Congregation Anshe Sholom - From The Rabbi

The Rabbi's Message

“Moses, The Rock, and the Power to Change”

Rabbi Ely J. Rosensveig

What was Moses’ sin at the rock? The Torah teaches (Numbers, ch. 20) that Moses hit the rock rather than speak to it. This rock, the Midrash suggests, was the very one that the angel revealed to Hagar as her son, Ishmael, was dying of thirst (Genesis, ch. 21). Hagar hit the rock, and water came forth to spare her son. The self-same rock was also at Masseh and Merivah forty years earlier when Moses hit the rock, and water gushed out sating an Israelite flock bent on mischief in the face of their thirst. And, this very rock would travel with our ancestors through our wanderings in the Sinai wilderness as long as Moses’ sister, Miriam, lived. The rock would be tapped, and water would issue forth.

Perhaps then, Moses’ sin at Kadesh (and Aaron’s too) was that he did not adjust or accommodate to the changes in circumstances. For Moses, his response to the rock was consistent and immutable. He hit the rock on this occasion, just as he hit it to draw water forty years earlier, and just as we had always interacted with this rock, i.e., hit it and it will give water.

What Moses fails to understand in the moment of his trespass was that while the rock stayed the same, the circumstances did change. Moses failed to adapt to these changes. He sinned as well, the commentators suggest, by not differentiating among the Israelites. Just as he failed to accommodate to changes in the scenario of the rock, he failed to acknowledge changes and differences among his flock, lumping them altogether in his ad hominem recriminating cry of “hear now, ye rebels.”

Moses ultimately understood his failing at Kadesh. That is why, perhaps, at the changing of the guard, Moses advises G-d, would that it were possible, to choose as his successor someone who would bear each and every person in his flock according to his individual disposition. Moses importuned Hashem to choose a successor who would have what he lacked, a sensitivity to differences, an ability to adapt to change as a function of the circumstance or the particular person of reference.

This wisdom is a lesson for us all. We cannot paint everything and everyone with a broad brush, however convenient. We must be able to change our thinking as a function of the moment, the circumstances, and the person with whom we are interacting. Change is a powerful agent in the locomotion of life. It is a keyhold to living a contented, purposeful, fulfilling life.

In the spirit of this call to ‘change’, I ask that you change your behavioral pattern on the weekend. If you are home on a given Shabbos, whatever your prior practice, change it… and come to shul. I promise you that we will welcome you with open arms.

Faithfully yours,

Ely J. Rosenzveig, Rabbi

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