Today's date and time:

Sermon for Sidra Shelach Lecha
June 2010
by Rabbi Geoffrey Hyman

Wednesday morning, a lone gunman in Cumbria went on a shooting rampage and shot down 12 innocent people in cold blood. A tragic event indeed! Awful! Immediately, on reporting the incident, the questions are asked by the journalists: why, what happened, why did he do it, what was his motive?

Yet on Monday morning when it was reported about the raid by Israel on the Mavi Marmara ship heading for Gaza – it is absolute utter world condemnation against Israel – no questions are asked: “what was Israel’s motive”? It’s assumed that this is another act from the aggressive Israel persecuting Gaza and its sympathizers.

This is the total hypocrisy that exists in our world today, when it comes to Israel. Forget about North and South Korea – which has greater implications – yet it is ignored in the news!

Our Sidra tells the story of the spies who go into Canaan to survey the land before the Children of Israel are to enter; they distort the truth which causes a rebellion; in turn the Israelites are punished with a 40 year detention in the wilderness.

Distortion of the truth, malicious gossip, or as people call it, “bad mouthing”, is more painful a weapon than guns and ammunition! As our Rabbis said: “Life and death is in the grasp of the tongue”. And as was once said: “There are two sides to every story; and then there is the truth”. What we assume or believe as the truth is often distorted by our very own prejudices. At the moment there is a world-wide prejudice against Israel. We are indeed isolated from friendship – even from America. As was stated a long time ago by the heathen prophet Balaam, “Am Levadad Yishkon” - a people who dwells alone. Whilst we demonstrate and demand from the world a more considerate and benevolent picture of the real Israel, we should now realise more than ever, that throughout our history we have been a people ghettoised and isolated, and we exist “despite” this.

Someone recently sent me a snippet circulating the internet about a student doing a course on the strategy of great wars in military history. The lecturer however, omitted to mention Israel and its wars. The student felt rather irritated by his omission and confronted the lecturer. The lecturer simply replied: “these wars were not about strategy; they were supernatural victories, and that is not our subject!

We Jews are guilty of perpetuating the sin of the spies which wasn’t just about loshon hara; the root of their sin was their lack of faith.

With little faith – we lose our confidence.

Fellow Yidden, trust in the Almighty - that’s what we need at the moment!

May Hashem always protect His people just as in the days of Joshua, as we read in the conclusion of today’s Haftarah:

“For G-d has given all the land into our hands also, all the inhabitants of the land have dissolved from before us”. Amen!