BEGINNING WITH TRUTH
In this week’s parsha the Torah recounts the episode of the spies that were sent to the Land of Israel to scout the land and return with a detailed report about all aspects of its populace, its agriculture and its defenses.
They returned with a scurrilous report about the land, denouncing it as a land that cannot be conquered. The Jews cried that night and, as a result, those who over the age of twenty years and who had participated in the mutiny were destined not to enter the Promised Land.
What was so powerful about the spies’ presentation that persuaded and “brainwashed” a sophisticated people? This generation—to whom the Torah had been given—is identified by our Sages as a “Dor Dei’a,” a knowledgeable generation; a generation nurtured by overt miracles and Manna from heaven, who had heard G-d speaking to them directly at Sinai. How could they be so easily convinced by these rebellious spies?
A partial answer to this question is suggested by Rashi’s comment on the opening words of the report of the spies: “We came to the Land to which you sent us. It is flowing with milk and honey, and this is the fruit!”
The obvious question here is: If their intention was to slander the land, why did they praise it as a land of milk and honey?
In response to this question, Rashi answers: “Any lie which does not begin by saying a bit of truth cannot be sustained in the end.”
The intention of the spies was not to praise the Land of Israel but to denigrate it. However, if they would have begun with negative words, their words would not have been taken seriously.
Truth is so powerful that it captivates the listener to the point that he or she is incapable of shaking off the lies that may follow.
CAPTIVE AUDIENCE
We now have a partial answer to the question of how the spies could so sway public opinion. They lied with the power of truth.
The lesson we derive from this is about the power of truth to influence others. When a person sees sincerity and truth in the words and tone of a speaker, the listener will become receptive to his message. The challenge is to insure that the balance of the talk is also consistent with truth because the audience has become a “captive audience.”
Truth can be a formidable and destructive weapon when it is harnessed to untruths. Throughout Jewish history, the greatest threat to Jewish life came more from those who invoked Torah in their deviation from it than from those who renounced Torah and erased it from their lexicon completely.
THE LIE WAS THE TRUTH… FOR THE SPIES
But upon deeper reflection, Rashi’s words seem to suggest that the lie is sustained if there is truth in the beginning. But that is hardly what happened in the spy saga. In the end, the spies’ lies were exposed for everyone to see. The spies died in a plague. The Jews who cried when they accepted the spies’ report died in the desert before the age of sixty. When the Jews finally entered the Promised Land, they saw the truth about the Land of Israel.
How, then, can we say that their lies were sustained in the end? Rashi should have stated, “Any lie which begins by saying a bit of truth will be believed.” By stating “Any lie which does not begin by saying a bit of truth cannot be sustained in the end,” it implies that in the end the lies were sustained!
The answer is that in the final analysis, the spies’ distortion of the truth was, indeed, sustained. Their lie was that the Land was unconquerable. That was true insofar as that generation was concerned. They could not conquer the land because, as Chassidus teaches, the generation of the spies belonged to the world of thought. They belonged in the desert. They could not translate their lofty spirituality into the world of action. They were products of the second day of creation where the division between the spiritual and physical took place. And they were locked into that dichotomy.
However, the ultimate truth emerged for those who entered the Promised Land. They witnessed how conquering the land was within reach and that there was no dichotomy between the spiritual and the physical. This perception of ultimate truth will be fully manifest in the Messianic Age at which time even those Jews who remained in the desert will arise and, with Moses at their head, enter the Promised Land (Midrash Rabba, Chukas).
THE ROOTS OF TRUTH AND FALSEHOOD
In the beginning there was truth. The Torah’s opening three words end with the letters that can be arranged to spell the word emes, truth. The first day of creation is described by the Torah as Yom Echad, which means “a day of one,” and not the “first day.” Rashi explains that on this day—and only on this day—G-d was truly one because no sentient beings were in existence to “challenge” G-d’s exclusivity. Angels were not created until the second day of creation.
And it is this truth, which presided at the beginning of creation, which enabled all of the falsehood to exist on subsequent days. Without the divine power of truth of day one there would be no potential for the multifarious world that began with day two. On day two, there was division between the upper waters and the lower waters. This symbolizes the emergence of a world in which G-d’s true existence is compromised to allow room for falsehood. Without the truth in the beginning, there can be no sustainable falsehood in the end.
DON’T SAY: WATER, WATER!
The Talmud (Chagiga 14b) relates the classic story of the four Sages who entered a spiritual orchard. Three of the four were affected adversely. The Talmud relates that Rabbi Akiva—the only sage that emerged unscathed—stated to his colleagues upon entry to the orchard, “When you enter near the pure marble stones do not say ‘water, water’ because it says, ‘He that speaks falsehood shall not be established before My eyes.’” What is the lie here? Rashi explains that the lie is that the marble stone is not really water.”
The great Kabbalist, the Arizal explains, that the lie is the perception that there are two waters. This is a reference to the second day of creation when G-d separated the upper waters from the lower waters. It is a lie to imagine that there is truly a dichotomy between the upper worlds and the lower worlds.
Tragically, one of the four—known as Acher—did perceive the division to be real and proceeded to deny G-d’s unity.
TRUTH WITH PEACE
The question can be asked: How could such a person allow himself to accept a lie? The answer is that in the beginning there was truth. When one is so absorbed with the truth of one G-d, and then suddenly he is thrust into a world of division—symbolized by the upper and lower waters separated on day two—it is difficult to reconcile the notion of unity with multiplicity. The result can be a tragic rejection of G-d.
Only Rabbi Akiva, the Talmud states, “entered in peace and left in peace.” This means that Rabbi Akiva always understood that the appearance of two dimensions was only that: an appearance of a duality. He was able to make peace between the two and see the oneness within the division. Rabbi Akiva fused his understanding of the truth of day one with the notion of shalom-peace. He did not see a conflict between unity and the apparent division between upper and lower spheres.
HEALTHY MILK AND HONEY
One can find another connection between the foregoing Talmudic narrative and the story of the spies:
The truthful aspect of the spies’ report was that the Land of Israel was a land of milk and honey. Milk and honey in the foregoing passage in the Talmud alludes to the spiritual orchard that the four sages entered.
When we indulge in the mystical teachings of the Torah—which capture the ultimate truth of G-d’s existence and unity and are therefore characterized as the “wisdom of truth”—there exists the potential for danger that the unity of the beginning will be contradicted by the division of day two. The danger of the “milk and honey” of Torah is eliminated when it is augmented with Rabbi Akiva’s approach of peace—the ability to make peace between the upper and lower spheres of existence so that they don’t contradict G-d’s unity.
With the advent of the Baal Shem Tov and the Chassidic movement, the “milk and honey” of Torah was introduced to the world in ways that show that the “truth at the beginning” of day one is not compromised by the false divisions. This is why Moshiach told the Baal Shem Tov (in the famous spiritual soul experience the Baal Shem Tov had), that he would come when “your teachings will spread to the far reaches of the world.” These teachings—especially as they have been articulated by the Rebbe’s of Chabad, particularly our Rebbe—constitute the fusion of the truth of “milk and honey” with the peace-oriented dynamic of Rabbi Akiva.
What the spies were lacking was the combination of truth with peace. They had the truth but not the peace. Therefore, their truth could not endure. Our generation—the last of exile—will rectify the deficiencies of the generation of the desert and we will enter into the Promised Land to enjoy its milk and honey (truth) synthesized with peace, with the imminent arrival of Moshiach and the true and com
plete (shleima cognate to the world shalom, peace) Redemption.