Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa 2 Samuel 6:8

תפרוצי Thou Shalt spread.⁶A. V., Thou shalt break forth. Comp. ופרצת and thou shalt spread abroad (Gen. 28:14). Some connect it with פרץ to break forth⁷That is, to break forth from within the boundaries of the place in order to occupy a larger space. (2 Sam. 6:8).

AND HE WAS SANCTIFIED IN THEM — “in that Moses and Aaron died on account of them [i.e., the waters of Meribah]. When the Holy One, blessed be He, executes judgment upon those who are holy [i.e., near] to Him, He becomes revered and sanctified in people’s eyes, as it is said, In them that are nigh unto Me I will be sanctified,¹⁸⁶Leviticus 10:3. and similarly it is stated, Revered is G-d ‘mimikdashecha’ (out of Thy holy places).”¹⁸⁷Psalms 68:36. “Read not mimikdashecha (‘out of Thy holy places’) but mim’kudashecha [‘out of Thy sanctified ones’ — out of those who are holy to His Name, upon whom He executes judgment]” (Rashi, Leviticus 10:3). This is Rashi’s language, and it is also Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra’s interpretation. But it does not appear to me to be correct, for Moses and Aaron had not yet died and it was not commonly known amongst people that they were to die on account of this sin, so that G-d would become revered as a result of it, as happened with Nadab and Abihu,¹⁸⁸Leviticus 10:1-2. and at Perez-uzzah.¹⁸⁹II Samuel 6:8. Besides, Scripture states, These are the waters of Meribah, where the children of Israel strove with the Eternal, and He was sanctified ‘by them,’ meaning to say that He was sanctified by those who did the striving [and not through the punishment of Moses and Aaron, as Rashi and Ibn Ezra said], this being related to the expression ‘In them’ that are nigh unto Me I will be sanctified.¹⁸⁶Leviticus 10:3. And according to their explanation [i.e., that of Rashi and Ibn Ezra], it should have said, [These are the waters of Meribah, where the children of Israel strove with the Eternal] “and He became honored in front of them” [the children of Israel].
The correct interpretation appears to me to be that the incident with the first rock took place in the sight of the elders of Israel¹⁹⁰Exodus 17:6. alone, as it is expressly stated there. But here [in Verse 10] it is said, And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together etc. Therefore Scripture states that these waters of Meribah [Strife] which brought about the Divine decree against Moses and Aaron [that they would not enter the Land], were the same waters of Meribah, where the children of Israel strove with the Eternal and He was sanctified in them in the presence of all of them, similar to that which is written, and I shall gather them out of their enemies’ lands, and will be sanctified in them in the sight of many nations.¹⁹¹Ezekiel 39:27.
Know that at the first [incident with the rock] the people quarrelled with Moses — as it is said, And the people strove with Moses,¹⁹²Exodus 17:2. and so also did Moses say, They are almost ready to stone me¹⁹³Ibid., Verse 4. — and they [also] tried G-d, saying, Is the Eternal among us, or not?¹⁹⁴Ibid., Verse 7. But here they strove with Him Who is on high, but they did riot test Him. Therefore [Scripture] says that these waters of Meribah [Strife] which were the cause of this decree [against Moses and Aaron] are the same waters of Meribah, where the children of Israel strove with the Eternal, and He was sanctified in them in their presence, and they were not the first [waters of the rock in Horeb],¹²⁴Exodus 17:6. where they tried the Eternal, and He was sanctified only in the sight of the elders of Israel.¹⁹⁰Exodus 17:6. And since there were two incidents with a rock, Scripture had to explain for which one [of these two events] these righteous men [Moses and Aaron] were punished.

ויקדש בם, “He was sanctified through them.” According to Rashi Moses’ and Aaron’s death for their sin was a way of sanctifying G’d’s name as when people observe that G’d applies strict yardsticks of justice even to His chosen people this will make them more G’d-fearing. Concerning the above Nachmanides writes that he does not agree with this explanation seeing that the people had not yet witnessed the death of either Moses or Aaron. Neither had the decree of Moses and Aaron’s impending death been made public at this stage. When they would die eventually, it was not clear what sin had brought about their death. When Uzzah, who had sinfully steadied the Holy Ark, died on the spot, this was a death that induced fear of the Lord as it occurred immediately after the sin. (Compare Samuel II 6,8) The same held true when Nadav and Avihu, the two sons of Aaron who took unauthorized fire in their censers died on the spot. Such deaths contributed to increased fear of the Lord, and the expression ויקדש בם, that G’d’s name became sanctified by their deaths, is appropriate in such instances. [Compare the expression בקרובי אקדש as a similar expression, in Leviticus Ed.] Furthermore, seeing that the Torah wrote explicitly אשר רבו בני ישראל את ה' ויקדש בם, “where the Children of Israel quarreled with Hashem and He was sanctified by them,” we cannot make Moses and Aaron the subjects of this verse. In my opinion, we must understand the verse by comparing it to the first occasion when water from a rock was produced miraculously. On that occasion Moses had assembled only the elders, whereas on this occasion he had assembled all the people. The first time the miracle had been witnessed only by a small group of people, whereas this time the entire nation had witnessed it. It is therefore appropriate for the Torah to refer to these latter waters as the ones through which G’d had become sanctified as all the people had witnessed the miracle and had been impressed by what they had seen. We have a similar verse where G’d is described as having become sanctified as a result of the multitude having witnessed something. (Compare Ezekiel 39,27: וקבצתי אותם מארץ אויביהם ונקדשתי בהם לעיני הגוים, “when I have brought them back from the land of their enemies I will be sanctified in the presence of all the nations.”) You should realize that the confrontation the Torah speaks about began with the people quarreling with Moses, as the Torah wrote: וירב העם עם משה, and as it continues when Moses complained to G’d when he said: ”if they continue in this way they will stone me to death.” (Exodus 17,4) At that time they had sorely tested the patience of G’d when they said: “we want to see if G’d is indeed in our midst or not.” This time around they addressed their complaints also against G’d, but there was no נסיון, testing of G’d’s power or ability involved. This is why this time the waters are only referred to as מי מריבה, waters of strife, whereas the first time the waters were called מי מסה ומריבה, waters where a test of G’d and a quarrel had occurred. On the first occasion G’d had become sanctified only in the presence of the elders, whereas this time He had become sanctified before the eyes of all the people. Seeing that there had been two similar occurrences involving water coming out of a rock, it was necessary for the Torah to tell which of these events caused Moses’ premature death.