Torah Commentary

“Patience, grasshopper.” My dad said this so often when I was growing up, I didn’t realize it was a quote from a 1970s television show, “Kung Fu,” until I was in my thirties. From what I can gather, these words served as a warning from master to student: think things through, have faith in the process, and wait for the right moment. I always think of these words when we reach this week’s Torah portion.

I was recently introduced to the idea of "Post-Traumatic Growth," (PTG). Originally explored in the mid-1990s, PTG sought to understand "positive outcomes reported by persons who have experienced traumatic events." This theory can help us understand the difference in the reports of the scouts in this week's Torah portion, Sh'lach L'cha, and God's response to the reports.

In the story of the spies from this week’s parashah, we find the Torah’s version of soccer coach Ted Lasso, the protagonist of the TV series by the same name. While Joshua had a prophetic spirit that would later inscribe him in the canon, Torah says that Caleb “had merely a human spirit.” Caleb, like Ted Lasso, was just an optimistic, can-do guy.