• Equal Opportunity for All

    The Torah guarantees equal opportunity but not equal outcome. The outcome is up to the individual, God gives us the tools, it is up to use them properly.

  • Actions Speak Louder Than Words

    The rebellion led by Korach was logical. If the purpose of the Torah was to make us better people then why do we need all these commandments? What he failed to see was that keeping the commandments was a sure way of making us better people.

  • Understand What You See

    The mistake of the scouts was that they manipulated the facts to meet their agenda. The Torah warns against this by concluding this week’s portion by admonishing us not to follow our eyes and heart but our intelligence and faith.

  • Be A Part of the Community

    An example of someone who gave to the community and felt a vital part of the community was Benedict Stambler. When he saw that the recordings of Cantor Rosenblatt were about to be lost he took the initiative to rerecord them.

  • Fear of Success

    The problem of the Jews was fear of succeeding in taking the Land. It meant that they would be responsible to do all the things that the Torah commands. That the Commandments were no longer theoretical but practical. They would now have to work.

  • Don’t Follow the Crowd

    Joshua & Caleb did not follow the conventional wisdom of the other scouts. They were outliers in their views. Yet they were correct in their analysis while the others were not. This is to teach that it is the outliers who advance ideas, not those who follow the crowd.

  • The Hubris of Power

    The problems of the scouts that Moses sent was that they were the leaders of the tribes. They felt that they would lose power if they gave a good report. That is why they sabotaged the whole effort.

  • We Have to Earn It

    The reason that Moses was commanded to send the scouts to scout out the Land was because we have a partnership with God. God will help us but He wants us to also have a part in the process. We have to earn the miracle.

  • There Are No Coincidences

    The Torah points out that when bad things happen to the Jewish people then it is necessary for the Jews to look into themselves as to why these things are happening. There are no coincidences because God is in charge.

  • A Conceptual Nation

    The Torah states that the convert is required to celebrate Passover as is the natural born Jew. That is because without Passover there would be no Jewish nation for the convert to join.