Parashas Shelach

Our Parsha this Shabbos is Parashas Shelach.
This Parsha always comes a few weeks before the three week mourning period that starts out on the 17th of Tammuz and ends on the day of our greatest mourning,the Ninth of the month of Av - Tisha B' Av , for it was on this fateful day of Tisha B ' Av, that our people wept and cried about the negative report of the spies that we speak of , in this Parsha.
Parashas Shelach starts out with the sending of the Spies to the Holy Land , to spy out the land.
There was no need to send spies in the first place for had we trusted in HaShem, all would have been sweet and we would have entered the land that flowed with 'milk and honey' ,straight away,instead of wandering in the wilderness for forty years,a day for a year for each day of the forty days that the spies spied out the land and brought their negative report.
Our Parsha on the surface starts out looking as though HaShem asks Moshe to send the spies but if we look deeper,we see that HaShem tries to lessen the way the Spies looked bad ,out of his pure Love and so it appears as though HaShem Asked,but HaShem actually did not.
HaShem says 'Shelach Lecha,' which means ,'Send For You,' not for Me, HaShem, but for you,for the people.HaShem made it clear to Moshe that HaShem did not want the spies to go, but HaShem said if you send them then 'Send them for you, Not For Me .' Even within the words 'Shelach,' - 'Send,' this word has within it ,'Shel Lach,' - 'For You,' Not for Me HaShem .HaShem gave us a beautiful and sweet land and HaShem made it very clear that He did not want to send the spies so if we wished to send them, it is us that wants it ,Not Him .
So , within the words ,'Shelach Lecha,' we have 'Shelach ' and Lecha ,' as if to say send for you - for you . Why the two 'for you's .' The two 'For You's' refer to the spy's wish and Moshe's request . Moshe trusted HaShem wholeheartedly, so when Moshe requested the people to be able to go,after the people had approached Moshe to have him ask HaShem, Moshe's true intention was that if they could go, they would see for themselves what a beautiful gift the land was that HaShem was giving us.Moshe's intention was a pure one, for the people to praise HaShem's Goodness. HaShem though Knew better.
The people on the other hand,feared wars with the nations in Canaan and wanted to hold on to HaShem's Goodness in having all their needs provided for without their need to worry for anything.
They approached Moshe and persuaded him to approach HaShem .
So HaShem said to Moshe 'Send them for you all, not for Me.'
There were twelve spies and before the spies left, ten of them already planned that they would bring back a slanderous negative report of the land.The other two spies Joshua, whose name,Moshe had changed from Hoshea to Yehoshuah (adding a Yud of HaShem's Name , to give him strength against the other spies) and Kalev ,stood with HaShem throughout , fighting the negativity of the other ten spies.
The spies traveled through the land and throughout , all but Joshua and Kalev, looked for reasons to prove that the land was filled with enemies and epidemic Chas Ve Shalom.This was not the truth, for the fruits were luscious and tasty and large and the milk of the land was so abundant,that it flowed like streams.
In truth, HaShem was preparing to destroy the nations within ,via different means, including the three giants that lived there, but the spies looked to slander all they saw.When the spies entered the land, the last of the righteous people that lived in Canaan at the time,Iyov-Job, died (on the day that they started entering into the land) thus there was no one left in the land ,whose merit could have saved the nations that were there,so HaShem was already working to help them but all they wanted to see,was negativity. While Kalev was visiting the Caves of Machpelah visiting the Fore-Fathers and Fore-Mothers Holy Resting Place and Joshua arguing with the other spies negativity to try and change their negativity to correct the wrong they were trying to do and have them have faith in HaShem,the spies were doing all they could do to shun all the beauty that they saw.
After the forty days were up, the spies returned and went straight to Moshe's tent and slandered the land, starting off falsely, with the beautiful grapes they had brought ,showing how large and 'strange' the fruits were and the powerful enemies they would have to fight and ended with saying the most painful thing about this precious gift of land that HaShem wanted to give us , saying 'it is a land that devours its inhabitants.' How painful that must have been for HaShem and Moshe to hear.Though Joshua and Kalev tried to praise the land, the other spies just shouted them down, wanting to stone them.
The slander spread from tent to tent like wild fire and throughout this night,the night of the Ninth of Av,there was wailing and crying.
HaShem saw this and their wailing and lack of trust in Him and so,decided, that on this night they chose to cry for no reason, so throughout the centuries they would have reason to wail.Thus became the terrible sadness of the the Ninth of Av , for on every year thereafter till almost when their children finally again reached the land , the people would ,on this night, dig their graves and die in them 15 000 a night till the last year of the forty years in the wilderness, where the people finally stopped dying by this decree and on that night the people never died.For the next six days thereafter, the people ,thinking they had miscalculated the date, came to the graves they dug and were still alive in the morning.By this Fifteenth of Av, they realized by the full moon, that their date calculations must be correct and that no doubt the Ninth of Av had certainly passed and so they rejoiced on the Fifteenth of Av that HaShem had finally relented. 
For this reason our people celebrate the Fifteenth of Av as a festival.
The ten spies died instantly unlike the others between certain ages up to sixty , who died at this time during the sojourn in the Wilderness,for HaShem had decreed that all those who shunned the land,would not enter it.
Joshua and Kalev as well as the Levites and also the women entered the land after the forty years, for they did not slander the land.There were some who tried to enter the land after HaShem's Decree at this time even though Moshe warned them, that HaShem would not be with them yet they did not listen and were killed on the mountain by Amalek and the Canaanites.
This incident of the spies is such an upsetting one for it shows how even the most devout, can lose faith in HaShem and how slander of anyone and anything and lack of faith in HaShem and lack of following HaShem's Laws , can cause evil that can reach far into the future .Faith in HaShem and trust in His Word needs to be ever foremost .
G-D constantly wants to shower us with His Gifts. All we need to do is trust Him and have faith in His Love and It will always Shine Through. His Love is forever and so must be our love and obedience to His Wish and Will . We are too small to know what is truly and ultimately good and so, the most beautiful thing we can ever do for His Gift of Creation which is also His wanting and Deep Need to Give His Kindness out to all , is to follow His Every Word and Wish and to put our own desires aside for Him and His Creation Gift . 
When we lose faith , Chas Ve Shalom , we 'Shelach,' give to ourselves and our own wish- 'for you' as HaShem said not 'for Him .' Thus to prevent slander and going on the wrong path, we must always 'Give to G-D,' for G-D and do all things for G-D and not us and our own needs.
Let us keep it forever in our minds that if not for HaShem Creating us and all things,nothing would be here to enjoy and be . Let our wishes and thoughts always be directed Heaven-Ward toward Our most Beautiful and One and Only Creator af all things HaKadosh Baruch Hu , The Holy One Blessed Be He .
With Faithful and Ever Endearing Love to HaShem , I wish HaShem with Love , a most Beautiful and Precious Shabbos Kodesh with Love and to all my fellow Yidden, a beautiful and precious Shabbos Kodesh with love.