How We See What We See

Insight of the Week

Parashat Shelah tells the tragic story of חטא המרגלים – the sin of the spies. Moshe sent twelve spies into the Land of Israel to see what it was like before Beneh Yisrael proceeded to the land. Ten of the twelve spies returned with a negative and frightening report, and the people decided they did not wish to proceed. Hashem responded by decreeing that the nation would wander for forty years in the desert, until that entire generation perished, and only their children would enter Eretz Yisrael . In delivering their report to the people, the spies said about the land, ארץ אוכלת יושביה היא – “It is a land that consumes its inhabitants” (13:32). The Gemara explains that during the time the spies spent in Eretz Yisrael , they observed funerals taking place all over. Hashem wanted to distract the inhabitants so they would not notice the presence of twelve strangers, and He therefore brought a deadly plague in the land. Many people died, and the inhabitants of Eretz Yisrael were preoccupied with tending to their deceased that they did not notice the spies. But the spies saw this differently, concluding that Eretz Yisrael was an ארץ אוכלת יושביה – a place that kills the people who live there, where people cannot survive. Rav Shimshon Pincus explained the spies’ mistake in light of a passage in the famous work Hovot Ha’levavot , which tells the tale of a wise man who was walking outside with his students, when they saw an animal carcass lying on the ground. The wise man turned to his disciples and asked, “What do you see?” “A revolting, smelly carcass,” they said. The wise man replied, “Look how white its teeth are. I see beautiful white teeth.” So many of us are addicted to negativity. So much of our conversation is devoted to complaining – about the weather, about politics, about the rabbi, about other people, about everything under the sun. For some reason, we love pointing out what is wrong. Rarely, if ever, do we point out the “white teeth,” the good in people, and ignore everything else. This was the spies’ mistake. Hashem performed a great miracle for their benefit, but they saw it as an indication that the land was terrible. The Torah tells that the spies showed the nation the fruits of Eretz Yisrael , and the Midrash explains that these fruits were unusually large. The spies showed the people the fruit to convince them that the land was weird, that it wasn’t a normal place where they would want to live. These fruits were a testament to the land’s exceptional quality – but the spies said that to the contrary, the fruits proved how bad the land was. The Rabbis speak of חטא המרגלים as lashon ha’ra , negative speech. The way they spoke about the Land of Israel resembles the sin of lashon ha’ra – speaking negatively about other people. In light of this comparison, we can explain that lashon ha’ra is about the way we see what we see. When we speak lashon ha’ra about somebody, we’re doing what the spies did – finding the negative instead of focusing on the positive; seeing the “carcass” instead of the “white teeth.” It’s about how we view other people, zooming in on their faults and mistakes, rather than focusing on everything good about them. I once received a startling phone call from a man who said that he needed to speak to me because he had a problem. He explained that everything in his life is wonderful. He has a wonderful marriage, wonderful children, a wonderful community, and a wonderful income. He has time to learn Torah. “So what’s the problem?” I asked. “My wife is 20 lbs. overweight, and it really drives me crazy. I just can’t get over it.” Amidst my conversation with this fellow about his “problem,” I told him that the vast majority of people in the world would give anything to have as good a life as he has. When I hung up the phone, it occurred to me that as peculiar as this was, almost all of us are guilty of the same kind of thing, of ignoring the “white teeth,” of focusing on what’s wrong about our lives and about the people around us, instead of appreciating all that is good. Let us ask ourselves honestly, how do we see what we see? Do we notice all the beautiful blessings in our lives, and all the beautiful qualities of our family members and friends? Or do we choose to focus on the negative aspects, on everything that is wrong? Hashem gives us many “large fruits,” countless wonderful blessings. The problem is that instead of recognizing them as blessings, we turn everything into a complaint. Let us learn the lesson of the meraglim , the ten spies, and correct this terrible ill. Let us see all that is beautiful in the people and the world around us, and always focus on what there is to praise and to feel good about, rather than focusing on what there is to complain about.