The Torah, “Numbers,” 13:25 – 13:29: They returned from scouting the land at the end of forty days. They went, and they came to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the desert of Paran, to Kadesh. They brought them back a report, as well as to the entire congregation, and they showed them the fruit of the land. They told him and said, “We came to the land to which you sent us, and it is flowing with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who inhabit the land are mighty, and the cities are extremely huge and fortified, and there we saw even the offspring of the giant. The Amalekites dwell in the south land, while the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountainous region. The Canaanites dwell on the coast and alongside the Jordan.”

Comment: When the spies spoke about the land of Israel they were very excited, but suddenly there is a turning point…

Answer: The upper world is very attractive. It isn’t the egoistic communism we have been fed by the European utopians during the Middle Ages, but rather the state of a person who has fully attained and knows all of creation and his role within it. This person has attained the upper force and feels that he is in the attribute of bestowal, beyond the limitations of existing for his own sake. He totally attains all the states of the worlds throughout time and on all the levels inside himself, including all of nature, meaning both our world and the upper world.

Of course we don’t attain the upper world because it is above our universe and is a billion times larger. But we have to discover it eventually, and therefore we have the potential that draws us to the attainment of this state. But when you clarify what you have to do in order to reach this, you realize that it is totally beyond your powers because you are like a tiny mouse in a great world. What can you do?

So the spies were right. They came with two accurate conclusions regarding the land of Israel. On the one hand, there are all sorts of fruits, i.e., all sorts of comprehension—everything you can imagine and even billions of times greater than what we have today, just as the generation of the Middle Ages could not imagine life in our generation. On the other hand, they had no powers, no preconditions, nor understanding, neither moral nor intellectual. They couldn’t reach the states of attainment since they were not prepared for them.

This is actually what happened, because the spies belonged to the generation of the desert who lived where there was nothing and where they had to try to be in a strong, mutual connection to advance. But, when they entered the land of Israel, they confronted their internal egoism, which treated them with disrespect, like Pharaoh. He reappears among them and once again, forces them to conquer him because the land of Israel is based on the conquering of Pharaoh.

The exodus from Egypt is just the escape from Pharaoh, and during the 40 years of wandering in the desert, we neutralize him. Now, however, we need to take this animal out of its den and begin to restrain it so that by taming it, it will carry out all our orders. This seems to be absolutely impossible!

When the spies look at all this horror, they forget that there is an upper force that plans everything and that they have to advance in accordance with this force and be a like a small child holding the hand of a grownup, not fearing anything. The spies couldn’t take that into account because they were terrified of the greatness they had to attain, of the infinity and uncertainty revealed to them by infinite space. When a person feels that there are no limits, he feels lost.

When a person is in a certain framework in certain limits, he feels that everything is simple, easy, and free. But if he transcends these limits, he loses the ability to weigh things and find his way around. This is very scary for those who reach a more sublime state. Therefore, every person who is about to enter the land of Israel—the correction of egoism to love and bestowal and the inclination of the ego towards the Creator—experiences such feelings.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/8/15

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