Dear Friends,
Sports history was made this past Wednesday night.
In Game 4 of the NBA Finals, the Knicks found themselves down by 29 points against the Spurs! Yet they mounted the biggest comeback in Finals history to win 107-106 with 2 seconds to go!
After the game, a reporter asked Knicks' point guard Jalen Brunson, “How on earth did that just happen?”
His answer: “One word that captures it all is just believe.”
And he went on to explain that it came from the players believing in each other, believing in the process, and chipping away one possession at a time. It wasn't going to be one big play that changed everything. It was about “hitting singles, getting on base,” and continuing to chip away.
What a lesson for all of us in our own high stress "games" in life!
The great Jewish Chassidic mystic the Baal Shem Tov taught that everything a person sees or hears contains a lesson for his life's mission and Divine service.
And like all life lessons, this one is incredibly well timed with this week's Parsha, Shelach, and the story of the spies.
The basic story: as the Jewish people stood poised to enter the Land of Israel, Moshe sent twelve scouts to gather information. He specifically asked them to report on the people living there, the cities, the land itself, and its produce. They came back and gave exactly that information with a negative conclusion: Despite G-d's promise , there is no way we can go up and conquer our Promised land. Only Kalev and Joshua were positive that despite the challenges they believed the Jewiih people could be successful.
At first glance, the story of the spies seems unfair. They were told to scout and report and they gave their honest assessment.
So why were ten of them punished?
The answer is that the truth isn't only about what you say. It's also about how you say it and why you're saying it.
The ten spies didn't just report facts. They interpreted those facts through the lens of fear.
Instead of saying, “These are the challenges we'll need to overcome,” they basically said, “There's no chance. We can't do this.”
They took accurate observations and because of their lens of fear they presented them in a way that crushed the people's confidence. They focused on the obstacles and ignored the promise that G-d Almighty had already given them: that they would succeed.
But Kalev and Joshua saw the exact same facts and reached a completely different conclusion.
They understood that challenges are not proof that something can't be done. Sometimes challenges are proof that something important is worth doing.
In many ways, Jalen Brunson was describing the mindset of Kalev and Joshua:
Believe. Keep chipping away. One possession at a time.
The Rebbe applied this idea to the social upheavals of the 1960s. Many people looked at a generation questioning authority and tradition and saw only danger. The Rebbe saw opportunity.
Just as the spies should have viewed the unusually large fruit as a sign of the Land's potential, the Rebbe saw young Jews searching for meaning as a tremendous source of future growth.
And history proved him right. Thousands of young Jews became committed, knowledgeable, and passionate about their Judaism.
The lesson for us is powerful.
G-d Almighty has promised that the world is moving toward redemption. That outcome isn't in doubt.
What is in doubt is how we choose to look at the obstacles along the way.
When we focus only on what's wrong, we can become like the spies—seeing every challenge as evidence that success is impossible.
But when we view challenges as opportunities to grow, create, and make a difference, we become like Kalev and Yehoshua.
The same reality can produce fear or faith.
The choice is ours.
Shabbat Shalom! Good Shabbos!
Rabbi Yitzi Hein