A Land of Prayer
Rabbi Hirsch teaches that Moshe and Aharon speaking as opposed to striking the rock that would provide the masses with water was what presaged the new modality of prayer that would be required in the promised land.
The need to perform a miracle was prefaced, and precipitated by yet another complaint: "Why did you make us leave Egypt to bring us to this wretched place, a place with no seed to plant or figs or vines or pomegranates? There is not even water to drink!”
It would seem that the cardinal complaint was not so much that they didn't have water, but rather, that the people wanted something to do with their time, a creative venture, something that would require them to work and see the fruits of their efforts. They wanted seed to plant, so they could grow fruit trees, and prune them; that was the heart of the matter.
If one were to look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs, where people's most basic needs like food, water, and clothing are at the bottom of the pyramid, for the people, they trusted God that He'd provide what they needed - He always had - but they wanted also something they could call their own, an avenue for self expression, that would distinguish them from others and make them feel special. Being a brilliant nomad, or one who was especially wealthy gives you very little if your food tastes exactly the same and you have no way to express your unique individuality; likewise, in the desert, one was allowed to eat meat, on the condition that he brought part of it as an offering - thus, there was little place for a private BBQ in one's backyard, or some other expression of uniqueness.
And really, that was the modality in the desert - and God praises them as much in the opening chapters of Jeremiah: "Go proclaim to Jerusalem: Thus said GOD: I accounted to your favor, the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride— How you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown."
The true grandeur of the people was that, a few hitches along the way notwithstanding, they were able to walk with God in the absence of a land they could sow, they could possess and lay claim to.
It is very hard to be in a world where one doesn't feel that he or she has unique creative pursuits; it could strike at one's very core, and take on more significance than what would naturally be conceived as one's more basic needs.
Moshe and Aharon speaking to the rock was aimed at conveying that; a time, in the near future would come when Moshe and Aharon's miracles would be moribund, having receded into distant memory. No, the people didn't have special staffs that could turn into snakes, or perform miracles, splitting water and the like. But they had a unique voice, that of prayer, which they could use to turn to God, their own individual God who heard their grievances and felt their pain, and who wasn't just reserved for the elite, spiritual and otherwise, but who would guide them in their day to day hardships in the new land - and if not them, their offspring, so they would know that their efforts were not in vain.
BS'D
ReplyDeleteExcellent - thank you, dear Yoav
For me it is an eye opener to get led back to the precipitating complaint that the children of Israel requested this other thing, you call it creativity, namely seeding and reaping, caring for themselves. So far, I have not seen any commentaries on that very important aspect.
We learned the people in the episode with the spies were afraid of leaving the comfort zone where, in the desert, G'd cared for all their needs. And now, 40 years later they urge to take responsibility, you call it express creative individuality. You connect this step with taking the action to themselves, ourselves: Not to rely on miracles, but do the job ourselves through the might of words in prayer.
However, regarding seeding and reaping, I have my doubts regarding your connection to individual performance. In current day-to-day language we speak of, e.g., meat production (I don't hear of crop production, I hear more of harvest gains, fertilizers and other supportive means). Regarding bread, we bless hamotzi min haaretz - it is not man who sows and reaps, not even the baker who starts his day at 4 or 5 am, it is Him who brings forth nourishment.
Can we then modify your thought. It may be not primarily the urge for individual creative acts the children of Israel demand, it is like 'don't forget us, we have hands to do our part in Your sustenance of the world'.
And like the demand for water is answered by the gush from the rock, so is the demand for us to be a partner and lend a hand, answered by the gift of prayer which is put into our mouth, and performed through speaking.
This idea fits also nicely into Moshe's punishment. Instead of the morally loaded verdict, Moshe should have prayed and not struck (like don't shout your wife and children, embrace them with a sweet loving tone), as we hear in commentaries, you are showing us a positive perspective: We already are anxious to finally use the tool of prayer, and have it materialized in fruits and harvest - not as a self aggrandizement of what we are able to do (there is a wine kaddesh barnea from the Negev; it grows on completely neutral sand, and only by watering it with additive minerals, we get a wine mimicking soil and exposition) - no, we want to connect to our Father through hands and lips.
Regarding your ideas on nomads and their wishes to excel, I have doubts. I don't know much of nomads, what I read is that Bedouins were traditionally received as free men, and superior to the land bound agriculturists. I'm sure nomads have their cultural means to stratify their communities, don't worry.
Your core question as I understand circles about what am I, what am I needed for, and what am I counted for - existential questions which get an outlet after the desert, namely in the ability of creating something, sow and reap, with or without prayer and ascribing ownership to men or G'd.
My Rabi is a simple man. He probably would say, there is an option to pray - pray. There is an option to seed and reap, seed and reap. There is still life in you, believe, grasp the truth. He always starts and ends in emunah.
Thank you again, dear Yoav
Also politically interesting: Imagine two mothers in conversation, one has lost her son in Gaza, the other refuses to release her son to the IDF. The one who struck the Arabs, the other who took on her and him to study words, and pray. It is hard to imagine how both can reconcile. And Moshe and Aharon could not reconcile and were barred to enter the Land.