בס”ד
Chukat (Numbers 19:1-22:1 )
Bamidbar, 20:12: “And Hashem said to Moshe and to Aaron, ‘since you did not believe in Me to sanctify me in the eyes of the Children of Israel, therefore you will not bring this Congregation to the Land which I have given them.”
Rashi, Bamidbar, 20:12, Dh: Lehakdisheini: “That if you would have spoken to the rock and it would have brought out water, I would have been sanctified in the eyes of the Congregation…”
In the Torah Portion of Chukat features one of the most unfathomable passages in the Torah – the sin of Moshe at Mei Meriva (the bitter waters), for which he was punished that he would not enter the Land of Israel. The difficulty of this episode is that the exact nature of Moshe’s sin is very unclear, to the extent that the commentaries offer numerous explanations of the sin, and strongly disagree with the opinions of their peers.1
The Rambam writes that Moshe sinned in that he got angry with the people when he responded to their demands for water by saying, “Listen, you rebels! Shall we fetch water from this rock?!”2 When the people saw their great leader incensed, they blamed themselves, thinking that they had angered G-d with their request for water when that was not the case. In that way, G-d told Moshe that he and Aaron had “rebelled against My word”3 as they made the people think that they had angered Hashem when they had not.
The Ramban strongly argues with the Rambam. One of his main questions on the Rambam’s assertion that Moshe’s sin was getting angry is that Hashem never made such an argument against Moshe. Rather, his criticism was the Moshe did not believe in Him to sanctify Him. Asks the Ramban, what lack of is there in anger?4
One answer to this question can be found in the words of the Maharal.5 He is addressing a different question that is posed by the Mizrachi on Rashi. Rashi here states that Moshe’s mistake was hitting the rock instead of speaking to it. However, in a different place, when alluding to the sin of Mei Meriva, Rashi6 states that Moshe was punished for saying, “listen, you rebels!”.
The Maharal answers that these two sins are really one and the same, and their foundation is anger. Speaking harshly to the people came as a result of his anger, as did his subsequent striking of the rock. If a person genuinely trusts in G-d, he will permanently have a happy disposition. Demonstrating such a pleasant temperament in the face of difficulty, is a sanctification of G-d’s name and it shows pure faith in G-d, regardless of the situation. Had Moshe reacted to the people’s request with calmness, showing he was content through his Emunah, he would have taught the people a valuable lesson in faith.
However, when Moshe became angry when confronted by the people for water, he, on his high level, did not demonstrate sufficient Emunah to bring the people closer to G-d. This approach can also answer the Ramban’s question on the Rambam. By displaying anger, Moshe failed to exercise sufficient Emunah, hence G-d’s criticism of him.
The idea that anger is connected to a lack of Emunah is brought out by Chazal who compare getting angry to Idol worship.7 What is the connection between anger and idol worship? One approach is that a person gets angry when things do not go the way that he thinks they should. Thus, when, as often occurs, events take place that do not fit with his view of how they should be, he is likely to get angry with the results. This is a kind of idol worship, in that the person worships himself as being the arbiter of what is good and bad, instead of submitting to the fact that G-d runs the world and knows better than he does.
Another possible reason that anger is connected to Idol Worship is that when one gets angry, he loses all sense of balance and sensibilities and is prone to act in a foolish way. So too, worshipping idols indicates a lack of common sense and foolishness to think that an external power is the source of his well-being instead of G-d. This false god does not need to literally be an idol, rather can be money, one’s boss, an addiction or anything else that a person ascribes power to.
We have seen how even someone as great as Moshe succumbed, on a minute level, to the trait of anger with devastating consequences. May we all merit to avoid this terrible trait.
By Rabbi Yehonasan Gefen
Notes
- See Ramban, Ibn Ezra, Kli Yakar, Abarbanel on this verse for their approaches. The Ohr HaChaim brings no less than ten different opinions. In this essay we will focus on the explanations of Rashi, the Maharal, and to a lesser extent, the Rambam.
- Bamidbar, 20:10.
- Bamidbar, 20:24.
- Ramban, Bamidbar, Chapter 20. See there for his other questions and his own approach.
- Gur Aryeh, Bamidbar, 20:12.
- Rashi, Bamidbar, 11:22.
- See Gemara, Shabbot, 105b.
WEEKLY TORAH PORTION,
The Guiding Light
by Rabbi Yehonasan Gefen
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