On many levels it would be interesting to write about provocative and controversial characters every week. Figures who did things which were truly inspiring but who had complexities and clear weaknesses.

This week I’ve really done the opposite. I’ve written and given space and honour to someone who did some amazing things but who was to some extent has slipped under the cracks. Calev. And as I think you will read, it was well worth the effort – a real role model.

When I think about the people who have really shaped me, the famous names are rarely the ones that come first. The people I keep returning to are quieter. They did the right thing when it would have been far easier to look the other way, and they never seemed to need anyone to notice. The Torah has a role model built on exactly that quality, and he barely makes the list of its great leaders.

If I asked you to name the great figures of the Torah, you would probably reach for Moshe, Aharon, Miriam, Yehoshua, or David. Calev rarely takes centre stage. He never held the highest office, never sought greatness, and never seems remotely interested in being recognised. Yet that may be precisely why he belongs among our finest role models. Calev turns up at the defining moments of the wilderness years, and each time he does the same unglamorous thing. He quietly does what is right in G-d’s eyes, whatever it costs him. As the text says, twice: he “wholly followed G-d.”

The mission of the spies. This is the first of those moments. Twelve leaders were sent to scout the land. Ten came back overwhelmed by fear and talked an entire nation out of its future. Calev, with Yehoshua, stood almost completely alone. In this week’s parasha, Moshe reaches back forty years and retells the whole painful episode.

אם יראה איש באנשים האלה הדור הרע הזה את הארץ הטובה אשר נשבעתי לתת לאבתיכם.........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)