420. Send Forth

June 1980

“Send forth,” RASHI interpreted, “To your reason.”

It is known that sending the spies to tour the land of Israel is a matter of acceptance of the kingdom of heaven, for man has spies that always see if it is worthwhile to walk on the path of the Creator, on the path of truth, called “for the sake of the Creator.”

The Torah promises us that it is a land flowing with milk and honey, but the body, which sent spies to tour the land, sees that there is no self-benefit there, and then the body does not agree to walk to the land called “kingdom of heaven.”

It is written that the Creator tells them, “Go up in the Negev,” meaning exert in Torah, “See what the land is like,” meaning see the world from it, that it is an inheritance and a lot. “The people who live in it” are the righteous in the Garden of Eden (in The Zohar, Items 56-57).

It is also written there, “When they return from touring the land…” return from the path of truth and say, “What did we get out of it? To this day, we have not seen good in the world. We have toiled in Torah and the house is empty. Who will be awarded that world? Who will come into it? It would have been better had we not toiled so” (Item 63).