[Avodah] TWO COMPELLING QUESTIONS

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 02:08:06PM -0400, Richard Wolberg wrote:
:> Wouldn't "vedibartem" refer to Moshe and Aharon, not the entire Benei
:> Yisrael? In which case, planning while walking to the rock wasn't too
:> onerous.

: The Pasuk clearly commands Moshe to gather the eidah together with
: him and Aharon. The fact that the eidah is mentioned first and then
: followed by v'dibartem is even a stronger reason to believe that they
: were all commanded to speak to the rock....
:     If that were the case, it would have been more logical to say:
: "gather the eidah," etc."and you and Aharon speak to the rock."

But isn't Moshe explicitly told that they were to be an audience,
"vedibarta el hassela "le'eineihem*" (Bamidbar 20:8)?

: Also, you didn't address the question that they were told to speak to
: the rock but they weren't told WHAT TO SAY.

Although I did mention the Ibn Ezra's explanation that they were expected
to sing shirah. Moshe did pretty well writing "Az Yashir" and "Haazinu"
himself. I don't think it's presumable that Moshe found this frustrating.

And I also mentioned that I would be inclined to assign a source of
frustration and anger that is implied in Moshe's words over one that
isn't, giving two candidates. Given another source of frustration,
what is the motive for positing that the lack of detail about what to
say was a second? We don't need a second motive for his anger.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Strength does not come from winning. Your
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