Exodus 17

AND THE PEOPLE CRIED…THEY ARE ALMOST READY TO STONE ME. Scripture speaks metaphorically. Its meaning is: they have striven with me and they rage against me. If they had the power they would stone me.

עוד מעט YET A LITTLE means, if I wait but a little more they will stone me.

AND THE PEOPLE CRIED…THEY ARE ALMOST READY TO STONE ME. Scripture speaks metaphorically. Its meaning is: they have striven with me and they rage against me. If they had the power they would stone me.

עוד מעט וסקלוני, “if this continues a little longer they are liable to stone me.” Moses did not mean this literally. What he meant was that the people were so embittered that if they had been able to, they would have stoned him.

Moses cried out to the Lord, saying: What shall I do for this people? A moment more and they will stone me. Moses was afraid that the complaints would increase in intensity until they led to a riot.

It appears that G'd's purpose in subjecting the people to this test was to train them to raise their eyes heavenwards, to pray and to implore G'd in times of need because this is an important principle in matters of faith and attempts to perfect one's personality. You will note that G'd applied this same psychology when He allocated manna to the Israelites on a daily basis instead of giving them a weekly or monthly supply at a time. He also denied them this miraculous bread until they had pleaded with Him for sustenance. As soon as the people pleaded with G'd, He responded positively. In our paragraph we find that the Israelites contented themselves with complaining to Moses; They did not consider that their fate was subject to G'd's personal providence. As a result their situation grew steadily worse so that the Torah describes their thirst as overpowering. The Torah mentions that G'd tested them because they had not seen fit to request help from Him. When they asked if G'd were indeed in their midst or not, they demonstrated that they were not prepared to acknowledge that G'd guided their affairs by special providence. The only way G'd could prove that He was indeed in their midst was to allow the situation to become so critical that the people would learn to turn to Him as a result of the intensity of their thirst. Moses realised all this; this is why he refrained from praying to G'd sooner. When he saw that the situation had become intolerable, he asked G'd: "what shall I do for this people?" He meant "how can I deflect the people's complaint from me personally and have the people turn to You?" Clearly, Moses realised that the solution to the problem did not depend merely on prayer otherwise he would have prayed just as he had done when he faced the Sea of Reeds. He argued further that עוד מעט, if G'd were to allow the situation to deteriorate still further, the natural result of the people's frustration would be that they would stone him. It could well be that eventually and in desperation, the people would finally turn to G'd in prayer but by that time they would have killed him as a leader who had failed them.

It was this latter argument which G'd accepted; I have been troubled by the thought that a people who had witnessed so many miracles in Egypt, at the sea, and in the desert did not turn in prayer to the G'd who had performed all these miracles. After all, these people were aware of the efficacy of prayer having seen how G'd sent them their redeemer immediately after they had appealed to G'd in Exodus 2,23. G'd had told Moses specifically that He sent him in response to the people's groaning. Perhaps the people thought that as long as G'd was in their midst there was no need for prayer. What would have been the point of G'd bringing them into the desert if He did not intend to supply their needs? If G'd did not intend to supply their needs they would be lost anyways, so what good would prayer do? They concluded therefore that the only reason they had no water was because G'd was not in their midst.

עבור לפני העם, "pass before the people, etc." Perhaps G'd was aware that the thirst amongst the people was very great and that they would be in danger of their lives very shortly. This is why He told Moses to pass in front of them on a path which suggested to them that he went to find water in order to quench the fire of their thirst. He was not to take a route unknown to the people and not visible to them. He was also to take along the elders to confirm the people's impression that Moses was going in search of water and not to isolate himself in prayer.

אשר הכית בו את היאור, "with which you have struck the river Nile." This in itself would be a remarkable miracle seeing that the very staff which had made the water of the Nile fetid, undrinkable, and turned it into blood, would now produce water for the Israelites to drink. This would also deflate the irreligious heretics who denied the fact that Moses' staff possessed miraculous powers.

הנני עומד לפניך, "I will be standing there before you, etc." The word לפניך refers to the place Moses was standing on when G'd spoke to him, whereas the word שם immediately afterwards refers to the rock. G'd emphasised that the whole earth is filled with His glory on a permanent basis and that He does not have to change location. However, there are sites where His presence is more manifest than in others. Alternatively, the degree in which G'd manifests Himself in certain locations is determined by the preparation that location has undergone in order to be a site fit for G'd to reveal Himself.

ויבא עמלק וילחם עם ישראל, Amalek came and fought with Israel, etc. G'd punished the people for having neglected Torah which is compared to both fire and water (compare Jeremiah 23,29: "Behold My word is like fire"). The fiery sword and the thirst for water were the punishment which fitted the crime.

AND THE ETERNAL SAID UNTO MOSES: PASS ON BEFORE THE PEOPLE. This is similar in usage to the following expressions: he [Joseph] caused them to pass into cities; and I will make thee to pass with thine enemies into a land which thou knowest not. Thus the meaning thereof here is: “go away from them to another place,” [as will be explained further]. Perhaps this is similar to the expressions: and he [Ahimaaz] overran the Cushite; and he [Jacob] himself passed over before them, meaning that he [Jacob] went in the forefront of them.The purport of this verse is that the people were in Rephidim, and the rock from which the waters were to come was in Horeb, this being Mount Sinai, according to the opinion of the former ones, or in my opinion, some city near the mountain, as I will yet explain. Moses therefore had to go first before the people, to pass on from Rephidim to Horeb — a distance of one more parsah [a Persian mile] or more — from the camp before them. It was for this reason that G-d said to him, Pass on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel… and go. That is to say, “Go until you will see Me stand before you upon the rock in Horeb.” Now Moses hit the rock, and water came out of it. Scripture however does not relate that the congregation and their cattle drank, as it does in the second incident [at the waters of Meribah], for it is self-understood that they did so. It is clear that the people did not go to Horeb to drink, since they did not arrive in front of Mount Sinai until afterwards in the third month. Instead, they sent their young men and their cattle there to draw water and bring it to them, as is customary in camps.It appears likely to me that the waters — cold flowing waters — came out from the rock in Horeb and flowed to Rephidim, and there the people drank them. This is Scripture’s intent in saying, He brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers, and it is further written, He opened the rock, and waters gushed out; they ran, a river in the dry places. The verse stating, Behold, He smote the rock, that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed, also applies to the rock in Horeb, in line with the plain meaning of Scripture. The second rock in Kadesh, [instead of gushing forth water], became cleft with a sort of spring welling forth waters, and therefore Scripture states, That is ‘the well’ whereof the Eternal said unto Moses, etc., and Israel said in the Song, ‘The well,’ which the princes digged, for it was like a well that was dug. It is for this reason that Scripture says there, and the congregation drank, and their cattle, which means that there they drank from it at that place immediately, but here [in Horeb], overflowing rivers came from it and they drank of it in their homes at their will. Now although according to the tradition of our Rabbis, it was all Miriam’s Well, it is possible that on the first occasion [in Horeb] and during all their forty years’ wandering, the waters came gushing out from the rock like overflowing rivers. The second time, [in Kadesh], as a punishment for that which took place there, it became [only] like a dug well that was full of fresh water [not a gushing spring].

MASSAH AND MERIBAH. Because of the two reasons noted. It is the style of the Hebrew language to begin its comments with the second of two items when two particulars are listed, as the second item is at hand. Compare, And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau (Josh. 24:4), which is followed by and I gave unto Esau (Ibid.). Scripture similarly first mentions Massah and then Meribah and turns to explain that the name of the place was called Meribah because of the striving of the children of Israel with Moses. It then explains that the place was called Massah because they tried the Lord. Now “trial” refers to Israel’s asking, Is the Lord among us to provide for all of our needs? This second party angered God more than the first. Scripture therefore says, Ye shall not try the Lord your God, as ye tried Him in Massah (Deut. 6:16).

היש ה' בקרבנו אם אין, “if the Lord is in our midst or not?” Actually instead of the word אם אין, “if nothing,” we would have expected the expression אם לא, “if not?” This is the way the Torah expresses such alternatives in 16,4 for instance, where G’d had explained that the daily manna ration was designed to test whether the Israelites had faith in Him “or not.” The Torah was concerned to allude to the attribute אין, which is also known as יראה, an attribute second to which is the one called יש, or in more familiar terms חכמה (compare commentary on 16,24). This is the reason you find the name ה' immediately next to the word יש to show you how closely these two attributes are associated with one another. Yaakov had first realized this after his dream with the ladder when he awoke and said אכן יש ה' במקום הזה, (Genesis 28,16). This is the attribute Solomon had in mind when he said in Proverbs 8,21 להנחיל אוהבי יש “and to let those who love Me inherit יש.” You have learned already that the two emanations (attributes) חכמה and יראה cannot really be separated from one another. The teachers of the Mishnah have already alluded to this when they said (Avot 3,17) “where there is no יראה there can also not be any חכמה, and where there is no חכמה, there cannot be any יראה. The two attributes are inseparably intertwined with one another. Israel’s sin at Refidim was that they tried to separate חכמה and יראה. This is a sin of a heretical nature. This is why they were punished immediately by the attack of Amalek who represents heresy of the worst kind.

היש ה' בקרבנו אם אין, “if the Lord is in our midst or not?” Actually instead of the word אם אין, “if nothing,” we would have expected the expression אם לא, “if not?” This is the way the Torah expresses such alternatives in 16,4 for instance, where G’d had explained that the daily manna ration was designed to test whether the Israelites had faith in Him “or not.” The Torah was concerned to allude to the attribute אין, which is also known as יראה, an attribute second to which is the one called יש, or in more familiar terms חכמה (compare commentary on 16,24). This is the reason you find the name ה' immediately next to the word יש to show you how closely these two attributes are associated with one another. Yaakov had first realized this after his dream with the ladder when he awoke and said אכן יש ה' במקום הזה, (Genesis 28,16). This is the attribute Solomon had in mind when he said in Proverbs 8,21 להנחיל אוהבי יש “and to let those who love Me inherit יש.” You have learned already that the two emanations (attributes) חכמה and יראה cannot really be separated from one another. The teachers of the Mishnah have already alluded to this when they said (Avot 3,17) “where there is no יראה there can also not be any חכמה, and where there is no חכמה, there cannot be any יראה. The two attributes are inseparably intertwined with one another. Israel’s sin at Refidim was that they tried to separate חכמה and יראה. This is a sin of a heretical nature. This is why they were punished immediately by the attack of Amalek who represents heresy of the worst kind.

Pursuant to this, he called the place Masa, trial, and Meriva, quarrel , due to the quarrel of the children of Israel, and due to their trying of the Lord, saying: Is the Lord among us, or not? At first, the Israelites expressed doubts as to whether God cared for them, as He sent them to a place without water. These doubts then evolved into a quarrel with Moses.

Behold, I am standing before you there upon the rock at Horev, Mount Sinai; you will feel My presence there; and you shall strike the rock, and when you do so water will emerge from it, and the people will drink. Moses did so before the eyes of the elders of Israel. The elders saw with their own eyes the water flow from the rock as Moses struck it.

The Lord said to Moses: Pass before the people ceremoniously, and take with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. This procession of Moses with his staff and the elders was meant to remind everyone that he was acting as the messenger of God.

Moses cried out to the Lord, saying: What shall I do for this people? A moment more and they will stone me. Moses was afraid that the complaints would increase in intensity until they led to a riot.

They remained there, and the request turned into a complaint. The people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses and said: Why did you bring us up from Egypt, to kill me and my children and my livestock with thirst? Their language was becoming belligerent and confrontational.