Num. 13:1-15:41
Précis: Moses is ordered to “send out” (sh’lach l’cha) spies to examine the land. Representatives of each tribe go out, report on its bounty, but also report about its fearsome inhabitants. The People are frightened, and their “murmuring” turns into something close to panic. God tells Moses that He will destroy the People, but Moses intercedes; the People are sentenced to spend 40 years in the wilderness. The parasha then returns to matters concerning the Tabernacle, with a discussion of the offering for unintentional sins. Near its end, the parasha discusses the wearing of tzitzit, a paragraph which is part of the traditional recitation of the Sh’ma. This is the 27th of 54 parshiot, marking the half-way point in the yearly reading.
Num. 13:33 “We looked like grasshoppers to ourselves, and so we must have looked to them.”
Those of us of a certain age remember the television show “Kung Fu” from the early 1970’s starring David Carradine as a half-Asian student, Kwai Chang Caine, learning the martial arts in China and becoming a Shaolin priest under the tutelage of his beloved teacher, Master Po. Master Po frequently tells him “patience, grasshopper” when he is too eager to advance his knowledge.
The Israelites we read about this week certainly display an epic lack of patience, let alone a lack of belief in God’s promises (despite the miracles they had witnessed). This was the breaking point for God: these people were doomed to wander in the wilderness for 40 years and would never see the Promised Land.
But Master Po’s advice for patience can be just as destructive as the lack thereof by the Israelites. Indeed, while patience may be a virtue, excessive patience is the enemy of action.
This week, for the first time in history, a former President of the United States has been indicted for serious felonies. While patience dictates that we allow the legal process to be fulfilled in an orderly manner, we cannot abide the threats of violence some of his cultish followers have issued, and we can have no patience for his lies, his attacks on the Justice Department and rule of law, for his what-aboutism, or for his narcissistic declarations designed to cover up his failures and illegal activities, so many of which are self-declared.
There are indeed grasshoppers galore, in the form of Trump-adoring (or fearing) Republicans who are rushing to his defense, claiming that the Justice Department has been "weaponized" against Trump (when in fact if he was not the past president, he would have signed a plea deal and been in jail, as so many others with history of misuse of classified documents like him have done).
We cannot be fearful grasshoppers. Joshua and Caleb displayed firm resolve. We, too, must be firm in our resolve to see justice prevail.
