Pensamiento judío sobre Números 20:24

(4) The penalty Moses and Aaron had to pay for their error, is reported in different language on three separate occasions in the Torah. When we consider that their error was threefold, we can easily understand why the penalty is mentioned in three parts, each mention being the penalty appropriate for one of the errors committed. 1) (Numbers 20,12) "You will not bring this community to the land I have given them." 2) (Deuteronomy 32,51) "Because you have trespassed against Me." 3) (Numbers 20,24) "Because you have rebelled against My word." The first part of the penalty is concerned with the failure to fulfil the function of the prophet, the function of a leader. Therefore, leadership will be denied them when the people cross into the holy land. Moses refers to this at a later stage, when he explains that the fact that Joshua will become their leader is due to his having aroused G'ds anger. (Deut. 1,37) 2) They are denied entry into the holy land even as ordinary people, because of the sin of me-ilah, the downgrading of something sacred. They had diminished rather than enhanced G'ds stature. Therefore no upgrading for Moses and Aaron through setting foot on holy soil. 3) The decree that they would die before their appointed time. Sifri explains that such a penalty, karet, is always reserved for acts of rebellion against G'd. That is why G'd had stated "because you have rebelled." The reason that this decree could not be reversed by prayer and by repentance was, that G'd could not demonstrate in any other way that His plan had been frustrated, had not been executed in midbar tzin. Consider the following: A king, interested in raising his public image, instructed his major domo to forthwith receive visitors with pomp and ceremony to show that visitor that he was highly thought of. The major domo failed to heed the instructions, treating visiting dignitaries with disdain. The only way the king could prove that his major domo had not acted on the king's instructions, was by beheading the major domo. Similarly, in the case of Moses and Aaron. This is why the Torah tells us that kedushah, sanctity, was restored in the final analysis by the untimely death of Moses and Aaron. (Numbers 20,13. "He was sanctified by means of them.") When our sages teach that whenever a sin involves an element of desecration of the holy name of G'd in public, there is no forgiveness, this is one of the instances they have in mind. In such cases, repentance does not wipe the slate clean. (Yuma 86)

Thou knowest, also, that God said to our teacher Moses, the master of former and later ages, "Because ye have not confided in me, to sanctity me"⁵¹Num. XX, 12., "because ye rebelled against my order at the waters of Meribah"⁵²Ibid., XX, 24., "because ye did not sanctify me".⁵³Deut. XXXII, 51. All this (God said) although the sin of Moses consisted merely in that he departed from the moral mean of patience to the extreme of wrath in so far as he exclaimed, "Hear now ye rebels"⁵⁴Num. XX, 10. etc., yet for this God found fault with him that such a man as he should show anger in the presence of the entire community of Israel, where wrath is unbecoming. This was a profanation of God's name, because men imitated the words and conduct of Moses, hoping thereby to attain temporal and eternal happiness. How could he, then, allow his wrath free play, since it is a pernicious characteristic, arising, as we have shown, from an evil psychic condition? The divine words, "Ye (Israel) have rebelled against me" are, however, to be explained as follows. Moses was not speaking to ignorant and vicious people, but to an assembly, the most insignificant of whose women, as the sages put it, were on a plane with Ezekiel, the son of Buzi.⁵⁵Mekilta to בשלח (Ex. XV, 2). So, when Moses said or did anything, they subjected his words or actions to the most searching examination.⁵⁶See Moreh, I, 4, on the interpretation of Ex. XXIII, 8. Therefore, when they saw that he waxed wrathful, they said, "He has no moral imperfection, and did he not know that God is angry with us for demanding water, and that we have stirred up the wrath of God, he would not have been angry with us". However, we do not find that when God spoke to Moses about this matter He was angry, but on the contrary, said, "Take the staff ... and give drink to the congregation and their cattle".⁵⁷Num. XX, 8. We have, indeed, digressed from the subject of this chapter, but have, I hope, satisfactorily solved one of the most difficult passages of Scripture concerning which there has been much arguing in the attempt to state exactly what the sin was which Moses committed. Let what others have said be compared with our opinion, and the truth will surely prevail.