To:            (IL/ROOT & BRANCH ASSOCIATION, LTD.), rb@rb.org.il
From:          "Root & Branch Association, Ltd." <rbranch@netvision.net.il>
Subject:       Shabbat Shalom:  Parashat Chukat (Numbers 19:1-22:1)
                     Commentary on the Weekly Torah Reading for 10 Tammuz, 5758 (July 4,
                    1998) by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin


Shabbat Shalom:  Parashat Chukat (Numbers 19:1-22:1) Commentary on the
Weekly Torah Reading for 10 Tammuz, 5758 (July 4, 1998)


by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin


EFRAT, ISRAEL, July 3, 1998, Root & Branch:  The great tragedy in this
week's Torah reading is the awesome punishment the Almighty inflicts upon
Moses: "therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land." [Numbers 20:13]

This astonishingly productive and prophetic figure is prevented from
accomplishing his life's goal and heart's desire, is literally denied a
visa into the Promised Land.  He must spend the next lengthy desert period
wandering around rather than walking within, gazing and imagining rather
than grasping and settling.
    
If the punishment was so great, then what exactly was Moses' sin?  And how
does his transgression relate to his being prevented from entering the land
of Israel? 
    
In this week's portion of Chukat the text records that immediately
following the death of Miriam, and as a consequence the loss of her merit,
the source of water disappeared.  The situation becomes so intolerable that
the people actually claim that it would have been better had they died in
Egypt, rather than  "...to bring us to this evil place?  It is no place of
seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates,
neither is there any water to drink!" [Numbers 20:5]

In response to their plea, G-d commands Moses and Aaron to "take the rod,
assemble the congregation...and speak unto the rock before their eyes that
it give forth water..." [Numbers 20:8]

Moses and Aaron gather the assembly of Israelites, and "Moses lifted up his
hand, smote the rock with his hand twice, and water came forth abundantly."
However, he first cries out, "Hear now, you rebels, are we to bring forth
water out of this rock?" [Numbers 20:10-11]

In response to Moses' angry words and action, G-d grows angry in turn:
"...Because you believed not in Me, to sanctify Me in the eyes of the
children of Israel, you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I
have given them." [Numbers 20:13]

True, Moses didn't follow G-d's exact words by speaking to the rock.  But
in his defense, commentators point out that since in the past G-d had
commanded him to smite the rock, ("Behold I will stand before you there
upon the rock in Horeb, and you shall smite the rock, and there shall come
water out of it, that the people may drink," Exodus 17:6) wouldn't it be
reasonable for Moses to have applied the previous
command to the present circumstances?

Here too G-d instructs Moses to take the rod with him!  Was it so
implausible for Moses to assume that he was being required to bring his rod
in order to use it?

If G-d wanted to be sanctified via a rock that flowed with water, does it
really matter if Moses spoke to the rock or if he struck it?  In either
case, the miracle is clear.

In the past we've discussed the Maimonidean position set forth in a short
introductory work to the Mishna Avot, known as Eight Chapters, where
Maimonides speaks of Moses' punishment in terms of 'displaced anger' - in
contemporary psychological language.  The main problem, as explained by
Maimonides, is the fact that Moses calls the people
rebels, that he loses patience with them, that he really wants to strike
them but instead strikes the rock.  A leader impatient with his charges,
angry with his people cannot possibly bring them to the next stage of
history in the Land of Israel.
    
A fascinating expansion of this idea emerges from the creative mind of
Rabbenu Tzadok Hakohen of Lublin in his nineteenth century commentary Pri
Tzadik.  Here he interprets this tragically seminal event in the life of
Moses in a symbolic fashion, much as the later prophets were commanded to
do symbolic acts, much as dreams may be analyzed
symbolically.  The hard rock symbolizes the Jewish nation, often referred
to in the Torah as a "stiff-necked" people.

"Speaking" to them means engaging them, entering into a partnership with
them, transmitting to them the principles of the Oral Law (Torah Sheb'al
Peh, the Torah "by mouth" literally) which establishes them as worthy
co-creators with the Almighty.  If you speak to the nation with respect and
establish the people as full partners, if you deal with them in terms of
the soft approach of the Oral Torah rather than the stricter approach of
the Written Torah (the Holy Mystical Zohar speaks of the harshness of the
written Torah which, for example, superficially seems to readily prescribe
the death penalty whereas the Oral Commentary so limits this punishment as
to cause the Mishna in Tractate Makkot to declare that a Court which
sentenced one individual to death in 70 years was called a murderous court)
- you will be able to draw water (true Torah, since Torah is often compared
to life-giving water) even from that stiff-necked and hard-nosed rock of a
nation.

By hitting the rock, Moses was expressing an unwillingness to speak, a
negation of the loving embrace of the Oral Torah, a position of anger and
frustration.  Even more problematic, continues the Pri Tzadik, Moses should
use his hands as an aid for teaching the Oral Law, as a loving embrace to
welcome the partnership of a G-d - enthused nation.  Instead "Moses lifted up his hand" held his hands over
and above the nation in a sign of high-handed superiority, and then, in
anger "struck the rock (symbolically, the Israelite nation) twice with the
rod" [Numbers 20:11].

A leader who lifts his hands above rather than outstretches his hand
towards his nation, a leader who is angry with, and has ceased to love, his
nation, cannot continue to lead in the next phase of the People of Israel
in the Land of Israel.
    
Now what has caused this change in a Moses whose entire previous life is a
demonstration of love and concern for the Jewish people?  When the tragedy
of the Golden Calf erupts, G-d is ready to destroy the nation and start all
over again with Moses as the prototype; but the leader - totally committed
to his people - refuses, telling G-d:  'either this nation or nothing and
no-one.  You can blot me out of Your Book, but forgive Israel!'
remonstrates Moses.  What happened to all this  unconditional love for his
people?

Two central events, as they unfold in the last two Torah portions, provide
a clue to understand how Moses shifted from the heights of compassion to
the depths of impatience.  If we but review the last two incidents which
preceded the transgression of the rock, we can certainly understand - and
empathize with - Moses' disappointment and frustration.  When the scouts
returned, and ten of the twelve convinced the nation to dash Moses'
ultimate goal of entry into the Promised Land onto the rocks of despair,
and when Korach staged a rebellion against the Mosaic leadership and not
one single Israelite rose to his defense, the blazing inner fire which had
energized the spirit of their devoted leader turned to ashes of decay.

Sparks of devotion became coals of fury.  And who can blame him?
Nevertheless, a leader must love the Israelites, first-born of the Divine,
eternal people of the Covenant.  A leader devoid of such committed devotion
must - as a consequence if not necessarily a punishment - relinquish his
command to the next generation.
    

Shabbat Shalom


Rabbi Shlomo Riskin
Efrat, Israel

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Shlomo Riskin is Rabbi of Efrat, Founder of Ohr Torah Institutions and a
member of the Council of Consulting Rabbis and Torah Scholars of the Root &
Branch Association.

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