Rabbi Ari Kahn
Parashat Hukat 5775
Déjà vu – all over again?
It seems like déjà
vu: a lack of resources leads to complaints, which brings about Divine
intercession - and so it goes, again and again. But this time is different.
This time, instead of the people suffering for their impatience and insolence, it
is Moshe and Aharon who are punished. Remarkably, they are accused of a lack of
faith in God:
God said to Moshe and Aharon, 'You did not have enough
faith in
Me to sanctify Me in
the presence of the Israelites! Therefore, you shall not bring this assembly to
the land that I have given you.' (20:12)
The punishment is sudden and shocking, but what was the
transgression that brought the leadership of Moshe and Aharon to an end? How could
they, of all people who ever lived, be accused of not believing in God?
By this point in the narrative, we are accustomed to the
complaints - the lovely food they had in Egypt,
the wisdom of having gone off to die in the desert rather than staying put in
Egypt, where there were ample graveyards.
The complaints were taken to a new level by Datan and Aviram, who accused Moshe
of having taken them FROM a land that flowed with milk and honey!
Moshe reacts to this latest round of complaining in much the same way as he did
when the people first began their complaints years before.
The two instances seem so similar to us
that we are not surprised when Moshe once again strikes the rock to draw out
water, this time adding a verbal rebuke for good measure:
'Listen now, you rebels!' shouted Moshe. 'Shall we produce
water for you from this rock?' (20:10)
In what seems to be an expression of frustration with the
cumulative corpus of complaints and criticism, Moshe lumps the latest example
of the peoples’
dissatisfaction together with all the previous episodes, calling them rebels. And
yet, despite the general sense that this litany of complaints has been heard over
and over, there is something different in this particular case.
The people did not have any water, so they began
demonstrating against Moshe and Aharon. The people quarreled with Moshe. 'We
wish that we had died together with our brothers before God!' they declared. 'Why
did you bring God's congregation to this desert? So that we and our livestock
should die? Why did you take us out of Egypt and bring us to this terrible
place? It is an area where there are no plants, figs, grapes or pomegranates.
[Now] there is not even any water to drink!' (20:2-5)
When we look at their words carefully and compare them to
the earlier water crisis, a few significant but subtle differences come to our
attention. In both cases, the perfunctory “Why did you take us out of Egypt and bring us to this
terrible place?”
is there, but other elements of their complaints are radically different: Now,
the frame of reference has shifted. Rather than longing for the zucchini and
watermelons of Egypt,the people bemoan the lack of “figs, grapes and pomegranates” – the fruits of the Land of Israel. In other words, rather
than demanding to return to Egypt, as they had in the past, they are
complaining that they are not in the Land of Israel. Moreover, their complaint
reveals a deep-seated God-consciousness: “'We wish that we had died together with our brothers before
God!'” and, “'Why did you bring God's
congregation to this desert?”
This is a new generation, and they have made great forward
strides. Whereas their fathers lamented ever having left the security and
familiarity of Egypt, the generation of the children laments the fact that they
have not yet arrived in the Promised Land. Whereas the previous generation had
the audacity to question whether or not God was in their midst, this new generation
is acutely aware of God’s
presence, and of their own unique status as a covenantal community. This is not
the same complaint that we have heard time and time again - yet Moshe fails to hear the difference
between what they are saying and what their parents said. He fails to
appreciate the nuances, and responds as if they are murmuring the same
complaints. He accuses them of being “rebels” without pausing to consider the validity of this
accusation: To be sure, they were unhappy with their lot, dissatisfied with life
in the desert –
but is this not as it should be? Should not every Jew who finds himself outside
of the Land of Israel feel unsettled, dissatisfied, incomplete?
When we read their complaints carefully, a new picture
emerges: These people were not looking back with fond nostalgia, they were
pining for the future. Far from attempting to shirk the destiny that awaited
them, they were over-eager to embrace it. Rather than complaining about the
demands that their peoplehood placed upon them, they sought out God’s presence. If they were to die, they
preferred to die “in
front of God.”
These people thirsted for holiness – the holiness of the Land of Israel, and of proximity to
God.
Moshe suffered from pre-conceived notions of what the
people wanted. Rather than listening to what they actually said, he heard
echoes of the past. It was Moshe who was looking backward, mistakenly
attributing the mindset of the previous generation to the people who now stood
before him. Moshe’s
sin was one of missed opportunity. By responding to what he thought they had
said, and not to what they actually said, he failed to sanctify God in the eyes
of this new generation.
Part of belief in God is belief in the Jewish People; Moshe
expresses a lack of faith in the new generation when he calls them rebels, and
is therefore guilty of a lack of faith in God Himself. God reprimands him: The
Jewish People - this new generation that stands before Moshe and demands
holiness, the generation that expresses deep yearning for the Land of Israel
and awareness of God’s
involvement in their lives - has faith. It is Moshe, and not the young nation,
who has failed to move ahead. Moshe hears the complaints of the past; in a very
real sense, both he and Aharon are a part of the previous generation – the generation that would not merit
the Land of Israel. Therefore, Moshe and Aharon were sentenced to stay behind
with their own generation, while this new generation would make their way to
the Land for which they longed, the land of their dreams.
For
a more in-depth analysis see:
Echoes of Eden
