[Avodah] Chuqqas - mixed messages

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Jul 06, 2009 at 07:04:03PM +0000, rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com wrote:
: It seems according to many that Moshe Rabbeinu erred by mei meriva in
: that he HIT the rock instead of speaking to it.

Is the problem the change, or the nature of this particular change?

After all, MRAH was lauded for delaying matan Torah itself!


On a tangent, I had a thought during leining about Mei Meriva...

First, it was not an unmitigated disaster. At least, not according to
the paytan who used it in hoshanos (Ta'aneh Emunim) to identify Moshe
Rabbeinu as a *zekhus* on our behalf. It would seem that Moshe and
Aharon did the right thing, they just could have done something much
more right.

And by comparison, a generation before they were explicitly to hit the
rock.

My suggestion: The big issue behind cheit hameraglim, some say, is that
there was no bitachon in succeeding within teva. Sure, midbar life
works, but how are we too manage after kenisas haaretz, with no mon or
ananim/sukkos, relaying on farming, our own military, etc...

Moshe was given the opportunity to teach us about the power of speech,
of tefillah, of entering into a partnership with HQBH for success
through combining hishtadlus with bitachon.

Instead, he used the mateh, the miracle-maker. This simply taught the
lesson he was supposed to teach the generation of slaves as they entered
midbar life, rather than preparing them to be a nation in EY.

Which would explain why the onesh for listening to the meraglim, spending
40 years in the midbar, dovetails with Moshe not living long enough to
enter EY as being his onesh for Mei Merivah. They are both aspects of
the same failing -- one the cause, the other the effect.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             When we are no longer able to change a situation
micha at aishdas.org        -- just think of an incurable disease such as
http://www.aishdas.org   inoperable cancer -- we are challenged to change
Fax: (270) 514-1507      ourselves.      - Victor Frankl (MSfM)