To Whom Do We Give the Credit?
Our parashah this week is Chukkat, which is an ordinance given by GOD, but does not have a logical explanation. The Ten Commandments are divided into three parts: the first three, called the Mitzvot, deal directly with our relationship with the Creator and us. The second two – the fourth and fifth commandments – are called “Chukkim” – to keep the Shabbat and honour our father and mother, which result in personal blessings to ourselves. The last five, Mishpatim, describe the relationship with our neighbours. Rabbi Yeshua summed these up with: “Love the LORD your GOD with all your heart, soul and resources and love your neighbour as yourself.” The people had been at Mt Sinai; now suddenly, chapter 20 makes a 38-year leap ahead to the border of the Promised Land. It is no longer addressing that first generation who had all died in the desert; now it’s to their children. Chukkat will speak of the death of Miriam and Aaron, and Moses would soon die without entering the land.
The Torah is a book of principles, not a book of religion. It is a Way of Life. It is vital that we find these principles so that we can apply them to our lives. In Parashat Yitro, I mentioned that the Ten Commandments are the foundation and that everything else in the Torah describes their application to our lives. For the Creator, there is no past, present or future; He is Eternel. We are the ones hooked to time, stuck within the paradigms that have been placed in our heads by others. We have learned from many religions that each one is the only one that holds the truth.
Biblical Judaism teaches that there is only one God, and we are all His creation. He doesn’t differentiate people by value rather by role; what each has been chosen to do. Israel was chosen to be Ohr La Goyim, Light to the Nations. People are not the light themselves…the Torah is the Light. It was given to Israel to live by its example so that all the world would be attracted to it. Instead, over the years, we began hiding it from the world. This was the scenario in Rome when Messiah Yeshua arrived on the scene to change that. In his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:15, he said, “No one lights a lamp to put it under a basket; they put it on a menorah where it shines for everyone in the house”. He was referring to the light of Torah. How do we show that light? By being a Shomer Torah, living Torah. This doesn’t mean that we need to act religious with long peyotim, long tallit, wearing a kippah or dressing in a uniform. Showing the Presence of the Creator is not with the outer uniform, but what emanates from within. It is by our behaviour that when people look at us, they can say, “This is a true man or woman of GOD.” We need to get rid of the many religious limitations that drive us to the point of becoming a recluse, a prisoner of people instead of enjoying the freedom He gave to us through His gift of Free Will.
Back to our Parashah…Now, 38 years later, the people are at the border of the Promised Land; they see that there are many tribes living there. Many are their relatives –Ammon, Moab, Edom, who would not let them pass through, forcing them to go far out of their way. Today, these same people are more than cousins; they are our half brothers, yet they have become our enemies – the Arabs, the Muslims who want to see our people destroyed. The root of this hatred stems from these stories in the Torah. Its root is a spiritual one.
Here, Moshe will face losing his temper at the waters of Meribah, resulting in his not being able to enter the Promised Land. His role of leadership would be passed on to Joshua, who would lead the people to conquer the land. Why do you think that the Creator was so hard on Moses; was it for simply losing his temper? Hadn’t he served the Creator for the past forty years in an exemplary way? Our sages all have their opinion – lack of faith, disobedience, etc., but the Scriptures usually explain themselves. If we read the passage in Numbers 20: 7-18 carefully, it states: “Take the rod and call the community together, you and your brother, Aaron. Then, in full view of them, order this rock to release its water. You will release water from the rock for them and provide drink for the community and their livestock. Moses took up the rod from before the LORD as he had directed him. Moses and Aaron then called the assembly together in front of the rock. He then said to them,’ Listen now you rebels, shall we make water gush from this rock for you?” Moses then raised his hand and struck the rock twice with the branch; water gushed out in abundance, and the community and their livestock drank.”
Some of our sages say that they didn’t have water because Miriam died, and the water followed her wherever they travelled. They say this because the name Miriam contains the word mayim, water. Others say that it was the rock that followed them wherever they went, and others say that it was a pool of water that followed them. They also say that because Moses called them rebels, not entering the Promised Land was his punishment, because the people were so holy! Notice that Moses and Aaron both played an important role, not just Moses. However, to whom was the glory given? How did the people of Israel view Moses and Aaron? Today, we see many religions that attribute the power to mediators who then take the credit instead of giving the honour and glory to the Creator. Let’s be careful when we force interpretations into the simple message that GOD is teaching us.
In Chapter 22, “Setting out from Kadesh, the Israelites arrived in a body at Mount Hor. At Mount Hor, on the boundary of the land of Edom, יהוה said to Moses and Aaron, “Let Aaron be gathered to his kin: he is not to enter the land that I have assigned to the Israelite people, because you both disobeyed My command about the Waters of Meribah. Take Aaron and his son Eleazar and bring them up on Mount Hor. Strip Aaron of his vestments and put them on his son Eleazar. There Aaron shall be gathered unto the dead.” Death means you have passed from one side to the other…it is not final.
In Deut. 1:34, we read how Moses would blame the people for his behaviour. “The LORD heard what you were saying and in his anger, swore this oath, not one of these people, this perverse generation, will see the fine country I swore to give your ancestors, except Caleb son of Yefunneh. He will see it. To him and to his children I shall give the land he has set foot on, for he has been perfectly obedient to the LORD. He was angry with me, too, because of you. “You will not go in either,” he said.” Your assistant, Joshua ben Nun, will be the one to enter. Encourage him since he is going to bring Israel to possess the land. Moreover, your little ones who you said would be carried off, your children who do not yet know good from bad, they shall enter it; to them will I give it and they shall possess it.”
This is what I call passing the buck. Although Moses was a great leader, this shows us that he was a real man, not perfect. There is no perfection in humanity; rather, we are given opportunities daily to grow and improve. If we were perfect, we would not need the Creator.
Deut 3: 23-24 says, “I pleaded with יהוה at that time, saying, O Lord יהוה, You who let Your servant see the first works of Your greatness and Your mighty hand, You whose powerful deeds no god in heaven or on earth can equal! Let me, I pray, cross over and see the good land on the other side of the Jordan, that good hill country, and the Lebanon.” But יהוה was wrathful with me because of you and would not listen to me. יהוה said to me, “Enough! Never speak to Me of this matter again! Go up to the summit of Pisgah and gaze about, to the west, the north, the south, and the east. Look at it well, for you shall not go across yonder Jordan.
At the end of Deut. 32: 48-52, “That very day, יהוה spoke to Moses: Ascend these heights of Abarim to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab facing Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving the Israelites as their holding. You shall die on the mountain that you are about to ascend, and shall be gathered to your kin, as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his kin; for you both broke faith with Me among the Israelite people, at the waters of Meribath-kadesh in the wilderness of Zin, by failing to uphold My sanctity among the Israelite people. You may view the land from a distance, but you shall not enter it—the land that I am giving to the Israelite people.
I have given you enough pieces of the puzzle for you to understand this: The great failure of Moses was that when he lost his temper, he did not give the honour and glory to the Creator. In so doing, Moses gave these people, who were already ambivalent about the God of Israel, the impression that he was the one who held the power. In that moment, he took the glory of God for himself. We need to remember that because it’s so easy to do!
Another reason, our sages tell us, is that if Moses had indeed crossed over with the people, they most probably would have elevated him to the position of a god. It is a very natural thing for people to take a man and elevate him to a God-like status. He wouldn’t only have been a hero, but a god who could produce water with his own hands… a miracle worker. This idea is prevalent in many religions, leading us to the story of the bronze serpent. It took place in Arad, a Southern village near the Dead Sea, which had copper (bronze) mines. The locals would craft bronze amulets to ward off fiery serpents, “seraph nachash”. The Creator allowed these serpents to bite the people as punishment for their constant complaining (Num. 21:6). They admitted that they had spoken against the LORD and Moses, and asked him to intercede for them. The Creator told Moses to make an amulet of a bronze serpent, raise it as a standard, and anyone who was bitten could look up at it and be healed. We see that emblem in the medical community. The Creator was using the bronze amulet to refocus the attention of the people on Him instead of the gods they had left behind. He was slowly removing pagan hocus pocus by demonstrating to the Israelites that He was the One with the power.
In 2 Kings 18:1-4, we read: 1 “In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz became king of Judah. He was twenty-five years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah, daughter of Zechariah. He did what the LORD regards as right, just as his ancestor David had done. He abolished the high places, broke the pillars, cut down the sacred poles and smashed the bronze serpent – Nechushtan נחושתן , which Moses had made; for up to that time the Israelites had offered sacrifices to it.”
Nehushtan is a play on words derived from bronze (nechoshet נחושת) and serpent (nachash נחש ).
It is easy to see how Israel had fallen into idolatry. The Deutero-canonical book called the “Wisdom of Solomon” is a Jewish book that did not make it into the Tanach, under the auspices of Rabbi Jonathan ben Zakkai. In chapter 16: 5 – 7, it is written: 5 “Even when the fearful rage of wild animals overtook them and they were perishing from the bites of writhing snakes, your retribution did not continue to the end. 6 Affliction struck them briefly, by way of warning, and they had a saving token to remind them of the commandment of your Torah 7 for whoever turned to it (the snake) was saved, not by what he looked at, but by you, Adonai, the Saviour of all.”
The principle here is that it is the Creator who saves, not an amulet, not a snake and not a human being. We must never give credit to anyone or anything else for what only GOD can do. Moses was not the miracle worker; it was the work of the Almighty, and although it was never Moses’ intention, nevertheless, they would have seen him as a god.
It is my desire that we use these stories of real people to keep growing by applying the principles that GOD gave us to our lives. Moses never intended to take away the honour from GOD for His miracle, but religions, including humanism, have made man into god, but the Torah is clear that there is only one Creator for mankind and there is no substitute for Him. He alone is Adonai Tzevaot, the LORD of the Armies.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Netanel ben Yochanan
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