Portion 37 of 54 · Numbers
שְׁלַח
Shelach
Twelve men go to look at the land. Ten come back afraid, and a generation loses forty years.
Start by reading it
Numbers 13:1–15:41
3 chapters. About 12 minutes at an unhurried pace.
Paired reading from the prophets: Joshua 2:1–24
What happens
- 01
Scouts are sent, one from each tribe, and return carrying enormous fruit.
- 02
Ten report giants and say the people cannot go up. Two disagree.
- 03
The people weep all night and talk about going back to Egypt.
- 04
That generation will not enter. Then laws, and the command of the fringes.
The thing most people walk past
'We were in our own sight as grasshoppers'
The scouts say how they saw themselves before saying how they were seen. The report is accurate about the land and wrong about the people bringing it. Fear does its work through self-description.
One verse to carry
That ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them.
A thread on a garment as a memory device. The Torah keeps building reminders into the physical world, because it assumes people forget.
A question to sit with
The same facts produced two opposite reports. What made the difference between the ten and the two?
There is no answer key. This is the part you take with you.