Friday, June 19, 2009

The Value of Positivity - Thoughts on the Parsha (Weekly Torah Portion)

Oh if only my name or my wife's was Marsha this column could be called "Marsha's Parshas"
What can I call it with the name of Zev??

In this week's Parsha we continue to follow the Israeli People's exploits during their second year out of Egypt as they travel through the desert on their way to Israel.
They are about to enter "The Land" but they want to first send spies to check it out.
Moses and (G-d) don't think it is necessary as once G-d says it is good the people should believe, but Moses (and G-d) understand human nature and allow the spies to be sent to allay the fears and satisfy the curiosity of the populace.
But a problem arose out of that spying and the story does not end so well (another 38 years in the desert).
Going to check things out wasn't the problem but the approach and outlook of most of the spies was. And that resulted in a bias that affected how they viewed and reported on the land.
And that approach was NEGATIVITY.
Instead of looking at the good side of what they saw the spies twisted all that they saw, sensationalized it to get dramatic effect and caused all the people to believe there was a crisis of doom. Until the people believed it was better to be enslaved in Egypt.
They weren't even able to hear the truth from the 2 spies who maintained the proper positive attitude.
They cried for nothing and wanted to give up.
So where are we in all this?
How do we view things?
Do we fall prey to the horrible claws of NEGATIVITY and recognize the drastic consequences??
They are always many ways of dealing with and viewing any situation and by approaching it with a positive attitude we can strengthen ourselves and better accomplish our goals and ourselves.

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