Musar su Numeri 20:3

I have already published on that subject when explaining Deut. 34,11, which describes all the wonders and miracles that Moses performed as remaining forever unparalleled, that Moses' great מעלה, merit, was that the miracles he performed were under the aegis of the Ineffable Name of G–d, and that therefore the people at large were not able to recognize this as they had not attained that spiritual level. Only the elite of the people would be able to perceive the spiritual domain from which the miracles performed by Moses had originated. Such miracles were to be performed only for the eyes of a holy nation that were true servants of the Lord, not before the eyes of those who denied His powers and were not firmly attached to G–d. On this occasion an עדה שלימה who had access to the level of Torah that we had described as תורת ידוד תמימה congregated with others of the caliber קהל ה' and the Torah thereupon refers to both groups jointly as בני ישראל. The Torah commences its report in 20,3, with the words: וירב העם, "The people quarreled with Moses, saying if only we had died in the desert with our brothers in the presence of G–d." In other words, the lowest group of people, the ones who had originally been fellow travelers, started the quarrel. They continued: "Why did you bring the congregation of G–d to this desert that we might die there, both we and our beasts?" They tried to gain support, by making it appear that their main concern was the קהל ה', the spiritual elite of the nation. They accused Moses and Aaron of indifference to the fate of the spiritual elite of the Jewish people. By reading the next verse as a continuation of verse 5, we see their true meaning: "Moses and Aaron came to the entrance of the tent of meeting on account of the קהל," meaning that Moses interceded even on account of the קהל. At this point, G–d commanded Moses and Aaron to assemble the עדה, i.e. a level of people lower than the קהל ידוד, the spiritual elite, and of course also the קהל ידוד, who were on a higher spiritual niveau than the עדה, as pointed out earlier, and who were certainly worthy to witness the miracle about to be performed. It would appear that the sin of Moses and Aaron was that they had approached G–d even for the sake of the קהל, the group inferior to the עדה, (who had felt the lack of water as described in verse 2). Moses did not sin then by calling the people מורים. The only people whom he called מורים, were descendants of Gentiles, not the descendants of Abraham. It certainly was not sinful to call people who regressed to their spiritual level prior to their conversion "rebellious." When punishing Moses and Aaron, G–d says in 20,12: לא תביאו את הקהל הזה אל הארץ, "Because you did not keep faith with Me, you will not lead this congregation to the land." This means that Moses was not going to be worthy to lead the category of קהל to the Holy land, much less the spiritually higher categories of the people such as עדה. Moses was no longer considered fit to lead even the קהל, a spiritually inferior group of people, who, though they would live in the Holy Land, would not receive a hereditary share therein. Moses and Aaron would accordingly no longer be considered suitable to lead the עדה and קהל ידוד sections of the people. The words אשר נתתי להם, "to whom I have given the land," refer to these upper echelons of the people. This creates the impression that the majority of the people qualified as בני ישראל rather than as goy or קהל. On the other hand, and from various other occasions, we are entitled to conclude that the עם were the most numerous section of the nation. I have explained elsewhere the meaning of the statement attributed to Rav Huna that a person is remarkably insensitive to the help he receives from G–d. Saul was considered personally more pious than David, as we know from the statement by G–d that "if you had been Saul, and he had been David, I would have killed many Davids on his account."