Parashat Sh’lah
Numbers 13:1 – 15:41
Our Torah portion opens with the dramatic story of the spies who surveyed the land of Israel prior to the entry of the Israelites into that promised destination. They reported back that the land was unconquerable – despite God’s promises – and, by dissuading the people from going forward, brought disaster upon that whole generation. It ends with the command to make tassels – tzitzit – on our four-cornered garments.
The Torah seems to wish for us to make a connection between these two parts of our text, for she uses language in the last part that echoes language in the first part. (See, e.g., Torah Sparks, 2012) Precisely what that connection might entail has been the subject of many discussions. We may consider one possible connection when we contemplate how Jewish custom has developed regarding our interaction with the tzitzit– usually attached to the special garments we wear during prayer, the tallit.
The paragraph devoted to the tzitzit has been incorporated into the liturgical unit we call “the Sh’ma.” In the morning, as we prepare to recite this central prayer, the custom is to gather the four tassels that are at the four corners of the tallit. As we do this, we say: “Gather us from the four corners of the land and lead us with heads held up high, to our land.” Thus we turn our prayer shawls into symbols of the entire world. The tassels are the people of Israel, scattered to the four corners of the earth. As we gather these tassels into one bundle, we pray for the ingathering of the entire people of Israel into the Promised Land. And we further stipulate that we pray to enter the land – not in stealth or in shame or out of fear – but with a sense of dignity and confidence.
It turns out that we are praying every day to reverse the failure of our ancestors, the spies, who did not believe in themselves or in God and did not wish to enter the land. So many generations later, after waiting for the generation of the spies to die, and after we have entered the land and after we left it in exile, suffering and humiliation, and after we re-entered the land, and after we left it again, we pray that we may be given one more chance to come home. As we grasp the tassels we remind ourselves that such an opportunity of grace and redemption literally lies in our own hands.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi David Greenstein
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Image: “Tzitzit 8” by orenhayon is licensed under CC BY 2.0 Photo has been altered and is used with permission
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