In this week’s parsha, we learn about the twelve Meraglim (spies) that were sent to scout out Eretz Yisroel before the Jews crossed the shores of the Jordan. Ten of these twelve spies returned with a negative report of what they saw in Eretz Yisroel. This negative report caused much panic for the Jewish men (the women, as usual, remained loyal) and made them lose hope in conquering the Holy Land. Two spies, Caleb ben Yefuneh and Yehoshua bin Nun (pronounced like the Hebrew letter – his mother was not a nun!), returned with a positive report of Eretz Yisroel and tried to convince the people not to give up.

I have always learned how great Caleb and Yehoshua were for returning with the positive report, but I think I understand this on a deeper level now. This is because of an event that happened to me last Sunday. I drove my daughter to a friend’s house and while driving home, the police asked me to pull over. They also pulled over a car that was two in front of me on the road. I did not think I was doing anything wrong so I assumed they were pulling over random cars to check for drunk drivers or something like that. Then the police officer told me that I was going 50 mph in a 35 zone. I was very surprised! The woman took my license to her police car and I sat there on the side of the road thinking about what just happened.

I normally try not to speed. This time I was going fast without even realizing it though. The reason was because I was with a group of cars. All of the cars in the group were going the same speed – just I was the unlucky one that they decided to pull over. I began thinking about a mishna in Pirkei Avos that states to get far away from a bad neighbor and do not associate with a wicked person (mishna 1:7). When a person is around others who do bad, they are influenced easily by them. I was surrounded by people that were not obeying the law and followed them.

We are warned to avoid bad company not only because we are going to be influenced to follow their bad ways. It is actually much worse than this. When we are in a bad environment, we no longer realize that what we are doing is wrong. This is what I learned from Sunday when I got pulled over. I know that speeding is wrong. When I was on the highway surrounded by the other cars, though, I did not even think that I did anything wrong. I was surrounded by a bad environment and did bad without realizing it.

Luckily, I only got a warning and no ticket. But I did get a great lesson and that lesson is why Caleb and Yehoshua are so great. They were with wicked people for 40 days, but they returned unharmed. They were able to stand up against the evilness the other leaders committed.

How can we avoid falling into the trap of a bad environment? Caleb teaches it to us. Rashi says on Bamidbar 13:22, Caleb davened at the gravesite of the Avos (our forefathers) in Chevron. Caleb prayed a sincere prayer that he would not get trapped. Tefillah, prayer, is our greatest weapon against the dangerous society around us. Let’s strengthen our prayers so we do not fall trap to the evils around us. And let’s daven that we do not think that the evil we see being done is actually good.

Good Shabbos!

-yes

[email protected]

By Rabbi Yaacov Seltzer
[email protected]
(305) 652-0186