In last week‘s Torah portion of Shelach Lecha, we read the famous story of the 12 spies sent by Moses to spy out the land of Israel (Numbers 13:25ff.).
Ten of them came back and said: “We came to the land you sent us to. It does indeed flow with milk and honey... However, the people who inhabit the country are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large... We cannot attack that people, for it is stronger than we... All the people we saw in it are men of great size... and we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves, and so we must have looked to them.”
On the other hand, Caleb and Joshua said to the people: “Let us by all means, go up, and we shall gain possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it!”
Who was correct? From an objective point of view, there is no question that the 10 spies were correct: The country was inhabited by many strong peoples, and there was no way that a ragtag bunch of Israelite slaves who had recently left Egypt could overcome them.
Caleb and Joshua were crazy, but as it turns out, they were absolutely correct.
Segue forward to the year 1895. Theodor Herzl went to see Baron Maurice de Hirsch, one of the richest men of his time, and the founder of the Jewish Colonization Association, with his plan for a Jewish state in Eretz Yisrael. Hirsch cut Herzl off in the middle of the conversation.
Herzl then wrote in his diary a 65-page pamphlet titled “Address to the Rothschilds.” He decided to read it to a friend called Schiff. When he finished, he asked Schiff for his reaction. Schiff replied that he considered the plan the product of an over-strained mind, and he urgently advised Herzl to take a rest and seek medical treatment.
Who was correct? Obviously, from an objective point of view, there is no question that Hirsch and Schiff were correct.
Who, in their right mind, would think that a people scattered throughout the world for over 1,800 years, speaking dozens of languages, could return to their historic land, and found their own state?
Herzl's correct vision
Herzl was crazy, but as it turns out, he was absolutely correct. As he wrote in his diary after the First Zionist Congress in 1897: “In Basel, I created the Jewish state… But perhaps five years hence, in any case, certainly 50 years hence, everyone will perceive it.” He was off by just one year!
Beginning with 1948, the State of Israel has fought wars for its very existence in 1956, 1967, and 1973; numerous wars in Lebanon; and 12 wars in Gaza.
While doing all of this, the State of Israel absorbed 3.5 million immigrants from all over the world, revived a dead language, built the best army in the world, and created the second-best hi-tech industry.
From an objective point of view, all of this was crazy. There is no way that any of this should have succeeded, but it did!
This month’s war with Iran was just as crazy. After decades of being threatened with genocide by the fanatical leaders of Iran, Israel took on a country of 92 million people, 10 times larger than Israel’s population, and 74 times larger than the State of Israel and has thoroughly defeated that genocidal country in surgical strikes aimed at nuclear and military targets, doing its best to avoid killing innocent civilians.
The philosophy of the Jewish state has always been the same as that of Caleb and Joshua: “Let us by all means, go up… for we shall surely overcome it.”
The Jewish people in general and the state in particular are truly extraordinary – and that is why, with God’s help, we will prevail against all odds.
Am Yisrael Chai!
The writer, a rabbi and professor, serves as president of The Schechter Institutes, Inc. in Jerusalem. His latest book is Responsa in a Moment, volume VI.