Miriam’s
Well
Parshas Chukas
Posted on July 10, 2024 (5784) By Rabbi Naftali
Reich | Series: Legacy | Level: Beginner
Without water, life cannot
survive. Nonetheless, millions of Jewish people survived in the parched and
barren desert for forty years. How was this possible? Only through a miracle.
During their travels
through the desert, the Jewish people were accompanied by a rock from which an
abundant supply of water constantly flowed. It was called Miriam’s Well,
because it existed in the merit of Moses’ older sister Miriam, who was a
righteous woman and a prophetess in her own right.
In this week’s portion, we
read about Miriam’s death only months before the entry of the Jewish people
into the Holy Land. The Torah also tells us that Miriam’s Well ceased to
function after she died, and the people were faced with a critical water
shortage. They besieged Moses and demanded that he provide water for them, for
otherwise they would die. G-d told Moses to take his staff in hand and speak to
the rock. Instead of speaking, however, Moses struck the rock with his staff.
The waters gushed forth again, but Moses forfeited the opportunity of entering
the Holy Land. Because of his mistake, he passed away while the Jewish
encampment was massed on the east bank of the Jordan River.
A number of questions come
to mind. Why was the water given to the Jewish people only in the merit of Miriam?
Why couldn’t the water continue after her death without Moses speaking to the
rock? Why didn’t G-d want to leave the faucet open for the Jewish people?
The commentators explain
that one of the most striking features of water is that its viscosity allows it
to adapt perfectly to its surroundings; water will naturally assume the shape
of any container into which it flows. Symbolically, Miriam represented this
quality. She was able to adapt her faith and her steadfast loyalty to G-d’s
will under any and all circumstances. Come what may, Miriam shone as the
paragon of staunch faith.
Miriam was born during the
darkest chapter of the Jewish bondage in Egypt. Her name, recalling the word
marah, bitter, evokes the bitterness of the Jewish condition. When she was just
a young girl, Pharaoh decreed that all male babies be thrown into the river.
Husbands and wives separated in order to avoid producing children who would be
drowned, but Miriam persuaded her parents to have faith and remain together. As
a result, her brother Moses, redeemer of the Jewish people, was born. Miriam
was the famous midwife Puah, who sang to the infants when they were born.
Like water, Miriam adapted
to the oppression and the suffering and remained strong in her faith. Therefore, in her merit, G-d provided the
Jewish people with miraculous water in the desert. And when she died, a new
demonstration of supreme faith was required. G-d wanted Moses to draw water
from the rock by speaking alone.
A man hired a wagon driver
to take him to a distant city. As they traveled through dense forests and over
craggy mountains, the passenger sat relaxed in his seat, enjoying the scenery.
Suddenly, a thunderstorm
arose. The passenger told the wagon driver to pull over, but he insisted that
they could not do so safely. They had to push on through the storm.
The passenger began to
tremble with fear.
“Don’t worry,” the wagon
driver reassured him. “All will be well.”
“But how do I know that?”
“Because I am telling you
so,” the wagon driver replied. “You were not afraid when we were travelling
through dangerous forests and over steep mountain roads on the edge of sheer
cliffs.
You relied in my skills.
Well, do you think I’ve never driven through a thunderstorm? You can trust me.”
In our own lives, we find
it easier to have faith when things are going reasonably well. When we seem to
be on the road to success and encounter trials and struggles, we have faith
that we will ultimately succeed. But what happens when things are falling
apart, Heaven forbid? What happens when they become stormy? Those are the times
that test our faith. Those are also the times when our faith can spell the
difference between hope and despair.
Text Copyright © 2007 by
Rabbi Naftali Reich and Torah.org.
Imaginary
Fears
Posted on June 29, 2023 (5783) By Rabbi Yaakov
Menken | Series: Lifeline | Level: Beginner
Several years ago, one of
the writers for Torah.org reached out to me in a hurry. He had made a mistake
and wanted to stop the distribution of the email he had just sent.
What was his mistake? He
had identified the weekly reading as “Parshas Bila’am” —
this was, of course, in a year when Balak, half of
this week’s reading, was read separately, unlike this year when it is read
together with the previous parsha, Chukas.
Misnaming this particular parsha was what we might call a “scholar’s
error:” The reading is named after the Moabite King Balak, but the story
centers around Bila’am, the evil prophet hired by
King Balak to curse the Jews. Balak is something of a minor figure in the parsha that carries his name; it is primarily
about Bila’am!
But, of course, without
the actions of Balak, the whole story of Bila’am would not have happened.
I heard the following from
Rabbi Meilich Biderman, a well-known inspiring speaker. He asks, did you notice
that Balak is in a panic about the Jews coming from Egypt, that he is terrified
of them? He says the Jews “will eat up everything around us like the ox eats up
the vegetables in the field” [22:4]. He expects the Jews to come through, ruin
the fields, and eat the crops. That is what caused Balak to send messengers
to Bila’am to hire him to deliver curses, and the entire parsha comes
as a result of this fear.
Balak’s fear was entirely,
unquestionably, 100% baseless. Hashem had specifically told the Jews “Do not bother Moav and do not
provoke war with them, for I will not give to you from their land as an
inheritance…” [Deut 2:9]. So Balak was afraid for no reason. And because he
acted on his irrational fears, he brought destruction upon himself and his
people.
What do we learn from
this? The Torah, Rav Biderman said, is eternal, and there’s a
lesson in here for us today. I should introduce what he says by
explaining that our Sages teach that everything G-d does is
good, in ways we do not understand, and specifically good for us.
Nothing comes to a person
unless G-d wants it to be so, and He only wants the
best for us.
So, he says, we shouldn’t
be living in fear! We must remember that Hashem runs
the world and there’s nothing to be afraid of. Obviously, we should behave in a
way that is prudent and reasonable, but not second guess ourselves, regret bad
investments, or be afraid of every distant possibility. Balak’s unfounded fears
led to the entire story!
For those interested, it’s
not really possible to retract or stop a bulk email once sent. So every
subscriber did receive a class entitled “Parshas Bila’am” that day. Yet the
teacher had nothing to be afraid of—few noticed, and none, to my knowledge,
lost any respect for him. It was, after all, a wise man’s error!
It is interesting that
Rabbi Biderman is often described as a Mashpia, which
translates as “influencer.” In today’s culture, an “influencer” is a teenager
or twentysomething with many social media followers, who convinces them to buy
the brands that he or she is being paid to promote. Think about the difference
between one “influencer” and the other. We can all be influenced, it’s just
a matter of which influencers we listen to!
Handing
Over the Mantle
Parshas Chukas
Posted on June 17, 2021 (5781) By Rabbi Berel
Wein | Series: Rabbi
Wein | Level: Beginner
The fate of the generation
that left Egypt and came to the Sinai desert is finally sealed in this week’s
Torah reading. Even though we already read in last week’s Torah portion about
the disaster and eventual demise of that generation because of the slanderous
report of the Spies that visited the land of Israel, Moshe somehow
was convinced that he himself would escape their fate. He appears to be
confident that he will yet lead his beloved people into the promised land of
Israel.
However, as we read in the
Torah, the Lord informs Moshe that he also will not
enter the land of Israel. The Torah does give us a reason for this harsh decree
against the greatest of all prophets and leaders. Moshe chose
to strike the rock to bring forth water instead of complying with the heavenly
order speak to the rock. At first glance, we are certainly troubled by this
seemingly asymmetrical form of judgment and punishment. The retribution for
this sin seems to be far too harsh, especially when we consider the decades of
service, sacrifice and loyalty that Moshe previously
exhibited in his relationship with the Almighty. Simply put, it seems
unfair. The punishment does not seem to fit the crime.
This issue has vexed
Jewish minds over the ages. It is almost as though the Torah is purposely
writing a real cause-and-effect relationship regarding Moshe and the
land of Israel. Because of this intuitive feeling of uneasiness about the true
nature of this incident, many varied explanations and commentaries have been
offered over the ages.
Maimonides described the
real crime as being the tendency to become angry, and anger always leads to a
ruptured relationship with the Almighty and eternity. Others have pointed
out that it was not so much the behavior of Moshe, as it
was that this was the appropriate time when Joshua should have taken over the
mantle of leadership. Every generation has its leaders, and leaders of
previous generations, no matter how great they may have been, are not destined
to serve as leaders of later generations.
It is this rule of history
and of human nature that governs this situation. The fact that Moshe struck the rock is not the essential
reason that some commentators believe that a new generation demanded new
leadership to be successful. Another nuance added to this explanation is that the leader of
each generation is responsible for what happens to that generation. Therefore,
it is obvious that if the generation that Moshe redeemed
from Egypt and led through the desert of Sinai was not going to merit entering
the land of Israel, then its leader, no matter how great and noble a person he
may have been, must share the same fate of the generation that he so faithfully
led.
Shabbat Shalom
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