The Israelites certainly did. They were staring down some serious threats after escaping Egypt, and one of the scariest? Giants.
But these weren't just any giants. We’re talking about the offspring of fallen angels from before the Flood – the antediluvian era. As Ginzberg retells it in Legends of the Jews, these giants were the result of the union between these angels and the daughters of men. Half angel, half human… a pretty potent, and terrifying, combination. : these beings were only half mortal. They lived incredibly long lives, but then something strange happened. Half their body would start to… wither. Imagine being stuck in this eternal twilight zone, neither fully alive nor fully dead. According to the legend, they dreaded this fate so much that they preferred to either drown themselves in the sea or use magical herbs to end their existence completely.
Now, you might be wondering, how did the Israelites even stand a chance against such behemoths? They certainly wouldn't have made it without some divine help! Moses, our leader, armed them with two crucial weapons: his staff, imbued with divine power, and the knowledge of the Shem HaMeforash (שׁם המפורש), the secret, unpronounceable Divine Name of God. Whenever the Israelites felt threatened by these giants, these two gifts brought them salvation.
But let's get back to that grasshopper feeling. The spies, sent ahead to scout out the land, overheard the giants casually discussing them. “There are grasshoppers by the trees that have the semblance of men," the giants remarked, pointing to the Israelites. As the Torah itself says, "so they were in their sight" (Numbers 13:33). Can you imagine the psychological impact of that? To be seen as so insignificant, so utterly powerless.
It’s a powerful image, isn't it? This tale, found in Legends of the Jews, isn’t just about physical size. It's about perspective. It's about how fear can distort our perception of ourselves and the challenges we face. It reminds us that even when we feel like grasshoppers, dwarfed by the giants in our lives, we have access to tools – inner strength, faith, community – that can help us overcome even the most daunting obstacles. Just like Moses' staff and the Divine Name, these tools might seem small, but they hold immense power.