There we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, descended from the giants. (Bamidbar 13:33) • Nephilim:נְפִילִים, giants, descended from Shamchazai and Azael, who fell (שֶׁנָּפְלוּ)from heaven in the generation of Enosh. –Rashi The Midrash relates that when the generation of the Flood went astray, there arose two angels, Shamchazai and Azael, who suggested before G-d that they could exchange the corrupt humans in fulfilling the world’s purpose.
Said G-d: “It is known and revealed to Me that if you dwelled upon earth the Evil Inclination would dominate you, but you would be even worse than the sons of man.” Sure enough, as soon as the angels descended and saw the beautiful “daughters of man,” they became corrupted and sinned with them. It was these giant nephilim and their descendants whom the spies reported seeing, but not only to frighten the Jewish nation of the giants’ strength and might. This was part of the spies general concern about leaving the desert and settling in the Land of Canaan. As explained in Chassidus, the spies feared that the preoccupation with material concerns that awaited Bnei Yisrael would be distracting and detrimental to the spiritual heights and achievements to which they had become accustomed in the desert. The mention of the nephilim, angels who succumbed and fell through interaction with the material world, served to emphasize and prove this prediction to be accurate. “Not so!” said Yehoshua and Calev. “If G-d desires us, He will bring us to this land and give it to us… G-d is with us; do not fear them (14:8-9)!” Angles may have failed upon descending into the material world, but for a Jew this story would have a very different ending. For “G-d desires us”, G-d’s greatest delight is in the physical Jew and his Divine worship while in the lowliest of worlds. Therefore, G-d imbues the Jew with capabilities that are incomparably greater than those of an angel. Before G-d Himself, the molding of paradoxes and opposites obviously presents no challenge. Likewise, “G-d is with us”! Within each Jew is a “a veritable part of G-d Above (Tanya, Chapter 2)”, enabling him to fuse his spiritual climb with his materially preoccupied lifestyle. Moreover, he will also infuse the physical world with G-dliness, transforming it to be the prefect home within which G-d would reside and be revealed. Likutei Sichos vol. 28, pp. 91-92
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