Desert - Religion - Articles about Israel

Thousands of years ago, millions of Israelites walked through the Sinai Desert. They were on their way to making aliyah. You might have expected them to dance the Hora or to sing Israeli songs on the way. Maybe you would have expected the Jewish Agency to send over a plane to make their travels easier.

But no, they walked to Israel, kvetching about how bad it is. Many of these Jews didn't really know how to kvetch properly, so they took lessons from the experts. They weren't hard to find. Some outside stragglers had left Egypt with them; some Israelite troublemakers were able to master the technique by themselves; Korach helped the kvetchers by starting a political party for people who were against everything; and other well-meaning people listened to everybody's polemics and took sides.

As a result, some Israelites actually considered returning to Egypt. Yes, it does seem foolish to return to the place where they had been debased, enslaved, and dehumanized. However, they had friends who were longing for the good things they could not get in the desert. After all, they said, in Egypt they received a full daily ration of ... cucumbers!

Ridiculous? You bet. There were no cucumbers in the desert, and our potential Olim wanted guarantees that it would be better in Israel than in the desert. So they sent forth twelve cucumber-challenged shlichim with instructions to check out what is bad with the Land.

The shlichim found a bountiful land that was overflowing with good things. All but two of our spies did their best to ignore those details, and they returned with a negative report. It's impossible to live in the Land, they cried. Tough giants live there (maybe they got that way because of the good food? Was it even better than Egyptian cukes?)

As proof of how bad it was, one spy brought a huge pomegranate, one brought a whopping fig, and eight able-mouthed spies brought back an enormous cluster of grapes. Having a problem picturing it? Take a look at the label on the Carmel wine in your kitchen closet. It shows those spies carrying their oversized grapes.

But the Jews were looking for conflicts. They thought the big, luscious, juicy grapes were an evil omen.

Jews haven't changed much. We face internal conflicts today as well.

However, those reading this series of articles will be able to deal with conflicts much more effectively.

Where do you want to go now?