37. SHELACH

The Broad Who Lived on the Edge in Jericho
By Rabbi Arthur Waskow *

The Hebrew Scriptures do two things in their storytelling that we conventionally, today, would not think religiously "proper": They often use puns and word-plays to make a deep religious and spiritual point; and they sometimes treat sexuality not with prudish reserve but with relish, again to teach a spiritual point.

The traditional Torah-reading and prophetic portion for this Shabbat (June 8-9) do both.

When Moses sent twelve scouts across the Jordan to tour the land (in Hebrew, "latur"), ten of them came back scared by the “giants,” seemingly impregnable, they found there. From their panic came thirty-eight more years of wandering in the Wilderness (Num. 14).