In the midst of the Spies disparaging the Land of Israel and thus discouraging the Jewish nation from entering it, they claimed: “It’s a land that eats its inhabitants.” (Bamidbar 12:32) Rashi comments there that wherever they passed, there were people being buried. The Spies said there was so much death occurring, and the land was undesirable.

If you think about it, they seem to have had a good point. After seeing so much negativity, can you blame the Spies for feeling frightened and thus giving this bad report? Interestingly, the Gemara tells us that Hashem was actually doing this for the Spies’ good (Sotah 35a). He made sure the inhabitants of the land were busy with burying their dead so that they would not pursue the Spies and harm them.

Now the question is flipped: How could the Spies take a great personal kindness of Hashem and turn it into a negative blemish?

Charlie Harary says that however you view a situation is up to you. You can take a positive experience and view it in your head as the greatest nightmare. On the other hand, you can take what looks like negativity from an external view and shine a positive light on. No matter what the situation is — the choice is ours. The Spies, unfortunately, chose the first option, which resulted in their sin.

The Chovos Halevavos tells a story of a certain pious individual who was walking with his students and found a carcass of a dog on the side of the road. The students were disgusted as they viewed the smelly, dead animal, and couldn’t bear to look at it for long. They looked at their esteemed teacher and saw him looking at the dog. He said, “Look how white his teeth are!”

This story says it all. One situation: two totally different perspectives. The choice is ours. I heard a story a while back that illustrates this point.

An esteemed rabbi was waiting in his car for a relative in a parking lot. He decided it would be a good idea to lay his head down for a bit and get some much-needed rest. However, as he was about to do so, an annoying car alarm started sounding that disturbed the peace. How could he fall asleep now?! He sat there, realizing that there was no changing the situation and it was up to him to make the best of it. So, he decided to listen to the rhythm of the car alarm. As he did so, he fell asleep. He could have sat there stewing in his anger, thinking, “I’ve been looking forward to this sleep for so long, and now this is happening?!” Instead, however, he made the wise decision to make it work, and in place of a terrible inconvenience, it was turned into a lullaby.