have in front of me? I know you don't want me to sit here analyzing, cogitating, thinking, contemplating. You want me to decide and move my life forward. I'm ready to do it. Sometimes I'll get it right. 12:13 Sometimes I'll get it wrong. But don't allow the possibility of a bad decision to render you perpetually indecisive. Don't allow the fear of a bad decision to render you perpetually indecisive. take the information you have at hand and make the right and by the way that's why interestingly enough it always bothered me that in when Mosha tells this story about the Morag right he goes 12:37 out of his way and he says I thought it was a great idea I don't know if I was Mosha I don't know that I would play I don't know that I I don't know that I would necessarily say that I would say I I went along with it why does Mosh come out and say I thought it was a great idea because Mosh is trying to teach us a lesson like yeah it really went really [clears throat] badly but you know we made a decision I made a decision Claw made a decision. And so much of successful living is just about having 13:01 the courage to make a decision. Doesn't weigh in on this because that's how God operates. He kind of sets the table and he's like, "Decide. Decide." And you decide. I'm not going to tell you right or wrong. You just decide what you think needs to happen. What a beautiful lesson for us. We're all faced with decisions and sometimes we become so scared of making the wrong decision 13:24 that we condemn ourselves to a life of perpetual indecisiveness. Never moving ourselves forward because I'm scared and it is making the wrong decision could have a lot of repercussions made the wrong decision and as a result again we were condemned for 40 years in the desert and a whole generation died out. It was overwhelming price to pay. 13:43 Did they make the wrong decision? Again, we never judge the correctness of decisions in retrospect because anyone could be a Monday morning quarterback. We judge the correctness of decisions based on the information you have at hand and at the time you need to make them. Did they make the right decision? Yes. Because in that moment, Mosh felt it was the right thing for was the right thing for him. It was the right thing for the advancement of the people. It turned out to have disastrous results. 14:06 This is life. This is what wants from us. Hashem does not want us to live in a perpetual holding pattern of indecisiveness. He wants us to have the courage to decide, the courage to make a decision, to move your life forward. And yes, he stands by the sidelines so that you and I can make decision and move our lives forward. There are no guarantees that the decisions you're going to make are going to be the right ones. But one 14:30 thing is clear, no decision condemns you to a perpetual life of indecisiveness. Making the right decision or trying to make the right decision, that's all asks of us. Wishing everyone a good night of Shabas and a beautiful Shabas Kesh.
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