In this week’s parasha, the Jewish people complained about the lack of water and the lack of bread, which were both really a complaint about having to be constantly dependent on Hashem, needing to come to Him daily for their bread and water. It was a complaint about their inability to live a regular, “natural” life.
Their punishment for this was that God sent the snakes. The pasuk says, “Hashem sent the snakes, the serpents.”
Rabbenu Bachye asks why it says the snakes and the serpents. Why not just say the snakes and serpents?
He says that it’s because the snakes and serpents were always there, as it says, “The great and awesome desert that had in it snakes, serpents and scorpions,” but until then, Hashem was protecting the Jewish people from them. Up until then, aside from the clouds that carried them, there were special clouds protecting them along the way, killing all the snakes and serpents that could have potentially harmed them.
But now that the people complained that they were dependent on Hashem, and wanted to live like a regular nations, in a natural way, Hashem removed his special protection. Now they were exposed to the snakes and scorpions that were always there.
Hashem showed them, “Look at how I have been protecting you up until now.”
Furthermore, when it came to sending out the snakes and scorpions, it doesn’t say, vayishlach/ and he sent.” The term used here, Vayshalach, indicates a connotation of freedom, which means that Hashem let the snakes and scorpions loose. He didn’t have to bring snakes and scorpions from the other end of the word. Hashem let loose the snakes and scorpions that were always there.
This is a powerful lesson in Hashem’s constant protection over us. Really, at any given moment, Hashem is protecting us. And the lack of protection could turn everything around Has V’shalom. We must always be sure to recognize that protection.
This week’s Parasha also includes the sin of Mei Meriva, where Moshe Rabbenu should have spoken to the rock, but instead hit the rock. This was why Moshe did not end up going into Eretz Yisrael. He was punished because of loss of a potential lesson in Emunah, that could’ve been learned, had he spoken to the rock instead of hitting it.
But do we really care how he got the water out of the rock? Is there such a big difference between hitting and speaking to it?
The Shem Y’Shemuel explains that there are two levels of emunah. One level is the belief that Hashem does miracles. There is another level of emunah, however, where the person believes that nature itself is a miracle. It’s not just a miracle that God turned the rock into water, but rather, the rock is a rock because God willed it to be, just as much as He could will the rock to become water. It’s not like an outside change took place.
The Shem Y’Shemuel says that when you hit something, it’s like a change coming from the outside. You whacked it, and you changed it. But speaking to the rock is like, as it says, “The world was created with Hashem’s speech.”
That means He willed it to be, And He can will it to be otherwise. This is a stronger understanding of Hashem’s ruling of the world of than the belief that nature is just normal, and a miracle is a change.
It’s like the mashal we always give, of the MoonWalk- the large air- filled Bounce House made of rubber, that has a machine constantly pumping air into it, while the children jump around and bounce in it. If the generator that was pumping the air stopped for one second, the whole moonwalk would collapse.
The moonwalk doesn’t necessarily need someone to take an ax and chop into it to cause it to collapse.
Chopping the moonwalk with an ax is the equivalent of hitting the rock.
All that would really be necessary is to stop pumping air into it, and the moon walk ceases to exist.
Likewise, a rock is a rock because Hashem wills it to be a rock. But if He wants water to be there, water will be there. No external factor would be necessary.
That is a higher level of emunah.
Similarly, Hashem didn’t have to send snakes from somewhere else. They were already there. He just had to remove the protection and let them loose.
Hashem is involved in our lives to such a high degree. This was the message that was supposed to be given by speaking to the rock, and that was the lesson that was lost.
Our job is to have that high-level of belief that God is directing our lives, in wondrous ways that we can’t even appreciate. He is there with every breath, and He is there with every movement. He is behind our very existence. He doesn’t just come in as a hero, so to say, when we are in trouble. He’s there with us when we are walking down the street, eating a bowl of cereal, and sipping a cup of coffee. That is the level of connection that we are supposed to feel
Have a wonderful day and a Shabbat Shalom.