The Jewish people demonstrated tremendous faith in following Miriam, Aharon and Moshe into a barren desert, leaving behind the most advanced society of the ancient world. Doing so was not easy. They may have worked hard but their needs were taken care of. And that is no small matter. Our Sages did not need historical records to claim that fully 80% of the Jewish people stayed behind in Egypt. The uncertainty of the desert – or perhaps the certainty, in their minds, of death in the desert – offered little reason to leave. So great was this act of faith that even G-d was moved. “I recall the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown” (Yirmiyahu 2:2).
G-d well understood the feebleness and fickleness of these recently redeemed slaves. Thus, when they complained about the chasing Egyptian army, the lack of water, the lack of food and once again the lack of water, G-d does not get angry at them. Their murmurings were fully understandable, even desirable. G-d had further opportunity to teach the people that it is He who is the Master of nature and can provide for the people wherever they may be. G-d provided food from heaven, water from a rock and provided a stick with which the Jewish people could defeat Amalek.
Only when the people danced around a golden calf did G-d become angry. Yet even this act of total defiance was forgiven and 99.5% of the people saved from destruction. Sefer Shemot ends with the construction of the Mishkan and G-d’s presence dwelling amongst the people.
Sefer Vayikra continues with the theme of holiness and closeness to G-d detailing the sacrificial order and laws of purity. Implementing G-d’s call at Sinai that the entire nation was to be a “nation of priests and a holy nation” the second half the book details those laws that transform us to a holy nation.
All that is left is the short journey to the land of Israel. But alas, it was not to be. The same understandable complaints of the people leaving Egypt on their way to Mount Sinai are repeated as the people journey from Sinai to Israel. These complaints are much less justified. Has G-d not already demonstrated that He will provide food, water and shelter? Did Divine revelation, the Ten commandments and the Divine presence resting in the Mishkan have no effect?
It would not be long before the generation that left Egypt would be doomed to die in the desert. What was meant to be a short journey – no more than 11 days – was to be a much, much longer one.
“The children of Israel, the entire congregation, arrived at the wilderness of Zin in the first month and the people stayed at Kadesh. Miriam died there and was buried there” (Bamidbar 20:1).
Close to 40 years have passed. The generation that left Egypt has died. Finally, the people are about to enter the Land of Canaan – and catastrophe strikes. Miriam, the eldest of the leaders has died. Furthermore, there was no water to drink. “There was no water for the people to drink and they gathered against Moses and Aaron” (Bamidbar 20:2).
“The people quarreled with Moses, saying, ‘If only we had perished when our brothers perished by G-d’s will! Why have you brought G-d’s congregation into this wilderness for us and our livestock to die there? Why did you take us out of Egypt to bring us to this makom hara, bad (or is it evil) place, a place with no grain or figs or vines or pomegranates? There is not even water to drink!”
One can understand that the people are mad that G-d took “the community of G-d” i.e. their parents out of Egypt. Why should they have to suffer because their parents sinned and they, the children, have to wander in the desert. Had they stopped there it would have been an unfortunate but understandable complaint. But they continued. The generation that did not leave Egypt is yelling at Moshe and Aharon for having taken them out of Egypt.
A close reading of the text indicates that the people were not (only) complaining about the barrenness of the desert but their reference to a bad place was to none other than Canaan.
The mention of figs vines and pomegranates is a deliberate attempt to speak evil of the land they were about to enter. “They [the meraglim] reached the wadi Eshcol, and there they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes—it had to be borne on a carrying frame by two of them—and some pomegranates and figs” (Bamidbar 13:23).
When the spies came back and gave their report they began by extolling the land for its wonderful fruit. “They went straight to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran, and they made their report to them and to the whole community, as they showed them the fruit of the land. This is what they told him: ‘We came to the land you sent us to; it does indeed flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit” (Bamidbar 13:26-27). In other words the greatness of the land is its figs, vines and pomegranates.
Forty years later this new generation wants to deny the land even of its great fruit.
This second mention about the lack of water is thus referring to the land of Israel. In Egypt the Nile provides an endless supply of water but in the land of Israel water will have to come from heaven and there is no guarantee that will happen. As we recite daily in the Shema if the Jewish people do not listen to the commandments there will be no rain[1]. That is not where they wanted to live.
Yet remarkably G-d does not get angry at the people. He understood that after 40 years of miraculous existence to lose a great leader and have no water was disorienting to say the least. Words would be spoken out of despair. Ironically, it is Moshe and Aharon with whom G-d was angry. It was their responsibility to demonstrate “faith in G-d and sanctify His name to the eyes of the Jewish people” and having failed such they were not able to enter the land[2].
When a short time later, for no apparent reason the Jewish people complain, “Why did you make us leave Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread and no water, and we have come to loathe this miserable food” (Bamidbar 21:5) G-d’s anger is kindled and “many people died”.
Perhaps more important than what we do is the context in which it is done. There may be no better example than what is generally viewed as the central motif the parsha, Moshe hitting the rock. This was not the first time he did so. 40 years earlier when the Jewish people faced their first water crisis it was most appropriate for Moshe to hit the rock. But 40 year later it was time to move from hitting to speaking. And in the context of a Moshe Rabbeinu that was an unforgivable error.
G-d has tasked the Jewish people with the mission to be “light unto the nations”. That means we have a greater responsibility to act with integrity, humility and dignity. It may not be fair but there is a double standard when it comes to the Jewish people and by extension the State of Israel.
Yet at the same time we accept with honour and love the mission of being a role model to others and believe with perfect faith that one day the reward will be great.
[1] While the shema is only recorded in the book of Devarim, it may have been told to them earlier. And even if not, it matters little – it is the literary linkage that interests the Torah not the historical אכמ״ל.
[2] Ironically, neither the people nor their leaders got their wish as the people entered the land and the leaders did not.