Parsha Shelach Lecha: Patience, Grasshopper!
“Patience, Grasshopper.” As many of you know, I have been a long-time martial arts enthusiast. You might also have noticed that I am also southpaw (left-handed) and middle-aged, meaning that my opponents, and instructors, have often been more resistant to the impacts of gravity than I am and mostly take a physical approach opposite of what I do. In the beginning, in my eagerness and frustration to learn and conquer, I frequently heard the phrase “Patience, Grasshopper!” (which, I think, came from The Karate Kid), which meant I could slow down, I had time, I could assess the situation, the opponent, the approach and learn the skills I needed. I probably wasn’t going to get bigger, but I could learn techniques and get faster, and be able to take down bigger, stronger opponents. But immediately, it was easier to not have patience and just not bother even engaging with bigger opponents. Even if engaging with stronger, more skilled, opponents would benefit me long term, all I could see were these giants in the gym, who were totally going to crush me if I tried to fight them. I was sort of doomscrolling, looking for all the things that could go wrong, really leaning into finding reasons to give up. Turns out, this has precedent! From Shelach Lecha, send for yourself. Moses sent 12 spies to scout the land of Canaan, and they returned saying:
“We cannot attack that people, for it is stronger than we. The country that we traversed and scouted is one that devours its settlers. All the people that we saw in it are of astonishingly great size; —and we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves, and so we must have looked to them.”
And so we must have looked to them. Notice that they didn’t engage, out of 12 spies, 10 of them took a look and determined they saw themselves, and could only be seen by others, as tiny, insignificant grasshoppers who stood no chance at overcoming what was in front of them. Biblical doomscrolling! No phones and no Mixed-martial arts gyms, but all the quitter energy of a five-foot tall southpaw. Having not actually engaged with the Canaanites, they couldn’t know that the Canaanites were also terrified of them.
Looking at the world today, our various battles for democracy, and safety, and humanity, and our personal battles with life, all of which get harder to fight everyday, all I can think to offer is: Let’s not quit before we even start. Don’t obey in advance. Slow down, look around, see what there is to learn and make an effort to learn it. Patience, Grasshopper.
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