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I am very excited for the opportunity to share words of Torah with you. Each week, in this spot, I look to share an idea I've found that speaks to me and that I think will resonate with you as well. This week, I share with you excerpts from an article by Rabbi Yehonasan Gefen entitled "The Laziness of the Spies" that gives us a different perspective on what the spies did wrong, with an important lesson for what is going on today.

Bamidbar Rabbah, 16:4: “Send for yourself men” – ‘This is what the verse said: ‘Like what vinegar does to a person’s teeth and like smoke getting into a person’s eyes, this is what a lazy messenger does to the person who sent him.” [...] The Midrash is teaching that the spies were comparable to the lazy messenger who ultimately made things far worse and caused great aggravation and disappointment to Moshe, who sent them on their mission. The commentaries speak very harshly of the spies and offer a number of reasons as to why their sin was so severe [...]. However, laziness does not seem to be among the negative traits that led to their sin. Indeed, according to the Rashbam, they volunteered to go to the Land, which involved a great amount of effort and danger. This is not the action of a lazy person. Hence, some commentators ask where did the Midrash see the trait of laziness in their behavior?

Rabbi Chaim Dov Keller addresses this question based on a teaching of Rabbi Shneur Kotler. He was discussing another comment of the Vilna Gaon on Proverbs. The verse states: “How long will you be lazy, one who sleeps? When will you arise from your sleep?” This verse seems to be repetitive in that it makes two mentions of sleeping. The Vilna Gaon explains [...] that the verse is alluding to two types of laziness. [...] The first part of the verse is speaking about physical laziness. The second part of the verse is referring to laziness of thought. The laziness that we usually think about is physical laziness – for example when someone is too lazy to get up and do something. However, there is another, much more subtle form of laziness: Laziness of thought – this includes failing to learn lessons from events and failure to expend the mental effort to think deeply and not on a superficial level, resulting in incorrect conclusions.

It is this kind of laziness that the Midrash was addressing when it described the spies as lazy. They were certainly not lazy in their actions, but they were lazy in their thought. Where do we see this laziness of thought? The commentaries suggest two ways that their laziness was manifest.

Firstly, they cite the first Rashi in the Parsha that addresses the juxtaposition between the story about Miriam’s lashon hara at the end of Behaalotecha and the episode of the spies. Rashi writes that this comes to condemn the spies for their wickedness in that they did not learn from Miriam’s punishment for lashon hara and they spoke lashon hara about the Land. One could find differences in the two case, namely that they didn’t speak badly about a person, rather a Land, yet Chazal still criticize them for not thinking about the lessons to be learnt from the story with Miriam and applying it to their own situation. The commentaries explain that this was a manifestation of laziness in thought. They did not exert the mental energy to contemplate the ramifications of Miriam’s punishment.

Another manifestation of their laziness in thought is that they viewed the things that they saw in the Land in a superficial way. For example, one of the complaints of the spies was that Eretz Yisrael was “a land that consumes those who dwell there.” How did they come to that conclusion? Rashi explains that when they arrived in the Land, the whole country was involved with funerals. Their immediate conclusion was that it was very dangerous to live in the Land. If they would have taken the time to think about the matter, they may have considered a different option – that God caused many people to die so that they would be preoccupied with burials and mourning and would not notice the spies in their land. That, indeed was the true reason for the deaths. However, to realize that would require expending more effort to think on a deeper level, yet the spies were too lazy to do this.

We have seen how, included among the negative traits of the spies was laziness of thought. This lesson is very applicable to our daily lives. It reminds us of the importance of thinking deeply about surrounding events, and applying them to our behavior. [...]

Hoping and praying for a Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Davies
Rabbi@SOICherryHill.org

We are excited to be partnering with Mizrachi World Movement to provide their publication of HaMizrachi Parasha Weekly.

Shabbos Water
When the weather on Shabbos is hot and humid, SOI is pleased to provide bottles of cold water for the walk home. Thank you to Sam Tilonsky and Debbie Fineberg for continuing this initiative. Thank you to Chani Wiesman and Yoni Berliant for sponsoring this week's water. Just $10, will purchase a weeks supply of water and let us continue providing this important safety item when the weather is hot and humid. Donations should be sent to the office or through ShulCloud along with the memo “Shabbos Water”.

Chulent Fund
Chulent at our weekly kiddish has become a valued and appreciated aspect of kiddush for our community. Aside from a treat after davening, it helps create an environment of community and achdut.

In an effort to replenish the chulent fund, we are asking for your help.
Please consider donating $36 or more to the "Chulent Fund". At full community participation, we will be able to have chulent at kiddush throughout the year.
The success of this project will determine our ability to have chulent featured weekly at Kiddush. Click the link below to Donate!

Volunteers Wanted!

Kiddush: Volunteers wanted to help with Kiddush - preparation, set up, and clean up! Please contact Yaakov Linder to get involved.

Do you enjoy small fix-it projects or just love helping out? We’re looking for friendly hands to assist with minor repairs, like sealing doors and patching up little gaps. No special skills needed! Just a willingness to pitch in and help make a difference! If you’d like to help, please reach out to Dan Malamud or Oriel Weinberg. We truly appreciate it!

Website Update:
We are pleased to share that thanks to a grant from the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern New Jersey, SOI will be redesigning our website. As a ShulCloud-based site, updates take place in real time. This means that users will see updates to the design, navigation, and pages as they take place in all phases of the project, rather than only once the project is completed. It may take a few months for the website to display in its final form. We look forward to our site being easier to navigate for our members and better communicate what we offer to those seeking information about SOI. We appreciate your patience throughout this process! 

Thank you to the volunteers who helped with last week's Kiddush. 

Thank you to the volunteers who helped with last week's Seudah Shlishit. 

Thank you to the volunteers who helped with last week's security,

and to JFed Security Officer Bill DiCola.
​​​​​​​

We regret to inform you of the passing of
Dr. Chaim (Howard) Horwitz, Chaim Dovid ben Yitzchak,
Mechutan of Diane and Eytan Irwin and former Cherry Hill resident. 

The Levaya took place on Monday, June 16th.

​​​​​​​The family will sit Shivah at 148 Flintlock Drive
Lakewood NJ 08701

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Congregation Sons of Iarael
720 Cooper Landing Road
Cherry Hill, New Jersey 08002