Since you did not believe in Me, to sanctify Me before the eyes of the Israelites, therefore you shall not bring this congregation to the land that I have given to them. They are the Waters of Contention, that the Israelites contended with Hashem, and He was sanctified in their midst. (Bemidbar 20:12-13)
“To sanctify Me” – If you had spoken to the rock, and it would have brought forth its waters, I would have been sanctified before the eyes of the congregation. They would have said, “If this rock – which doesn’t speak and doesn’t hear and doesn’t need sustenance – fulfills the word of Hashem, surely we should do so.” (Rashi)
One of the central subjects of this parshah is the sin of Moshe at the rock, as a result of which he was not allowed to enter Eretz Yisrael. This greatly changed the course of Jewish history. If Moshe Rabbeinu had entered the Land, Beis Hamikdash would never have been destroyed, and everything would be different.
Moshe’s sin was thus a monumental event. But what was his sin? What did he do wrong?
Rashi has a certain way of explaining it. Hashem told Moshe to speak to the rock, and instead of speaking to it, he hit it. He struck the rock with his staff.
This communicates a very basic point. It is basic to Judaism that we fulfill Hashem’s commands because He tells us to do so, not because He forces us. Judaism is built on the concept of הבוחר בעמו ישראל באהבה, “He chooses His people Yisrael out of love.” Hashem loves us, and we, too, need to love Him. Those who love each other don’t hit each other. If they need to hit each other, it is a different kind of relationship altogether.
Standing at the rock, Moshe presented a metaphor to the Jewish people. He said to them, שמעו נא המורים – “Listen, now, you rebellious people.” Are you watching? When I communicate with the rock, it will fulfill my will. Why don’t you do so? And then he hit the rock. He struck it with his staff.
But he should have spoken to it, thereby demonstrating that even a rock, when you speak to it, reacts and gives water. And the message is: Why, when Hashem speaks to you, don’t you listen?
This is how Rashi explains the matter. According to his approach, we indeed learn from this story a very important lesson.
Other Commentators offer additional explanations. The Ohr Hachayim presents eleven possible interpretations of the event. Clearly, there are profound matters here, but we will focus on the messages that are particularly relevant to us.
Written Torah and Oral Torah
The chain of tradition is a key point in the Jewish outlook. It is an important and sensitive subject. Judaism’s opponents, both inside and outside, direct their attacks to this point.
The Torah has two parts. There is the d’oraisa part, the “Biblical” part, and there is the d’rabbanan part, the “Rabbinical” part. The strictly “Biblical” mitzvos are those that are stated expressly in the Chumash, in the Written Torah. Hashem gave us Chamishah Chumshei Torah, and it says in them to dwell in a sukkah, to put on tefillin, to eat matzah on Pesach, and so forth. However, in addition to that, there is the Oral Torah. It is what Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave over to Moshe, but not in written form. It contains the explanation and the details of all the mitzvos.
This issue of the chain of tradition is not a new one. It existed way back in early Talmudic times. So we see from the story of the non-Jew who came to Hillel and asked Hillel to convert him to Judaism, but requested to be taught only the Written Torah, not the Oral Torah, as he did not trust the chain of tradition.
This is a very deep subject. The Oral Torah is not just a commentary on the Written Torah. The Talmud constitutes the basis of all the halachos and it is composed of several parts.
One part is that in which the Sages derive halachos from the Written Torah by means of the Thirteen Homiletical Principles, the י’’ג מידות שהתורה נדרשת בהן. In this part, we find a lot of disagreements. R. Akiva says like this and R. Yishmael says like that, R. Meir says such and such and R. Yehudah has a different view. And there are rules for determining the Halachah in such cases.
Just how strong is the authority of Chazal? To what extent may we rely on them? What is the answer to all of Judaism’s opponents who claim that Chazal acted on their own accord, that they made up mitzvos such as reading the Megilah on Purim and lighting Chanukah candles, the prohibition of muktzeh on Shabbos, and others? How do we know we can rely absolutely on what Chazal said?
To sharpen the question: we see that between the Sages of the Talmud themselves, there were thousands of disagreements. Almost every daf of Gemara has at least one machlokes in it. Thus we utilize various methods to decide the Halachah. Here we say the Halachah is in accordance with Abaye’s view, and there we say it accords with his rival, Rava. And so forth.
After the Gemara came the Rishonim: Rashi says like this, Tosafos say like that, Rabbeinu Tam has such and such a view, while the Rif takes a different approach.
Until this day, there is hardly a question in Halachah that a person won’t get different answers to, if he goes and asks different rabbis about it.
This is one of the main points that our ideological opponents attack us on. And many faithful Jews are confused about the matter themselves. It is thus a crucial subject. so let’s go into it.
The Pure Thing
One of the principles of our faith, as stated in the Siddur, is as follows:
אני מאמין באמונה שלמה שנבואת משה רבינו עליו השלום היתה אמיתית, ושהוא אב לנביאים לקודמים לפניו ולבאים אחריו – I believe with perfect faith that the prophecy of Moshe Rabbeinu, may peace be upon him, was true, and that he was the chief prophet, both of those who preceded him and of those who followed him.
We believe that there is a fundamental difference between the prophecy of Moshe Rabbeinu and that of other prophets. This difference is illustrated by the following allegory.
Let’s say a certain rabbi delivers a shiur, a Torah lesson, and he has two students. Both are knowledgeable, honest and intelligent. And each repeats the shiur to someone else. Although they both heard it from the same rabbi at the same time, and now attempt to say over the shiur exactly as they heard it, there will inevitably be differences between their renderings. This is because each one absorbs what he heard into himself, into his personality, and from there he transmits it to others, in his own unique way.
The same applies to prophecy. Chazal say that no two prophets prophesize in the same style. Two prophets that receive the same prophetic message from Hashem, when they come to transmit it to their listeners, the message will not be exactly the same. Each one will transmit it in his own style and with his own personality.
This is how it worked with all other prophets, but it was not that way with Moshe Rabbeinu. He did not have his own style and personality when it came to prophecy. If there would be another Moshe Rabbeinu in the world, and both of them would prophesize, the words would be exactly the same. Both of them would say בראשית ברא אלקים את השמים ואת הארץ and so on with the rest of the Torah. The words of Moshe’s prophecy had nothing of Moshe’s personality or understanding in them. It was Hashem’s word in its purest form.
This is one of the Torah’s basic tenets. Moshe Rabbeinu transmitted Hashem’s Word exactly as it is. If we would hear those words directly from Hashem’s mouth, they would sound the same and be the same. It would be the identical בראשית ברא אלקים.
The Sin Was Anger
This concept is fundamental to understanding Moshe’s sin at the rock, according to the approach of the Rambam, as we will explain.
The Jewish people gathered before Moshe and complained that they don’t have water, because Miriam passed away and the miraculous well disappeared. This was not just a complaint that Miriam is sorely lacking. It was a claim against Moshe. They came with claims against Moshe. When Moshe heard this, he got angry, and said to them: שמעו נא המורים – “Listen, now, you rebellious people!” You are stubborn people, he told them. He then said המן הסלע הזה נוציא לכם מים – “Shall we bring out water for you from this rock?” and thereupon picked up his staff and struck the rock.
According to Rashi, the sin was hitting the rock instead of speaking to it. But according to Rambam, the sin was getting angry.
What was so terrible about that?
Moshe Rabbeinu, as we explained, was like a clear mirror, אספקלריא המאירה. He had no hue of his own that colored Hashem’s Word. Everything Moshe did was reflective of Hashem’s Word. He was a pure expression of Hashem. In other words, if someone would get up in the morning, and Moshe Rabbeinu would say good morning to him, it meant that Hashem Himself, so to speak, is saying to him good morning. If Moshe would reprove someone, and say, “I think it’s time that you starting learning with a little more hasmadah,” it meant that this word of reproval is coming straight from Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
So when Moshe Rabbeinu got angry, the Jewish people understood that Hashem is angry. But Hashem was not actually angry. Hashem does not get upset when someone asks for water. People need water. However, the Jewish people understood from Moshe’s reaction that Hashem is angry with them for requesting water, and they claimed that they indeed have the right to ask for water.
This was Moshe’s sin. Everything that Moshe did reflected Hashem’s Word, but here there was a mistake. It was an exception to the rule. Hashem did not want the people to think that He is angry with them. That is a chilul Hashem. It desecrates Hashem’s Name if it looks like He gets angry at people who ask for water.
Only True Prophets
This brings us to a very important point.
As we explained, everything Moshe Rabbeinu did purely reflected Hashem’s deeds, but one time he did something that was not Hashem’s deed, and this caused a lot of damage.
The question is like this: if, one time, Moshe acted not in the name of Hashem, how can we know that the rest of the time it was in the name of Hashem? This brings us back to the question of how much authority does the Torah have, since it is ultimately based on human beings?
A person could argue that he wants to hear Hashem’s Torah, not a human being’s Torah, but we received most of the Torah from human beings. We might try to answer him by saying that these people were perfected human beings. But then he will reply that if they are perfect, why do they argue so much? If each claims that the other is mistaken, perhaps in truth they both are mistaken?
The answer emerges from the following teaching of R. Saadia Gaon, who asked like this: A prophet comes along, such as Yirmeyahu, for instance, and prophesizes, saying, “So spoke Hashem....” How do we know that Yirmeyahu is in fact a prophet of Hashem? Because it was handed down to us by tradition that he was. Yeshayahu declared that Yirmeyahu was a true prophet, and Hoshea declared that Yeshayahu was a true prophet, and Shmuel declared so about Hoshea. Thus we have an unbroken chain of testimony that Yirmeyahu was a true prophet of Hashem. And Yirmeyahu tells us that Hashem said such and such.
But that just brings us to the niggling question of whether a true prophet can sometimes speak falsely. Does his innate nature force him to always say the truth, like a machine that spits out information, or is he capable of speaking falsehood?
If we say he can’t speak falsehood, then he is a machine; he is not a human being. Because a human being, by definition, has free choice to do right or wrong. Thus, even a prophet is capable of speaking falsely. If so, how can we know that he spoke the truth?
The Rambam gives us signs by which we can test whether someone is a true prophet or not. Nevertheless, as we explained, even such a prophet is capable of speaking falsely. So how can we be sure that what he says is the Word of Hashem, if he is capable of falsehood?
R. Saadia Gaon answered as follows. Past, present and future are all the same to Hashem. He knows the future like He knows the past. And He promised us that if He knows that this person will speak falsely, He will not send him to us as a prophet in the first place. Hashem promised us that He will send us only people who will speak truthfully.
This explains the whole matter. When Yeshayahu says things in the name of Hashem, we don’t believe in his words because he is the prophet Yeshayahu, but because of Hashem’s promise regarding prophets. Hashem commanded us: אליו תשמעון – “You shall listen and obey [the prophet].”
