Chevre, this week’s parsha is Shelach Lecha (שלח לך). We start with HaShem commanding Moshe to send scouts to check out the land. And then we get a list of the scouts, who are the top folks from each tribe. HaShem changes Hoshea’s name to Yehoshua. The change is adding a yud (י) to the start of the name. This changes Yehoshua’s name to start with the same 2 Hebrew letters as HaShem’s name (thank you Rashi). The idea here is that HaShem should protect Yehoshua from the other scouts. A little foreshadowing to the fact that everyone except for Yehoshua and Caleb come back with a negative report. Having the positive outlook is what saves Yehoshua and Caleb and they both get to go into Eretz Yisrael at the end of the journey.

Working in the cloud there are protections that come from being on AWS, like AWS Shield, which protects all AWS networks from DDOS attacks. By being on AWS, all systems get the benefit of the latest security enhancements. My small personal workflows get the same upgrades as huge major companies like Netflix. Everyone has access to the latest Operating Systems and patching can be done relatively easily (thinking bash scripts or SSM runbooks). And auto-recovery of EC2 instances is a few clicks away along with auto-scaling.

There has never been someone Jewish History like Moshe, but we all can access HaShem the same. From the smallest baby to the oldest and most revered sage, we all have a direct connection to The Ribono Shel Olam (The Master of the Universe). All we have to do is open the connection (no wifi required) and pour our out hearts. I bless you and please bless me back to always be able to connect with the one above and maintain a good relationship.

Part of that relationship, as brought down in Halacha (Jewish Law) is that over a new article of clothing, we say the Shehecheyanu blessing. As an employee of AWS, supporting the TLV Summit this week, I received a new t-shirt for the event, as I do nearly every year. And so every year the morning of the Summit, I open a connection to the one above and say “(Thank you) for granting us life, for sustaining us, and for helping us to reach this day.” Shabbat Shalom.