Parashat Hukkat
Responding to Thirst
Moses' frustration and fatigue were no excuse for his refusal to accept the
people's cry for help.
By Jordana Schuster
This commentary is provided by special arrangement with
American Jewish World Service. To learn more, visit www.ajws.org.
Parashat Hukkat brings one of
the most famous of biblical stories: Moses strikes the rock and is thereafter
barred from entering the land of Canaan. The outline of the story is spare. Toward
the end of the Israelites' 40-year
journey through the wilderness, the people begin to whine and grumble (once
again) about their thirst. In response, Moses and his brother Aaron consult
with God, who tells them to speak to a stone and it will bring forth water.
Moses, instead, berates the people--"Listen up, you
rebels!"--and strikes the
rock.
Water
comes forth and the people drink, but God punishes Moses and Aaron, saying,
"Because you did not trust in Me enough to make Me holy before the
Israelites, you will not bring this assembly into the land that I have given
them." Everlastingly holy as God may be, Moses and Aaron fail to
demonstrate God's holiness to the people and for this they are chastised and
severely punished.
For
over 2000 years, rabbinic commentators have struggled to understand the nature
of Moses' sin--and, thus, to understand what Moses failed to do in order to
make God holy before the Israelites. The commentators have diverged
significantly. Rashi, for example, says that Moses' sin is that he struck the
stone, whereas Maimonides says it is that he lost his temper. Nahmanides, with
a third interpretation, teaches that Moses' sin was in claiming too much power
for himself.
The
12th century biblical commentator Ibn Ezra offers a unique and compelling
reading of the text. He argues that Moses' grave error was in calling the
people "rebels" when their behavior was not, in fact, rebellious. We
learn later in the Book of Numbers that in God's view it was not the people who
were rebels in this story but Moses and Aaron themselves. God tells them, "You
rebelled against My instruction [and failed] to make Me holy in eyes [of the
Israelites]."
Moses'
failure to make God holy before the Israelites resided in his misidentification
as "rebellious" the people's legitimate behavior. Their complaints
about the lack of water needed to be honored with regard and compassion rather
than the ire and frustration Moses meted out. Though Moses had borne 40 years
of frequent complaints from these same people, their demand for water needed to
be considered anew and respected in full. His frustration and fatigue were no
excuse for his refusal to accept the people's request. This refusal, in turn,
represented a failure to make God holy in their eyes.
Recognizing Thirst
In our own time, we are surrounded, often bombarded, by
the needs of others. As we read about the Israelites' thirst in the desert, the
incredible number of people in our world who are thirsty stand facing us.
According to a study presented at the Harvard School of Public
Health, more than one billion people worldwide lack safe water sources. 2.6
billion (40 percent of the world's population) have no basic sanitation. Nearly
two million people (90 percent of them under the age of five) die from
dehydration and associated malnutrition or microbial diseases each year. And
these statistics touch on only one aspect of human need.
Yet we who turn on our taps each day have struggles of our own to
negotiate. Like Moses in this parashah, we may have undergone our own pain and
loss, we may have journeyed too far without enough resources or support, or we
may be overwhelmed by the neediness of those who face us. For these reasons and
many others, we do not always give. We do not always feel that we can give. Like Moses, we have had
occasion to hear others' grievances and identified them as affronts against us,
as greed, or perhaps we have turned away unwilling or unable to face their
needs with an open hand.
Our own needs and thirsts should not be denied. Still, our
responsibility to make God holy in the eyes of others (and in our own eyes as
well) makes it incumbent upon us not to deny the thirsts of those who turn to
us for help. It is upon us to see and correctly identify the rightful claims
that others bring. Perhaps through this we learn that we can indeed bring God's
holiness to all people. On our narrow path through
this world we are bound to err, but we must keep trying to walk that road
through the wilderness by recognizing the full humanity of those who journey
with us.
Jordana Schuster has just completed her second year of rabbinical studies at
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She is a
graduate of Williams College and has studied at the Conservative Yeshiva and at
Harvard Divinity School, from which she holds a Master of Theological Studies
