Shlah Lekha

I received a warning this week that you should all be made aware of. As of 10 AM Friday morning – when I last checked - the Department of State of the United States of America would like you all to know that it “urges U.S. citizens to carefully weigh the necessity of their travel to Israel.”

“American citizens are cautioned that a greater danger may exist in the vicinity of restaurants, businesses, and other places associated with U.S. interests and/or located near U.S. official buildings, such as the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem.” (For those of you who walk up Agron Street to attend services at Moreshet Yisrael, the Consulate General is that compound you pass just down the block.)

“The State Department urges American citizens to remain vigilant while traveling, especially within the commercial and downtown areas of West Jerusalem.”

“American citizens should stay away from demonstrations and generally avoid crowded public places, such as restaurants and cafes, shopping and market areas and malls.”

“U.S. government personnel and family members are expressly prohibited from using Route 443 between Modi'in and Jerusalem for personal travel.”

Just think, I drive up from Modi’in every Friday afternoon on Route 443 in order to be in a synagogue in downtown Jerusalem, right up the block from the US Consulate. I seem to be doing everything wrong.

What am I missing? What do the security experts of the United States Department of State see that I do not?

Well, you could change the name of the country in the State Department’s Advisory to the United States, and with minor adjustments, it would probably ring equally true. In fact, the advisory doesn’t sound very unlike the security briefing I received at freshman orientation at Columbia University, or the advice I received from a policeman when I visited Washington DC as a teenager. But the State Department hasn’t issued warnings about those places.

So, let’s rephrase our question, what did Shammua, Shaphat, Igal, Palti, Gaddiel, Gaddi, Ammiel, Setur, Nahbi, and Geuel see that Joshua and Caleb did not? Why did the ten spies issue a travel warning advising against entering the Land of Israel? Why did Joshua and Caleb want to go, despite what the State Department refers to as “this and prior warnings”? Why does the State Department think it’s any safer for you to be in post nine-eleven America than in Israel? Why did the ten spies and the rest of the Israelites – like the State Department - prefer to live with the dangers of the desert, rather than cross into the Promised Land?

In the case of the State Department, the knee-jerk reaction might be to say that the US State Department is a traditional nest of antisemites. Even if that common perception of the State Department be true, it doesn’t explain the analogous conduct of the ten spies. So rather than try to understand the State Department, why don’t we try to figure out what was going on in the minds of the ten spies. Maybe if we can understand the ten spies, we may have a better understanding of the State Department and of the people who may choose to heed its advisory on travel to Israel.

The first thing we have to establish is that the ten spies were not cowards or criminals, nor were they traitors or heretics. The spies are described as “leaders of the Israelites.” They were chieftains handpicked by Moses. These were men respected by all. They were men who were above reproach, and who could be relied upon to tell the truth. So what happened?

Well, they told the truth.

“We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.” And they concluded: “We cannot attack that people, for it is stronger than we.”

In modern parlance, that translates something like this:
“Terrorist attacks within Israel have declined in both frequency and associated casualties. However, the potential for further violence remains high. Resentment against efforts to promote peace, and ongoing Israeli military operations in the Occupied Territories could incite further violence in Israel and the Occupied Territories. Israeli security services report that they are investigating between 40 and 60 planned terrorist attacks at any given time. The February 25 suicide bombing of a Tel Aviv nightclub is a reminder of the precarious security environment, even when a cease-fire has been declared.” The conclusion here: “The Department of State urges U.S. citizens to carefully weigh the necessity of their travel to Israel in light of the risks.”

Anything not true there?

It’s all true, and it’s all false. It is not fact but conjecture portrayed as fact. Joshua and Caleb saw exactly what the other spies saw, but they concluded: “Let us by all means go up, and we shall gain possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it.” There is nothing in the State Department’s Travel Advisory that any of us don’t know from watching the evening news or from reading the morning paper, and yet we are here. We are not here in spite of the warnings. We are not here because we don’t believe the warnings or because we ignore the facts. We are here because we choose to draw different conclusions.

The ten spies looked at the Land of Israel, and decided not to take a risk. It wasn’t that they decided to play it safe. They decided that they could stay in the desert, between the Egyptians and the Philistines, and that they could continue to live with the constant threat of Amalekite attack, and be just fine. They lacked the vision necessary to imagine something better than what they had. So they put their lives on hold for forty years, and they died waiting for nothing to happen.

Joshua and Caleb also looked at the Land of Israel, and they saw something that the others did not. They did not think walking around in circles really got you anywhere. Maybe they thought that a life without purpose was not worth living. Maybe they believed that some things are worth the risk, that freedom to wander in the desert is not really freedom, and that liberty is not just about being able to stay where you are – whether in the desert or in Washington. Maybe they just realized that there are dangers wherever you go, so if you want to get on with your life, it you want to have a meaningful existence, then what matters is not where you are but where you should be.

I’m sure those people wandering in the desert never really sensed any feeling of loss. They may have felt bad because Moses yelled at them. They may have felt a little guilty because God rebuked them. But I doubt that they ever really felt that they had been punished. They had never been to the Land of Israel. They had never experienced fulfillment, and they lacked vision, so they had no reason to feel deprived. You could tell them until you were blue in the face that they would live more meaningful lives if only they would cross into the Promised Land, but you would not convince them any more than Joshua and Caleb.

And the same is true for the State Department Travel Advisory. It’s good advice if you don’t mind living without a soul. The fact of the matter is that you probably won’t ever miss it if you’ve never had one, and I don’t think a soul is a requirement for employment by the State Department. It’s sort of like love. If you’ve never felt it, you’ll never miss it, and no explanations can provide sufficient reason to risk anything for it. But if you’ve ever experienced love, or if you can imagine it, then you needn’t be told or convinced. You will risk everything for it without question or regret.

In the end, you just have to decide whether you are satisfied being like those ten fine, upstanding, God-fearing spies, and patiently wait for nothing to happen, until something happens and you die, or whether you are like Joshua and Caleb.

If you are here, then you have made your choice.

And so to the wise authors of the State Department’s Travel Advisory I would like to say just this: We are not here because we are bold and willing to die. We are here because we are afraid not to live.

Avinoam Sharon

© 2005 Avinoam Sharon