Benefits of Joining the צבור

(13) Thou knowest, also, that God said to our teacher Moses, the master of former and later ages, "Because ye have not confided in me, to sanctity me", "because ye rebelled against my order at the waters of Meribah", "because ye did not sanctify me". All this (God said) although the sin of Moses consisted merely in that he departed from the moral mean of patience to the extreme of wrath in so far as he exclaimed, "Hear now ye rebels" etc., yet for this God found fault with him that such a man as he should show anger in the presence of the entire community of Israel, where wrath is unbecoming. This was a profanation of God's name, because men imitated the words and conduct of Moses, hoping thereby to attain temporal and eternal happiness. How could he, then, allow his wrath free play, since it is a pernicious characteristic, arising, as we have shown, from an evil psychic condition? The divine words, "Ye (Israel) have rebelled against me" are, however, to be explained as follows. Moses was not speaking to ignorant and vicious people, but to an assembly, the most insignificant of whose women, as the sages put it, were on a plane with Ezekiel, the son of Buzi. So, when Moses said or did anything, they subjected his words or actions to the most searching examination. Therefore, when they saw that he waxed wrathful, they said, "He has no moral imperfection, and did he not know that God is angry with us for demanding water, and that we have stirred up the wrath of God, he would not have been angry with us". However, we do not find that when God spoke to Moses about this matter He was angry, but on the contrary, said, "Take the staff . . . and give drink to the congregation and their cattle". We have, indeed, digressed from the subject of this chapter, but have, I hope, satisfactorily solved one of the most difficult passages of Scripture concerning which there has been much arguing in the attempt to state exactly what the sin was which Moses committed. Let what others have said be compared with our opinion, and the truth will surely prevail.

(4) And it is in respect of this truth impressed upon us by nature itself that our sages of blessed memory dilated upon the majesty and the awe of the congregation, to the point of their saying (Sotah 40a): "Let the fear of the congregation be always upon you." And we find the chief of the prophets himself [Moses] to have been punished in this regard, having said (Numbers 20:10): "Listen, now, you rebellious ones," though each one of them as an individual merited the rebuke. And they said in the first chapter of Kiddushin (36a): "And do you think foolish children are not called children? Come and hear (Jeremiah 4:22): 'They are foolish children.' And do you think faithless children are not called children? Come and hear (Deuteronomy 32:30): '…children in whom there is no faith.'" Their intent in this is that although each one in himself be unworthy, still, when he joins the others, the aggregate acquires a merit and an eminence greater than the sum of its parts, just as the composites of creation acquired virtues and qualities which did not exist in the distinct elements of which they were combined. Our sages have already intimated this idea in connection with the inclusion of frankincense among the spices of the incense [(Krithuth 6b): "Any fast which does not include in it the offenders in Israel is not a fast, for the odor of the frankincense is foul, and yet Scripture reckoned it among the spices of the incense. Abbaye cited (Amos 9:6): 'And He established its (Israel's) bond upon the earth.'"] We would expect the foulness of its odor to spoil the incense, and yet Prophecy has affirmed it to have no perfection without the frankincense. The same holds true in respect to our Divine service. The inclusion in it of sinners and offenders does not detract from it, but, to the contrary, renders it more perfect.