How Narrow A Bridge? (Parashat Shlach)

(ב) שְׁלַח־לְךָ֣ אֲנָשִׁ֗ים וְיָתֻ֙רוּ֙ אֶת־אֶ֣רֶץ כְּנַ֔עַן אֲשֶׁר־אֲנִ֥י נֹתֵ֖ן לִבְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל אִ֣ישׁ אֶחָד֩ אִ֨ישׁ אֶחָ֜ד לְמַטֵּ֤ה אֲבֹתָיו֙ תִּשְׁלָ֔חוּ כֹּ֖ל נָשִׂ֥יא בָהֶֽם׃

Numbers 13:2

(2) “Send agents to scout the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelite people; send one participant from each of their ancestral tribes, each one a chieftain among them.”

It seems there's a lot of male language here. Is there a reason?

The Kli Yakar reported a Midrash that taught that God told Moses that with God's knowledge of the future, God knew that it would be better to send women who cherish the Land because they would not count its faults. But, God told Moses (in the words of Numbers 13:2), "for you (לְךָ‎, lecha)," with the knowledge Moses had, if he thought that these men were fit and the Land was dear to them, then Moses could send men. Therefore, God told Moses (once again, in the words of Numbers 13:2), "send for yourselves (שְׁלַח-לְךָ‎, shelach-lecha)," according to the level of knowledge that Moses had, men. But according to God's level of knowledge, it would have been better, God said, to send women.

Which is made even more rich by the fact that just afterwards...

במדבר י״ד:כ״ז

עַד־מָתַ֗י לָעֵדָ֤ה הָֽרָעָה֙ הַזֹּ֔את אֲשֶׁ֛ר הֵ֥מָּה מַלִּינִ֖ים עָלָ֑י אֶת־תְּלֻנּ֞וֹת בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל אֲשֶׁ֨ר הֵ֧מָּה מַלִּינִ֛ים עָלַ֖י שָׁמָֽעְתִּי׃

Numbers 14:27

“How much longer shall that wicked community keep muttering against Me? Very well, I have heeded the incessant muttering of the Israelites against Me.

And this is where we get the idea of a minyan being 10 men. It would seem something about this 'wicked edah' was destined to fail:

סוטה ל״ה א:א׳

וַיֵּלְכוּ וַיָּבֹאוּ״. אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן מִשּׁוּם רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן יוֹחַי: מַקֵּישׁ הֲלִיכָה לְבִיאָה, מָה בִּיאָה — בְּעֵצָה רָעָה, אַף הֲלִיכָה — בְּעֵצָה רָעָה.

Sotah 35a:1

And they went and they came” (Numbers 13:25–26). Rabbi Yoḥanan says in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai: This verse likens their going to their coming. Just as their coming back was with wicked counsel, so too, their going to Eretz Yisrael was with wicked counsel.

Nonetheless, in the retrospective later in Devarim, they did have a clear directive:

דברים א׳:כ״א-כ״ג

(כא) רְ֠אֵ֠ה נָתַ֨ן ה׳ אֱלֹקֶ֛יךָ לְפָנֶ֖יךָ אֶת־הָאָ֑רֶץ עֲלֵ֣ה רֵ֗שׁ כַּאֲשֶׁר֩ דִּבֶּ֨ר ה׳ אֱלֹקֵ֤י אֲבֹתֶ֙יךָ֙ לָ֔ךְ אַל־תִּירָ֖א וְאַל־תֵּחָֽת׃(כב) וַתִּקְרְב֣וּן אֵלַי֮ כֻּלְּכֶם֒ וַתֹּאמְר֗וּ נִשְׁלְחָ֤ה אֲנָשִׁים֙ לְפָנֵ֔ינוּ וְיַחְפְּרוּ־לָ֖נוּ אֶת־הָאָ֑רֶץ וְיָשִׁ֤בוּ אֹתָ֙נוּ֙ דָּבָ֔ר אֶת־הַדֶּ֙רֶךְ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר נַעֲלֶה־בָּ֔הּ וְאֵת֙ הֶֽעָרִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר נָבֹ֖א אֲלֵיהֶֽן׃(כג) וַיִּיטַ֥ב בְּעֵינַ֖י הַדָּבָ֑ר וָאֶקַּ֤ח מִכֶּם֙ שְׁנֵ֣ים עָשָׂ֣ר אֲנָשִׁ֔ים אִ֥ישׁ אֶחָ֖ד לַשָּֽׁבֶט׃

Deuteronomy 1:21-23

(21) See, your God ה׳ has placed the land at your disposal. Go up, take possession, as ה׳, the God of your fathers, promised you. Fear not and be not dismayed.”(22) Then all of you came to me and said, “Let us send men ahead to reconnoiter the land for us and bring back word on the route we shall follow and the cities we shall come to.”(23) I approved of the plan, and so I selected from among you twelve participants, one representative from each tribe.

So we come to the conventional narrative - that it was their fear of the Canaanites that overcame their fear of G-d. So surely, the answer is to abolish fear?

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

Frank Herbert, Dune

But can we really abolish fear so totally? (No, sorry Frank.)

Maybe it's not fear, it's anxiety. Is there a difference? We could talk about fear in the Tanach for hours - who gets scared of what - but we want to come away with something practical. Let's go to the most practical book of all - Proverbs, and see what it reveals...

משלי כ״ח:י״ד

(יד) אַשְׁרֵ֣י אָ֭דָם מְפַחֵ֣ד תָּמִ֑יד וּמַקְשֶׁ֥ה לִ֝בּ֗וֹ יִפּ֥וֹל בְּרָעָֽה׃

Proverbs 28:14

(14) Happy is the person who is always afraid, But one who hardens their heart falls into misfortune.

משלי י״ב:כ״ה

(כה)דְּאָגָ֣ה בְלֶב־אִ֣ישׁ יַשְׁחֶ֑נָּה וְדָבָ֖ר ט֣וֹב יְשַׂמְּחֶֽנָּה׃

Proverbs 12:25

(25) If there is anxiety in a man’s mind let him quash it,
And turn it into joy with a good word.

סוטה מ״ב ב:י״ד

״דְּאָגָה בְלֶב אִישׁ יַשְׁחֶנָּה״, רַבִּי אַמֵּי וְרַבִּי אַסִּי חַד אָמַר: יַשִּׂחֶנָּה מִדַּעְתּוֹ, וְחַד אָמַר: יְשִׂיחֶנָּה לַאֲחֵרִים.

Sotah 42b:14

In a similar vein, one is urged to relieve his distress. The verse states: “If there is a care in the heart of a man, let him bend it [yashḥena]” (Proverbs 12:25). Rabbi Ami and Rabbi Asi dispute the verse’s meaning. One said: He should force it [yasḥena] out of his mind. He should remove his worries from his thoughts. And one said: It means he should tell [yesiḥena] his troubles to others, which will relieve his anxiety.

So there is a difference. Anxiety should be relieved by conveyance to others - but fear is good, in some way. It represents a 'soft heart' - a human heart. A heart that experiences real, existential feeling and does not jade to it. A heart that wonders.

That's all very nice Ben, but what does that have to do with bridges?

ליקוטי מוהר"ן, תנינא מ״ח:ב׳:ו׳-ז׳

וְדַע, שֶׁכָּל הַתְּנוּעוֹת וְהַהַעְתָּקוֹת, שֶׁאַתָּה נִתָּק וְנֶעְתָּק בְּכָל פַּעַם אֵיזֶה מְעַט מִן גַּשְׁמִיּוּת לַעֲבוֹדָתוֹ יִתְבָּרַךְ, כֻּלָּם מִתְקַבְּצִים וּמִתְחַבְּרִים וּמִתְקַשְּׁרִים וּבָאִים לְעֶזְרָתְךָ בְּעֵת הַצֹּרֶךְ, דְּהַיְנוּ כְּשֶׁיֵּשׁ, חַס וְשָׁלוֹם, אֵיזֶה דֹּחַק וְעֵת צָרָה, חַס וְשָׁלוֹם

וְדַע, שֶׁהָאָדָם צָרִיךְ לַעֲבֹר עַל גֶּשֶׁר צַר מְאֹד מְאֹד, וְהַכְּלָל וְהָעִקָּר – שֶׁלֹּא יִתְפַּחֵד כְּלָל:

Likutei Moharan, Part II 48:2:6-7

And know! each time you detach and shift just a bit from materialism to His service, all the movements and changes accumulate, combine and bind together, and come to your aid at a time of need—i.e., when there is, God forbid, any trouble or misfortune.

Know, too! a person must cross a very, very narrow bridge. The main rule is: Do not be frightened at all!

The hitpael form tells us something - that this is a fear that consumes oneself. It is not the anxiety that can be relieved - it is existential.

It is now that we must turn to a question you might not have asked yourself before - why is the bridge narrow? It could have been a thousand other metaphors for a bitter, hard life - why this?

I'll tell you why - it's because you shouldn't face anxiety alone, but there are some fears that you must face privately to overcome. Some bridges that are too narrow for a group to traverse - but one person, and a friend perhaps, could.

Now, back to the spies. How was their worry existential? I thought they were worried about giants and whatnot...

What was their situation now? They were eating manna from heaven. They were drinking water from a miraculous well. They were surrounded by Clouds of Glory. They were camped around the Sanctuary. They were in continuous contact with the Shechinah. Never had a people lived so close to God.
What would be their situation if they entered the land? They would have to fight battles, maintain an army, create an economy, farm the land, worry about whether there would be enough rain to produce a crop, and all the other thousand distractions that come from living in the world. What would happen to their closeness to God? They would be preoccupied with mundane and material pursuits. Here they could spend their entire lives learning Torah, lit by the radiance of the Divine. There they would be no more than one more nation in a world of nations, with the same kind of economic, social and political problems that every nation has to deal with.
The spies were not afraid of failure. They were afraid of success. Their mistake was the mistake of very holy men. They wanted to spend their lives in the closest possible proximity to God. What they did not understand was that God seeks, in the Hasidic phrase, “a dwelling in the lower worlds”. One of the great differences between Judaism and other religions is that while others seek to lift people to heaven, Judaism seeks to bring heaven down to earth.
(Rabbi Sacks, "Two Kinds of Fear")

As excellently summarised by Wikipedia, what was the difference between the parashah and haftorah?

Whereas in the parashah, the spies were well-known men,
in the haftarah, Joshua dispatched the spies secretly.
Whereas in the parashah, Moses sent a large number of 12 spies,
in the haftarah, Joshua sent just 2 spies.
Whereas in the parashah, many of the spies cowered before the Canaanites,
in the haftarah, the spies reported that the Canaanites would melt before the Israelites.
Whereas in the parashah, the spies reported their findings publicly,
in the haftarah, the spies reported directly to Joshua.

Joshua learns a lesson in leadership here: groupthink is dangerous. The Israelites weren't experiencing 'anxieties' - they were terrified by the reality of living 'outside' of Divine protection. It was existential - and when you face that together, you panic and become animals. Worse still, their group lacked the diversity to help them approach the problem holistically - they turned almost all at once, before they even got anywhere.

Joshua learns and adjusts - send two spies, quietly, confidentially, and you will get results. He learns from what allowed Caleb and himself to succeed in the first place. (He still doesn't send women, though, but Rahab helps plenty.)

We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason; if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men – not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.

- Edward Murrow