"The Power of Imagination."
This parsha is one which highlights the power of imagination.
Imagination is the ability to form a mental image of something
not present to the senses or
never before wholly perceived in reality.
It is our ability to conceptualize experiences which
can be recreations of past experiences or
can be completely invented future ones.
Our imagination is fueled by what we want and/or what we fear.
Listening to stories enables us to
‘evoke worlds.' and conjure up future realities.
The stories we tell ourselves shape our view of the world and
consequently, govern what we think, feel and do.
Imagination is a powerful tool
with the potential to empower or to paralyze.
What do we believe?
What are the truths that we live by?
What do we know?
What do we imagine?
How well does our imagination serve us?
The spies went into the Promised land and
returned with an ‘evil’ report.
"The land through which we passed,
to spy it out is a land that devours its inhabitants."
They saw funerals which God had manufactured
to distract the local inhabitants from noticing them.
The scouts chose to misinterpret these funerals as
evidence that the land "devours its inhabitants."
They returned with a beautiful description of
the natural beauty of the land followed by
an assessment of the giant people who lived there.
They described the "cities (as) fortified and very great."
They assumed that they would be defeated
in any attempt to take over the country.
Their imagination led them to be scared and afraid.
They feared God had abandoned them and
without God they could not conceive of conquering the land.
Therefore, they gave a fear filled report
which the people believed, resulting in a night of crying.
A false assessment created a false image of the future,
in spite of the fact that God had promised to take them into Israel.
"The entire assembly raised up and issued its voice; the people wept that night"
They cried from a place of despair and hopelessness.
Yet the land is and was beautiful and
"It indeed flows with milk and honey."
The land is beautiful in the eye-catching array of colors.
It is a land filled with lush fruit, pomegranates, figs and grapes,
it is plentiful both physically and spiritually.
It is a unique land infused with holiness which
God watches over and is intimately tied to.
It is unlike any other land.
In that place the people rewrote history and
fantasized about Egypt as a place
worthy of returning to!
"Is it not better for us to return to Egypt?"
The imagination had the power to create a new story of the past.
Egypt became a place to return to
instead of a place to run away from.
The picture they imagined about Egypt
replaced the vision of a better future in the Promised land.
Through the power of imagination, the spies were easily
able to persuade the Israelites to give up on going in.
Israel, the land filled with holiness
was rejected by the people.
Exile was the consequence,
which we still are living through today.
All the Israelites could imagine was a
"land that devours its inhabitants."
Furthermore, the spies saw themselves as insects.
They began their mission as important people,
leaders of the tribes and
returned seeing themselves as 'grasshoppers.'
"We were like grasshoppers in our eyes,
and so, we were in their eyes."
They saw themselves as less than human and
projected that the inhabitants would also see them this way.
Again, the power of imagination to deceive.
Their imagination led them to envision themselves as insects.
Furthermore, they imagined that the inhabitants would see them that way too.
An imagination untethered has no limits.
Our challenge is to use our imagination mindfully and thoughtfully.
Do we imagine a bright and beautiful future in Israel with
God holding and loving us?
Do we fear the land and its giant inhabitants,
and imagine a future of destruction and devastation?
Can we imagine a bright and hopeful future?
A world with peace at its core and
closeness to God as its foundation.
It's our choice to interpret what we see,
what we choose to imagine,
and to control what we think.
We choose what we desire,
what we do, and
what the story is that we tell ourselves.
Let's use our imagination in positive and empowering ways
so, the story we tell ourselves is the
one we want to live and the one we pray for.
Shabbat shalom
Elissa
Art by Yoram Raanan
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