The portion of Shelach tells the story of the 12 spies Moses sent to scout the Land of Canaan. It is one of the most riveting episodes in the entire Torah.

“Go up … and see what [kind of] land it is,” Moses instructed the spies. “ … and the people who inhabit it: Are they strong or weak? Are there few or many?”1

The story of the spies takes a bad turn when they come back with a negative report about the land. We cannot conquer it, they say. It’s never going to happen. We’re all going to die.

This was a transformative event; it changed what would have been a one-year stay in the desert—due to the sin of the Golden Calf—to a 40-year sojourn.

Mirroring the 40 days that the spies spent crisscrossing the land accumulating their discouraging intel, G‑d’s punishment was an additional year in the desert for each of the 40 days of spying. Thus, the Jewish people remained in the desert for a total of 40 years.2

Our Divine Mandate

A number of perplexing questions immediately arise when reading this narrative:

First, why send spies at all? If G‑d says go, then go! Second, these spies were men who witnessed miracles firsthand! If G‑d could bring about the Exodus from Egypt, strike the Egyptians with 10 plagues, split the sea, and give the Torah at Mount Sinai, then surely He could bring about the liberation of the land from the Canaanite nations. What was the big deal?

One of the reasons that G‑d allowed Moses to send spies is because that was what the Jewish people wanted. Whenever possible—within reason—people must be allowed to do as they wish. “I have a bad feeling about it,” G‑d said to Moses, “but if this is what you want to do, do it.”3

So why, in fact, did the spies come back with a negative report?

On a basic level, it is because they encountered giants in the land, and they simply became overwhelmed by the prospect of going up against these fierce warriors. But there is a deeper explanation. The spies were very spiritual people; they were leaders of the Jewish people, great Torah scholars. They were good people, yet their ideas quickly transformed and they began to develop plans to convince the Jewish people that G‑d would not be able to liberate the land of Canaan. Why the change?

The answer is rooted in a profound Chassidic concept. When the Jewish people were in the desert, their very survival was miraculous. Every aspect of their existence was the result of a miracle. Where did they get food from? Manna came down from heaven. Water? A rock rolled alongside them and provided water. Their clothing was laundered by the surrounding Protective Clouds while still on their bodies. They had no financial worries, no money problems. The stock market didn’t go up and it didn’t go down. Real estate prices were steady. Everybody had money in their pockets.

So how did they spend their time? What did they do all day? They studied Torah! They grew spiritually.

The spies said, “Why should we go into the Land of Israel, where we’re all going to become farmers? What do we need this for? We’ll have to wake up very early in the morning and fight with the earth, and deal with the trials and tribulations of farming. And then, after spending our days plowing, planting, reaping, and harvesting, we’ll have to make sure that we don’t become so involved with the earth that we forget about the Heavens. We have a better idea: let’s stay here in the desert where we can remain spiritual.”

The spies reasoned that G‑d’s miracles worked in the desert. Their existence was guaranteed as long as they stayed there, because everything in the desert was miraculous. But as soon as they entered the Land, their existence would need to subscribe to the laws of nature. What guarantee did they have that they were going to be successful? According to the laws of nature, said the spies, they are stronger than us. Meaning, not only are the Canaanites physically stronger than us, but the natural law of materialism is stronger than the natural law of spirituality. It won’t work to be spiritual people surrounded by materialism; we’ll be easily overwhelmed.

And G‑d told them they were making a big mistake. The entire purpose of creation is for the Jew to take the material world, connect with it, engage with it, and transform the physical into the spiritual.

When the physical world is transformed, it becomes a dwelling place for G‑d. Choosing to remain in the spiritual cocoon of the desert might feel good, but it doesn’t fit with G‑d’s plan. G‑d wants a dwelling place here on earth, a home among His people.4

Resisting Peer Pressure

Only two of the 12 spies—Joshua, Moses’ student and right-hand man; and Caleb, Moses’ brother-in-law—returned from their mission with positive reports.

Interestingly, Caleb decided to detour to Hebron while scouting the land. The verse states, “They [the spies] went up in the south, and he came to Hebron …,”5 switching from the plural “they” to the singular “he.”

Rashi, citing the Talmud6, explains that this refers to Caleb, who decided to pray at the Cave of Machpelah, the burial site of the patriarchs and matriarchs, to ask their souls to intercede with G‑d on his behalf.

This is the idea of praying at the gravesite—at the ohel—of a tzaddik, a righteous person.

What was Caleb’s prayer? He beseeched G‑d to save him from the evil counsel of the other spies and to keep him from falling into their trap.

The Power of Positivity

As the spies delivered their pessimistic report, Caleb suddenly spoke up:

“Caleb silenced the people … and he said, ‘We shall surely ascend and take possession of it, for we can surely do it!’”7

The Rebbe taught a profound lesson from Caleb’s bravery:

In life, as we encounter challenges and approach seemingly insurmountable tasks, we tend to panic. A little voice inside of us says, “You can’t do this. It’s impossible. You’ll never succeed. It’s going to overwhelm you. Give up now.” We often listen to that voice of panic, which convinces us that we will never amount to anything.8

This holds true in general, and especially regarding our commitment to Torah, mitzvot, acts of kindness and goodness, and to building the infrastructure of Judaism. The Rebbe often directed this message to his shluchim, the emissaries he sent out across the globe, with only a blessing and mandate: “Go make it happen.”

How can we make it happen when we have that voice of negativity inside of us, telling us, “It’s impossible. It can’t happen. Go home”? These voices of negativity are not only inside us, they’re also all around us!

In 1973, when my wife and I arrived in Encino, Calif., to take up our post as the Rebbe’s shluchim in the San Fernando Valley, I was handed a short list of people in the area who had previously contributed to Chabad of California. What was I going to ask them for? I felt that if asked for support, they’d probably throw me out. So instead, I decided to ask for advice.

“I’m here to set up a Chabad house,” I said. “Do you have any ideas?”

And what advice did I get?

“Go home!” they said. “Go back where you came from.”

“You’re never going to succeed,” they said. “It’s impossible.”

“You think that you can bring Judaism to the Valley?” they asked incredulously. “Give up now. It’s never going to happen.”

Amidst all of these voices of negativity, along comes the resolute voice of Caleb from deep within us that says: “We can definitely take possession of the land. We can definitely do it. WE CAN DO IT!”

Caleb reminds us all that sometimes we need to channel our inner Little Engine That Could and repeat to ourselves, “I think I can. I think I can. I know I can.” If we say it enough, we can actually do it. That is the power of positive thinking.

But there’s a lot more to it than mere positivity. We need to have faith. We need to believe in what we’re doing. We need to put our trust in G‑d.

Tracht gut vet zein gut! “Think good and it will be good!” taught the Third Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch, known as the Tzemach Tzedek.

A negative attitude breeds panic; a positive attitude breeds faith, trust, and success. And that’s the powerful message from Caleb. We all go through bumps in life. Hang in there. This too shall pass. Stay positive!

Grasshopper Complex

Several verses later, we are given additional insight into what caused the spies’ state of panic:

“There [in Canaan] we saw the giants … In our eyes, we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we were in their eyes.”9

I remember feeling like that once. Many years ago, I was traveling to a wedding in Caracas, Venezuela, and the flight I took had a changeover in Dallas. I went through the security checkpoint in Dallas, and, of course, I was wearing my black hat. This was in the early days of the TSA, and every security checkpoint was different. So I asked, “What should I do with my hat? In L.A. and New York they tell me to put my hat in a bin. Do I need to do that here?” The officer looked down at me. This guy was six feet and five inches in his socks. I thought he was going to kill me. He says, “Sir, this is Texas. In Texas, we never get between a man and his hat!”

Back to the story of the spies. The Rebbe tells us to look closely at their words: In our eyes, we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we were in their eyes. Why did they say, “…and so we were in their eyes”? Did they know what the giants were thinking?

The answer lies in the fact that the spies’ problems all began with their own self-perception. When you have an inferiority complex, you walk around saying, “What am I? I’m just a grasshopper. I’m a nobody. I will never amount to anything.” When you see yourself as a grasshopper, pretty soon everyone else will see you as a grasshopper as well. But if you see yourself as a giant, everyone else will see you that way too.

It all begins with a healthy sense of self, which comes directly from recognizing that we are all connected to G‑d. We are on a mission, doing what He wants us to do, and therefore nothing is impossible, nothing is hopeless. We can accomplish anything. Indeed, we can do it!10

A Second Chance

We look at the generation of the spies, known as the dor hamidbar – the “generation of the desert,” and we may wonder, “What’s wrong with these people? Why did they repeatedly question G‑d? Why did they so often lose their faith?”

The Mishnah11 tells us that the Jewish people in the desert tested G‑d 10 times! How could they be so foolish? So stubborn? So fickle? And we think, “If it were me in that desert, I would never question G‑d!”

Well, according to Kabbalah, the souls in the generation that will merit the Ultimate Redemption with the arrival of our righteous Moshiach (and the Rebbe said that this is our generation!) are all reincarnations of the souls of that constantly-doubting desert generation.

In other words, we’re getting a second chance!

Will we do it right this time? Will we have the strength to believe—and to proclaim—that the Land of Israel was given by G‑d to our forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to each and every one of us as an eternal gift?

Yes, we will! G‑d wants us to succeed. He wants a home.

We now have the opportunity to accomplish what we were unable to the first time around. This time, we will heed Caleb’s exhortation and our positive mindset will carry the day.

“We shall surely ascend and take possession of it, for we can surely do it!”

We can and we will.