June 28, 2024
22 Sivan 5784
Parashat Sh'lach
Numbers 13:1 - 15:41

Dear Friends,

As we come to the end of June and the end of Pride Month, it is my pleasure to share these words of Torah from Jay Stanton.

In this week’s portion, sh’lac lecha (Numbers 13:1-15:41), Moses sends 12 scouts into the land of Israel on a reconnaissance mission to prepare to enter the promised land. When the scouts return, ten of them are extremely pessimistic about the success of the Israelites conquering the land, while Joshua and Caleb are sure that the Israelites will prevail. In the story, God says that Caleb has “a different spirit,” allowing him to enter the land while excluding others involved in the scouting. 

The verse reads (JPS, 2006):

But My servant Caleb, because he was imbued with a different spirit and remained loyal to Me—him will I bring into the land that he entered, and his offspring shall hold it as a possession.

The Hebrew for a different spirit is “ruach acher”. Acher means another, and it can have a number of connotations. In this instance, the commentators are divided on whether it means a different opinion from the other spies, or whether Caleb maintained his relationship with the ten pessimistic spies by telling them he agreed until they returned from the mission, but kept his positive attitude toward the project private – a different spirit within than on the outside. Either way, different is used here to mean distinctive, and, in this case, in a positive sense.

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