וַיְהִי֙ כְּכַלֹּת֔וֹ לְדַבֵּ֕ר אֵ֥ת כָּל־הַדְּבָרִ֖ים הָאֵ֑לֶּה וַתִּבָּקַ֥ע הָאֲדָמָ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר תַּחְתֵּיהֶֽם׃
Tepat ketika ia selesai mengucapkan semua perkataan ini, terbelahlah tanah yang ada di bawah mereka.
Sforno
קח את המטה...ודברתם אל הסלע, there are numerous opinions of what precisely Moses’ sin consisted of. Many commentators have difficulty understanding the wordsלא האמנתם, ‘you lacked faith” in verse 12 as well as with the word מעלתם בי, “you trespassed against Me” in Deuteronomy 32,51, as well as the words מריתם את פי “you rebelled against My command” in verse 24 of our chapter here.
If it had indeed been G’d’s intention that they were only to speak to the rock, what purpose was served in commanding Moses to take the staff? If the sin consisted in that Moses struck the rock, something he had not been commanded to do, what was Aaron’s sin?
However, when we scrutinise the matter (the quarrel) more thoroughly we must remember that G’d’s instructions were designed to bring home to the people how wrong they had been in their rebellious attitude. They were meant not only to become aware of this, but to repent it and to apologise for it, seeing that G’d does not desire the death of the sinner but his rehabilitation by his own efforts.
Knowing that this is so, Moses and Aaron’s actions or inaction resulted in G’d’s intention of bringing about the people’s repentance of their conduct was thwarted. G’d punished them for having become the instrument of thwarting His plan.
The quarrel of the people with Moses was that they accused him of a failure of leadership that resulted in their finding themselves in a situation where they even lacked water for survival. Their quarrel with G’d consisted in their accusing Him of taking them out of a good land called Egypt and bringing them to a desert instead. G’d had wanted to make it clear to them by means of the miracle that Moses had not acted on their own but had merely been His messenger, had carried out his mission faithfully, and that the One Who had sent him had not caused the people any harm at all. We must remember that there are three distinct kinds of miracles in Scripture
1) The “hidden” miracle such as that rain occurs when needed, or that people are recovering from a variety of life threatening diseases. These are the types of miracles that the righteous can bring about by means of their prayers. The Torah quotes an example of this kind of miracle in Genesis 20,17 when it tells us that Avraham’s prayer resulted in G’d healing the households in Avimelech’s kingdom where an outbreak of a disease had resulted in none of the expectant women being able to give birth to their babies until after Avraham’s prayer. A similar miracle occurred in Numbers 21,7 when Moses prayed on behalf of the people who had acknowledged that they had sinned.
2) The second type of miracle is an “open” miracle, something that could not be produced by nature without a special assist by G’d, although it could conceivably be become a natural phenomenon over a long period of time. Examples of this kind of miracle are Moses throwing his staff to the earth and G’d turning it into a snake (Exodus 4,5) or G’d commanding Moses to raise his staff (Exodus 14,16) and the waters of the sea parting, or Moses striking the rock in Exodus 17,6 in order to produce water from that rock. Kings II 13,17 is a similar miracle where Elisha by letting the king shoot arrows means to assure victory over the armies opposing Israel.
3) The third type of miracle is something that nature could never produce however long it practiced. It is a miracle to accomplish which only words are employed. G’d, by means of His prophet, produces a result by means of mere words which demonstrates that use of intelligence without any physical action can produce phenomenal results. This kind of miracle within a material universe employs an absolute minimum of the tools that are the basic instruments of running this terrestrial universe. This is the type of miracle employed when the earth opened and swallowed Korach, etc. (16,31) or when at Joshua’s command the orbit of both the sun and the moon were arrested (Joshua 10,12).
In our situation G’d was about to provide the Jewish people with the demonstration of such a miracle in order to bring about their repentance when the people would become alert to the uniqueness of the prophet as well as to that of the One Who had made him His emissary, and Moses and Aaron deprived Him of that opportunity by preempting Him through hitting the rock. When G’d said to Moses that the rock ונתן מימיו, “it will give forth its waters,” He meant that it would dissolve into water so that no one could claim that the source of its waters had been elsewhere and that the course of these waters had merely been diverted to make it look as if the stone had turned into water. Moses’ high-handed action in merely striking the rock had been responsible for the fact that this type of miracle had not occurred, and that the aggrandizement of G’d’s name by the performance of such a miracle had not taken place. He himself had testified to this when he said in Deuteronomy 8,15 that G’d is One Who המוציא לך מים מצור החלמיש, “Who has produced water for you from the rock which is as hard as flint.” The reason that he chose this adjective is clear. If the waters that gushed forth from that rock had merely been diverted from somewhere else, what difference would it have made if the rock were soft or hard as flint?
This type of miracle could never be produced by forces concealed within nature irrespective of thousands and millions of years of evolution. [my choice of word, but author’s meaning. Ed.] G’d had commanded that this type of miracle occur as a result of words spoken by His servants. This is the reason for the emphasis on the words ודברתם אל הסלע, “you are to speak to the rock.” The Children of Israel were to be alerted not just to a miracle, but to the specific nature of this kind of miracle. Observing Moses in action in this fashion, they would get an inkling of the Power of the G’d Who had employed him as His emissary.
They were to reflect on the fact that although G’d/Moses had taken the people out of Egypt they had not suffered any harm from that at all seeing that their G’d had been with them every step of the way. He had converted the desert into a pool of water on their behalf, had performed miracles totally beyond the latent powers of nature ever to perform. As long as G’d was with them, i.e. in the words of Sukkah 53,אם אני כאן הכל כאן, “if I, the Lord, is present, everything you need is present.” Jeremiah 2,31 phrased it thus: המדבר הייתי לישראל, “was I G’d then a desert for Israel?” (did I not provide everything that is otherwise lacking in a desert?)
G’d commanded that as soon as the rock would yield up its water, Moses was to use his staff in order to guide separate streams of that water to the various areas in which each tribe had its tents, so that they would not have to leave their homes, as they did to collect the manna, in order to benefit from this vital resource.
This was the meaning of the words “take the staff…..and extract the water for them from the rock and provide water for the congregation” (verse 8). This is also the meaning of 21,18 במחוקק במשענותם, “when they split it with their staff.” Moses and Aaron had agreed between them to carry out the second part of the miracle by bringing water to the people via the rock as they had done at Refidim when the Torah had described what would happen as “when you strike the rock the water will come forth from the rock an the people will drink.” (צור, not סלע), (Exodus 17,6)
The type of miracle we had described as category three earlier is described here with the words והוצאת להם מים מן הסלע, what Moses and Aaron agreed to do was the lesser level of miracle as they were not sure G’d meant to perform the third category of miracle, i.e. not involving any action such as striking the rock. The reason why they doubted that G’d was going to perform the latter miracle was that they did not considered the Israelites worthy at the time to experience this kind of miracle seeing they had acted in a rebellious manner, Moses himself having addressed them as ממרים, rebels. By performing the second category of miracle, the one which demonstrates only the elevated stature of the messenger, while failing to perform the third category of miracle which would also have demonstrated the exalted nature of the One Who had instructed them as His emissary they committed a serious error. This is the reason the Torah writes לא האמנתם, “you did not have faith enough” (verse 12). The meaning is not that they considered G’d incapable of producing water from the rock by their merely speaking to it, but they did not believe that the circumstances at the time warranted that G’d would put Himself out to such an extent for these people. Deuteronomy 32,51 makes clear that their sin of omission constituted a desecration of G’d’s honour.
If it had indeed been G’d’s intention that they were only to speak to the rock, what purpose was served in commanding Moses to take the staff? If the sin consisted in that Moses struck the rock, something he had not been commanded to do, what was Aaron’s sin?
However, when we scrutinise the matter (the quarrel) more thoroughly we must remember that G’d’s instructions were designed to bring home to the people how wrong they had been in their rebellious attitude. They were meant not only to become aware of this, but to repent it and to apologise for it, seeing that G’d does not desire the death of the sinner but his rehabilitation by his own efforts.
Knowing that this is so, Moses and Aaron’s actions or inaction resulted in G’d’s intention of bringing about the people’s repentance of their conduct was thwarted. G’d punished them for having become the instrument of thwarting His plan.
The quarrel of the people with Moses was that they accused him of a failure of leadership that resulted in their finding themselves in a situation where they even lacked water for survival. Their quarrel with G’d consisted in their accusing Him of taking them out of a good land called Egypt and bringing them to a desert instead. G’d had wanted to make it clear to them by means of the miracle that Moses had not acted on their own but had merely been His messenger, had carried out his mission faithfully, and that the One Who had sent him had not caused the people any harm at all. We must remember that there are three distinct kinds of miracles in Scripture
1) The “hidden” miracle such as that rain occurs when needed, or that people are recovering from a variety of life threatening diseases. These are the types of miracles that the righteous can bring about by means of their prayers. The Torah quotes an example of this kind of miracle in Genesis 20,17 when it tells us that Avraham’s prayer resulted in G’d healing the households in Avimelech’s kingdom where an outbreak of a disease had resulted in none of the expectant women being able to give birth to their babies until after Avraham’s prayer. A similar miracle occurred in Numbers 21,7 when Moses prayed on behalf of the people who had acknowledged that they had sinned.
2) The second type of miracle is an “open” miracle, something that could not be produced by nature without a special assist by G’d, although it could conceivably be become a natural phenomenon over a long period of time. Examples of this kind of miracle are Moses throwing his staff to the earth and G’d turning it into a snake (Exodus 4,5) or G’d commanding Moses to raise his staff (Exodus 14,16) and the waters of the sea parting, or Moses striking the rock in Exodus 17,6 in order to produce water from that rock. Kings II 13,17 is a similar miracle where Elisha by letting the king shoot arrows means to assure victory over the armies opposing Israel.
3) The third type of miracle is something that nature could never produce however long it practiced. It is a miracle to accomplish which only words are employed. G’d, by means of His prophet, produces a result by means of mere words which demonstrates that use of intelligence without any physical action can produce phenomenal results. This kind of miracle within a material universe employs an absolute minimum of the tools that are the basic instruments of running this terrestrial universe. This is the type of miracle employed when the earth opened and swallowed Korach, etc. (16,31) or when at Joshua’s command the orbit of both the sun and the moon were arrested (Joshua 10,12).
In our situation G’d was about to provide the Jewish people with the demonstration of such a miracle in order to bring about their repentance when the people would become alert to the uniqueness of the prophet as well as to that of the One Who had made him His emissary, and Moses and Aaron deprived Him of that opportunity by preempting Him through hitting the rock. When G’d said to Moses that the rock ונתן מימיו, “it will give forth its waters,” He meant that it would dissolve into water so that no one could claim that the source of its waters had been elsewhere and that the course of these waters had merely been diverted to make it look as if the stone had turned into water. Moses’ high-handed action in merely striking the rock had been responsible for the fact that this type of miracle had not occurred, and that the aggrandizement of G’d’s name by the performance of such a miracle had not taken place. He himself had testified to this when he said in Deuteronomy 8,15 that G’d is One Who המוציא לך מים מצור החלמיש, “Who has produced water for you from the rock which is as hard as flint.” The reason that he chose this adjective is clear. If the waters that gushed forth from that rock had merely been diverted from somewhere else, what difference would it have made if the rock were soft or hard as flint?
This type of miracle could never be produced by forces concealed within nature irrespective of thousands and millions of years of evolution. [my choice of word, but author’s meaning. Ed.] G’d had commanded that this type of miracle occur as a result of words spoken by His servants. This is the reason for the emphasis on the words ודברתם אל הסלע, “you are to speak to the rock.” The Children of Israel were to be alerted not just to a miracle, but to the specific nature of this kind of miracle. Observing Moses in action in this fashion, they would get an inkling of the Power of the G’d Who had employed him as His emissary.
They were to reflect on the fact that although G’d/Moses had taken the people out of Egypt they had not suffered any harm from that at all seeing that their G’d had been with them every step of the way. He had converted the desert into a pool of water on their behalf, had performed miracles totally beyond the latent powers of nature ever to perform. As long as G’d was with them, i.e. in the words of Sukkah 53,אם אני כאן הכל כאן, “if I, the Lord, is present, everything you need is present.” Jeremiah 2,31 phrased it thus: המדבר הייתי לישראל, “was I G’d then a desert for Israel?” (did I not provide everything that is otherwise lacking in a desert?)
G’d commanded that as soon as the rock would yield up its water, Moses was to use his staff in order to guide separate streams of that water to the various areas in which each tribe had its tents, so that they would not have to leave their homes, as they did to collect the manna, in order to benefit from this vital resource.
This was the meaning of the words “take the staff…..and extract the water for them from the rock and provide water for the congregation” (verse 8). This is also the meaning of 21,18 במחוקק במשענותם, “when they split it with their staff.” Moses and Aaron had agreed between them to carry out the second part of the miracle by bringing water to the people via the rock as they had done at Refidim when the Torah had described what would happen as “when you strike the rock the water will come forth from the rock an the people will drink.” (צור, not סלע), (Exodus 17,6)
The type of miracle we had described as category three earlier is described here with the words והוצאת להם מים מן הסלע, what Moses and Aaron agreed to do was the lesser level of miracle as they were not sure G’d meant to perform the third category of miracle, i.e. not involving any action such as striking the rock. The reason why they doubted that G’d was going to perform the latter miracle was that they did not considered the Israelites worthy at the time to experience this kind of miracle seeing they had acted in a rebellious manner, Moses himself having addressed them as ממרים, rebels. By performing the second category of miracle, the one which demonstrates only the elevated stature of the messenger, while failing to perform the third category of miracle which would also have demonstrated the exalted nature of the One Who had instructed them as His emissary they committed a serious error. This is the reason the Torah writes לא האמנתם, “you did not have faith enough” (verse 12). The meaning is not that they considered G’d incapable of producing water from the rock by their merely speaking to it, but they did not believe that the circumstances at the time warranted that G’d would put Himself out to such an extent for these people. Deuteronomy 32,51 makes clear that their sin of omission constituted a desecration of G’d’s honour.
Rabbeinu Bahya
למען ישוב ה' מחרון אפו, “so that the Lord will turn back from His burning wrath.” In this instance, though the Torah speaks only of Hashem, the attribute of Justice is meant. The mystical dimension of the עיר הנדחת is referred to by the woman from Tekoah (Samuel II 14,14) [who pleaded that David allow Avshalom to return from exile by describing a fictional event. Ed.]. She said (amongst other things) וחשב המלך מחשבות לבלתי ידח ממנו נדח, “(G’d will not take away the life) of one who makes plans so that no one may be kept banished.” The people of the עיר הנדחת had been cast out from the celestial domains. Burning all their former belongings was part of their expiation, just as we find that the congregation of Korach was not only killed by G’d but their belongings were burned (compare author’s comments on Numbers 16, 31-32). The site where this city used to be located will be a ruin forever never to be rebuilt even at the time when the Jewish people will experience resurrection of the dead.
Tze'enah Ure'enah
Moses said to Israel, separate yourselves from Korah and his group and do not take any of their goods. Whoever will take something; he will also come to the same pit. Even if someone had long ago borrowed a sewing needle from Korah’s household, that needle rolled by itself into the pit where Korah had fallen. As soon as all of Israel had removed themselves from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, Moses said: If these people would die in their beds as other people used to die, the people would not know whether they were right or not. Therefore, Moses said that the Holy One must show new signs to Korah, so that people should know that they were not right. Therefore, Moses said: if a mouth was created for the earth in the six days of creation to swallow Korah, then it is good. However, if it had not been created, then the Holy One should make a mouth in the earth to swallow Korah along with his community. Immediately, the earth split under Korah and swallowed Korah and his community along with their goods. The earth then covered them.24Bahya, Numbers, 16:31–32.