by Rabbi Mordechai Rhine

The great moment had finally arrived. The Jewish people were ready to enter the Promised Land. As they prepared themselves to enter, they had a simple request. “Let us send spies to report on the land.”

Although the men chosen for this historic mission were of great caliber, surprisingly, they came back with a negative report. “The land is inhabited with strong people in fortified cities,” they declared. Their verdict was that the Jews could not hope to conquer the promised land.

One wonders how these great people arrived at such a verdict that was so foreign to the miraculous life that they were living in the desert. After witnessing the miraculous Exodus and Hashem’s demonstration that He is the Almighty, they had experienced the manna from heaven, and water miraculously flowing forth from a rock in the desert. Why were they intimidated by the strength of the residents if the Almighty, Hashem, had promised them the land?

The commentaries explain that these men had trouble transitioning to the new reality of entering the Land. The goal was that when they entered the Land they would begin a period of natural existence, very unlike the miraculous life that they were accustomed in the desert. Once they entered the Land the manna would stop. Their food would come from the earth in a most natural way. And similarly- so they thought- the wars would be fought in the ways of nature. According to the ways of nature they saw no way that they could win over such mighty people.

The mistake of these men was a simple one. While it is true that upon entering the Land their lives would take on the veil of nature, that does not mean that Hashem would forsake them. The new relationship would be one of hidden miracles, natural miracles, where we do what we can, and Hashem influences the outcome. These men, however, had trouble appreciating that transition.

It is common for people to go through transition periods during their lifetime. Sometimes it involves a job change, sometimes a change in relationship with a trusted relative, and sometimes an illness or handicap of a loved one. One of the greatest qualities a person can have is to be able to transition well, and to properly assess the new reality.

A woman once shared with me that for the first few years of her handicapped son’s life she was in denial. She prayed fervently for a miracle that somehow the handicap should just go away. “After five years, G-d indeed wrought a great miracle,” she exclaimed. “He didn’t change my son. He changed me. I accepted the handicap as real. Then I was able to begin a course of therapy and praying in a constructive way.”

Many times, however, we continue to harp on an old reality and refuse to climb the internal mountain of transition. We might even make all the outwards signs of adjusting. We may go through the motions of looking for a new job, we may make believe that all is well in the family, but in reality we have not yet begun our internal climb of transition.

Interestingly, after Hashem rebukes the people for the incident of the spies and declares that entry to the Land would be delayed by forty years, a group of people insists that “we will climb the mountain,” and conquer the Land as Hashem has told us. Moshe insists that it is too late. Hashem has withdrawn His protection for such a mission at this time. Indeed they proceed and are destroyed.

The imagery here is significant. Climbing the mountain in a physical sense is not what was asked of them. What they needed to do was to climb an internal, emotional mountain. They needed to transition into a world in which they would be able to see Hashem’s guiding Hand despite a seemingly very natural existence.

Transitions come in many forms. Many are quite challenging. But the beauty of transitions is that as we climb our personal mountain we have much in common with anyone else who is also climbing. Many will be ahead of us; others will be behind us. But as for us, if they are climbing, we consider them at our side.

© 2014 by TEACH613