Parshat Shlach, 1st Portion (Numbers 13:1-13:20), June 8, 2014

“Send out for yourself men who will scout the Land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel. You shall send one man each for his father's tribe; each one shall be a chieftain in their midst.” —Numbers 13:2

“Moses sent them to scout the Land of Canaan, and he said to them, "Go up this way in the south and climb up the mountain.” —Numbers 13-17

To me, this is about finding one's place in the world. And it is also about our tendency to not see things as they are, but rather as we fear or wish they might be.

Joshua is called to scout as well, and, according to Sotah, Moses prays, “May God save you from the counsel of the spies.” Joshua is warned in the prayer that he may not want to listen to others, but rather to make his independent judgment. So Moses suspects that the spies reports may not be reliable.