דור הנצחון דור המדבר
The Jewish people were in the desert, just days away from reaching the Promised Land. God instructed Moshe to send twelve men, leaders of the tribes, to scout the territory of Israel and plan the most effective way to conquer it. The spies returned from their mission and showed the people the fruits of the land of Canaan. Everyone was delighted.
But what followed was inconceivable and unexpected: ten of the twelve scouts expressed total pessimism about the possibility of conquering the land flowing with milk and honey: LO NUKHAL. “We will not be able to conquer it! The inhabitants are too strong. They are giants. We are small and insignificant—like grasshoppers. We won’t make it!”
Yehoshua and Caleb, two of the scouts, tried to reason with the people and presented more or less the following arguments: “We are not just any nation. We are the people of God. Have you already forgotten who brought us out of Egypt just a year ago? Do you remember the ten plagues? Don’t you realize that God is guiding us and will help us conquer the land? Do not be afraid! ALO NA’ALE! We will succeed in conquering it!”
TISHA BEAV
The story ended badly. The people cried, screamed, and protested against Moshe and Aharon. Yehoshua and Caleb tried to calm them, but the crowd refused to listen and nearly stoned them. God had to intervene directly to prevent a collective uprising. There were casualties. God punished that generation in the worst possible way—karma: they would wander in the desert—as they wanted—until they vanished and were replaced by the next generation.
For years, I wondered what led the ten spies to be so pessimistic. The Torah, true to its style, leaves this question open to interpretation. I read a lot about this episode. At first, I couldn’t understand how they became paralyzed by fear. It was illogical. And not only because HaShem was with them. Even from a practical, pragmatic point of view—without relying on miracles—they had everything in their favor! The Israelite army had 600,000 soldiers: huge, even by today’s standards! In the Book of Yehoshua, we see that the Canaanite peoples had populations of 20,000, 30,000, or 50,000, and in fact, they were afraid of Israel.
And if they weren’t going to fight to conquer the Land of Israel—what was the plan B? Return to Egypt? Stay in the desert?
The idea of doing nothing was suicidal.
I’m convinced that the problem wasn’t ideological or military—it was psychological. The spies were part of the Generation of the Desert, and most of them—as shown by the proportion of 10 out of 12—suffered from a slave mentality and inferiority complex. The fear and panic of confronting another person—something they had been conditioned not to do—overcame them and paralyzed them. During the 210 years we were enslaved in Egypt, our mindset changed. The generation of the desert grew up with the conviction that they could not—and should not—defend themselves. And they were never able to overcome that.
GENERATIONAL SHIFT
Until 1948, the Jewish people lived in captivity—the Galut, or Diaspora—which lasted 1,900 years! In exile, we were subjected to all kinds of persecution, abuse, and subjugation. We lived on borrowed time and space. We had to apologize for our existence. We tried to stay invisible in order to survive. It was forbidden to draw attention to ourselves. We got used to not disturbing anyone. We had no rights, and it never occurred to us to demand them. That mentality of 2,000 years of exile became part of our character—and some still haven’t let go of it. Outside of Israel, and even within Israel, many still suffer from this defeatist mindset or inferiority complex that leads us to always see the enemy as stronger. Or the other is better. Or more righteous than us.
These past few days, like all of you, I’ve been glued to the news from Israel. And among other things, I heard analysts explain why Israel didn’t attack Iran 20 or 30 years ago—when it was much easier and far less dangerous. The answer I kept hearing was always the same: fear. Fear, because despite having a powerful army, we still saw ourselves as grasshoppers. Or fear that something might go wrong. Fear of Iran’s reaction, and especially fear of the world’s response: “What will they say?” That fear was paralyzing. That fear, in the long term, was suicidal.
TRANSFORMATIONAL TRAUMA
I believe that October 7 was, for many Jews, a transformational trauma. We were forced to realize that if we don’t defend ourselves, no one else will.
Prime Minister Netanyahu also transformed. He woke up—or became much braver—and showed that he had overcome his Galut-fear. Israel invaded Gaza, something it had feared doing for twenty years. To me, that invasion was the turning point. From that moment, under Netanyahu’s leadership, Israel—for the first time in its history—was not afraid of the demonization it always faces in the media: false accusations of killing Palestinian children, of deliberate genocide, of attacking hospitals, etc. In the past, fear of global public demonization paralyzed us. It made us retreat—surrendering wars we had won. Hamas counted on our terror of “what the world will say.”
FROM GAZA TO IRAN
For the first time in many years, Israel was not paralyzed by fear of global opinion. We realized we would not change it anyway. We saw that the anti-Israel protests began on October 8! While we were still bleeding—long before we even started to defend ourselves! The October 7 massacre changed us. The future of our children mattered more than international criticism. And we invaded Gaza. We dared to withstand the criticism of literally EVERY nation on Earth. Those were mentally epic days! Later, Netanyahu also dared to act with enormous chutzpah, committing an unprecedented act of insubordination: disobeying a direct order from the United States. When Biden told him “DON’T” and forbade him from advancing into Rafiah—threatening to cut off weapons supplies—Netanyahu became a lion who refused to be intimidated. And to the world’s surprise, he charged forward. And so did our soldiers, inspired by unmatched bravery.
Then came the deliberation over attacking Hezbollah. The leaders of the desert generation—politicians, journalists, and ex-generals who appear daily on Channels 11, 12, and 13—all said: LO NUKHLAL, “We can’t do it” ” They kept warning against attacking Hezbollah, saying there would be tens of thousands of casualties.
And then Netanyahu gave the order to the Mossad to carry out Operation BEEPERS—the boldest intelligence mission in history.
Then we moved on to Syria, where Israel preemptively destroyed the entire military infrastructure, even capturing territory and declaring that it would not be returned.
October 7 marked –or produced– the generational shift.
We went from being the Generation of the Desert—Dor haMidbar—to becoming the Generation of Victory—Dor haNitsachon. The generation that lost its fear. That fought, conquered, and defended the Land of Israel.
These are historic days because of the events we are witnessing—the elimination of the nuclear threat from Iran. And they are biblical times because we have become the generation of Yehoshua and Caleb.
YEHOSHUA STRIKES BACK
That new generation—very soon, after the war—will also replace the desert generation in the political sphere.
And we will live in a safer State of Israel, less apologetic, less self-doubting, and more proud of its Jewish identity.
Today, with the faith and courage of Yehoshua and Caleb, we can bring their words to life when they said:
“…to the entire congregation of the children of Israel: ‘The land we passed through to scout is exceedingly good. If God desires us, He will bring us to this land and give it to us—a land flowing with milk and honey. Do not rebel against God, and do not fear the people of the land, for they are like bread to us… God is with us. Do not be afraid!'” (Bemidbar 14:8–10)
וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֶל כָּל עֲדַת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֵאמֹר הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר עָבַרְנוּ בָהּ לָתוּר אֹתָהּ טוֹבָה הָאָרֶץ מְאֹד מְאֹד אִם חָפֵץ בָּנוּ ה׳ וְהֵבִיא אֹתָנוּ אֶל הָאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת וּנְתָנָהּ לָנוּ אֶרֶץ אֲשֶׁר הִוא זָבַת חָלָב וּדְבָשׁ אַךְ בַּה׳ אַל תִּמְרֹדוּ וְאַתֶּם אַל תִּירְאוּ אֶת עַם הָאָרֶץ כִּי לַחְמֵנוּ הֵם סָר צִלָּם מֵעֲלֵיהֶם וַה׳ אִתָּנוּ אַל תִּירָאֻם
