Like Grasshoppers in Our Own Eyes
“We were like grasshoppers in our own eyes…” A Closer Look “We were like grasshoppers in our own eyes.” Stop for a moment on these words. The spies Moses sent to scout the land came back with facts. They had seen giants, walled cities and a great, tall people, and they reported it. So far, we can understand them. But one line tipped the scales against them and sentenced a whole generation to forty years in the desert. That line does not describe the giants. It describes how the spies felt inside: “We were like grasshoppers in our own eyes.” So we have to ask: isn’t that humility? They really were standing in front of giants. Wasn’t this just an honest reading of the situation? The Core Idea Here lies the whole point. Hasidic teaching makes a basic distinction between two kinds of smallness. One is true setting the self aside. The other is a false, crushing lowliness. Setting the self aside is the deep knowledge that none of your strength is your own. In the words of the Zohar, “He has nothing of his own at all.” And because you know this, you can act with unlimited strength. You are an emissary, and your strength is the strength of the One who sent you. False lowliness is the opposite. It is despair. It says, “I have no strength. I am small. I am a grasshopper.” And then it freezes you. It is not humility. It is a denial of your mission. The spies did not set themselves aside. They fell into false lowliness. They did not say, “Hashem’s strength will conquer the land.” They said, “We are grasshoppers.” They moved the center of gravity away from the One who sent them and onto their own feeling of helplessness. In that very move they forgot that they were emissaries. And that was the end of the story. Caleb son of Jephunneh, one of the spies, saw the same giants. He knew the same facts. And he said: “Let us go up at once and take the land, for we can surely do it.” “They are like bread for us,” easy to swallow up. He did not deny reality. He changed the way he looked at it. The question was not “How big are they?” but “How great is the One who sent us?” The Pessimist Who Always Sounds Wise There is a person like this in every room. He points out the difficulties. He analyzes the risks. He proves that the road is blocked. And he always sounds wise, because he is talking about facts. The giants are real. The walled cities are solid. No one can deny the fear. So there is no risk at all in being a pessimist. But that is exactly the danger. This “realism” is a subtle poison, because it ignores one factor: the One who sent you. A person who lives with the feeling of being a “grasshopper” lives a self-fulfilling prophecy. He is not assessing the situation. He is creating it. The Tanya, the classic book of Hasidic thought, teaches this. The heavy sadness and the small, narrow state of mind that come from feeling worthless are not humility, and they are not “reality.” In the words of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, author of the Tanya, they keep a person’s heart from serving Hashem “with joy and a glad heart,” and they hide the inner light. The Person of Trust: The Builder The builder does not live in a fantasy. He sees the giants. But he does not stop there. He does not wait for things to become clear. He makes them clear by acting. He acts with self-sacrifice. He acts with the faith that the One who commanded us to conquer the land will also give us the strength to do it. This is not shallow optimism. It is active faith. The Torah warns against saying, “My own strength and the might of my hand made me this success.” That is a lie. But its true opposite is not “I am a grasshopper.” Its true opposite is: “Not me. I am an emissary. Hashem will do it.”
Putting It into Practice
My dear brother, the “giants” in life are real. A living that just won’t come together. Worry over raising your children. A spiritual struggle that seems too big for you. There is no need to deny any of it. But pay close attention. The evil inclination, the inner voice that pulls us toward wrong, does not win its great victory by putting obstacles in your way. It wins by convincing you, deep inside, that you are a “grasshopper.” The moment you accept the “grasshopper,” it’s over. Reality did not defeat you. Your reading of reality defeated you. The choice in front of you every morning is not between easy and hard, or between success and failure. The choice is this: Am I a “grasshopper”? Or am I Hashem’s emissary, equipped with His strength? Seeing yourself as an emissary is not arrogance. It is the truth.
Questions and answers
Q: What was wrong with the spies saying "We were like grasshoppers in our own eyes"?
Rabbi Landau answers: “We were like grasshoppers in our own eyes.” Stop for a moment on these words. The spies Moses sent to scout the land came back with facts. They had seen giants, walled cities and a great, tall people, and they reported it. So far, we can understand them. But one line tipped the scales against them and sentenced a whole generation to forty years in the desert. That line does not describe the giants. It describes how the spies felt inside: “We were like grasshoppers in our own eyes.” So we have to ask: isn’t that humility? They really were standing in front of giants. Wasn’t this just an honest reading of the situation?
Q: What is the difference between true self-nullification and false, crushing lowliness?
Rabbi Landau answers: Hasidic teaching makes a basic distinction between two kinds of smallness. One is true setting the self aside. The other is a false, crushing lowliness. Setting the self aside is the deep knowledge that none of your strength is your own. In the words of the Zohar, “He has nothing of his own at all.” And because you know this, you can act with unlimited strength. You are an emissary, and your strength is the strength of the One who sent you. False lowliness is the opposite. It is despair. It says, “I have no strength. I am small. I am a grasshopper.” And then it freezes you. It is not humility. It is a denial of your mission. The spies did not set themselves aside.
Q: Why does the pessimist who points out every difficulty always sound wise?
Rabbi Landau answers: There is a person like this in every room. He points out the difficulties. He analyzes the risks. He proves that the road is blocked. And he always sounds wise, because he is talking about facts. The giants are real. The walled cities are solid. No one can deny the fear. So there is no risk at all in being a pessimist. But that is exactly the danger. This “realism” is a subtle poison, because it ignores one factor: the One who sent you. A person who lives with the feeling of being a “grasshopper” lives a self-fulfilling prophecy. He is not assessing the situation. He is creating it. The Tanya, the classic book of Hasidic thought, teaches this.
Q: How does the builder act when he sees the giants?
Rabbi Landau answers: The builder does not live in a fantasy. He sees the giants. But he does not stop there. He does not wait for things to become clear. He makes them clear by acting. He acts with self-sacrifice. He acts with the faith that the One who commanded us to conquer the land will also give us the strength to do it. This is not shallow optimism. It is active faith. The Torah warns against saying, “My own strength and the might of my hand made me this success.” That is a lie. But its true opposite is not “I am a grasshopper.” Its true opposite is: “Not me. I am an emissary. Hashem will do it.”
Q: How should I face the real "giants" in my life, like income or raising children?
Rabbi Landau answers: My dear brother, the “giants” in life are real. A living that just won’t come together. Worry over raising your children. A spiritual struggle that seems too big for you. There is no need to deny any of it. But pay close attention. The evil inclination, the inner voice that pulls us toward wrong, does not win its great victory by putting obstacles in your way. It wins by convincing you, deep inside, that you are a “grasshopper.” The moment you accept the “grasshopper,” it’s over. Reality did not defeat you. Your reading of reality defeated you. The choice in front of you every morning is not between easy and hard, or between success and failure.