(7) and God spoke to Moses, saying, (8) “You and your brother Aaron take the rod and assemble the community, and before their very eyes order the rock to yield its water. Thus you shall produce water for them from the rock and provide drink for the congregation and their beasts.” (9) Moses took the rod from before Adonai, as God had commanded him. (10) Moses and Aaron assembled the congregation in front of the rock; and he said to them, “Listen, you rebels, shall we get water for you out of this rock?” (11) And Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod. Out came copious water, and the community and their beasts drank. (12) But Adonai said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust Me enough to affirm My sanctity in the sight of the Israelite people, therefore you shall not lead this congregation into the land that I have given them.” (13) Those are the Waters of Meribah—meaning that the Israelites quarrelled with Adonai—through which God affirmed God's sanctity.
The Cost of Being Human
A) Rav Ami said: There is no death without sin. And there is no suffering without iniquity. There is no death without sin, as it is written: “The soul that sins, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him” (Ezekiel 18:20).
And there is no suffering without iniquity, as it is written: “Then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with strokes” (Psalms 89:33).
B) The Gemara raises an objection: The ministering angels said before the Holy One, Blessed be God: Master of the Universe, why did You penalize Adam, the first human, with death? God said to them: I gave him a simple mitzva, and he violated it. They said to God: Didn’t Moses and Aaron, who observed the whole Torah in its entirety die? The Holy One said to them, “All things come alike to all; there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him who sacrifices, and to him who does not sacrifice; as is the good, so is the sinner; and he who swears, as he who fears an oath” (Ecclesiastes 9:2).
A) Rav Ami stated his position in accordance with this tanna, as it was taught: Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar said: Even Moses and Aaron died due to their sin, as it is stated: “And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: Because you did not believe in Me, to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this congregation in to the land which I have given them” (Numbers 20:12). Had you believed in Me, your time would not yet have come to leave the world.
B) The Gemara raises an objection: Four died due to the serpent, and they are: Benjamin, son of Jacob; Amram, father of Moses; Yishai, father of David; and Kilab, son of David. And all of them were learned through tradition, except for Yishai, father of David, with regard to whom there is an explicit verse interpreted homiletically, as it is written...
Who? If you say that it is the tanna who taught the conversation between the ministering angels and God, it is difficult, as weren’t there also Moses and Aaron? Rather, it must be Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar. Learn from it that there is death without sin and there is suffering without iniquity, and this is a conclusive refutation of Rav Ami. Indeed, it is a conclusive refutation.