This sheet on Numbers 20 was written by Yocheved Mintz for 929 and can also be found here
Numbers 20 begins with the entire community of Israelites arriving at the first New Moon in the Wilderness of Zin, and Miriam died and was buried there. Immediately comes the dire pronouncement that “Now there was no water for the community” (20:2). The Midrash makes the connection between Miriam and water throughout her life, from watching over Moses when he was placed in a reed basket on the Nile, to a miraculous well that seemed to spring up in the Israelite encampment, attributed to Miriam’s piety. Reb Mimi Feigelson points out that the Talmud teaches: “There were three gifts that sustained us in the desert: The manna in Moses’ merit, the clouds of glory, in Aaron’s merit, and the well, in Miriam’s merit.”
The chapter goes on to describe how the people, discouraged and thirsty, rebel, once again. What follows is an outburst from Moses that has lasting consequences. Instead of following God’s command to take his rod, assemble the community, and speak to the rock, for it to give forth its water, Moses takes the rod, assembles the community, but then blurts out: “Listen, you rebels, from out of this rock shall we bring you water?!” And then he strikes the rock twice with his rod. The resulting water is, indeed, life-saving, but because Moses disobeys God, he is condemned to die in the wilderness.
Over the years, many people have wondered why Moses had such an outburst and have felt that his punishment was too harsh a decree for someone as loyal as he. Aaron, a seeming bystander, is also punished. Citing verse 10, “Out of this rock, shall we bring you water,” Ramban claims that Moses seems to presenting himself and Aaron as the source of the miracle. Aaron’s part in this is that he does not stop Moses after the first time Moses strikes the rock.
Rambam surmises that the infraction was Moses’ inability to hold his temper, calling them “rebels” and striking the rock twice. His gift of prophecy, his leadership skill, seems to have eluded him.
I would posit that one cannot dismiss the connection between Miriam’s death and the subsequent actions of Moses and Aaron. Although the text does not mention it, imagine how Moses (and Aaron) felt with the death of their sister. How instrumental had she been in the leadership of the people, from the beginning! How dear had she been to Moses! We know that our Biblical heroes were human, and it would have been only human for Moses to be experiencing grief and all its emotional stages.
God must have recognized this as well, and also recognized that with the passing of Miriam, referred to by the Piasetzna Rabbi as a great tzadeket/righteous woman, Moses’s emotional reaction indicated that it was time for the leadership to pass on to the next generation.
The three of them, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, had been the right leaders for the Exodus from Egypt, for the harrowing journey through the wilderness, for the world-changing experience at Sinai, but now it was time for others to lead the new nation into the Promised Land.
The chapter goes on to describe how the people, discouraged and thirsty, rebel, once again. What follows is an outburst from Moses that has lasting consequences. Instead of following God’s command to take his rod, assemble the community, and speak to the rock, for it to give forth its water, Moses takes the rod, assembles the community, but then blurts out: “Listen, you rebels, from out of this rock shall we bring you water?!” And then he strikes the rock twice with his rod. The resulting water is, indeed, life-saving, but because Moses disobeys God, he is condemned to die in the wilderness.
Over the years, many people have wondered why Moses had such an outburst and have felt that his punishment was too harsh a decree for someone as loyal as he. Aaron, a seeming bystander, is also punished. Citing verse 10, “Out of this rock, shall we bring you water,” Ramban claims that Moses seems to presenting himself and Aaron as the source of the miracle. Aaron’s part in this is that he does not stop Moses after the first time Moses strikes the rock.
Rambam surmises that the infraction was Moses’ inability to hold his temper, calling them “rebels” and striking the rock twice. His gift of prophecy, his leadership skill, seems to have eluded him.
I would posit that one cannot dismiss the connection between Miriam’s death and the subsequent actions of Moses and Aaron. Although the text does not mention it, imagine how Moses (and Aaron) felt with the death of their sister. How instrumental had she been in the leadership of the people, from the beginning! How dear had she been to Moses! We know that our Biblical heroes were human, and it would have been only human for Moses to be experiencing grief and all its emotional stages.
God must have recognized this as well, and also recognized that with the passing of Miriam, referred to by the Piasetzna Rabbi as a great tzadeket/righteous woman, Moses’s emotional reaction indicated that it was time for the leadership to pass on to the next generation.
The three of them, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, had been the right leaders for the Exodus from Egypt, for the harrowing journey through the wilderness, for the world-changing experience at Sinai, but now it was time for others to lead the new nation into the Promised Land.
Rabbi Yocheved Mintz is the Rabbi Emerita/Senior Educator of Congregation P’nai Tikvah, Las Vegas, Nevada.
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