The kind that whispers, "Are you sure you're ready for this?" It's a feeling that's haunted humanity for millennia, and it even gripped the Israelites on the cusp of entering the Promised Land.
Imagine the scene. Moses, our leader, gathers everyone in the great house of study – a space so vast it could hold all of Israel. We're talking twelve square miles! That's some serious real estate. According to Legends of the Jews, the spies have returned from their mission, the mission to scout out the land of Canaan. They’re about to deliver their report, and everyone is on edge.
Now, these spies, they're clever. Slanderers, even. They know they can't just come out and say, "This is a disaster!" No, they have to be subtle. They begin by praising the land, buttering everyone up. "We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey." It’s almost comical – Ginzberg tells us it wasn't even an exaggeration! Honey dripped from trees where goats grazed, and milk flowed so abundantly it moistened the ground. A veritable paradise!
But it's a trap. "Nevertheless," they continue, and you can almost hear the ominous tone in their voices, "the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw children of Anak there." The Anakim, giants according to some traditions, were meant to strike fear into the hearts of the Israelites. And here's where the spies really start to twist the truth. They claim the Anakim lived everywhere, when in reality, they only saw them in Hebron.
Why Hebron? Because Caleb, one of the faithful spies, had gone there specifically to pray at the graves of the Patriarchs, as Ginzberg explains. At the same time, the Shekhinah, the divine presence, went there to announce to the Patriarchs that their children were on their way to claim the promised land! – a moment of divine reassurance deliberately undermined by fear-mongering.
And they weren't done yet. "The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South," they declared. According to Legends of the Jews, the spies threatened Israel with Amalek the way you'd threaten a child with a disciplinary tool – a constant reminder of past defeats, of past vulnerabilities. The Amalekites, a nomadic people, had indeed settled in the south, fulfilling the last wish of their ancestor Esau to cut Israel off from the Promised Land. It's like a constant, gnawing anxiety made manifest.
"But wait," the spies seem to say, their voices dripping with false concern, "if you're thinking of avoiding Amalek by going through the mountains, let us inform you that the Hittites, the Jebussites, and the Amorites dwell there! And if you try to go by sea? The Canaanites are waiting along the coast and the Jordan River!" Every path, every option, is blocked by a terrifying obstacle.
What a moment. What a test of faith. What do you do when the very people you trust, the ones sent to scout the path forward, return with a message of fear and impossibility? Do you succumb to the doubt? Do you let the whispers of anxiety drown out the promise? Or do you remember the journey so far, the miracles witnessed, the covenant made, and step forward anyway? It's a question we all face, in our own ways, on our own journeys.