Last week Ginny and I passed our fifteenth wedding anniversary (we will celebrate after settling into our new home in Charlotte following our cross-country move). The week's parasha, Shelach Lecha, when Moses and the Israelites send out spies to scope out the Land of Israel happened to be the same as the week of the year we got married.

The spies come back with dire news - ten of the twelve do not believe that the Israelites stand a chance against the intimidating inhabitants of the Land, while two of the spies exhibit faith in the Israelites' capacity to prevail. Needless to say, the faith of the two holds as the Israelites eventually establish a Kingdom in the land promised them.

Ginny and I also started out facing much skepticism. We started seeing each other and immediately began planning our lives together, and even we were taken aback by our initial audacity. Ginny helped me decide to apply to rabbinical school before she became Jewish, and we became engaged to be married before her conversion was complete as well.

In the four and a half years between the beginning of our relationship and our wedding we often seemed to be the only two people with faith in us. One of the first of my family advocates to get behind us as a couple was my grandfather, Iggy (z'l). Grandpa Iggy and I corresponded a lot then, back when we wrote letters, and he was convinced that Ginny and I shared many of the strengths that he and my grandmother had had together.

Making a minority report come true takes more than faith in each other and love and good thoughts. The Israelites fought long and hard for their promise, and Ginny and I have had both great fortune in each other, and even greater determination to work on our lives together.

So last week seems like a good moment to celebrate and revel in the successes often found in bucking conventional wisdom.

Happy anniversary Ginny!