Of all the interesting and stimulating accounts in this week’s double portion of Hukkat-Balak, none is more well-known and challenging as the description of Moses’ and Aaron’s punishment that would prevent them from entering the land of Israel. Says the Torah:
God spoke to Moses saying: “Take the staff and gather together the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and speak to the rock before their eyes that it should give its waters and you shall bring out to them water from the rock and give drink to the congregation and their animals.” Moses took the staff from before God as God had commanded him. Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation before the rock and he said to them: “Listen now, O rebels, shall we bring forth water for you from this rock?” Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock with his staff twice; abundant water came forth and the congregation and their animals drank. Because you did not believe in Me to sanctify Me in the eyes of the Children of Israel, you will not bring this congregation to the Land I have given them. (Numbers 20:7-13)
Readers of Torah and commentators in all ages and generations have tried to understand precisely what caused Moses and Aaron to lose their privileges to enter the land of Israel.
I remember as a child hearing the story as a simple punishment – much like the ones my own parents might have given to me and/or my siblings when we did something wrong. Moses was told to speak to the rock; instead he hit it, not just once but twice – therefore God punished him. Is this really a punishment fitting the wrongdoing?
At the same time, a closer reading of the final part of this biblical passage clearly identifies the reasons as a lack of faith and a failure to sanctify God in front of the people. Of this, Midrash Rabbah, an early rabbinic commentary, asks: ‘was there not an earlier case (in Numbers 11) when Moses showed a lack of faith, and a more sever one at that..?’ Do we not all have such moments when are actions might not demonstrate blind faith? Would we expect to have our life long goals and aspirations erased because of one such moment, when so many other times in our lives we act out of faith and holiness? Furthermore, how are we to know exactly what moment of question might be the one that seals our fate, ending our dreams and goals?
So, what, exactly, was so terrible about Moses and Aaron’s actions that it warranted such a severe punishment? Consumed with trying to uncover the exact nature of their offense, the Medieval commentators find no less than ten explanations focusing on three different aspects of the Biblical account: Moses’ action in hitting the rock (hitting the rock instead of talking to it; hitting it twice, and even the specific rock he chose); the character flaws Moses demonstrated in this entire Parashah (his temper, fleeing to the sanctuary, and even ignoring the people’s thirst); and the specific words Moses’ used in addressing the people (questioning God, doubting God, calling the people rebels and not being specific about who the ‘we’ was who would bring forth the water.)
Amongst some of the specific comments are those of some of the most well known of commentators:
The 11th century commentator, Rashi, explains as follows: ’If you (Moses) had spoken to the rock and it had brought forth (water), I would have been sanctified in the eyes of the congregation, and they would have said “If this rock, which does not speak and does not hear, and does not require sustenance, fulfills the word of God, then certainly we should as well.” Remembering that over the past several parshiot we have read of the people’s complaining and of their questioning of God’s plan, Rashi understands the punishment to result from Moses’ failure to speak to the rock which would have convinced the people to follow God.
Maimonides, on the other hand, contends that Moses sinned in becoming angry as he admonished the complaining people. The sin of his anger was compounded because the people assumed that whatever Moses said was a reflection of God’s will, and if Moses was angry with them, God, too, must be angry with them. Yet, there is no such evidence of God’s anger. Therefore, implies Rambam, Moses is culpable for the outcry that would follow.
Nachmanides, known as Ramban whose work was done in the 13th century, understands Moses rhetorical question “shall we get water for you…” to imply that he (Moses) and Aaron had the power to bring forth the water. Moses should have said “Shall God bring forth water…” For him, this explains why God said that Aaron and Moses had not sanctified his name.
So many and so diverse are the attempts at explanation that some have even given up trying to understand. On of the later commentators, ShmuelDavid Luzato of the 19th century offered: ‘Moses sinned one sin, and the commentators loaded thirteen sins and more, for each of them invented a new sin… Therefore, all my days I refrained from deep investigation of this matter, out of fear that I might come up with a new explanation, and I too would find myself adding a new sin to Moses our teacher!’ So, rather than assign the wrong understanding to God’s decree about Moses and/or to add to the long list of Moses’ wrongdoings, Luzzatto stops asking the questions.
I read Luzatto with a certain degree of amusement and chuckle at his statement. It is true – by the time we read all the commentators and pick apart the words of the text, the list of Moses’ sins would be infinite. At the same time, unlike Luzatto, I cannot simply cast aside the need to try to understand what motivated his actions. Consequently, perhaps there is yet another explanation that does not exactly explain God’s punishment, but can certainly explain Moses’ actions.
The water crisis for which Moses was originally told to speak to the rock results from Miriam’s death at the start of the chapter. Miriam dies and the people cannot find water, says the Torah. In fact, in the Midrash explains that as long as Miriam lived, God graced Israel with a well (a mystical spring) that accompanied them throughout the desert. For Moses, this is the moments in which he is mourning the loss of his sister. The people were thirsty without her; Moses was lost without her. This was the same sister who convinced her parents to continue their marital relations (despite the Egyptian decree to kill the male children) resulting in Moses’ conception. This was the same sister who watched over him from afar in the Nile and played a part in the Pharoah’s daughter taking him into her home. This was the same sister who stood with him at the Sea, crossing and singing to celebrate their progress. This was the sister whose absence left him lost.
Miriam’s death robs Moses of his ability to govern. Not yet having had a chance to mourn the love and loss of his sister, Moses lashes out at God, at people, and even at rock. His sister’s death takes from him the very ability in him that she inspired to courageously and unashamedly intercede with God on behalf of the Jewish people. In those moments of sorrow and hurt, Moses is a human being crying out in pain. And perhaps, God’s words about entering the land are less of a consequence and more a way of helping Moses to acknowledge that he and Aaron, like Miriam, had limited days in this world, and would die soon as well.
On this Shabbat, perhaps the lessons for us are the same. To remember that there are times when we need to set aside our public selves to allow us to live in the personal and individual moment less we lash out at God, our families, our community, or others in our lives. And, perhaps, like Moses, we too need to be reminded that our time in this world is not unlimited. And, like Moses in that moment, we need to remember that the meaning lies not in the destination, but in the journey.
Shabbat Shalom!