I had an eye opening experience as I travelled to New York last week for a wedding. Heading out on the Jet Blue red eye I realized I did not have headphones for the flight. Those who are familiar with Jet Blue know they sell headphones for two dollars that are in a bin at the gate. It works on the honor system and all I had was a five dollar bill. I asked the attendant at the gate for change and she said “oh don’t worry just take a head set “not making me pay for them. As I was holding my five dollar bill in my hand I went to take out my “free set “. At that moment I felt dozens of eyes staring at me perhaps thinking that I was stealing the headphones, as they were unaware of the attendant’s permission. (I was also unsure of weather or not the attendant had the authority to let people take, maybe yes maybe not). At this point I put the headphones back in the bin and actually waited for someone else to purchase a set and with their two dollars, made some change and deposited my five dollar bill. (It actually ended up costing me three dollars for this ordeal) I went over to the attendant an explained the concern I had of the “way it would look” and therefore did not take her up on her offer but nevertheless, thanked her.
The second experience I had was waiting for my luggage back in San Diego after a grueling thirty-six hour turn-around venture to New York for a wedding. After retrieving messages on the phone and returning a phone call or two I approached the carousel to get a better view of the luggage popping out onto the belt. With my phone glued to one ear, I heard from my other ear a woman talking out loud and saying “how rude some people are by just cutting in front of others”, whereby she moved a bit further down. I did not push or shove anyone, or do anything more or less than other people do when they try to retrieve their luggage from a carousel. Nevertheless, in her mind I did something wrong and therefore it was a clear Chillul Hashem on my part! I immediately hung up and walked over to the woman and I apologized and said she was absolutely correct and I was sorry. She was extremely satisfied that I apologized and more so surprised that I made the effort to do so.
The Meraglim/spies were sent out to check out the land of Israel. What was the source of their sin? The commentaries challenge and ask “how was it that such men of great stature sinned and caused an entire nation to sin”? The underlying reason was a lack of emunah/faith in God. They had heard about the giants living in the land and the huge fruits that its trees produced. They questioned their own level of spirituality and determined that they were not worthy of the miracles that would be necessary in order to conquer the land. Yehoshua and Kalev responded to them by saying that in previous situation in the dessert we also did not deserve to be successful and victorious against our enemies. Hashem nevertheless found reason to give the Jews the benefit and gave them salvation despite the fact they may not have deserved it. This time they argued will be no different. Going into Eretz Canaan, Hashem will create the miracles necessary to defeat the giants and capture Israel.
Both the ten spies and the other two, Yehoshua and Kalev both saw the same identical situation but came out with different results. Yehoshua and Kalev chose to view the promise that Hashem made to our forefathers and this conquering of Israel was to take place now. While the ten spies chose to see the situation as we are not deserving of Hashem’s kindness and mercy because we are not Tzadikim, which is a pre-requisite to enter and conquer the land.
Same situation but with two vantage points can change history. How do we see a situation and how are we seen in a situation. We are to look upon every scenario in a favorable way for the Jewish people and not in a denigrating fashion as the world views us. We do not have to look further than this past week’s events in the waters off the Gaza shore. We see a Flotilla and must act in a certain way to defend ourselves and the rest of the world chooses to see it completely different in their eyes. A Jew’s responsibility is to view a situation and not only act appropriately in our eyes but also through the eyes of the world.
A Gut Shabbos
Rabbi Avram Bogopulsky
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