The difference between learning from one’s mistakes and
replicating them is tiny, but so significant. Think back a few weeks, to when
we read about the disaster with the spies. Right at the beginning of their
travels, Moses sent them to scout out their future homeland and
report on the best way to go about conquering it. They overstepped their
mission and, instead of just describing the task that lay ahead, they analyzed
the problem and decided they they’d never succeed. As punishment for breaching
orders, the Jews were condemned to an extra forty years of wandering.
…
This week we read about a similar situation, only this time a
different outcome came about. Moses sent spies to discover the best way to
conquer the land of Yaazer. The spies again overreached themselves, and instead
of reporting back to base, undertook to make war on the nation all by
themselves. In an astonishing display of self-reliance and resolve, their risk
paid off and their surprise attack succeeded.
…
After the disaster of forty years previously, the spies
could well have been excused were they to have insisted on sticking rigidly to
the tenets of their task, not deviating from Moses’ instructions by the
proverbial inch. …
The new set of spies had the gumption and confidence to aspire for immediate success, and demonstrated that they had truly learnt the lesson of the ages by daring to dream and committing themselves to accomplishing G‑d’s will, irrespective of any dangers that lay ahead.
The new set of spies had the gumption and confidence to aspire for immediate success, and demonstrated that they had truly learnt the lesson of the ages by daring to dream and committing themselves to accomplishing G‑d’s will, irrespective of any dangers that lay ahead.
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