The "Meraglim" Are Alive In the USA!

Allow me to explain:

Rashi tells us that the Spies in the wilderness were the leaders, the "gedoilim" of the tribes. 

Instead of conquering the Land of Israel and building the Nation of Israel in the Holy Land, they wanted to remain in the wilderness (America, France, England, Australia, South Africa…) and enjoy the Manna, the Well of Miriam, and the protection afforded by the Clouds of Glory.

They wanted to learn Torah and not get their hands dirty with the commandment of conquering and dwelling in the Promised Land. 

They wanted a private Judaism, and not the Torah of a Jewish Nation. They wanted to make do with the mitzvot incumbent on the individual and forget about the many mitzvot incumbent on the Klal – the Nation in its entirety.

They wanted to reduce the Torah to a religion, instead of the Constitution of the Israelite Nation. 

In other words, they wanted to be “Children of Wilderness” and not Children of Israel. Just like the Jews in the Diaspora want to be Children of America, and Children of France, and Children of England, and not the Children if Israel, with all of its added national obligations.

For instance, in America, everything is ready for the Jew from the start. 

He doesn’t have to worry about serving in the army, or constructing cities, or establishing a transportation system, take care of the plumbing infrastructure, grow vegetables, raise cattle, remove the garbage from the streets – all of this is down by the goyim - in the same way that the Clouds of Glory provided for every material need in the wilderness of old.

 In contrast, in the Land of Israel, all of the above-mentioned national tasks are the responsibility of Israel’s Jews.

After all, the Israeli Jew lives in his own Nation, not in someone else’s country. His head and national identity are Israeli – not American, French, English, German, Russian, or Mexican. 

The Israeli Jew is who he, or she, is supposed to be – not an imitation of the goyim. The difference is the difference between night and day. Everyone can see it. The Jew in America is an American – while the Jew in Israeli is an Israeli. They are different species of Jews. Like distant cousins.

Yes, yes, yes – say what you will say: 

“There are leftist and secular Jews in Israel who don’t think and act like Jews at all!” True – but they identify with being Israeli. So long as they chose to live in Israel, they want to be a part of the Jewish Nation. 

In most cases, they and their children are willing to risk their lives in defense of the Jewish State. Their national identity is belonging to the Children of Israel, not to a foreign, gentile land. No matter how screwed up they are, their national identity and psyche as Israelis is far healthier than the national psyche of Jews who live with the illusion-delusion that they are Americans, or Canadians, or Germans.

Indeed, the Spies are alive and not so well in America. That’s why they are disappearing so fast. And if they chose to remain American, Spaniards, and Argentinians, it won’t be very long before the species vanishes altogether, just like the generation of the Spies in the wilderness.  

   

by Tzvi Fishman