God’s True Strength (And Ours Too)

Jun 21, 2008 By Mychal Springer | Commentary | Shelah Lekha

In this week’s Torah portion, Shelah Lekha, God tells Moses to send twelve scouts to the land of Canaan to see what there is to see.

Taking Responsibility for Our Mistakes

Jun 16, 2012 By David Levy | Commentary | Text Study | Shelah Lekha

Why would God have made a plan that backfired so badly? Resh Lakish would have us understand that God’s plans were fine; it was ours that went south, when Moses acquiesced to the peoples’ need for a report.

Unity and Leadership

Jun 13, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Shelah Lekha

At the very beginning of this week’s parashah, Moses organizes a mission to scout out the land of Canaan.

Israel, Evil Speech, and the Spies

Jun 18, 2011 By Eliezer B. Diamond | Commentary | Shelah Lekha

The other scouts had not in fact stated that it was impossible to defeat the peoples of Canaan, yet Caleb seems to have understood this as being the import of their words. Why so?

The Depth of Sight

May 29, 2013 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Shelah Lekha

The Torah reading of Shelah Lekha is literally and figuratively an “eye opening” parashah.

Grapes of Zion

Jun 12, 2015 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Commentary | Shelah Lekha

It might be surprising, given its association with the people’s sin of being dissuaded from entering the Land, that the motif of the two spies carrying an enormous bunch of grapes (Num. 13:23) became a popular Zionist symbol and eventually even the logo of the Israeli Ministry of Tourism. Indeed, it has been suggested by arts writer Menachem Wecker that several of the older Christian representations of this image deliberately portray the two grape-bearers in a negative light.

A Cord of Blue Fringe

Jun 16, 2012 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Shelah Lekha

A little blue thread has quietly woven its way back into our synagogue life. Its appearance was gradual, which makes its pervasive presence somewhat surprising. Strung from the corners of our tallitot, the thread of tekhelet intertwined with the white tzitzit threads has experienced a true renaissance in modern Jewish ritual. We learn of tekhelet from our parashah this week: “Speak to the Israelite people and instruct them to make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments throughout the ages; let them attach a cord of blue to the fringe [p’til tekhelet] at each corner” (Num. 15:38).