As the time draws near for the Jews to enter the land of Israel, their lack of perfect faith causes them to send spies to survey the land. Unfortunately, the spies come back with a less than favorable report which furthers the nation's lack of faith in Hashem who had promised them that the land was good. As the spies are delivering their report, Calev gets up & counters their claims saying that we could go up & conquer the land. The spies retort back לא נוכל לעלות אל העם כי חזק הוא ממנו, we cannot ascend to that nation for it is stronger than we are. Rashi says that when they said it is stronger than us, they were saying that against Hashem.
The Chafetz Chaim asks how is it possible that they could say such stupidity? Is there anyone stronger in the world than Hashem? They, of all people, know of Hashem's might firsthand; how could they even think for a second that Hashem couldn't bring them into the land?
He answers by explaining how the yetzer hara works. His job is to try to constantly outwit us; so what does he do? He plays us both ways. There are times when he has us feeling all proud & haughty that we’re doing the right thing, that we fear Hashem & He loves us. However, when the yetzer hara sees that we want to do something good to try to strengthen ourselves in a certain area that we may be lacking, he uses the opposite tactic. He makes one start to think, who am I to try to do this? These kind of improvements are only for the select few, the holy ones that are of pure spirit & mind, not for us regular people. Then he puts in our mind things that we might have done in the past that weren't good, to show us, how can we even think about being holy. He convinces us not to take on the improvements we wanted to.
In this instance too, when the spies came & saw the land with the people that they had to conquer, the yetzer hara came to them & said, “to conquer a nation like this you need to have great merit; however, your nation is a bunch of complainers. Not only that, they had made the eigel (although they had done teshuva). How can you expect Hashem to go to battle for them”? This is what brought them down. Then, they came to the nation & told them how powerful the people there were & that they just don't have the merit needed to have Hashem win the battle for them.
The Chafetz Chaim explains what the answer of Calev & Yehoshua was. They said that that's not how Hashem works; one doesn't have to be the greatest tzaddik for Hashem to go to battle for him. In spite of all they had been through, Hashem would still fight for them. All that Hashem asks is don't rebel against Him. That's how they end their rebuttal by saying אך בה אל תמרדו, just do not rebel against Hashem & then He will do everything for you.
Continues the Chafetz Chaim, this is what happens to us too. We all believe that there will be great reward for those that keep the Torah. However, we feel that not everyone can do it; it's for the holy ones, the ones that set themselves apart from all earthly pleasures, not for people like us. However, that is entirely false! The Torah doesn't require the average person to learn all day & night & not take care of his business. Rather, Hashem wants him to work & set aside times for learning & to conduct his business honestly. Then, as long as one doesn't rebel against the Torah, one has Hashem on his side & he can attain any heights that he wants. We need to learn not to let the yetzer hara get us down. Rather, we need to know that no matter what our level is, Hashem loves us. He will go to battle for us. We can ask for anything & He will help us to succeed!
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