Rabbi Megan GoldMarche
Parshat Shelach
Earlier this month, President Biden signed an executive order to prevent migrants from seeking asylum at the border. The news hit me harder than it may have six months ago because this February I traveled to the U.S.- Mexico border with T’ruah (The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights) and HIAS..
Traveling with Jewish clergy from around the country, I went expecting chaos and, instead, was in awe of the people, organizations and systems set up to support those seeking a safer life.
On both sides of the border were faith leaders, NGOs and regular people who wanted to take a broken system and make it more humane. We also met folks who felt they were doing what was best, or following orders from the state and national government, who recognized that the system was underfunded, confusing and needing systemic change.
Even with so many people ready to help, the stories we heard from those who had fled bad situations in hopes of a better life were filled with misinformation and long delays at best — and with violence and separation from loved ones at worst.
It is with this in mind that I look to this week’s parsha, Shelach, and think about the mindsets of the 12 spies who were sent to scout the land of Canaan on behalf of the Israelites.
When the spies return with their report, they share that the land is indeed fertile.
“However, the people who inhabit the country are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.” (Numbers 13:27). Even when Caleb tries to be reassuring that they will prevail, 10 of the 12 spies reiterate, “The country that we traversed and scouted is one that devours its settlers. All the people that we saw in it are of great size and we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves, and so we must have looked to them.” (13:33)
The tribal leaders were given a task: Go and see what type of land the Israelites are about to enter, and what challenges might lie ahead with the people who live there. They return terrified; they cannot imagine feeling safe among the inhabitants of Canaan, even with God supporting them.
And so to return to our current immigration system: Even when we live in a country of abundance, with more jobs than people who want them, with enough space and resources, if only we would use them wisely, it is in our human nature to fear those we deem the “them” to our “us.”
In recent years this fear, the fear that permeates the 10 spies, has become contagious and has spread to create a sense that there is consensus that our country is overrun with immigrants that we cannot handle. But this is not the truth and now, more than ever, we need to be bold and brave like the two spies, Caleb and Joshua who stood up and said, “We do not need to be afraid of them.”
We do not need to be defended from folks who are fleeing oppression. We, American Jews, were the asylum seekers of the past two centuries. We arrived in mass fleeing pogroms in the late 1800s and early 1900s, escaping Europe in the 1930s, fleeing the FSU in the 1980s and ’90s. Almost every single Jew I know has a home here in America because of immigration; our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents found a home here as refugees and asylum seekers.
In the Torah this week, Caleb and Joshua fail, and the people are convinced by the fear of the other 10 spies. God is so angry at their lack of faith that an entire generation of Israelites are denied entry to Israel and forced to spend the rest of their lives wandering the desert.
What might the consequences be of listening to those afraid of welcoming folks who seek safety among us? Who will be forced to wander, who will be denied a home? And are we willing to have this on our conscience? I am not, and I ask you to join me in standing up and saying, “There is enough to go around, and we will work to welcome those who seek asylum in our country.”
Rabbi Megan GoldMarche is the executive director at Tribe 12, which connects people in their 20s and 30s to Jewish life and community in Philadelphia. GoldMarche was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2014 and also received an MA in Jewish gender and women’s studies and a certificate in pastoral care and counseling. The Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia is proud to provide diverse perspectives on Torah commentary for the Jewish Exponent. The opinions expressed in this column are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Board of Rabbis.
