Do you know what the word Faith mean? You are probably sure you know such a basic category. I only hope that the reader is ready for the Truth, both intellectually and spiritually.
As always, in many chapters – the main thing is the most missed – And God spoke to Moses. I will always remind the reader this point: a personal revelation – a Ruach Hakodesh in Hebrew, Samadhi, Satori, Nirvana, Enlightenment, Divine Revelation in other cultures/religions – is the foundation and a purpose of spirituality and human evolution. It is this often repeated sentence constantly reminds us that everything in Torah comes from God: Torah Truth, evolution of the World, of the humankind and of Israel. And on the personal level, you, the reader, should seek such a Divine connection, should develop the craving for such connection.
God tells Moses to send spies to Chanaan to explore the Land. Each spy represents his tribe, being a head of his tribe – other Israelites will heed to their report.
For 40 days they explored the Land and gathered the samples of the produce. After 40 days they returned back to Paran Desert where Israel stayed at the moment and made their report to Moses, Aharon and the elders. To understand what follows we will analyse some details of their report:
The Land … is flowing with milk and honey and this is it’s fruit
So far all the spies report the same – just what they saw , then
but strong are the people who dwell in the land and the cities are fortified, very large and also descendants of the giants did we see there.
then follows the description of the well known powerful nations living in those territories. Surely this description does not seems to be unbiased report by the spies rather expression of their opinion. At the same time Calev tried to bring attention to the following:
We will certainly go up and we will take possession of it because we are certainly able to do it.
All the Torah commentator, Rabbis and gentile Bible scholars agree to the common and obvious understanding: 10 out of 12 spies lack the faith in God whereas only 2 – Calev and Joshua show the faith in God and in His Covenant. Although this understanding so obvious that it cannot be disputed, yet, it is too shallow. It lacks something which would allow us to apply this case to our days and being able to alter life of Israel today and consequently of the world.
The problem of shallow understanding stems from the fact that it is the same as the attitude toward a book read by a person who already knows the final conclusion. Such person cannot feel the reality of the present moment because he already knows the outcome. Such knowledge influences him to the point that he cannot understand the participants of the story. Especially considering such a book as Torah which requires the ultimate understanding as that situation and it’s tragedy repeats today. Key to the deep understanding can solve our problems today. Let analyse the psycho of all the spies and their differences.
All 12 spies saw the same during their exploration. There were no differences in the facts. Let’s list them:
- The land is good.
- Powerful nations live there.
- Large fortified cities built there.
- Well known powerful nations live in that land.
- Giants live there comparing to whom our spies saw themselves as grasshoppers.
Let’s add some well known historical prospective to that report:
Israelites were not equipped for large scale military confrontation. They never had any military experience (even for a small confrontation, a confrontation with a limited group of Amalekites was still a devastating experience for them ) as they never served in Egypt Pharaoh’s army – they were only shepherds, builders and craftsmen. Taking over the fortified cities at that time was next to impossible even for a large and experienced army such as Egyptian, because the equipment to brake through the walls was not developed yet, but only many century later by Romans. And now comes … giants. For you, a modern day reader this is just another word which meaning you cannot understand. Why? Because you, a reader, cannot imaging standing in deadly confrontation armed with sword, in front of a man two time larger and stronger than you and having a sword respectively larger… You could only understand the report of those “bad, unfaithful” spies if you had a chance to see for real what those giants looked like and fought like and imaging yourself fighting with them, no not with rifles, but with cold blade…
But even at this point I still don’t think that you sincerely understand the situation. This next parallel will help you more clearly understand the situation facing Jews back then, after report of the spies.
Do you think it is possible for Israel today to capture territories and destroy armies of their adversaries – Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Iran, all of them? Take your time to think.
Ratio between the size of the armies of Israel and her opponents just about the same as it was back then in the time under consideration. Please delve deep into the question and consider that Israel today is much much better prepared militarily compared to the Jews back then fighting hand to hand combat …
Now I hope you are getting a bit closer to understanding of the reality 3400 years ago. If so, you are in a better position to judge those 10 spies who brought a negative report and may be even … understand them better. If you do, it is time to compare the psycho of ten spies compared to the psycho of Calev and Joshua and try to understand the difference between them and, to the point, of the notion of Faith.
Those two saw the same facts on the ground. The reality of the “Mission impossible” situation rang in their heads just as in the heads of the other 10 spies. Talking in the language of psychology, their sensory perception was the same, but the difference appeared in the reflection in the mind. The conclusion part of the report came from the reflection of the mind, the dominant subconscious, which makes us what we are, the sum total of our beliefs and experiences. This is that part of the mind which does not depend on the perceived reality or, simply put, on the realities around us. Understanding this part of the mind will reveal what the word Faith mean.
Although all the spies live through the experience of the ten plagues, the Divine Revelation on the Mt. Sinai and all of them saw the visually available presence of God among them in the form of the cloud during the day and in the form of the fire during the night, yet, while performing their mundane duties those past experiences became completely irrelevant and void. Not so for Calev and Joshua. These Divine revelations changed their subconscious mind to a such degree that no matter what sensory perception they experienced in their worldly lives, the subconscious evaluated all incoming perceptions comparing them to the Divine. Divine presence, Divine reality became dominant in their mind. More so that the “perceived reality” on the ground, more than external objective world.
This is a property of the mind which had a Divine experience and became attached to it! It is easier to experience this feeling than to put them in words…
Mental patterns of the Ruach Hakodesh ? Breaching of the Klippah which separates us like a curtain from the Divine Light (using the language of Kabbalah)?
Obviously those other ten spies were not influenced in their subconscious by their Divine experiences. The recent sensory experiences in the Land, facing the envisioned difficulties, were the only ones to form a report without interpolation with preceding Divine experiences.
So now we can figure out what constitutes Faith as something coming out as a difference between those opposite groups of spies and, with help of God, I will humbly try to outline this Supreme concept:
Based on the undeniable spiritual experience or sensory experience of the Divine Powers, true Faith is a strong undeniable knowledge of the Divine Presence in every aspect of the wordly life of individual as well as of a nation – Such Presence always present, always acting to help those who established a channel with Divine in their subconscious mind.
This mental pattern overshadows any mundane sensory experience. But it is not a “damn craziness” in real world, it is not a “blindness”. Quite opposite – this mental pattern knows something which dictates the reality from Divine realm, which conducts the reality in it’s subsequent future happenings. Here we have a great example to this statement as Calev and Joshua reveal their subconscious vision of the situation:
Only do not rebel against God then you don’t need to fear the people of the Land because they are our bread (or, metaphorically, we will eat them) for their protection has gone from them and God is with us, do not fear them.
These words display the mental reflection through the Divinely inspired mind what we call Faith. In fact this mental reflection even reveals additional information which was not available to the human senses but only to a mind which possesses such Faith.
I don’t even like the word Faith as many people wrongly understand it as a believe without support on the ground. I prefer to replace it with the expression of a Knowledge of Divine or a Connection with Divine. Such mental pattern is based on the facts in the Heaven and therefore preempts any happenings on the ground. It is this mental pattern which overrides any sensory perception of the worldly events, which constitutes a Knowledge of Divine and a true Faith. It does not vanish when a Jew is standing against the adversary or when he encounters evil decree of the government or when he is facing hostility from the neighbors, etc. If a real spiritual experience truly formed a Divine presence in the subconscious mind, it cannot be subdued by any sensory experience. It cannot diminish even if you are about to be stoned as Joshua and Calev were threatened to. It is more solid mental foundation than anything else experienced in real life.
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P.S. More on the psychology of the Faith see my other posting in category Human Mind, Faith, & Religion, in particular my article http://www.torahtruth.blog/2008/10/idol-worship-part1-understanding-nature-of-faith/
Ben
