Parashat Shelach Lecha - First Aliyah

Summary of the Aliyah The Holy One commands Moshe: “Shelach lecha anashim veyaturu et eretz Kena’an asher ani noten livnei Yisra’el” (Send for yourself men, and they shall scout the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel) (Bamidbar 13:2)

Moshe sends twelve princes, one from each tribe, to scout the land. All their names are explicitly recorded, among them Calev son of Yefuneh and Yehoshua son of Nun. Yehoshua even receives a new name from Moshe: “Vayikra Moshe leHoshea bin Nun Yehoshua” (And Moshe called Hoshea son of Nun Yehoshua) (ibid., 16) Rashi explains that Moshe was praying for him: “Yah yoshi’acha me’atzat meraglim” (May Yah save you from the counsel of the spies) (Rashi on 13:16, based on Sotah 34b).

The mission is clear: to examine the land. Is it good or bad, are the people in it strong or weak, do its inhabitants live in open cities or in fortresses, and is the land fertile or lean? The timing of the mission was precisely the season of the first ripe grapes.

From the Spies to Us What was really being tested in this mission? Not just seeing, but how to see.

These princes were not simple messengers. They were sent to stand at the threshold of fulfilling the great promise: entry into the Land of Israel. But to truly enter, an inner and courageous gaze is required. Will we look at the world through eyes of fear and danger, or will we see the challenges, recognize the difficulties, and decide to move forward in faith?

That is also why Yehoshua and Calev are the ones who succeed. They saw what was possible, not only what was hard. They knew how to see the potential, not only the threat. They walked in faith and were not frightened by outward appearance.

In this sense, the parsha teaches us a tremendous foundation: Are we observing reality in order to find excuses to stay where we are, or in order to seek an opportunity to grow and move forward?

The Lesson for Life Sometimes, life sends us a “scouting mission”: to see new situations, challenges, unknown lands. It all depends on our eye: a good eye or a bad eye. The great blessing is to choose to see the good, to choose to move forward. Just like Calev and Yehoshua, who chose the path of faith, courage, and an eye open to the good.

Like the spies, we too in these days stand before a “hard land” and a complex reality: enemies from without, the threat from Iran, inner fears, and difficult questions. But the Torah invites us to choose the right gaze.

Will we choose to be like the ten who saw only the fear? Or like Calev and Yehoshua, who knew to say: “Aloh na’aleh veyarashnu otah ki yakhol nukhal lah” (Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it) (Bamidbar 13:30)

Our strength as a people lies not only in weapons or technology, but in our faith in the rightness of the path, in our unity, and in the good eye that sees hope even when everything looks dark. Facing Iran, facing Hamas, facing every threat, we are called not only to physical security but to inner security.