Over the past 16+ years I have made it a point to try, for the Shabbat of Parashat Shelach, to counter the 10 meraglim who testified against Am Yisrael “making aliyah” from Egypt, by coming up with a top-10 list of reasons that living here is so much better for us than anywhere else. Of […]
In Parashat Shelach, God instructs Moses to send spies to scout out the Promised Land. These spies are to be tribal “chieftains,” “leaders of the Israelites.” These were not your ordinary Joe Israelites; these were people of importance and stature. Yet the vast majority of the scouts come back with a frightening report that