GC#78 - Your Wish Is My Command - Perek Shira 9 - The Desert's Song Part 1 - a podcast by Amram Landau

We know that the spies were not fools. We also know that they were not originally evil. Moshe chose them specifically for their righteousness. But something turned them. What was it?

They saw the inherent danger of leaving behind a totally spiritual existence - sustenance on tap, nothing physical to worry about - Paradise in the desert. To enter a land where they would have to work the earth and take time away from spiritual pursuits was anathema to them. They wished to remain in the place that gave them the opportunity to divest themselves of all the negative physicality of Egypt - to go from the 'evil mouth' of Paraoh/Peh Ra, into the Midbar/Medaber, where they received the ten Commandments. (And the 5 Books of the Torah - which, as we will see, are all connected to speech.)

So why were they wrong?

Because the Creator - the One who had spoken the world into existence through the ten great Utterances  (corresponding to the ten Commandments), said otherwise. We had to go through a cleansing process, not unlike Gehinnom of yesterday's podcast, in order to reenter the physical in a refined state. But they did not want that. They wished to remain forever in the world of potential, without actualising themselves in the physical. They wished to remain on top of the mountain. How ironic that their downfall came through the powrful medium of speech and insinuation...

...And their wish was granted...there they remain until today. Our job is to elevate the physical and synthesise it with the spiritual.

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