Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto’s talks are known throughout the Jewish world. They combine chassidic teachings and philosophy, along with tips for a better life. We have collected pearls from his teachings that are relevant to our daily lives. This week he comments on the Torah section of Chukat.
"Now listen, you rebels, shall we draw water for you from this rock?" (Num. 20:10)
Many interpretations have been attempted to explain the Waters of Contention fiasco. Rashi says that Moses made a mistake because God told him to speak to the rock and Moses struck the rock instead. This caused a desecration of God’s Name and for that God punished him and told him he would not enter the Land of Israel. The Ramban, Ibn Ezra, and Ohr haChaim dispute this. They say that Moses’s mistake was not striking the rock, but for rebuking the Israelites and speaking to them in a harsh manner, "Now listen, you rebels." He was punished for saying they were rebelling against God. We will try to get to the bottom of this explanation.
The Torah tells us (Deuteronomy 23:24): "You shall watch yourself and fulfill what comes out of your lips." A person should be careful about anything that he says. “He shall not profane whatever came out of his mouth.” (Num. 30:3) A person has to be extremely careful with whatever he says. There is a “covenant” that God made with a person’s lips that whatever he says, will come to be.
It is related that during the Baal Shem Tov’s times, there was a man in a difficult situation who uttered a bad word about someone. The words made a powerful impression in Heaven and death was decreed on the one he had badmouthed. The Baal Shem Tov told the man that he had brought a sentence of death upon that person by speaking badly about him.
A person who says bad things can sentence another to death, can shut down a person's livelihood, and cause very difficult things to happen to another. A person should be extra careful with whatever he says, because he can change the destinies of individuals, cause destruction to entire families and terrible devastation to another person.
The Waters of Contention can be explained according to the above. When the Israelites came out of Egypt they lacked any merit. As the ministering angel of Egypt said, "These [the Egyptians] are idolaters, and those [the Israelites] are idolaters." Many of the plagues in Egypt were performed by Moshe’s staff that had great spiritual powers, and which had been used by Adam and our holy forefathers. Moses carried out the miraculous Ten Plagues with this staff, despite the Israelites not deserving them. Moses also split the Reed Sea for the Israelites by means of the staff because the Israelites lacked their own merits. And this happened continually throughout the desert. Despite the Israelites not deserving them, Moses effected supernatural miracles for them.
The Israelites lived miraculously in the desert. They drank water in the merit of Miriam who was an exalted and holy righteous woman. After the Israelites drank water forty years in the merit of Miriam, she passed away and suddenly the Israelites had no water to drink. The Almighty told Moses to go and take the staff and speak to the rock. To speak to the rock means that the Israelites have their own merit and they deserve water. In contrast, using a staff means that they have no merits or ability and need a miracle like the Splitting of the Reed Sea and the Ten Plagues in Egypt for water to come out of the rock for them.
Moses was ready with either approach. He was ready to speak if they deserved the water, and if they didn’t deserve it, he was ready to strike the rock with the staff to bring about a miracle as he had done at the Reed Sea and in Egypt. When Moses criticized them, "Now listen, you rebels," his harsh speech was in effect announcing that the Israelites had no merits. By saying this, Moses instantly diminished them. They sunk to a lower level where they had no merit to receive water, and could only get it by means of the staff doing a miracle, just as all the other things that they received in the desert were done by a miracle.
This is what brought God's anger on Moses. Why did he speak ill of the Israelites and thereby diminish them so they would only receive water as a gift and not because they deserved it?! If Moses had said after the forty years in the desert that the Israelites deserved water on their own, the water would have come out of the rock by merely speaking to it because that is what God wanted. But Moses instead said that they were not deserving to receive the water. By rebuking them, "Now listen, you rebels," he closed off heaven to the Israelites’ merits, forcing them to receive water by means of a miracle effected by the staff.
We learn an important principle here: a person must watch his mouth and be careful with what comes out. We are not only referring to slander which in itself is a serious and terrible thing. If a person is talking to God and he says something not good about someone else, he can cause harm and destruction to him.
"You will decree something, and it will occur for you" (Job 22:20). Everything that comes out of a person’s mouth - will have an effect! Therefore a person should be careful with every word that he says with his mouth on the earth below - because his words have great influence and power in Heaven Above.
This article was written in cooperation with Shuva Israel