Shlach
How does our inner land look like?
Reflection by Avigail Beeri-Harel, Or HaLev Teacher:
“In the Torah Portion of Shlach, Moses sends the spies to `scout out the land` that God gave them. We know the ending. The spies go, return, and claim that the land is, 'אֶרֶץ אֹכֶלֶת יוֹשְׁבֶיהָ הִוא'
or, `one that devours its settlers.` (Numbers 13:32)
How is this possible? How could the spies see in the promised land, the land that God promised to the Israelites, who took them there all the way in the desert, a deadly and evil place?
Let's take a closer look at this. When Moses says to the spies, `And see what kind of country it is,` he is actually giving them a special instruction regarding how to see, how to look. The land is the main thing. The people who live on it, the fortified cities, the crops, are secondary to this. The land is first, the basis, the source of everything they will see in it.
When the spies return, they refer, as it were, to Moses' instruction. They say: `We came to the land to which you sent us; and indeed it flows with milk and honey - and this is its fruit.`(13:27). That is, we saw the land, it is indeed good and fertile, but that is not all. There is more to what is there and who is found there: `However, the people who inhabit the country are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large; moreover, we saw the Anakites there.` (13:28)
In fact, in this sense, the story of the land is not complete, but is, rather, fragmented - there is good, and there is bad. Fruits from here, and Anakim from here. This separation threatens the reality of the land and distorts it. The place of the Israelites is not assured there. They do not know their place. And so, from the exchange of words there on the question of the inheritance of the land, the land itself, despite its beautiful fruits, quickly becomes despicable and evil.
What happened here and how is it related to our meditation practice?
In meditation, we are often required to look at the content that arises when we turn inside: thoughts, feelings, emotions. We are called to pay attention to them, to look at them and be with them, to let go of what arises. But what about looking for a moment at the container? In this place, wherever it may be (the head? the heart?) emotions and feelings, thoughts and dreams are present, rising, floating, in this moment. Is the place soft and inviting, or hard and critical? In our portion, this place is the land.
This week’s Torah portion, of the spies, contains an invitation to look at our view itself. At the way we look at, perceive,what comes up. Are we gazing from softness? Or from hardship and criticism? From wholeness? Or from a desire to separate good from evil? The spies thought that it was possible to separate: the land - good; the people - bad. The portion teaches us that they were wrong. In our work, in our inner land, we must again refine in a gentle way: how to be an inviting, loving and soft place that allows for pure observation. We need to ask ourselves again and again whether the place from which we meet the world, the people around us and especially ourselves, is soft and inviting or hard and separating. And to practice and come to know, again and again, how to choose to cultivate loving and gentle presence.”