Parashat Hukat tells the story of Moshe hitting the rock, and how Hashem punished him severely for this sin, decreeing that he would not enter into the Land of Israel.
The most common understanding of this episode is Rashi’s understanding – that Moshe was supposed to produce water for the people by speaking to the rock, but he struck the rock, instead.
However, later commentators questioned this approach, raising a number of difficulties. First, Hashem specifically told Moshe to bring his staff (קח את המטה), which would certainly suggest that Moshe was expected to hit the rock. Secondly, what difference would it make if Moshe hit the rock or spoke to the rock? Was the miracle any less spectacular because Moshe hit the rock?
Therefore, the commentators offer many different explanations. For example, the Rambam writes that Moshe sinned through his anger. Before hitting the rock, he shouted at the people, שמעו נא המורים, המן הסלע הזה נוציא לכם מים – “Listen, please, O rebellious ones! Will we produce water for you from this rock?!” The Rambam writes that Moshe angrily called the people מורים – “rebellious ones” – when Hashem was not angry at them.
The Sefer Ha’ikarim writes that Moshe sinned in that he should not have waited for Hashem to instruct him to hit the rock. He should have realized on his own that this is what he should do to provide water.
But the Maharal of Prague gives an explanation which, in a sense, encompasses many of the other approaches, and which offers us a crucial lesson.
The Maharal writes that Moshe sinned by losing his cool, so-to-speak. He did not react to this crisis in a calm, composed manner like the way he handled all the other crises which he handled throughout his years as leader of Am Yisrael. He became flustered; he buckled under the pressure of a whole nation yelling that they needed water. For a man with his level of emunah, this was considered a sin.
All people, no matter how wealthy they are, how healthy they are, how good a marriage they have or what kind of children they have, are going to deal with difficult problems. Everyone has challenges of one kind of another. Hashem sends us challenges so we can develop our steadfast emunah. We are tested to see if we remain calm and composed, placing our faith in Hashem, without getting flustered.
In the Book of Bereshit, we read the story of Hagar, who was sent away from Avraham Avinu’s home together with her son, Yishmael. The Torah writes, ותלך ותתע במדבר באר שבע – “She went about and was lost in the desert of Be’er Sheva.” Rashi explains this pasuk to mean that Hagar returned to the worship of idols; after leaving Avraham’s home, she resumed the idolatry that she practiced as a youngster. Many later rabbis asked how Rashi saw any indication in the text that Hagar once again worshipped idols.
Rav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, the Ponevezher Rav, answered that Rashi reached this conclusion on the basis of the word ותתע – “was lost.” A believing Jew, the Ponevezher Rav said, is never lost. No matter how difficult life gets, no matter what crisis one is going through, he is not lost if he believes that Hashem is caring for him and guiding him even when he faces problems and hardship.
The Klausenbeger Rebbe, who survived Auschwitz and lost his wife and eleven children in the Holocaust, led a prayer service for survivors in a displaced persons camp on the first Yom Kippur after the war. He stood up in front of a room full of broken people, who lost their families and experienced untold suffering and horror. What could he tell them?
He picked up a mahzor and read through the vidui (confession) – אשמנו, בגדנו, גזלנו… He mentioned each sin, and said that nobody there was guilty of that sin. Having been imprisoned and tormented by the Nazis, they were not guilty of any of the sins listed in the vidui.
However, the Rebbe said, there was one sin that they were all guilty of. They all had moments when they gave up, when they lost hope, when they felt they could not go on. And for this – and this alone – they needed to confess. Because a Jew never loses hope, a Jew is never is lost. No matter what we are going through, Hashem is with us.
Of course, none of us have ever been tested the way the Jews in the Holocaust were tested. But all people have tests of one kind or another. And our job is to remain steadfast in our emunah, to retain our composure, to not feel lost, to remember that Hashem is taking care of us, even in life’s most difficult moments.
The lesson of Moshe’s mistake, the Maharal teaches us, is to try to remain calm and confident even during life’s challenges, to feel that we are being cared for by Hashem in all situations, that He is holding us by the hand, taking us where we need to go – such that we are never lost.