#732: Changing Your Mind Is Not Flip-Flopping

Talmud on Parashat Shelah, Bamidbar/Numbers 14:24

Colorful flip flops on a rack

Bamidbar/Numbers 14:24

וְעַבְדִּ֣י כָלֵ֗ב עֵ֣קֶב הָֽיְתָ֞ה ר֤וּחַ אַחֶ֙רֶת֙ עִמּ֔וֹ וַיְמַלֵּ֖א אַחֲרָ֑י וַהֲבִֽיאֹתִ֗יו אֶל־הָאָ֙רֶץ֙ אֲשֶׁר־בָּ֣א שָׁ֔מָּה וְזַרְע֖וֹ יוֹרִשֶֽׁנָּה׃

But My servant Caleb, because he was imbued with a different spirit and remained loyal to Me—him will I bring into the land that he entered, and his offspring shall hold it as a possession.

Gimme Some Torah #732

God says the cowardly generation that believed the wicked spies will die in the desert and never see it. Joshua and Caleb, however, are exempted from this sentence because they tried to convince the people of the truth.

Regarding Caleb, God says that because he had a different spirit (רוּחַ אַחֶרֶת/ruah aheret), he will be able to enter the land and take possession of it. But nowhere does it say that Joshua had a different spirit. Why not? The Talmud (B. Sotah 34b) says that Caleb changed his mind, while Joshua started out with the correct spirit:

And this is the meaning of that which is written: “But My servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and has followed Me fully, him will I bring into the land where into he went” (Num. 14:24), which implies that Caleb changed his mind over time. Joshua, however, was opposed to the intentions of the other spies from the outset.

This passage teaches us an important idea: Changing your mind is not flip-flopping. Political attack commercials often try to make mince meat out of opponents who (gasp!) change their minds on a topic. These commercials typically label those who change their minds as “flip-floppers.”

That is usually an unfair accusation. There is nothing wrong with changing your mind after a thorough review of the relevant facts. Changing your mind does not demonstrate hypocrisy or inconsistency. Rather, it demonstrates critical thinking skills and a willingness to learn. Indeed, the scientific method can only function in an environment that allows people to change their minds.

Joshua, as the successor of Moses, always had the right opinion about the wicked spies. But Caleb, his apprentice, started out believing the spies and subsequently changed his mind.

If we never change our minds on anything, our souls become ossified and desiccated. I generally don’t trust those who can’t or won’t change their minds. I suspect that such people do not care about facts. Facts, pesky and irritating though they may be, are one of the few things we all have in common!

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I am the rabbi of Temple Beth El in Somerset, New Jersey, and the author of The JPS Jewish Heritage Torah Commentary.