f Israel along with him.
But it's not just these two times, later Moshe will be threatened by water yet again. Od me'at u'skaluni, he says, in the second water crisis, they're so desperate for water they're going to kill me, they're going to stone me alive. God says, relax, it's going to be okay. He tells him to hit the rock and that rock becomes, of all things, Miriam's well. Miriam somehow saves him one more time.
For 40 years Miriam's well sustains everyone but then she dies and the water that had been there so faithfully in her merit, that's gone too. Suddenly, the people are plunged into a great crisis, a crisis they haven't seen for 40 years. Facing her withered stone, the one that had provided them for so long, he speaks to the people; Shimu nah ha'morim, ha'min ha'selah hazeh notzi lachem mayim – listen you rebels, do you really think we can get water out of this rock? Mem, Reish, Yud, Mem, it's as if he's talking to his dead sister. Shimu nah Miriam – listen Miriam; Ha'min ha'selah hazeh notzi lachem mayim – do you really think we can get water out of this rock without you?
When Aaron dies later on the people mourn, when Moshe dies later on the people mourn, but when the third sibling, Miriam, dies they don't mourn because they're plunged into crisis, they don't have the luxury of mourning, there's no water. But maybe there's one person who mourns? Her brother.
Why Moses Struck the Rock in AngerIt leads him to strike the rock, to try to go back to a time in history when Miriam was alive, back at that second water crisis when he was commanded to strike the rock when Miriam was there and the rock became her well. But Miriam is not there anymore, and God had been asking Moses to have faith.
Yes, that's what God says to Moses when He says: you can't go into the land, you didn't have faith in Me. Why was it a matter of faith? Hitting the rock, speaking to the rock, what's the difference? But somehow it was an issue of faith. God was asking Moses to just stand and watch. You don't have to do anything here, you can't even hit a rock. That only works in Miriam's world, Miriam is gone now.
Moses Smote the Rock Without FaithGod was saying you can't artificially replicate a world in which Miriam was there when Miriam has gone, but you can learn what it is that she taught. She taught that when you can't figure out what to do, when all of the options that you know of don't work, God can introduce an option that you never dreamed about.
Moshe looks at the situation, none of the options work, how are you going to get water for 2.1 million people in the desert? Either the people have this extreme faith and put themselves in God's hands and say, please God give us the water, but they're not doing that. Or somehow Miriam can carry you on her back, and if Miriam was around and her well is here then Miriam can get you the water in her merit, but Miriam is gone. So that's it, there's no other possibilities.
God says, ah but there is another possibility, even without Miriam, even without the people's faith; I have something new up My sleeve, it will work out, I'll give you water. Just speak to the rock. It doesn't make any sense. Yeah, but it doesn't have to make sense, God says. Not to you, not just quite yet. It's the surprising option that you couldn't even have imagined. Have faith in Me. And this in the end is where Moshe failed. Ya'an asher loh he'amantem bi – in the end Moshe didn't have that faith.
The Meaning Behind the Story of Moses and the RockIn mourning we have a tendency to want desperately to re-create the old times when our loved one was still with us, but they can't be re-created. The harsh reality is they're gone. But you can take what that loved one taught you and move forward into the future. Miriam's well had one last lesson to teach, how to get water without her, and Moses in mourning over his sister did not allow himself to see it.
One of the themes we've been talking about in these last weeks' Parshiyot has been mourning. The aftermath of the sin of the spies seems to be bound up in some kind of excessive mou