Because you did not believe in Me to sanctify Me before the eyes of the people of Yisrael. (Bemidbar 20:12)
The Torah tells us about sins committed by the greatest people in the world. Such as Moshe Rabbeinu, for instance. The Torah says about him here, “Because you did not believe in Me to sanctify Me.” We are told also about the sins of the sons of Yaakov, and of David Hamelech, and of many other tzaddikim as well.
Obviously, the Torah wants us to know all this. And it’s not to lessen their value in our eyes. Their sins do not diminish their honor at all. We all know that Moshe Rabbeinu did not merit entering Eretz Yisrael, yet the Torah says about him וימת שם משה – “Moshe died there,” teaching that he died by a kiss from Hashem. The Torah would not tell us that Hashem loved him so greatly if it wanted to lessen his value in our eyes.
Similarly, Yaakov’s sons are viewed by us as the spiritual giants they were. They are the revered founders of the Jewish nation. And David is our king forever, he is Mashiach Hashem, he is the wondrously saintly author of Sefer Tehillim.
So why does the Torah recount their misdoings, if we are meant to treat them with the greatest respect?
It’s to show us and teach us how very careful we need to be about guarding ourselves from sin. Sometimes we think that the Yetzer Hara is busy with other people, with all those empty and clueless people wandering around out there. But I, who have accepted upon myself the yoke of Torah and mitzvos, who keep Shabbos scrupulously and learn as much Torah as possible – I am not going to do stupid things and get tricked by the Yetzer Hara into aveiros.
So the Torah comes and tells us that even the holiest people that ever lived sometimes stumbled and sinned. If the great were not always successful in avoiding aveiros, there is no reason we should consider ourselves immune from sin. So we need to be very, very careful. We need to daven to Hashem at all times to save us from sins and spiritual failures, from evil and from anything resembling it.
And there is another message here as well. Let’s say we were guilty every once in a while of certain sins such as lashon hara, bitul Torah, a little hatred and envy and quarreling. We might assume that Hakadosh Baruch Hu will not be too upset with us, and will let us off the hook. Because, after all, we are good Jews who learn Torah and keep mitzvos and are trying to do the right thing.
So the Torah comes and warns us that it is not so. The greatest and holiest people in the world, when they sinned, Hashem did not let them go. Not at all. He was exacting with them, down to a hairsbreadth. They were punished severely for even the subtlest of sins. So we better be really careful!
Sometimes a person feels good about himself. Let’s say he learned for several hours with great hasmadah, or he really put himself out to do a chesed, or he davened with intense kavanah, or something like that. He feels he is on good terms with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and allows himself to lighten up his efforts a little in Torah and mitzvos. It’s “not so terrible” to engage in a bit of idle talk, to spend a little time taking it easy with friends, to read the newspaper a little, to read a not-so-kosher book, etc. So he thinks.
This is the biggest mistake a person can make. Hashem is exacting with those close to Him, down to a hairsbreadth. Even if they are the greatest people in the world, and Hashem loves them so much that He gives them a kiss, so to speak. We for sure need to be meticulous about what we do, and only this will make us especially beloved by Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
