This week we read parsha Shelach that starts with a description of one of the most difficult events in the history of the people of Israel during their time in the desert. The people stand on the edge of the land of Canaan, the land that will later be called “the land of Israel” and send spies to spy and check possibilities how to conquer it. The spies return and emphatically announce that it is impossible to conquer the land. (Unfortunately, it sounds familiar in our days too…)
The Israelites lose interest in conquering the land, react with loss of faith and hysteria, give their voice in weeping, and turn to Moshe and Aaron with the complaint: “If we just had died in the land of Egypt! Or if we had died in this desert! And why does the Lord bring us to this land to fall by the sword?! Our women and children will be hawks! Is it better for us to return to Egypt…”
This claim expresses their loss of faith in God, who brought them out of Egypt with signs and wonders, provided for their needs in the desert, gave them the Torah in God revelation, and promised them that He would settle them in the promised land. As a punishment for this sin, it was decreed for that entire generation that they would not be allowed to see the land. Following this, the people continued to move in the desert for another thirty-eight years, until the last one of the old generations died and the next generation entered the Land of Israel.
Parshat Shelach ends with the commandment ‘Tzitzit’. The Torah instructs every Jew to tie a ‘Tzitzit’ on the wings of the clothes. According to tradition, the Tzitzit consists of interwoven threads that are tied in the corners of clothes that have four corners. The Torah adds and instructs to dye some of the threads in the color ‘light blue’. The ‘light blue’ color must be produced from a certain marine snail. In the ancient world, the ‘light blue’ was known as a royal and valuable color, and the industry that produced it was mainly concentrated in the coastal area of the Middle East. Starting about 1500 years ago, the production of the ‘light blue -Techelet’ decreased and as a result the production method was lost. Jews stopped tying ‘light blue’ threads on the wings of their clothes and settled for undyed ‘Tzitzit’ threads.
We read in the parashah about the purpose of the mitzvot of the ‘Tzitzit’ and the ‘Techelet’:
“And you’ll see it (The Tzitzit), and you remembered all the commandments of God, and you did them; and you won’t deviate after your hearts and after your eyes, after which you are following them. That you may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy to your gods.”
The Tzitzit is intended to prevent us from being carried away by the heart and the eyes, by the immediate desires and desires that have no prior thought, by reminding us of the presence of God in the world, and the values of morality and goodness inherent in His commandments. According to the Olah of the Torah verses, the blue dyed thread is meant to remind of the presence of God. How and why? It is said about this in the Talmud: “That the sky is like the sea, and the sea is like the sky, and the sky is like the throne of honor”
The ‘light blue’ is thus intended to remind us of the beauty of creation, its infinity, and thus the presence of God, even His seat of honor is painted in the infinite shade of light blue. When man looks at the sea, at a green valley or at the sky, he manages to see beyond the immediate sight he sees in front of him, and beyond the immediate desires of his heart, and to remember his place within creation and his position in relation to the Creator of the world.
Against the sin of the spies at the beginning of the episode, the commandment ‘Tzitzit’ appears at the end. The spies followed the immediate appearance of the eyes, which they saw through the instinctive fears in their hearts. Against this, the ‘Tzitzit’ is intended to help us see beyond the immediate appearance, to look at the overall picture and to remember the presence of G-d in every detail of our world.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Refael Cohen