Three Random Thoughts

I have had three whole random thoughts over the past few days and am posting them for your consideration and commentary.

1. Regarding the Meraglim (spies) in Parshat Shelach (Numbers 13:33): We were like grasshoppers in our eyes, and so we were in their eyes. The mussar haskel (upshot) is that others percieve us as we percieve ourselves. If we perceive ourselves in a negative light, it's not surprising that others will, too.

2. Also regarding the Meraglim, upon the report of the spies, Bnai Yisrael stayed up all night crying and complaining that it was better to return to Egypt than to go to Eretz Yisrael. This was a 180 degree turn in the wrong direction, for which they were punished by having to wander in the desert for 40 years and having that entire generation die out.

According to the midrash (I think - I'm quoting from memory so I might be wrong), this occurred on the night of the 9th of Av. On the night of each 9th of Av for the following 38 years they had already "served" 2 years), all the Jews of that generation would dig their own graves, lie down in them to sleep, and the next morning, would find about 1/38 had died over night. Therefore, the last year (year 38), all the people going to sleep knew for sure they would not wake up in the morning. Yet, they woke up in the morning. They assumed they had made a mistake in counting days, and repeated this procedure on the night of the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th. On the night of the 15th, they saw the full moon and knew for sure that they had not made an error, and realized they were "off the hook".

This presents us with a number of interesting questions: It seems that the generation of slavery had an entrenched attitude that could only be removed by a complete housecleaning, yet the midrash implies otherwise. Did the remaining members of that generation actually live to go into Eretz Yisrael? Does this imply that no attitude is so entrenched that it cannot be changed? G-d had vowed not to let anyone from that generation except Joshua and Caleb go into Eretz Yisrael - did He then break his vow? How can that be? Is there any numerological significance to the six nights and then the seventh night?

3. Judaism is called a monotheistic religion, yet I disagree with that term. Judaism is actually monodeistic - that is, we believe in one G-d. As far as theology goes, I might say that even Hinduism or other Eastern religions, are monotheistic, since they are all built upon one consistent (to them, at least) ideaology. They are decidedly not monodeistic, since they believe in multiple gods. Judaism, broken up into Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, et. al., appears to be monodeistic but not necessarily monotheistic. Does any of this make sense?

Overall, 64-million-dollar-question: Can all of this material be related, do you think?