Parashas Shelach: 5785

“Yehoshua ben Nun and Kalev ben Yefunah… tore their clothes.” (Bamidbar 14:6)

Rashi quotes the Gemara (Bava Basra 118b) that Yehoshua and Kalev were given the portions in Eretz Yisrael that would’ve been given to the other spies.

Rav Aharon Kotler quotes the Gemara (Chagigah 15a) that the tzaddik receives both his portion and the portion of the rasha in Gan Eden.

The purpose of Creation, and the reason the world continues to exist, is due to the observance of Torah and mitzvos. The Gemara (Shabbos 88a) says that at Brias Ha’olam, Hashem stipulated, “If Yisrael accepts the Torah the world will continue to exist and if not, I will return it to nothingness.” Only our acceptance and observing the Torah keeps the world going. (Rabbi Shlomo Caplan, Mishulchan Shlomo)

Once upon a time, but not too long ago, there were two Jewish guys who became friends in college: Mack and Jack.

Upon graduating, they decided to partner and open their own company. Business boomed.

Both guys married and had families. Jack had four children to the astonishment of Mack who had but one daughter, yet complained bitterly about the constant cost of raising children. Bit by bit, although the business held them together, their personal lives proceeded along ever-widening trajectories.

Rav Chaim Volozhin avers that if there would be one moment when nobody on this planet would be learning Torah, the world would immediately cease to exist. The mishnah in Avos (5:1) questions why the world was created with ten utterances. Wouldn’t one have sufficed? It answers that this was to exact more punishment from the wicked who destroy the world created with ten utterances and to bestow reward upon the righteous who sustain the world created with ten utterances.