Why Did Moses Hit The Rock?
The Deeper Story Behind Moses Striking The Rock
Rabbi David Fohrman
Founder and Lead Scholar
In this week’s Torah portion is the famous story of Moses hitting the rock to get water and God subsequently barring him from leading the nation to the land of Israel. Why would Moses do that? What was his thinking? This week, we will explore this question in the context of water, Miriam, and the question of what it means to have faith.
Click to watch the previous Chukat video referenced in this video: The Reason Moses Had To Speak To The Rock – Was Hitting The Rock So Horrible?
Hi everybody, this is Rabbi David Fohrman, and you are watching Aleph Beta, welcome to Parshat Chukat.
This week's Parsha contains one of the most perplexing stories in the entire Torah.
Why Did Moses Strike the Rock for Water?The people are thirsty and there is no water. Moses turns to God for help and God tells Moses to speak to the rock and water will come out. Instead, Moses hits the rock and as a result he is told he can no longer lead the people into the land of Israel.
Why such a drastic consequence was inflicted upon Moses for such an apparently trivial misdeed is one of the great and abiding mysteries of the Torah. But I think just as puzzling as why he can't go into the land is why Moshe hit the rock in the first place? I mean, God said, speak to the rock, what's the big deal, so just speak to the rock? Why did he insist on hitting the rock?
I think the answer to that is tied up in some mysterious way with a little introductory verse to this story that we often ignore.
Vayavo'u Bnei Yisrael kol ha'eidah Midbar Tzin – the entire people of Israel came to the wilderness of Tzin;
Vatomos sham Miriam – and Miriam died there;
Vatikaver sham – and she was buried there.
Now this verse seems to just come completely out of the blue. Because listen to the next words; V'loh haya mayim la'eidah – but there was no water for the people to drink. Then we go off and we tell the whole story.
Now I say it's an introduction because the Torah itself seems to characterize it this way. First of all, note the letter Vav; V'loh haya mayim la'eidah – AND there was no water for the people. That Vav seems to connect the events that go forward – the lack of water for the people, with the events that just took place, but what does Miriam's death have to do with the fact that there's no water here? Could Miriam's death in some way be the precipitating factor in the fact that there is no water here?
As it turns out, that's precisely how the Midrash understands things. To see how this is so, keep in mind that if you survey the entire travels of the people of Israel through the wilderness for 40 years, you will find three water crises.
God Provides Water from a Rock... in ExodusThe very first water crisis in the desert takes place just after Israel successfully comes out of Egypt and crosses the Sea of Reeds. Right then we have the words; Vayelchu sheloshet yamim bamidbar v'loh matzu mayim – they go for three days in the desert and they can't find water. Now ultimately this water crisis gets solved when God pointed out to Moses a stick, a piece of wood that Moses threw in a bitter oasis and miraculously it made it sweet.
Now the next water crisis we find, things appear to be even more desperate, Moses complains to God; Od me'at u'skaluni – just a little bit more and the people are going to stone me, they're so desperate for water. And if you pay attention, the way this water crisis gets solved is actually by hitting a rock. God tells Moses to hit a rock and the rock would give its water, and that's exactly what happens.
Now the interesting thing about water crisis number 1 and water crisis number 2 is that they both occur exactly when you would expect them to occur. Water crisis number 1 happens three days after the splitting of the sea. Well how long can you go without water? About three days. So that's about when the canteens would run out and the people would have been really, really thirsty and in fact there's a water crisis, right where you would