Shlach – Miraglim – Social Influence
R' Yerucham notes the tremendous urgency with which Moshe treated the danger of the meraglim influencing Yehoshua. Adding or changing one's name is something done out of absolute dire need. We find that Calev as well was not confident in his own ability to oppose the spies and needed "outside help" by running to Kivrei Avos and praying at their gravesite. The Mashgiach said to his students in Mir, Poland, that they are young and can't fully appreciate what he has to say from his long life and experience. There is no more powerful pull and influence in the world as much as peer and social pressure. The influence of those people who you spend time with, your neighbors, travel partners, your business colleagues, can't be blocked. Only with extreme measures of prayer, or a change of name, can one hope to be protected from their influence.
But why couldn't Yehoshua and Kalev just strengthen themselves in this nisayon like they would for all other challenges in life? What is so uniquely dangerous about social influence more than so many other challenges?
I would like to suggest, that the gemara in kiddushin compares the Yetzer Hara as a wound that a loving father inflicts upon his son. But the father places an antibiotic bandage upon it and tells his son, so long as he keeps the bandage on he will be safe from being overcome by infection. So too, the Torah is our antibiotic that ensures our safety from our own desires, that were inflicted upon us by our Loving Father who knows us best. Who designed us with the perfect balance of challenges and tools, so that just keeping a good diet of Torah will ensure our safety from the inclinations that He bestowed upon us.
But when we expose ourselves to outside influence, if we introduce into our system external germs, that are the passions and faulty traits in others, then the bandage and our own toolset of good traits will not suffice. An extra dose of learning, mussar, or typical prayer coming from our own internal system won't do the trick. For external invasion of yetzer hora, we need to come onto tools beyond ourselves. To change who we are literally by changing our names, or going beyond this world and praying with the assistance of the merit of Tzadikkim who are no longer part of THIS world.
This should make us very wary of our surroundings, especially as for many people their surroundings change in the summer. And it should also give us a lot of hope, that if we surround ourselves with good, righteous friends and neighbors it has the ability to supercharge our growth and catapult us way beyond what we could have achieved just by working on ourselves. As Chazal say, מידה טובה מרובה - May we all take advantage of this knowledge and help ourselves spring forward!