27 Jun CHUKAT: WHY WAS MOSES DENIED THE PROMISED LAND? I AM A ROCK

Speak to the Rock
At last, the moment
had arrived. For 40
years they had
wandered together in a
wilderness. Most of
the older generation had
already passed on. Even the beloved Miriam
was no more. By now, the young nation of
Israel was finally ready to enter the Promised
Land, under the leadership of Moshe. But an
incident occurred that would transform the
nation’s destiny.
“The congregation had no water,” the weekly
parsha relates, “so they assembled against
Moshe and Aaron. The people quarreled with
Moshe, saying, ‘If only we had died with the
death of our brothers before G-d. Why have you
brought the congregation of G-d to this desert
so that we and our livestock should die there?
Why have you taken us out of Egypt to bring us
to this bad place; it is not a place for seeds, or
for fig trees, grapevines or pomegranate trees,
and there is no water to drink’… “G-d spoke to
Moshe, saying, ‘Take the staff and assemble the
congregation, you and your brother Aaron, and
speak to the rock in their presence so that it will
give forth its water. You shall bring forth water
for them from the rock, and give the
congregation and their livestock to drink.’
“Moshe took the staff from before the Lord as
He had commanded him. Moshe and Aaron
assembled the congregation in front of the rock,
and he said to them, ‘Now listen, you rebels,
can we draw water for you from this rock?’
“Moshe raised his hand and struck the rock
with his staff twice, when an abundance of
water gushed forth, and the congregation and
their livestock drank. “G-d said to Moshe and
Aaron, ‘Since you did not have faith in Me, to
sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel,
therefore you shall not bring this assembly to
the Land which I have given them.’”
The Questions
Here is the disturbing question: What exactly
was Moshe’s and Aaron’s sin? What did they do
wrong? G-d instructed them to produce water
from a rock and quench the thirst of the people.
This they did. What were they being penalized
for? A subtle examination of the text reveals the
nature of Moshe’s and Aaron’s transgression.
G-d told Moshe to speak to the rock. Instead,
Moshe struck the rock (his brother Aaron
complied). It was this error of Moshe that
prevented him from entering the Holy Land.
Yet, this explanation leaves us with many more
questions. Here are a few of them.
1) What compelled Moshe to sin? If G-d
instructed him to speak to the rock, why did he
choose to strike it? I, for one, know of no
particular lust to strike rocks.
2) Why was Moshe punished so severely for
this sin? Does it really make a difference
whether you communicate to a rock verbally or
by force? 3) G-d claimed that by striking the
rock, Moshe and Aaron failed to sanctify His

name. How so? 4) Why did Moshe need to
strike the rock twice before it would emit
abundant water? If G-d did not allow the water
to come out after the first blow because it was
contrary to His will, why did He allow the water
flow after the second blow?
Forty Years Earlier
Forty years earlier, shortly after the Egyptian
exodus, a similar incident occurred. But in that
instance, G-d expressed His desire that Moshe
actually strike the rock.
“There was no water for the people to drink.
So the people quarreled with Moshe, saying,
‘Give us water that we may drink!’ Moshe said
to them, ‘Why do you quarrel with me? Why do
you test G-d?’ “The people thirsted there for
water, and complained against Moshe, saying,
‘Why have you brought us up from Egypt to
make me and my children and my livestock die
of thirst?’ “Moshe cried out to G-d, saying,
‘What shall I do for this people? Just a little
longer and they will stone me!’ “G-d said to
Moshe… ‘take into your hand your staff, with
which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I
shall stand there before you on the rock in
Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water
will come out of it, and the people will drink.’
“Moshe did so before the eyes of the elders of
Israel. He named the place Massah [testing] and
Meribah [quarreling] because of the quarrel of
the children of Israel and because of their testing
G-d, saying, ‘Is the G-d in our midst or not?’”
This episode might explain why 40 years later
Moshe was under the impression that striking
the rock was not that bad. After all, G-d Himself
commanded him once before to smite the rock
in order to produce its waters.
But why did G-d indeed change His position?
What is the reason that in the first incident G-d
instructed Moshe to strike the rock, while in the
second incident He insisted exclusively on
verbal communication?
A Process of Education
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to state that
over the centuries, more than one hundred
different interpretations have been offered to
explain this puzzling episode. Today, I wish to
present one interpretation, based on a Midrashic
tradition. This particular Midrash, known as
Yalkut Shimoni, makes the following comment:
“Speak to the rock, do not strike it. G-d told
Moshe, ‘when a child is young, the educator
may [at times] hit the lad in order teach it. When
the child grows into adulthood, however, the
educator must rebuke him only verbally.
Similarly, when the rock was but a ‘small child,’
I instructed you to strike it; but now [after 40
years when it has grown larger] you must only
speak to it. Teach it a chapter of Torah and it will
produce water.”
This a strange Midrash. What in the world is
the comparison between a rock and a child? And
how are you supposed to teach a rock a chapter
of Torah? Obviously, according to the Midrash,
the story with the rock was more than a physical
event concerning an attempt to draw water from

a hard inanimate object. It was also a
psychological and moral tale about how to
educate and refine human “rocks” so that they
can produce water.
“A Rock Feels No Pain”
“I am a rock,” goes the famous ballad. “A
rock feels no pain, and an island never cries.”
So here is the question: How do you impact a
rock? How do you transform a crude, coarse and
stone-like mind and heart to become sources of
water, wisdom and inspiration that could quench
the thirst of parched souls? How do you open a
sealed heart? Do you smite it or do you speak to
it? Do you impact the rock by force and
coercion? Or do you negotiate with it verbally,
attempting to explain, persuade and enlighten?
Some parents, educators and psychiatrists are
inclined exclusively toward one of the two
paths. On one side are those committed to the
path of discipline, severity and punishment.
They do not let their children or students get
away with any shtick, and if the kids don’t
respond, they show them the stick and coerce
them to behave until the “troublemakers” learn
their lesson for the next time. On the other side
are those who embrace the opposite approach of
empathy, love and compassion. They believe
only in enlightenment and slow persuasion.
Judaism always advocated an ethos of
education based on the path of love and
enlightenment, but it also understood the need,
at times, for force and coercion as a means to an
end. At times, destructive behavior needs to be
stopped immediately, and if the child will not
respond to peaceful pleas and explanations, you
must employ the minimum amount of required
force to set the person and the situation straight.
Yet even while employing force, you must never
lose focus of your ultimate objective, which is
to enlighten the child and educate him or her to
internally appreciate the proper way to live.
A Developing Nation
When the Jewish people departed from Egypt
after decades of physical and psychological
oppression, they were raw and crude. Steeped
for two centuries in the immoral culture of
Egyptian pagan society and stripped of much of
their human dignity, they had developed a
profound obstinacy and roughness. Let us recall
Moshe’s cry to G-d shortly after Yitzias
Mitzrayim, “What shall I do for this people?
Just a little longer and they will stone me!’”
That is why the generation that emerged from
Egyptian bondage and abuse was, according to
the biblical narrative, constantly rebelling,
hollering, fighting and arguing. They had simply
been through too much to develop a sense of
loyalty, confidence, optimism, hope, and an
attitude of trust. They had been beaten slaves for
too long. Ultimately, they were emotionally
unequipped to conquer and settle the Holy
Land. They died in the desert. The potential for
spiritual and psychological refinement was no
doubt present.
A New Generation
Forty years later, their children and

grandchildren, born and raised in liberty and in
a highly spiritual environment, developed a
sense of selfhood quite different from their
parents and grandparents. Forty years in the
wilderness, in the presence of Moshe, Aaron,
and divine miracles, leaves a dent. The nation
had spiritually matured.
But suddenly, they, too, began to lament and
kvetch about a lack of water. Yet a subtle reading
of the text exposes us to a tune quite different
from the tune present in their parents’ cry 40
years earlier. This new generation of Jews asks
only for water, not for meat or other delicacies.
They do not express their craving to return to
Egypt. Nor do they wish to stone Moshe. They
are simply terrified of the prospects of death by
thirst. G-d was sensitive to the nuanced
distinctions. He commanded Moshe to speak to
the rock, rather than strike it. “Now you must
speak to it, teach it a chapter of Torah and it will
produce water,” in the above-recorded words of
the Midrash. The Jews have come a long way.
The model of smiting must be replaced with
the model of teaching and inspiring. At that
critical juncture, Moshe was unable to
metamorphose himself. Moshe, who came to
identify so deeply with the generation he
painstakingly liberated from Egyptian genocide
and slavery and worked incessantly for their
development as a free and holy people, could
not easily “change his skin” and assume a new
model of leadership. Moshe, calling the people
“rebels,” struck the rock. He continued to
employ the method of rebuke and strength. And
he struck it twice, because when you attempt to
change things through pressure, rather than by
persuasion, you must always do it more than
once.
This demonstrated that Moshe was not the
person qualified to take the new generation into
its land. Moshe belonged to the older generation.
Because of his profound love and attachment to
that generation — about whom he told G-d that
should He not forgive them, He could erase
Moshe’s name from the Torah — Moshe did not
possess the ability to properly assess the
transformation that had taken place in the young
generation of Jews who had come of age. That
is why G-d told Moshe, “You did not have faith
in Me, to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children
of Israel.”
Instead of trusting G-d’s assessment of the new
generation, and exposing their elevated spiritual
status, Moshe diminished their moral
level, creating a crock in their profound and
mature relationship with G-d. Moshe’s place, it
turned out, was in the desert with his beloved
people, these heroic souls who began the march
from slavery to freedom but could not complete
it because of the horrific pain they have endured.