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How do great men fail?

Table for Five: Sh’lach

In partnership with the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles

Edited by Nina Litvak & Salvador Litvak, the Accidental Talmudist

So Moses sent them from the desert of Paran by the word of the Lord. All of them were men of distinction; they were the heads of the children of Israel. -Num 13:3

Sarah Pachter
Author and Speaker

Why does the pasuk write that they were men of distinction? Not only is it repetitive, but certainly Moshe would have chosen worthy leaders.

The spies were sent to scope out the land and share their opinion. Then they were punished for doing so. What, exactly, was their sin? Additionally, years later, Moshe shared similar accounts of how frightening the Canaanim were. How is this different from the spies?

The spies concluded their account with, “we were in our own eyes as grasshoppers.” Ultimately, the spies were guilty of losing faith in themselves. They felt worthless, so the giants saw them as worthless. It was not just that they spoke negatively about the land; they spoke negatively of themselves and their potential. Had they recognized their distinction perhaps their account of Eretz Yisrael would have been radically different.

We are commanded every morning to say Modeh Ani where we conclude with rabba emunatecha. Great is your faithfulness. Whose faithfulness? Hashem’s – in us. If we are given another day to live, it’s because G-d believes in us and our potential, no matter what the challenge.

We must see ourselves positively because the way we see ourselves reflects how others see us. Have you ever seen someone walk into a room with genuine confidence? They may not be the most attractive or fit person, but their radiant smile and kindness makes them beautiful. How we see ourselves greatly affects how others see us, and how we ultimately behave.

Gavriel Aryeh Sanders
International Speaker & Broadcaster

How do great men fail?

This verse gives us their résumé—men of standing, leaders, representatives of tribes. Not grunts. Not nobodies. Yet they return with trembling voices, fearful hearts, and contagious despair. Ten of the twelve collapse under the weight of what they see, what they fear, and what they believe.

But this verse also gives us the answer: “Moses sent them… from the desert of Paran.” The desert is not just geography. It’s a state of mind. Paran is the place where fire had just consumed complainers. It’s where discontent simmered. A place of fragility, not faith. And it’s from there these leaders go forth.

Even the best among us are shaped by the atmosphere we inhabit.

They were “sent by the word of Hashem,” yes—but they carried with them the residue of cynicism. You can be a head of Israel and still be infected with fear. A person of name, and still not live up to it. The Torah reminds us: don’t be fooled by titles. True greatness isn’t in your past achievements—it’s in the faith you carry forward.

Leadership isn’t static. It’s tested daily. Especially when the landscape looks like giants and you feel like a grasshopper. We become who we truly are in the moments between Hashem’s word… and our own report.

Rabbi Avraham Greenstein
AJRCA Professor of Hebrew

Given their infamy for dooming the children of Israel to forty years in the desert, there is an irony in this initial description of the spies as “men of distinction.” Although they are the “heads of the children of Israel,” we soon see that they abuse this leadership role and mislead the people. They speak in a way that serves to discourage their people from entering the land to which God has brought them.

It is puzzling that such great men failed so abjectly in their duties to their tribes and to their God. The Maharal asserts that the reason for this unseemly failure was that the spies were influenced by the wicked intentions of the people who sent them. By becoming the emissaries of a collective who wanted to find fault with the land, these righteous men came to embody those intentions, even if they were disinclined towards this at first. Instead of leading, they were being led.

This serves as a profound and sobering reminder that we must take care whom we choose to ally ourselves with and on whose behalf we profess to speak, lest we unwittingly become instruments of intentions and priorities that are not our own. It is very easy, in the course of being loyal to questionable institutions, causes, and people, for us to compromise our own values with words and deeds unworthy of us. For this reason, we must take great care whom we follow, and we must lead with goodness and integrity.

Cantor Michelle Bider Stone
Temple Beth Am

This week’s Parsha, Sh’lach, tells the story of the spies, who went to scout out the land before the Israelites went in to conquer Israel. They were chosen because they were leaders of their tribes. The Torah effectively uses a literary device called foreshadowing by calling them “men of distinction,” because we know what will happen when they return. Ten of the spies will come back fearful and say that the land is full of giants and warriors. They may have been good leaders in the wilderness, but they were the wrong men to lead the people into the land. The righteous leaders, like Joshua and Caleb, who saw the potential, had what Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z”l called a “growth mindset.” Sacks, who learned this from Stanford University professor Carol Dweck, teaches that leaders with a growth mindset appreciate challenges. They aren’t put off by failure, but rather persevere, relishing in obstacles. They see failure as a learning experience.

The Jewish world faces many challenges today. How Jews identify and join is changing rapidly, and the organized Jewish world is asking many questions about how to meet the needs of this ever-changing landscape. Not to mention the external hardships of antisemitism, the ongoing war, and the plight of our hostages. We need leaders with a growth mindset to take us through our challenges and see them as opportunities. We need leaders who aren’t afraid to take risks, stay the course, and inspire us into a new promised land.

Rabbi Nicholas Losorelli
Assistant Dean, The Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies

The Torah doesn’t often repeat itself, it is usually so economical with its ink, that our classic and modern-day commentators are often both marveled and mystified by the Torah’s spartan usage of the written word. However, for the past two weeks, we have gone through Torah portions which are relatively repetitive. Why is this? It seems like the ancient version of “this meeting could have been an email,” and yet the Torah takes its time here.

Our verse starts out with: “So Moses, by God’s command sent them…etc” denoting a collectivized sending out and then goes on to give a list of tribal emissaries. Why is this? Perhaps it is because even while the people are engaged in collective action, the collective is still made of individuals. Individuals who bear responsibility for the greater whole, and vice versa. So, the Torah denotes each and every tribal emissary, and with the chaos that follows it makes sense, because if even a single tribe had been left out of this task, then the people may have just torn themselves apart playing the blame game and missed out on valuable lessons to be learned.

Perhaps the Torah is teaching us that shared destiny requires shared accountability. Each tribe is named because each one matters. In the chaos, failure, and struggle that follows, we’re reminded that omitting even one voice can unravel the whole. Success or failure, we’re in it together. And for that to work, everyone must be counted.

With thanks to Sarah Pachter, Gavriel Aryeh Sanders, Rabbi Avraham Greenstein, Cantor Michelle Bider Stone and Rabbi Nicholas Losorelli.

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