Describing their feelings of inferiority when they encountered the fabled giants of Canaan, the spies said: “We were in our own eyes as locusts, and so were we in their eyes.”
Said Rabbi Mendel of Kotzk: “We were in our own eyes as locusts”—fear and intimidation in the face of one’s adversaries—is bad enough; worse still is the sense that “so were we in their eyes”—concern about how one is perceived by others.
Adapted from the teachings of the Rebbe by Yanki Tauber
. Numbers 13:33.