CORRECTION

Dear Family,

I hope everyone is well.

Mazal Tov to Baty and Shmueli for their Anniversary on Shabbos. Wishing you continued success and growth in Australia with much happiness. Hope we can see you all again. It has been a long time.

Mazal Tov to Eliana whose birthday is next week. Have a wonderful year Eliana. We love you.

Last week Froma mentioned that it would be nice to see a summarised Family tree of the close family, and so Batsheva put one together quickly, which I have attached. Thanks Batsheva!

And for those who are interested in a very extended Family tree, Rahel, over the years, had set one up on the web-site Geni. Be in touch with her to gain access and further input. It is worth looking at!

I saw an interesting extract of a sicha from the Rebbe on this week's parsha, Chukas.

The parsha spans a period of more than 40 years, from the Red Heifer (before the sin of the spies), then through 40 years of wandering in the desert as a punishment for the sin of the spies, and ending with the death of Aron and Miriam, and the sending of more spies(?), and conquering of Sichon and Og.

This begs 2 questions:

1. Why did Torah choose to backtrack to a time before the sin of the spies, and then suddenly jump forward to the end of the Jewish Peoples journey in the desert?
2. After the previous error and tragedy of the decision to send spies when Hashem had already promised to give us the Land, and then in addition the spies gave a bad report on the Land, why was Moshe again sending spies to Yaazer?! And to amplify this question further, after conquering the Land of Sichon and Og (in the West Bank) the Jewish People settled in these cities of the Amori etc, without entering the Land of Israel. Does this not resemble the same mistake and attitude of the previous spies!?

In truth however, the very opposite was the case

The Jewish People of the second generation SOUGHT TO CORRECT THE SIN OF THE PREVIOUS GENERATION BY SHOWING ADDITIONAL ENTHUSIASM ABOUT THE CONQUEST OF THE LAND. (this answers the first question)

With regard to the second question, the second generation did not only survey the Land, they also conquered and captured its villages.

And, while Hashem had told them that they were going to conquer the Land of the Seven Nations (Canaan - Israel - East of Jordan), they never-the-less desired to settle also West of the Jordan, because they knew that these were part of the extended borders of the Land of Israel which was promised to Avraham.

This deep love and enthusiasm demonstrated by the second generation also reflects the name of the parsha Chukas, which means ENGRAVED. Ie this love had totally permeated their hearts and mind to bring about a TRUE CORRECTION, and restoration of their previous spiritual level.

Gut Shabbos to all.