‘Parsha Growth Spurts’[1]
Rabbi Dani Staum
Parshas Chukas 5773
“Hashem said to Moshe and to Aharon, ‘Because you did not believe in me to sanctify Me… you will not bring this congregation to the Land that I have given them.” (Bamidbar 20:12)
Prior to Kabbolas HaTorah, Hashem instructed Moshe to convey His words to B’nei Yisroel with precision; Moshe was not to add or alter Hashem’s words in any way (See Rashi, Shemos 19:3 & 19:6).
Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky zt’l (Emes L’Yaakov – ibid) explained that Hashem wanted the nation to accept the Torah out of an inner realization of its veracity and greatness. If Moshe was allowed to add his own commentary to Hashem’s instruction the nation may have been swayed to accept the Torah out of external inspiration from Moshe’s words. Therefore, Moshe was to meticulously repeat what Hashem said, and nothing more or less.
Rav Yaakov adds that this is why Moshe was punished so harshly when he struck the rock instead of speaking to it. Because Moshe was the conveyer of Torah and its transmission for all eternity, every nuance of his actions was significant.
The most subtle deficiency in Moshe could have been a breach in our faith that, “Moshe emes v’toras emes”!
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“The people spoke against Hashem and against Moshe: ‘Why did you bring us up from Egypt to die in this wilderness, for there is no food and no water, and our soul is disgusted with the insubstantial food?” (Bamidbar 21:5)
Rashi explains that because the Manna was absorbed directly into their body, they deemed it ‘insubstantial’. They complained that since there was no waste from the manna eventually their innards were eventually going to explode from it.
Someone asked Rav Chaim Kanievsky shlita (Derech Sicha) why the nation voiced this complaint at this point, after they had been subsisting off of manna for almost forty years?
Rav Chaim curtly and poignantly replied “az mehn vill zuch tchepen iz kain kasha nit – When one wants to complain there are no questions”.
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“Moshe made a snake of copper and placed it on a pole; so it was that if the snake bit a man, he would stare at the copper snake and live.” (Bmaidbar 21:9)
The Mishna (Rosh Hashana 29a) notes that the snake had no supernatural powers. Rather when one would gaze at it, it would remind him to subjugate his heart to Hashem, and in that merit, he was cured.
The same Mishna relates that a similar situation occurred during the epic battle between Klal Yisroel and Amalek in parshas Beshalach, when Moshe stood atop the mountain with Aharon and Chur supporting his hands. There too Moshe’s hands did not have any direct influence on the war. Rather it served to remind the nation that they should maintain focus on the fact that Hashem is the One who fights their wars.
Darash Mordechai notes that the two aforementioned events occurred at strategic points during the nation’s travels. The attack of Amalek occurred at the beginning of their sojourns in the desert, while the serpent debacle occurred at the end of the forty years in the desert. Both events served to remind the nation of the foundation of emunah, “ain od milvado – there is none other than Him.”
Amalek was proficient in witchcraft and divination. The fighters they dispatched against Klal Yisroel were all people who the stargazers said were destined to live out the year. When the Jews remembered that Hashem controls the world and can manipulate the mazalos (constellations) at will, they were victorious.
In regards to the serpent as well, Hashem was demonstrating His complete mastery over all forces. Ramban explains that when one has been harmed by a rabid or poisonous animal, looking at that animal, or a form of that animal, will exasperates the symptoms, “for the victims’ soul will be obsessed with that thought and will not depart from it at all, until it kills them.” Yet Hashem told Moshe to specifically create an image of the serpent as the key to the healing of the afflicted, to reinforce to them that healing and disease is all in the Hands of Hashem.
Just after they left Mitzrayim, and again shortly before they were to enter Eretz Yisroel, Hashem was strengthening the foundations of emunah to the nation: No matter how things appear, ultimately Hashem is running the world according to His Will.
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[1] This series was originally written for and published in Hamodia.