How are you feeling about the war in Israel?

The Jewish People are at war. Not just Israeli Jews, but all Jews everywhere are part of the effort. And in case we thought we were just spectators in the diaspora, horrific attacks this week at a Shul in Los Angeles served as a rude awakening. We’re fighting for nothing less than the Promised Land.

How are you managing this war? What kind of emotions are raging within you? Are you afraid or are you confident?

How you are feeling is critical to the outcome of this war.

The Torah tells us that the inner emotions of our biblical ancestors are what led to their being banned from entering the Promised Land! Since the Torah is not merely a history book, but rather the Book of Life that guides us through life’s challenges based on the Rules of the Manufacturer, it would be a good idea to ponder this portion in light of the war we are waging today.

After all the excitement of the Exodus from Egypt, the Jewish nation was finally ready to enter the Land of Israel. They had crushed the mighty Egyptian empire with ten devastating plagues, crossed the Red Sea, received the Torah on Mount Sinai, and were now poised to become a sovereign nation in their own land. They sent twelve spies to scout out the land but ten of the spies struck fear into the hearts of the Jewish People. Only two spies believed in their ability to succeed. The response of the People was nothing short of appalling:

“We are unable to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we….The land we passed through to explore is a land that consumes its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are men of stature….In our eyes, we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we were in their eyes. The entire community raised their voices and shouted, and the people wept on that night. (Numbers 13:31-14:1)”

Though they had experienced so many miracles thus far, they were deeply fearful of waging war against the residents of the Holy Land. As long as they were in the desert, they were protected by the Clouds of Glory and the miracles of G-d sustained their every need. Knowing that their entry to the Land of Israel would mean that they would need to fend for themselves, they were deathly afraid.

And it’s no surprise that they felt this way. These people were born and raised in Egyptian slavery. They were deeply scarred by the traumas of abuse and exploitation. They were afraid to stand alone. They preferred to remain in the cocoon of Divine protection.

Their fear led to their being denied entry to the Land by G-d.

But forty years after the Jews’ shocking rejection of the Promised Land, a new generation arose in 1274 BCE. Unlike their parents, these men and women were not born in Egyptian slavery—they were born free. They believed in themselves and looked forward to self-determination. The Haftorah (Reading from the Prophets following the Torah reading) this Shabbos tells us that when their spies entered the border city of Jericho, a local resident, Rachav, told them that the dwellers of the Land of Israel were so fearful of the Jews that their “hearts had melted (Joshua 2:11).”

A startling pattern emerges: As long as the Jewish people were afraid, they were banished from the land. As soon as they were strong in their faith and overcame their fear, the land opened up before them. You are what you believe yourself to be.

This phenomenon has been observed by scientists and been named The Pygmalion effect. In 1968, Harvard psychologists Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson’s study showed that the performance of students was enhanced if teachers were led to expect superior performance from them. By the same token, if teachers were led to expect inferior performance from the students, then their performance would be diminished. Although the Pygmalion effect was originally observed in the classroom, it also has been applied to the fields of management, business, and sports psychology.

Over just forty years, our enemies had evolved from seeing us as grasshoppers to fearing us as giants! This was no mere coincidence—it’s “The Pygmalion Effect” at play. As long as we viewed ourselves as grasshoppers, that’s exactly how others viewed us. But as soon as we mustered the courage and confidence to believe in ourselves as victors, instead of victims, our enemies melted before us! And the two good spies who believed in their ability to succeed, were the only ones of their generation to merit to enter the land!

How would you have reacted if you were in their shoes?

This profound wisdom is anything but “Monday morning quarterbacking.” It’s easy for us to criticize the low self-esteem of our Biblical ancestors. The real question is whether or not we still suffer from the same problem today.

The mistake that the generation of the Twelve Spies made was that they thought that, left to their own devices, they would surely fall. They failed to realize that as long as G-d had commanded them to conquer the land, they were assured of success. Today too, we are the heirs of the Biblical People of Israel who have been promised by G-d to outlive our enemies and to inherit the Holy Land. We must believe that G-d has empowered us to succeed! We can choose to believe exclusively in ourselves or we can broaden our horizons and see ourselves fighting with G-d’s guarantee behind us.

Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. As long as we view ourselves as grasshoppers—weak and undeserving of the Promised Land—we are destined to suffer humiliating defeats. But as soon as we can muster the strength to reinvent ourselves, seeing ourselves as giants instead of grasshoppers, we will succeed in inheriting our Divine birthright and merit to live in peace in the Land of our Forefathers. Believing in yourself is the first step to success.

Your internal emotional experience has the power to turn the tide of this war. When you are confronted by a coworker or a member of the club about the Jews occupying the lands of Palestinians, do you try to brush it under the rug or do you stand up to declare the truth—that this is our G-d-given Land, as documented in the world’s most popular book—the Bible—for all to hear? Do you sit like a grasshopper or do you rise like a giant?

Today we are facing the same crossroads that our ancestors faced 3300 years ago: Those who exhibited fear were banned from the land, and those who were fearless and bold merited to conquer her. If it’s fear you’re feeling you’ve got to let it go immediately. You don’t drown by falling into the water—you drown by staying there. The Torah reveals to us that ground zero of this battle isn’t in Gaza, Lebanon, or Tehran—it’s in our own hearts!

John Wayne said that “courage is not the absence of fear. It’s being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” Believe in yourself and you will be unstoppable.

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