This week's section is called Shlach, Send. The Torah tells us that Moses sent twelve spies, one from each tribe, to scout the Land of Israel. The primary objectives were to investigate the best route to enter the land for conquest and to learn about the characteristics of the people who lived there.
The spies went, explored the land for forty days, and returned to Moses with their report: the land was, as God had said, a land flowing with milk and honey, with magnificent fruits, and the peoples who inhabited it were great and powerful. Therefore, they concluded, it was impossible to enter. At that moment, a massive rebellion began against Moses, with the goal of returning to Egypt. Only two of the twelve spies said that it could be conquered. From this story, the Jewish people were condemned to spend the next forty years in the desert, so that those who refused to enter the Land of Israel would die.
Now, this story appears to be just that—a story. While it serves as an introduction to the other events that occurred during the Jewish people's journey through the desert, it doesn't suffice as mere historical justification to be recorded in the Torah. The Torah is a book of life lessons for everyday life. Therefore, we must find some lesson in this event.
As an introduction: each of the Torah's precepts must be fulfilled with acceptance of the yoke of Heaven, that is, without question. Just as when the Jewish people received the Torah and said, "We will do and we will listen." On the other hand, simply "We will do" is not enough; there must also be "We will listen," that is, an understanding, to the extent that the human mind can grasp, of the precepts and of the One who commanded them. In other words, submission to God is not sufficient; after that state, a stage of study and understanding must follow. Furthermore, it is a fundamental principle to know that we can do everything God requires of us, and even more so, the very requirement is what gives us the strength to fulfill it.
That is why Moses, on his own initiative, decided to send spies to the Land of Israel, even though God had already declared the land good and would allow them to enter it. Moses wanted the people to experience the land's bounty for themselves and not simply accept it because God said so. The same principle applies to conquering the peoples who lived there: Moses wanted the people to see with their own eyes, so to speak, that it was possible to conquer them even through natural means, without resorting to miracles.
But the spies failed. In reality, the report they brought back was true (the land is good and the inhabitants are powerful) and it exactly matched Moshe's instructions (to see what the land and its inhabitants were like). But they erred in concluding that they couldn't enter, when they should have understood that if God commanded them to enter, it was because they could.
The fundamental and basic lesson that remains for us is twofold: first, we must know that we cannot simply fulfill obligations; we must study and understand as much as we can. Second, we must never consider a particular mitzvah impossible for us to fulfill. The very fact that it is required of us indicates that we can do it. Even a rational human being would not demand something of their neighbor that they know they cannot do! How much more so God...