Chukat – Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick

The water well that travelled with – and hydrated – the Jews during their forty years in the desert finally dried up.  The people quickly became delirious from thirst; their mood soured and they reverted to their unappreciative selves.  Once again, they turned their anger toward Moshe and God:

The people quarreled with Moses, and they said, “If only we had died with the death of our brothers before the Lord.”	וַיָּ֥רֶב הָעָ֖ם עִם־משֶׁ֑ה וַיֹּֽאמְר֣וּ לֵאמֹ֔ר וְל֥וּ גָוַ֛עְנוּ בִּגְוַ֥ע אַחֵ֖ינוּ לִפְנֵ֥י ה
“Why have you brought the congregation of the Lord to this desert so that we and our livestock should die there?”	וְלָמָ֤ה הֲבֵאתֶם֙ אֶת־קְהַ֣ל ה אֶל־הַמִּדְבָּ֖ר הַזֶּ֑ה לָמ֣וּת שָׁ֔ם אֲנַ֖חְנוּ וּבְעִירֵֽנוּ:
“Why have you taken us out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place; it is not a place for seeds, or for fig trees, grapevines, or pomegranate trees, and there is no water to drink.”	וְלָמָ֤ה הֶֽעֱלִיתֻ֨נוּ֙ מִמִּצְרַ֔יִם לְהָבִ֣יא אֹתָ֔נוּ אֶל־הַמָּק֥וֹם הָרָ֖ע הַזֶּ֑ה לֹ֣א ׀ מְק֣וֹם זֶ֗רַע וּתְאֵנָ֤ה וְגֶ֨פֶן֙ וְרִמּ֔וֹן וּמַ֥יִם אַ֖יִן לִשְׁתּֽוֹת:

A generation born in the desert with no actual connection to Egypt seem to prefer for the good old days of their father’s slavery.  Moshe and Aharon are at a loss.  They are unsure how to respond so they retreat to God:  In the past, God might have given the dynamic-duo a pep talk.  This time, He gives them a simple set of instructions:

Take the staff and assemble the congregation, you and your brother Aaron, and speak to the rock in their presence so that it will give forth its water. You shall bring forth water for them from the rock and give the congregation and their livestock to drink.

קַ֣ח אֶת־הַמַּטֶּ֗ה וְהַקְהֵ֤ל אֶת־הָֽעֵדָה֙ אַתָּה֙ וְאַֽהֲרֹ֣ן אָחִ֔יךָ וְדִבַּרְתֶּ֧ם אֶל־הַסֶּ֛לַע לְעֵֽינֵיהֶ֖ם וְנָתַ֣ן מֵימָ֑יו וְהֽוֹצֵאתָ֙ לָהֶ֥ם מַ֨יִם֙ מִן־הַסֶּ֔לַע וְהִשְׁקִיתָ֥ אֶת־הָֽעֵדָ֖ה וְאֶת־בְּעִירָֽם:

Moshe and Aharon do indeed take the staff, gather up the people and deliver a speech for the ages.  However, their words are directed not toward the rock (as God commanded) but instead to the grumbling nation:

Now listen, you rebels, can we draw water for you from this rock?

שִׁמְעוּ־נָא֙ הַמֹּרִ֔ים הֲמִן־הַסֶּ֣לַע הַזֶּ֔ה נוֹצִ֥יא לָכֶ֖ם מָֽיִם:

“You bet we can!”  And with that, Moshe raised his mighty arm, struck the rock twice, and water sprang forth.

The story has a happy ending only from the point of view of Bnai Yisrael.  In a postscript, the Torah tells us that God was underwhelmed with the performance of Moshe and Aharon:

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Since you did not have faith in Me to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly to the Land which I have given them.”

וַיֹּ֣אמֶר ה֘ אֶל־משֶׁ֣ה וְאֶל־אַֽהֲרֹן֒ יַ֚עַן לֹא־הֶֽאֱמַנְתֶּ֣ם בִּ֔י לְהַ֨קְדִּישֵׁ֔נִי לְעֵינֵ֖י בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל לָכֵ֗ן לֹ֤א תָבִ֨יאוּ֙ אֶת־הַקָּהָ֣ל הַזֶּ֔ה אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁר־נָתַ֥תִּי לָהֶֽם:

Four (obvious) questions emerge from the story:

• Why did the well dry up in the first place?
• Why did HaShem want Moshe and Aharon to speak to the rock, when 40 years earlier, in a remarkably similar situation, He instructed them to strike the rock?
• Why did Moshe and Aharon disobey the direct Instructions from God? and
• Why was the punishment so harsh and disproportionate?

Many explanations have been offered for these questions, but I’d like to focus on the Chizkuni who ties them all together with a nice bow.  According to the Chizkuni (and others), הסלע, “the rock”, was no ordinary rock; it was Miriam’s Well that accompanied the people throughout the forty year desert journey.  It provided water to the Israelites בזכות מרים, due to Miriam’s merit.  (See Rashi on BaMidbar 20:2; see also Midrash Aggadah Numbers 20:2.)  For a beautiful analysis of the connection between Miriam and water, I invite you to listen to Rabbi David Fohrman’s online talk where he explains Miriam’s lifelong role in saving Moshe Rabebinu – and Bnai Yisrael – time and time again:

https://www.alephbeta.org/course/lecture/why-did-moses-hit-the-rock.

When Miriam died (recorded in the Torah in the preceding verse, BaMidbar 20:1), the well died too, once again becoming a mere inanimate rock!  Moshe was instructed to revisit the same rock that he struck forty years earlier to coax life-giving water out of her.

This explains – at least in part – why Moshe struck the rock.  Moshe, like B’nai Yisrael, yearned for the good old days when he, along with his brother and sister, lead the nation out of Egypt and quenched their thirst against all odds.  Through sibling love, devotion and cooperation, the triumvirate of Moshe, Miriam and Aharon overcame the Evil Empire of Egypt, and then beat into submission an unforgiving desert.

As Moshe stood over THE rock, he no doubt felt terribly alone.  His people were grumbling and his sister was no longer there to gently guide him.  That Moshe was overcome with grief over the loss of his beloved sister can even be inferred from a subtle undertone in his words:

Now listen, you rebels can we draw water for you from this rock?

שִׁמְעוּ־נָא֙ הַמֹּרִ֔ים הֲמִן־הַסֶּ֣לַע הַזֶּ֔ה נוֹצִ֥יא לָכֶ֖ם מָֽיִם

The Hebrew reader will recognize that the word מֹּרִ֔ים (rebels) contains the identical letters as “Miriam”; the words are the same, merely vocalized differently.  Moshe was criticizing the people for their lack of faith, he was also pleading with the soul of his sister, his beloved rebel-in-arms, to intercede with God.  Understood this way, the verse can also mean: “Hey, Miriam, can’t you bring forth water from this rock [one last time]?”

Why then did HaShem view Moshe’s conduct as an act of faithlessness rather than grief and anger?  The answer lies in God’s initial Instruction:

Take the staff …

… קַ֣ח אֶת־המַּטֶּ֗ה

Chizkuni is (once again) intrigued by the definite article “ה”, “the”.  God didn’t say “take YOUR staff”; rather, He commanded: “Take THE staff”:

“take the staff!” This is the staff of Aaron	קח את המטה זה המטה של אהרן
[which Moshe took], as it is written [shortly thereafter]: “Moses took the staff that had been in the presence of the Lord, [i.e. in the Tabernacle, the staff that had produced almonds in Numbers 17,23.]  This is Aaron’s staff, as the Torah records in Parshat Korach wherein that was used as a sign to the rebellious Jews.	דהא כתיב כאן ויקח משה את המטה מלפני ה’ וזהו מקלו של אהרן כדכתיב בפרשת קרח השב את מטה אהרן לפני העדות למשמרת לאות לבני מרי,
Furthermore, [it was appropriate for this staff to be used again] since in both instances the people were in a rebellious mood, as Moshe declared: “Listen you rebels…”	ועוד דמקלו של אהרן היה אות לבני מרי והיינו דאמר משה שמעו נא המורים
Moses erred; when God Instructed him to take THE staff [of Aharon], Moshe reasoned that it was to hit the rock, but that was not God’s Intention.  Rather, He Wanted Moshe to use the staff as symbol to the rebellious nation.	וכבר טעה משה שאמר לו הקדוש ברוך הוא קח את המטה סבר משה להכות בסלע והקב”ה לא אמר קח את המטה אלא לפי שלא היה לאות לבני מרי

God appreciated that the nation’s crankiness – this time – was biologically driven rather than an outright rejection and rebellion.  Therefore, He wanted Moshe to hold up Aaron’s staff, which had only recently come alive and sprouted almond buds during the rebellion of Korach.  The staff that was once used to bring forth plagues was transformed into a symbol of God’s life-giving-Power.  God wanted the people to see this miraculous wooden staff with its perpetual flowering buds, and believe again, with a full heart, that He would provide water for them.

Moshe’s eyes may not have dimmed, but his faith in the people had certainly waned.  Moshe failed to appreciate the difference between the grumblings of thirst and the strife of politics.  Rabbi Septimus pointed out to me that when God commanded Moshe to take the staff that was used to put down the Korach rebellion, Moshe wrongly assumed that the staff was once against an instrument of power.  But it had already been transformed – for all time – into a symbol of hope.  In his sorrow and anger, Moshe missed this lesson.

God Declared to Moshe:

Since you did not have faith in Me to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel…

לֹא־הֶֽאֱמַנְתֶּ֣ם בִּ֔י לְהַ֨קְדִּישֵׁ֔נִי לְעֵינֵ֖י בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל

“Bi” means “Me”, but it is also the common abbreviation of B’nai Yisrael.  It was not God with whom Moshe lacked faith.  Rather, Moshe doubted that the children of Israel were capable of absorbing the profound lesson implicit in Aharon’s staff.

Rabbi Avi Miller directed me to the (following) Midrash Yelammedenu:

The staff with which Jacob crossed the Jordan is identical with that which Judah gave to his daughter-in-law, Tamar (Genesis 32:10, 38:18). It is likewise the holy rod with which Moses worked (Exodus 4:20, 21), with which Aaron performed wonders before Pharaoh (Exodus 7:10), and with which, finally, David slew the giant Goliath (I Samuel 17:40).  David left it to his descendants, and the Davidic kings used it as a scepter until the destruction of the Temple, when it miraculously disappeared. When the Messiah comes it will be given to him for a scepter in token of his authority over the heathen.

The staff of Aaron (and Moshe) started out as a living branch.  At some point it became detached from the ground and was turned in to a walking stick.  Then it became a tool for bringing forth God’s power.  It also became a weapon.  In the end, however, through God’s Lovingkindness, it blossomed even though it was no longer connected to the ground. It became THE symbol of God’s restorative power.  So important was THE staff that it was placed in the Temple in Jerusalem, and it will be used again in the end of days.

If the point of the story was merely to quench B’nai Yisrael’s thirst, why then did God stop the flow in the first place?  Rabbi Avi Miller suggested to me that in the wake of Miriam’s death, Moshe himself had hardened like a rock; he was stiff and stilted like the wooden staff.  He was dejected, lifeless, and alone.

Maybe God had a dual purpose in mind when He plugged up the waters only to Command Moshe to speak to the rock using Aharon’s staff.  The water challenge was an exercise designed to show the people were ready to trust God, that they had grown sufficiently and were finally ready to move forward, to embark on the physical boundaries of the land of Israel.

He also wanted to awaken and enliven the spirit of His beloved and faithful servant, Moshe.  “Look at THE staff, Moshe, your brother’s wooden staff that came alive and bore fruit.  See that God Restores life.  Put away your grief, Moshe, and see that THE dry, lifeless rock will again give sweet water.  All you need to do is ask.”

The intended lesson for Bnai Yosrael was as beautiful and it was simple: God’s greatest Power is not the destructive force of the plagues but the life-affirming Power of rebirth.  THE rock; THE staff.  These are God’s symbols of hope.  As these symbols changed, so too must people change and evolve.

Moshe failed to trust that his people were ready for this transformation, and Moshe himself could no longer appreciate the beauty of God’s small almond bud and miraculous, Loving, Hopeful, Power that brought it about.  He could not, in modern parlance, stop and smell the roses.

God reluctantly concluded that Moshe was not the right man to lead the people into Israel.

Shabbat Shalom!