Parshas Shelach 5785
- Torah Tavlin
- Jun 19
- 2 min read
וילנו על משה ועל אהרן כל בני ישראל ... (יד-ב)
MASHAL: During the Six Day War, the Mir Yeshivah, situated right on the Jordanian border, made it an easy target for Jordanian mortar fire. Unfortunately, the yeshivah took direct hits, even as people from the immediate neighborhood huddled inside. People prayed their hearts out as their lives literally depended on it. Miraculously, they all survived.
Later, R’ Chaim Shmulevitz zt”l, the Rosh Yeshivah, told people that he thought he knew what merit ensured their survival. “Although there was a lot of heartful prayer from the multitudes gathered there, it was the unique prayer of one woman that did it for us, something which I’ll never forget.
“Not far away from where I was sitting, was a woman. Her husband had abandoned her and her children some twenty years earlier, rendering her a living widow as she is unable to remarry according to halacha. One can surely imagine how bitter her life was. All those years, she had supported herself by washing other people’s dirty laundry. She led what to others seemed like a miserable life.
“Then, I overheard her appealing to Hashem,” continued R’ Chaim. “‘Oh Lord,’ she wept, ‘I have so many grounds to complain. Keep all of us here alive, and I will give up all my complaints!’ Her willingness to overlook her intense misery for the good of everyone else is what kept us alive - and we must do the same. Abandoning the complaints and issues that keep people apart is a merit that can bring great salvation!”
NIMSHAL: In our parsha, too, the report that the meraglim (spies) brought back wasn’t necessarily a lie. However, points out the Kotzker Rebbe zt”l, it wasn’t the complete truth either. They were looking to complain and that rendered their report invalid and ultimately catastrophic!