By Rabbi Moshe Pogrow
Until now, Bnei Yisrael had Be’er Miriam, but after her death, the spring dried up. The eida, which for the first time regarded itself as the community of the future, lacked the most basic requirement for survival: water.
Vayashev ha’am b’Kadesh. They reached Kadesh, happy to be on inhabitable land, and then suddenly experienced a lack of water. They felt that Moshe and Aharon had betrayed them—and therefore, vayarev ha’am im Moshe. This is not G-d’s will, they protested. You made this happen. Hashem wants to keep us alive and bring us to the Promised Land, but you brought us all into a desert to kill us. The decree of our wandering has ended. We should already be entering our land. Here, there is not even water to drink! It could not have been G-d’s Will that brought them here.
“Take the staff,” Hashem says to Moshe, “and show them you are My messenger.” Since the victory over Amalek, the staff had been left “before G-d,” in the Mishkan. That staff identified Moshe as G-d’s messenger. When he used it, it meant that the action was the result of direct intervention by Hashem. Assemble the eida with staff in hand, Hashem said, v’dibartem el haselah l’eineihem: speak to the rock in their presence. Order it to yield its water.
If Moshe were to hit the rock, it would give the impression that water had come as a result of Divine intervention due to their complaints. But that was not what Hashem wanted. The people had to understand that their agitation was unnecessary—it was not Moshe and Aharon who brought them there. It was G-d, and He had already provided water. A word from Moshe would suffice for the rock to yield it.
Accordingly, v’hotzeisa v’hishkisa: their need will be met simply by a word from you. This would have convinced them how wrong they were. But if the water only gushes out after a blow, they could still wonder if Moshe had brought them to Midbar Tzin of his own initiative, if they had been justified in revolting, if only the revolt and their distress had caused G-d to have mercy and perform a miracle.
Had the miracle come about as G-d instructed, the people would have learned that under His guidance they did not have to worry; they would be helped—even without Moshe’s staff.
According to Chacham Yitzchak Bernays, this miracle was meant to be a transition to a new mode of guidance. They had just reached the border of Eretz Yisrael, where a new era awaited. The visible miracles of midbar would be replaced by the invisible hand of G-d. This miracle was meant to teach that the staff of Moshe in the wilderness would be replaced by the word of Moshe, forever.
Based on the commentary of Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch zt”l on Chumash, with permission from the publisher.
