Sh’lach Lecha 5783 – Va’ani Tefilati
Spies! Guys! Lies!
This week’s parsha, Sh’lach Lecha, has tons of action in it. Moses sends twelve spies to scope out the land of Israel, with specific questions and things to search for when they get there. These chosen leaders were the chieftains of the twelve tribes! One would think that they would have been trustworthy and reliable messengers. But that’s the sad thing about leaders – they sometimes turn out to be the opposite.
The parsha opens with these words,
שְׁלַח־לְךָ אֲנָשִׁים וְיָתֻרוּ אֶת־אֶרֶץ כְּנַעַן אֲשֶׁר־אֲנִי נֹתֵן לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אִישׁ אֶחָד אִישׁ אֶחָד לְמַטֵּה אֲבֹתָיו תִּשְׁלָחוּ כֹּל נָשִׂיא בָהֶם׃
“Send agents to scout the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelite people; send one participant from each of their ancestral tribes, each one a chieftain among them.” (Num. 13:2)
The particular selection of the chieftains as messengers is something the rabbis choose to focus on. The Chasidic Master Degel Machaneh Efraim (Moshe Chaim Ephraim, 1748-1800 Poland, the Ba’al Shem Tov’s grandson) has a beautiful teaching on leadership that he learns from the word, nasi, chieftain:
מִלַּת “נָשִׂיא” יֵשׁ בָּהּ אוֹתִיּוֹת “אֵין” וְאוֹתִיּוֹת “יֵשׁ”. נָשִׂיא שֶׁמַּחֲזִיק עַצְמוֹ לְ”אֵין” הוּא “יֵשׁ”. אֲבָל אִם מַחֲזִיק עַצְמוֹ לְ”יֵשׁ” הוּא “אֵין”
The word “chieftain” contains the letters for “nothingness (אַיִן – Ayin)” and “Is-ness (יֵש- Yeish)”. A leader who holds themself to nothingness has “isness” i.e. substance. But a leader who holds themself to “is-ness” (read: ego) is nothing.
A leader is someone who can practice tzimtzum, contraction – a lessening of the ego to think about the greater good for the community they are leading. That’s also what the prayer Va’ani Tefilati at the end of the Mah Tovu prayer is trying to get us to focus on. Mah Tovu is the prayer we say when we first walk into a prayer space. Who is the Ani (me) who is walking into that space? Who do I hope to be today? How can I be present for myself and also for the people around me? The word nasi, chieftain, also contains all of the letters for the word ani, me. But only if we are able to arrange ourselves properly are we able to be the kind of leaders the world needs.
I am currently up at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin where I wrote the melody for these words with my former camper Yael Bettenhausen. This Shabbat I’ll be singing it on the Kikar (central square at camp), and I’ll hope you all will be singing with me wherever you are!
Shabbat Shalom,
Josh
