This week’s Torah portion bears one of the Bible’s great enigmas. What exactly did Moses do that prompted the Divine to bar him from crossing the Jordan into Israel?
What was the infraction?
Most students are taught that Moses’ misfeasance was that he hit the boulder even though the Lord told him only to speak to it. If Moses and Aaron only had spoken to the boulder, the witnessing nation would have been overwhelmed by the miracle of an inanimate rock obeying, responding dutifully by providing ample water for 3 million people. Under that theory, proffered in the midrash Tanchuma and popularized for all by the premier Torah commentator, Rashi, Moses diminished the awe by hitting the boulder. A thoroughbred runs faster at Churchill Downs when hit than when its jockey coos soft urging words. Presumably, a boulder responds to hitting, too. Thus, Moses diminished the miracle.
Yet many of our greatest Torah commentators, including Rashi’s most prominent contemporaries, disagree with Rashi’s take — and with each other in deciphering this puzzle.
First, they ask, is it less miraculous when hitting a boulder prompts it to give water? (Can you do that?) Indeed, in Exodus 17:5-6, the people also had complained of thirst, and the Divine told Moses to take his staff and strike a boulder. The water then miraculously flowed, quenching the nation copacetically. Besides, if the Lord did not want the boulder hit, why did He tell Moses to take his staff — a command virtually synonymous with Divine expectation that the staff actuate the miracle?
So what was Moses’s bad?
Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra (1089 – 1164) believes Moses let the mass complaining get him flustered, breaking his prophetic concentration, resulting in a temporary failure when trying initially to implement the miracle by properly hitting. People saw nothing had happened. Having lost focus, Moses needed to recapture his concentration, requiring his hitting the boulder a second time. That diminished the miracle.
Rambam (Maimonides), by contrast, discerns a rare temper outburst. Moses, the most humble of people, seemingly lost his temper, according to Rambam, when he called the people “rebels.” Inasmuch as Moses’ every action and word was that of teacher and role model, his anger — if Rambam perceives accurately here — would have taught that the Divine does not want to be bothered when there is no water in the desert. But that was not His message. Rambam believes Moses reversed a teachable moment into a wrong lesson.
Ramban (Nachmanides) disagrees. First, Aaron never lost his temper; yet the Almighty decreed against him, too. Besides, the people indeed were angering the Divine; therefore, some tough talk from Moses was appropriate. Accordingly, Ramban prefers Rabbeinu Chananel’s interpretation that Moses erred in his wording of the rhetorical question he posed: “What? From this boulder shall we bring forth water for you?” It was not “we” who would be bringing forth water. It was G0d. Moreover, Ramban observes that, if Moses and Aaron had proceeded with proper Divine focus and equanimity, only one tap of the boulder would have effectuated the miracle, but they instead needed to hit twice because a quietly controlled anger caused Moses briefly to lose his Divine focus at the first strike.
So which is it? What, then, did Moses and Aaron do that was wrong? Maybe the Divine worded the Torah’s presentation cryptically to teach that, really, it is none of our business. These were our greatest leaders ever. The burden of leadership exposes individuals to public scrutiny. Fear of public scrutiny deters many great people from assuming leadership, often leaving mediocrities to take the reins. Maybe the Lord wanted to assure us that there was rhyme and reason in His ending their lives on the Jordan’s eastern bank, on Holy Land that would be parceled to more than two tribes. Maybe He barred them in part so a new leader could lead a new generation into freedom in our own land. Maybe in part because, as leaders of the Exodus from Egypt, somehow it would not be fitting for these two leaders to enter.
G0d conceived the rhyme. They understood the reason. And perhaps it is none of our business other than to know that none of us is perfect, we all are held to individually tailored standards, and we should let our leaders live their lives without our holding them to subjective expectations that G0d would not countenance.