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Rabbi L. Scheinbaum
In Shelach, 5762

“And you shall not go astray after your heart and after your eyes.” (15:39)

In the Talmud Berachos 12b, Chazal interpret the meaning of “straying after one’s heart and eyes.” “Straying after the heart” is a reference to entertaining heretical thoughts, and “straying after the eyes” alludes  to permitting lewd thoughts to enter one’s mind. The Torah enjoins us to distance ourselves from places or situations which will inspire such sinful contemplations. We are provided with the mitzvah of Tzitzis as a reminder of our obligation to exercise care in avoiding these spiritual hazards. The Talmud Gittin 55b relates the story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza, two people in Yerushalayim with very similar names….

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Home -> 5762 -> Shelach

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum
In Shelach, 5762

“They brought forth an evil report on the land that they had spied… ‘it is a land that devours its inhabitants…we were like grasshoppers in our eyes, and so we were in their eyes.’” (13:32-33)

The spies returned from their mission and spread malicious  lies about Eretz Yisrael. They said the land was made for huge and robust people, not for ordinary people like the Jews. They failed to realize that they were the beneficiaries of Hashem’s favor. Wherever they went, they noticed funerals going on. Rather than realize that Hashem was sparing them by engaging the Canaanites in funeral preparations, they were quick to charge that it was a land that devours its inhabitants. They felt especially insignificant in the eyes of the giants that lived there. This statement was especially slanderous and pure conjecture….

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Home -> 5762 -> Shelach

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum
In Shelach, 5762

“And how is the land – is it fertile or is it lean? Are there trees in it or not?” (13:20)

Rashi comments that Moshe’s reference to a tree is an allusion to a tzaddik, righteous person. He was teaching the meraglim, spies,  that if a righteous person was living in the land, he would protect its inhabitants from attack through his merit. In his Sefer Simchas HaTorah, Horav Simcha HaKohen Sheps, z.l., supplements Rashi with another reason for comparing an adam kasher to a tree. In addition to the shade which a tree provides and the fruit which it produces, a tree has a cleansing effect on the ecology. A tree purifies the air by its very existence. It balances the…

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