Shabbat Hukkat

Written by Rabbi Professor Jonathan Magonet Tuesday, 28 June 2005

Parashat Hukkat
Rabbi Professor Jonathan Magonet

There are some Bible stories that provide opportunities for endless speculation. We will be reading one of them in synagogue tomorrow. It belongs to a series of issues about leadership that are to be found in the Book of Numbers. Moses has had to face a number of rebellions during the journey through the wilderness. They have greatly eroded his authority and have threatened to tear apart the people. Some have been about providing food and water for the population. Others have been about the very structure of the society he is trying to build. Till now, sometimes through the direct intervention of God, Moses has managed to keep the people together. Now comes yet another challenge when the people complain that there is no water, and Moses has to respond.

He receives quite clear instructions from God. He is to take his staff, the one with which he had performed miracles many times before, and stand in front of a particular rock. He is then to speak to the rock before the eyes of the people, and it will give out water. But instead of speaking to the rock, Moses speaks angrily to the people.

‘Listen, now, you rebels! Shall we bring out water for you from this rock?’ Then he raised his hand and struck the rock with the staff twice, and water poured out in abundance. (Numbers 20:10-11)

God’s response to this action is shocking. God says to Moses and Aaron: ‘Because you did not believe in Me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the Children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this community into the land which I have given to them.’ (Numbers 20:12-13)

Moses and Aaron are condemned to die in the wilderness. For Moses, whose entire life has been dedicated to bringing the people into the Promised Land, this is a bitter blow. But the real puzzle is what exactly it is that Moses has done wrong to incur such a drastic punishment. Jewish commentators have examined every word and detail of the story trying to answer this question.

Clearly there is a distinction between speaking to the rock and hitting it. It is possible that Moses remembered a previous occasion when the people had asked for water. God had also commanded him to take his staff, but that time he was told specifically to strike the rock. (Exodus 17:1-7) So why should this time be different? Clearly Moses has disobeyed the direct word of God. Nevertheless the instructions were given to him in private. The people would not have known what God said, so how has he failed to sanctify God in the eyes of the people. Moreover, God did tell him to take his staff with him and the people would not be surprised to see him use it on this occasion as well. Once again, where was this public failure to do appropriate honour to God?

It is possible that Moses’ impatience with the people might have played a part in God’s punishment. Their fears and concerns about water were very serious and it was Moses’ responsibility as leader to take care of such matters. To lose his patience with the people is understandable, though leaders are expected to maintain their composure in public. To attack them as ‘rebels’ when their concerns are legitimate is a double failure on his part. Moreover, since Moses was so close to God, the people might have understood this outburst as being God’s judgment on them rather than Moses’ own opinion. This is a further reminder that those in a position of power are judged more strictly in direct relationship to the extent of their responsibility.

There is also something else seriously wrong with Moses’ words. When he says ‘shall we bring water out of this rock for you?’ he seems to be speaking as if he and Aaron are to be the ones who perform this miracle, not God. Again his impatience is understandable, but it suggests that Moses has fallen into the trap that often comes with power: the assumption that everything is ultimately and solely in his hands. As the saying goes: power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Perhaps Moses has become arrogant and so forfeited his right to continue as leader.

We can see how easy it is to imagine a whole series of possible failures on the part of Moses because of the severity of the punishment. We can also understand why at least one mediaeval Jewish commentator became upset at all the sins that Moses was being accused of committing!

I have a personal theory about why this action of Moses is so serious. It focuses less on Moses and more on his actions. The fact that God asked him to take his staff with him, but not to use it and instead to speak to the rock, seems to be significant. We have to remember how important that staff had been on earlier occasions. When Moses first confronted Pharaoh and tried to show the power of his God Aaron was instructed to cast a staff onto the ground and it became a snake. This action was matched by Pharaoh’s magicians reducing the power of this miracle to a mere magical trick. Nevertheless Moses’ snake swallowed up the other snakes, God’s authority was reinforced. But Moses’ own staff became even more significant when the plagues began to strike the Egyptians because in a number of them Moses used the staff to start the plague. Most dramatically, at the Sea of Reeds, when Moses raised his staff, the waters parted allowing the Children of Israel to cross on dry land to safety.

Perhaps the power that seemed to be invested in the staff itself is the real problem behind this story. The entire thrust of the competition with the magicians in Egypt was to show that the power of God was of a totally different dimension. God was the creator of heaven and earth and master of all forces within them. God was not subject to human control or influence in the same way as the gods of other peoples. The Children of Israel may well have begun to invest Moses’ staff with supernatural or magical powers. This would have diminished the power and authority that belonged to God alone. That was why Moses was instructed just to speak this time and no longer to use the staff, so as to show that it was not so important or powerful. God’s word performed the miracle, not the staff.

There is another point that reinforces this interpretation. The previous occasion when Moses brought water out of a rock had occurred before the encounter with God at Mount Sinai when the Israelites entered into the covenant with God. Their entire relationship with God was now to be put on a different basis. At Mount Sinai they saw nothing, but they heard the voice of God speaking. Speech has a different kind of power. The world of magic depends on signs and symbols, visual objects and actions. Their visual nature lends itself to the risk of deception that belongs to the world of magical tricks and performances. This was the world of the Egyptian magicians that the Children of Israel had now to leave behind. At Sinai they heard the word, and it is through the word that God will now communicate with the people. That is why Moses had to speak to the rock in God’s name and not use any physical act. He had to demonstrate this new dimension in religious life and leave all magical actions behind forever.

All of these speculations have their place. They are part of the challenge and fascination of reading the stories of the Hebrew Bible. But perhaps the whole episode must be understood at a much simpler level. Moses was asked to speak, and instead he struck out with his staff. A word can be used to do good or to cause harm. But when someone strikes out with a staff, this legitimises violence and offers no way back to a peaceful resolution. Moses struck out in anger. As so often in human history, the word that might have led to a different path, the word that might have solved the immediate problem, that word was simply not heard.