Shlach in Merchav Shabbat THIS SHABBAT!
In Merchav Shabbat, our online Shabbat morning services on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays, we've been learning to chant trope for almost a whole year now. What that looks and sounds like is 9, 10, 11, and 12 year olds chanting Torah for us many weeks.
Now we’ve added a summary of the Torah portion and a d'var Torah that we read together.
NEXT week in July - by the request of our 8-13 year olds, our whole Torah service will expand a bit and we'll add more discussion of the Torah portion during our time together. More Torah, More Tines!
If you are joining Merchav Shabbat on Saturday, you might want to wait to read this - unless you want a preview! If you don’t have the link, please reach out to me!
Parsha Summary
The name of this Parshah, "Shlach," means "send" and it is in the book of Bamidbar which means “in the wilderness” - “ba” - in the and “midbar” - wilderness, but we call it “Numbers” in English.
Moses sends twelve men as scouts representing each of the tribes of Israel - sometimes we call them spies - to the land of Canaan to check it out and see what they can see. From the tribe of Judah, Moses chose Caleb. From the tribe of Ephraim, Moses chose Joshua. The other men were Shammua from the tribe of Ruven, Shafat from the tribe of Shimon, Igal from the tribe of Isachar, Palti from the tribe of Benjamin, Gadiel from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddi from the tribe of Menasseh - which is also the tribe of Joseph, Ammiel from the tribe of Dan, Setur from the tribe of Asher, Nachbi from the tribe of Naphtali, and Guel from the tribe of Gad.
These scouts go into the Negev, up to Hebron, and explore the land. Forty days later, they come back carrying a huge cluster of grapes, a pomegranate, and a fig!
Do you think they were excited about everything they saw and these foods they brought back?
Would you be excited?
Let’s find out.
They go directly to Moses and Aaron and the entire Israelite people gathered in Kadesh in “midbar Paran” - the wilderness of Paran - and describe a land FLOWING WITH MILK AND HONEY, bountiful and beautiful. BUT! they say, the people who live in the Land are GIANTS and POWERFUL WARRIORS and the scouts scare everyone so much that the Israelites don’t want to go into the Land anymore.
Uh. Oh.
Caleb tries to tell them they can do it. Joshua backs him up, but the other twelve scouts go ON AND ON about how impossible it would be to try to go into that Land, even though God promised it to them. They say when they were there, “we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves, and so we must have looked to” the people of that Land.
The people cry out: “We would rather go back to Egypt!”
They are too scared to go into the Land.
Can you picture Moses and Aaron and Miriam and Batya?
How do they look to you?
How do you think they are feeling about now?
They are about to feel even worse!
God decrees that the people of Israel will not enter the land for ANOTHER forty years and the entire generation that was liberated from Egypt will die in the desert. A small band of Jews, including Zelo-phe-chad who had five daughters - Malah, Noa, Hoglah, Milkah, and Tirza - broke away from the rest of the Israelites and tried to enter the land even though Moses warned them not to. They were all killed by the Amalekites and Canaanites.
In the rest of the parsha are rules about offerings, especially offerings for forgiveness, the mitzvah to separate a portion of the dough (the challah) for God when making bread, and the instruction to put tzitzit - fringes - on the four corners of our garments so we will see them and wrap in them and remember the mitzvot - the divine commandments.
On Saturday, we will be chanting from Numbers Chapter 15 verses 37, 38, 39, 40, and 41. If you are there, you'll be able to listen and watch for words and trope you recognize! Some parts of these verses just might be familiar to us!
D'var Torah
Maybe you recognized the end of Parshat Shlach from the V’ahavta?
Let’s take a look at the verses from the Torah we just chanted, just so we can remember seeing them. You'll find them in Numbers Chapter 15 verses 40 and 41.
These verses from parshat Shlach are in the third paragraph the the Shema.
Third paragraph?
Many of us think of the Shema as just the one line: Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad. Right?
Actually, there are three parts of the Shema. That first line is really just the first part of the first part! The Shema and V’ahavta together are Part 1. Then Part 2 is about the consequences of not living by these words and mitzvot - commandments. THEN we have a third part, Part 3, and these verses from Parshat Shlach are part of it. Part 3 talks about tzittzit - fringes, like on a tallit - A LOT.
It also includes that we are supposed to remember the Exodus every day of our lives.
Did you know that the Shema - all three parts, and Birkat HaMazon - the blessings after we eat, are the ONLY TWO prayers that are specifically commanded in the Torah?
Did you know that the Shema is the OLDEST prayer that we’ve been saying the same way, word for word, since ancient times?
If we didn’t know those things already - now we do!
Let’s look at just these verses from Shlach a little closer.
Verse 37: God spoke to Moses saying:
Verse 38: Speak to the Israelite people and tell them to make themselves fringes on the corners of their garments throughout all time; have them attach a cord of blue to the “tzitzit” at each corner.
Verse 39: That shall be your “tzitzit”; look at it and remember all the mitzvot of God and observe them, so that you do not follow your heart and eyes and act without thinking about what you are doing.
Verse 40: “L’ma’an tizkaru” this is how you’ll be reminded to do all of My commandments and be holy to Me.
Verse 41: I, (yud hay vav hay), am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am your God, (yud hay vav hay).
The “yud hay vav hay” matters because it’s the special name of God that God told Moses.
Technically, according to the Torah, the tallit should be worn all day.
That is not always practical in today’s world.
Some Jewish folks wear a tallit katan, a “small tallit” under their clothing. It’s also called the arba kanfot, the “four corners.”
It’s basically an undershirt with fringes on it.
Many Jews wear a tallit during morning prayers and all day on Yom Kippur.
Sometimes the prayer leader will wear a tallit during other services as well.
In many Ashkenasic Orthodox communities whose ancestors are from Eastern Europe, boys (and only boys) start wearing tallit katan when they are three and begin wearing a tallit gadol, a large prayer shawl, only after marriage. Other Orthodox Jewish boys and men including Sephardic Jews begin wearing tallit gadol at bar mitzvah.
In Modern Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructionist, Reform, Jewish Renewal, Pluralistic, and other parts of our great big Jewish community, anyone who has become b’mitzvah may wear a tallit gadol - a prayer shawl. We usually just call it a tallit or a tallis. If we celebrate becoming b’mitzvah here with Merchav, our b’mitzvah is the first time we wear a tallit officially.
Wearing tzitzit - fringes - and remembering the mitzvot is a mitzvah.
The mitzvah of “hiddur mitzvah” is about making a mitzvah extra beautiful.
Here are what some tallitot - tallit katan and tallit gadol - look like.
To sum up, in Parshat Shlach, we get this story of the scouts representing each of the tribes of Israel and we learn that Caleb and Joshua think differently than the other scouts and do not look like grasshoppers to themselves - and neither should we.
We find out that it’s going to be ANOTHER forty years before the Israelites get to go into the Land, and that we are going to need more rules and guidance and stories and mitzvot about who we are and how to live together out here bamidbar - in the desert.
THEN we get this BRAND NEW MITZVAH of wearing tzitzit to help us remember all 613 commandments AND that we are the people who experienced the Exodus from Egypt AND that we have a relationship with God that means we are supposed to spend our lives figuring out what it means to be holy.
Maybe there is something about wrapping ourselves in tzitzit, in ALL of our mitzvot and our stories and our ancestors, that can help us remember who we really are.
Shabbat Shalom.