~ One Hundred Words on the Parsha - Shelach

ונהי בעינינו כחגבים וכן היינו בעיניהם

"And we were in our own eyes as grasshoppers, and so we were in their eyes."

The baalei mussar point out that the first step in this scenario was the meraglim lacking in self respect. Because they had no confidence in their own abilities, the people around them also perceived them as having little worth.

The take away from this passuk is that we need to respect ourselves as being a tzelem Elokim and one of Hashem's chosen people. With this appreciation we will see that others will also come to value us.

Only B’Simcha Parshas Sh’lach

The נשיאים are mentioned in the previous two פרשיות; They are mentioned in פרשת נשא bringing קרבנות and they are mentioned in פרשת בהעלותך as leading their respective שבטים through the מדבר. In this week’s פרשה, the נשיאים are mentioned again as the מרגלים , who were going to spy on ארץ ישראל . However, this time, the נשיאים listed are different people than in the previous two פרשיות. What happened to the previous נשיאים?

A possible answer is that the original נשיאים wanted no part in what the מרגלים would do. בני ישראל wanted different נשיאים who would be willing to have a negative attitude about ארץ ישראל as מרגלים.

We can learn how important it is not to participate in something that begins with a negative attitude.