When the spies were picking fruit in the valley of Eshkol, three giants who were living around Hebron were paying attention to them. These were Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the three sons of Anak, the tallest of all the giants. They were all that remained of the ancient giants who were born after the generation of the flood. When the giants drew very close, all of the spies fainted except for Joshua and Caleb…when they saw that the spies who fainted were lying on the ground, they revived them. They spoke: “We see that you came here to cut down the trees that we worship and to shatter our statues!” the giants growled. “No,” answered the spies, whispering, “We just picked some of the fruit.” The giants answered firmly: “Go away from here! Your God will soon bring you to this land and then you will have plenty of time to cut down our trees.” (From the words of “Midrash Rabba,” Parshat Shelach).

The Midrash Rabba, just like the Torah, speaks about our inner characteristics. In particular, here it is talking about our need to rise from Malchut to Bina from the characteristic of reception to the characteristic of bestowal, and suddenly we come across strong opposition.

The giants are my gigantic personal desires that I must correct. This is because without them I will not be able to exist on the level of Bina. So the characteristics themselves were created like this, so that only through overcoming them will I rise to this level. A “giant” symbolizes something great, immense. I require a big ego, gigantic desires that seem like giants to me.

The characteristic of Bina is the characteristic of full bestowal, something that is very light and soft, that is poured out like water, which revives and calms everything. And suddenly, in order to attain it, I must somehow overcome the immense giants. But the giants are not coarse characteristics; rather, they are the characteristics of Bina. And if I use them correctly, receive them within me correctly, they will not bother me. But the moment I begin to object that I don’t want to correct them to their level, they will immediately rise up against me.

So the giants say to the spies that they will yet return to this land. In other words, these characteristics that are found in us know everything from the start because they are designed to protect this level and to make it possible for only those who are fit for the level of Bina to enter. In this way, in order to rise to the level of the land of Israel, we must overcome enormous egoistic desires, especially those states that are like “Hebron” or “Shechem.”
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/2/15

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