Devar/5770/Shelach
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And they spread an evil report of the land which they had spied out unto the children of Israel, saying: 'The land, through which we have passed to spy it out, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. (Num 13:32)
Despite God's promise that the Children of Israel would inherit the Land, the majority of the spies returned with unpleasant news: it would be impossible to conquer the Land. Immediately And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night (Num 14:1).
The concept of the "big lie" is well known to us from our history. Even the most outrageous statement, the more it is repeated the more it penetrates into the world-view of the general public -- until it becomes so ingrained that hardly anyone knows it is not true. So for example in our own times, the entire world "knows" that the State of Israel starves the Gazans -- despite the well documented fact that the markets in Gaza lack nothing.
But the "big lie" on its own is insufficient to convince an honest person. Rather, there must be another factor at work which causes the listener to lean towards the lie. For example, in the case brought above, anti-Semitism is one possible reason. In the story of the generation of the wilderness, they longed for stability even at the cost of their own freedom. In addition they did not trust God yet, despite all He had done for them.
There is an important lesson to be drawn from this. We must carefully consider and know whether our decisions are based upon facts and truth, or whether there is some influence pushing us to take a position which is more convenient for us. Keep thee far from a false matter (Ex 23:7) -- in all senses of the word.
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