from the Rebbe on this week's פרשה, פרשת שלח. In פרשת שלח we learn about the מרגלים. And one of the things the מרגלים said, that לא נוכל, לא נוכל לעלות אל העם כי חזק הוא ממנו. They gave a report that the people in Eretz Yisrael, in ארץ כנען are very, very strong. לא נוכל לעלות אל העם, we will not be able to go there, כי חזק הוא ממנו, it's stronger ממנו. What does ממנו mean? So Rashi brings that what they meant to say is כביכול כלפי מעלה אמרו. They said that כלפי, concerning the one above, which means Hashem, that they are stronger than Hashem. And the obvious question is, how could these מרגלים, these people who when they went were chosen by Moshe Rabbeinu and they were tzaddikim, should come so low, fall so low, that they shouldn't even believe in the strength of Hashem? So the Rebbe explains this based on what the Alter Rebbe explains בכלל is the sin of the מרגלים. Since they were in the beginning tzaddikim, how could they fall so low? So the Alter Rebbe explains that lechatchilah they had a good reason why they said what they said. But it turned into, it rolled pretty fast down, and they became what they are. But

how did it start? They came to Eretz Yisrael and they saw that you have to work there, you work the land. While in the desert, they didn't have to do anything. They were provided by Hashem the food and the clothes and the water and everything that they need. And what they did all day was they served Hashem. They learned Torah, they daven, etc., etc. Coming to Eretz Yisrael, they see they're going to have to work on the land. So they said, we'd rather stay in the מדבר than go there. And this is the meaning the Alter Rebbe, the Rebbe explains, that they said that it's a ארץ אוכלת יושביה, it's a land that eats up its inhabitants. So Rashi says what they meant to say was that wherever they went, they saw funerals. Hashem made it special so no one should pay attention to them. But they said that we saw people die every day. But Chassidus says a different peshat. They said when you come to Eretz Yisrael, it's an ארץ, the ארץ, the ארציות, the land, the earth, the חומריות, the grobkeit, the coarseness of gashmiyus eats up the people. In other words, you get completely absorbed and you fall in, you go down in your רוחניותדיקע level. And that's what they said, ארץ, it's a land that will eat up its יושביה, its people who are there, because you will fall down so, so low in the gashmiyus. So the Rebbe says, this is what they meant when they said כי חזק הוא ממנו. Rashi doesn't use the לשון כי חזק הוא ממנו כביכול כלפי הקדוש ברוך הוא or כלפי השם אמרו, they said it's concerning Hashem. Rashi uses a לשון כלפי מעלה אמרו. They said it's concerning above. Now,

obviously, it means Hashem, who's above. But there's a deeper pshat here. They didn't mean concerning Hashem. They meant the above part of the human being, of a Yid. A Yid has two parts: the higher part and the lower part. The higher part is his נפש אלוקית, his godly soul, his neshamah. The lower part is the נפש הבהמית, the יצר הרע. So they said that חזק הוא ממנו, the gashmiyus that you will be pulled into is stronger than כלפי, the מעלה that you have, the מעלה, the above, the נפש אלוקית that you have. Because down here in this world, what's stronger? The gashmiyus has a stronger pull than the ruchniyus. So that's what they said. If you go there, and you'll be involved in the gashmiyus, it'll pull you down. חזק הוא ממנו כביכול כלפי מעלה אמרו. They said it's concerning the neshamah of a Yid, that this is going to be stronger than the נפש אלוקית. The נפש אלוקית won't be able to withstand all these nisyonot, all these tests that will be in Eretz Canaan, because there you'll be involved in the gashmiyus. And the Rebbe explains also an interesting thing. One of the things that they mentioned is ושם ראינו את הנפילים בני ענק מן הנפילים, that we saw in Eretz Yisrael the נפילים. Who are these נפילים? So Rashi says, these נפילים are ענקים, giants, מבני שמחזאי ועזאל, children, descendants of these two מלאכים, שנפלו מן השמים בימי דור אנוש, they fell down מן השמים in the time of דור אנוש. And their descendants were the people, the giants in ארץ כנען. If you look into the Midrash in the Yalkut, tells the whole story why these two malachim came down to this world. They said to the Eibershter, let us come down, we're going to go down and we're going to do things right. And it's not that Hashem sent them to do it. They themselves did it, and they came down, and the way the story goes, they couldn't withstand the nisyonot, and they had to do with different women, etc. And from then on came, this is where the children came from, etc., etc. So the

Rebbe says, why did the meraglim mention them? Because the meraglim wanted to prove to them that what they're saying is true. You see, these malachim were very high, but they came down into this physical world and got involved, look what happened to them! This was a proof that this is going to happen to us, too, that if we go there, we will get involved in the חומריות, in the grabkeit, in the lowness of gashmiyus of עולם הזה, which is stronger going to be than the power of our נפש אלוקית in this, the way it's in this world, and what happened, the same thing will happen to us. So they wanted to prove that, that down here you will be pulled in. And the Rebbe says, so what's the answer to this question? It's a good ta'anah. The answer is, Yehoshua v'Kalev said as an answer, אם חפץ בנו השם והביא אותנו אל הארץ הזאת. If Hashem wants us, He'll bring us into this land. The answer meant like this: in our case, Hashem wants us to do it. By the malachim, they did it on their own, as you look in the Midrash. And you do it on your own and you lower yourself, ein hachi nami, there is a big problem. You could very, very fall, very easily fall very low. But if it's Hashem who wants you to do it, then you have the kochos to withstand it. And that's what says Yehoshua and כלב, אם חפץ בנו השם. If Hashem wants us, and the word chafetz means not just want, but chafetz means the פנימיות הרצון, the real, real will. If Hashem really wants it, then don't worry, nothing is going to happen to us and we will withstand it. And this is the kavanah, not only where you won't have a problem, we will fulfill the kavanah of the Eibershter of making this low world a דירה בתחתונים, a דירה, a dwelling place for Hashem. And this is the lesson for all of us, that sometimes people are afraid to get involved with other Yidden who are in a lower level, that they might get pulled into their level, too. If you do it, you go speak to them because you know this is what Hashem wants, to be מקרב אידן to Him, then you can be guaranteed that nothing is going to happen to you. And not only that, this is fulfillment of the kavanah why Hashem created the world and what will bring Mashiach, and that is the kavanah of לעשות לו יתברך דירה בתחתונים, to make a dwelling place for Hashem in this low physical world.