Parashat Shelach Lecha

The biblical spies returned from their wanderings in the Holy Land terrified of the giants who
lived there, but also laden with the huge fruits that are engraved in the cultural consciousness.

These fruits - and especially the huge clusters of grapes – are immortalized in the famous painting by Gustav Dore, in the logo of the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, and also as the symbol of local wineries.

You are invited to an artistic-Midrashic journey in the Israel Museum with Beit Avi Chai, following the representations of the fruits of the Land of Israel in culture, in the synagogues and in Jewish art over the generations. Together with Rabbi Prof. Dalia Marx and curator Sharon Weiser-Ferguson, we will discover what ideological messages lie in the images of the fruit, and how joy at the fertility of the land can repair the sin of the spies.