Shelach: Grasshoppers and Angels

Welcome to Shabbat Moment, a text study series with Yael Shy, from our friends at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. Every week we share Yael’s Torah text study, mindfulness practice tips, and discussion questions for you to reflect + share with others at your Shabbat table. Subscribe here to get the Shabbat Moment delivered straight to your inbox!

This week’s Torah portion is Shelach: Grasshoppers and Angels.

If given the option to see the future, would you take it?

In this week’s Torah portion, Moshe sends a delegation of princes to spy on the land that God has promised them. The spies come back with the news – the land is good, they say. But there is a problem with the spies’ vision.

What they see is confused by the overwhelming fear and self-loathing they feel about themselves, causing them to perceive certain danger and failure where there might not be any.

The Israelites, despite all evidence to the contrary, are still so consumed with hatred for themselves that they see hatred and failure everywhere. They want to go back to Egypt (again), the place where hatred and death were guaranteed, rather than face the scary and overwhelming possibility that they might actually succeed on their journey.

Find Your Friday

About the Author

Special thanks to Yael Shy and our friends at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality for joining us in creating weekly Shabbat moments for your Friday nights.

Yael Shy is the CEO of Mindfulness Consulting, LLC, where she teaches and consults on mindfulness for universities, corporations, and private clients around the world. She is the author of the award-winning book, What Now? Meditation for Your Twenties and Beyond (Parallax, 2017), and the founder of Mindful NYU, the largest campus-based mindfulness initiative in the US. Yael is a graduate of the IJS Jewish Mindfulness Teacher Training Certification.