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Orchard of Delights
Einstein further revealed that space and time are intrinsically
connected. Consequently, if we apply the same paradigm of how
gravity is created to time, we can surmise that certain actions,
whether for good or evil, create a “mass,” as it were, of energy that
marks future time. The more intense the thought, speech, or action
is, the greater the impression made on the fabric of time will be. Thus
contemporary actions can make their mark on the future through
the spiral of time.
£Rewriting Our Past ScriptRewriting Our Past ScriptRewriting Our Past Script Sages deduce that an assembly or congregation is composed of at
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In response to the spies’ discouraging report, the people exclaimed,
“And why has God brought us into this land, to fall by the sword,
that our wives and children should be prey; were it not better for us
to return to Egypt? And they said one to another – let us appoint
a leader and let us return to Egypt” (Numbers 14:3-4). This is not
the first time the people reacted to the adversities of the desert by
expressing the desire to return to Egypt. One naturally wonders how
they could even think about returning to the slavery and hardships
of Egypt. Such a reaction seems completely irrational. Yet our
judgment may be too hasty. Ponder the following before judging
their reactions too harshly.
Many times we find ourselves confronted by a situation that makes
us realize how unacceptable our current reality is. We devise a hundred
ways to escape. Then an opportunity comes along that would allow
us to embark on a totally new path. The only downside is that there
is no guarantee of success. The new path is full of unknowns and we
begin to doubt whether we are capable of succeeding. At this point,
nothing is more normal than to begin to re-evaluate whether or not
the old situation was really so bad. We reason that perhaps we need
not be so hasty and make the change, with a few adjustments the
old situation might just work out fine. All of a sudden we rewrite our
past script and learn to live with what is still in essence the same old
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15 Shelach
£The Power of Ten£The Power of TenThe Power of Ten
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The Lubavitcher Rebbe’s suggestion that we add the letter yud,
equaling ten, to the word “shaliach,” which we mentioned in the
previous segment, makes a great deal of sense in the context of
Shelach. Moses chose twelve spies, one from each tribe to spy out the
land. Ten of them banded together and returned with an evil report,
while Caleb and Joshua urged the people not to listen to them, to
trust in God and in their own abilities to conquer the land. From the
fact that the Torah refers to the ten spies as an “evil assembly,” the
least ten men and therefore ten men are required to form a minyan, a
prayer quorum (Megillah 23b). In essence every minyan rectifies the
power of ten’s ability to do evil by forming an assembly to do good.
As Moses sends the spies on their appointed way he adds a letter yud
to the name of Joshua, who was known as Hoshea till then (Numbers
13:16). Every name change in the Torah signifies a change of status
– the attainment of a new level of consciousness or the burden of a
new mission. On the peshat level, Rashi explains that Moses changed
Joshua’s name to indicate his own prayer that God save Joshua from
participating in the conspiracy woven by the ten spies. The addition
of the yud, which has the numerical value of ten, alludes to Moses’
intuition that Joshua would need this letter’s extraordinary power
to ward off the power of ten implicit in the “assembly” of spies. As
we mentioned in the previous section, the yud also symbolizes the
spark of the Mashiach and inherent leadership qualities; thus, Moses
was fortifying Joshua by activating his deepest potential – his inner
spark of Mashiach and his potential for leadership. By adding a yud
to Joshua’s name, Moses was preparing and grooming him for his
eventual mission of leading the Jewish people into the Promised
Land.
When the people responded to the spies report by complaining and
threatening to go back to Egypt, Moses prayed to God to forgive them
nonetheless: “And now may the strength of my God be magnified as
You have spoken saying: God, slow to anger, abundant in kindness,
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