RAV KOOK ON PARSHAT SHELACH PART 2

Translated and adapted by Rabbi Chanan Morrison Parshat Shlach "And [the spies] began to speak badly about the land that they had explored." (Num. 13:32) Shortly after the end of World War II, at a Shabbat table in Jerusalem, the discussion turned to the deplorable phenomenon of visitors who tour the land of Israel and then return home disparaging the country. 'These tourists complain about the heat, the poverty, the backwardness, the political situation — and discourage other Jews from moving here,' lamented one of those present. The room became quiet. Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah Kook, son of Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook, the first chief rabbi, responded by relating the following parable.