Hi everyone. I was laying in bed one night recently when this came to me. It wasn't as fleshed out when I got up to get it all down on paper, but as I wrote it all just seemed to come to me. A drash is an exegetical, homiletical, or allegorical read of Torah. There are also classical midrashic collections, as well as midrash that appears in the Talmud (an example of classical midrash is the story about Abraham in his father's shop with the idols.) My drash on Moses and the waters of meribah follows.
What was the sin of Moses that kept him from entering the Holy Land? At Kadesh, at the waters of Meribah, instead of speaking to the rock and giving credit to God, he became consumed with his own anger and frustration and hit the rock, giving the appearance that it was his own power that brought the water forth. He disobeyed God by giving into his base impulses. But this is not what kept him out of Israel. After hitting the rock, he still could have entered the Holy Land. But he never went back to the people and made good on his impulsive reaction. God says to Moses and Aaron (Bamidbar 20:12) ""Since you did not have faith in Me to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly to the Land which I have given them." Moses never sanctifies God through the tikkun of seeking forgiveness and making good on his past actions. Had he done that work of repair, he still would have sanctified God. Because of this, although he did begin the journey out of Mitzrayim, out of the place of his constricted consciousness, he never made it beyond the wilderness. He got stuck in a transitional state where he still felt he had to create armies within himself to fight down the armies of the yetzer hara. But as his armies became stronger, the armies of the yetzer hara became stronger, and so he was not at peace. A person who was successful in making peace and putting his base drives to work for him was Jacob who was finally able to embrace Esau and see even within Esau the pervasive holiness of the Blessed Holy One. He realizes he was only demonizing a vital part of himself that, by denying, he had simply let get out of hand. Moses finally learns this difficult lesson when he is confronted with his own death. There he realizes that the internal struggle became a war of his own creating. He realizes that he doesn't have to look at other people, see their examples of behavior, and react to them. He can place himself out of love and trust into the supportive hands of God, into a higher calling that requires him to go above and beyond the examples and most basic behavioral requirements of society. Every time we look back and see the progress that we've made in our wandering journey to our promised land we realize that in the most subtlest, most sublime, most holy of ways, a piece of the slave we'd carried with us from our narrowness has died off. Through our trust in God we allow God to become the Mayyim Chayyim to wash away the hurt that we had been just chapters earlier in our lives carrying on into our actions with our fellow people.
Why was Aaron included in this punishment? He sees Moses' actions, his brother with whom he is very close, and he never says to him: "Moses, the way you're acting is wrong. It's not healthy. It's not good for you or for the people around you." Instead he was the mouthpiece, the enabler of his closest friend's external manifestation of internal struggling.
For Moses it started as righteous anger against one man who abused his fellow. Over time it hardened until the righteousness of his anger faded away and he could only shout at the world out of self-pity.
Why does the water still come from the rock? Moses was usually good to the Israelites. Even when they doubt and challenge him he continues the task that God gave him, in touch with his greater purpose in the world. Acting out of anger was out of character. It was embracing something that had been building up inside of him. When someone acts out of character it surprises us whether it is a positive exception or a negative one. When it is negative we begin to ask questions, especially when it is a person we usually look to for guidance and strength or who is a pillar of the community. 'Who does he think he is?' 'Why is he acting that way?' 'Is there something wrong with him?' 'Could it have been me?' 'Did I play a role in bringing out all of that hostility?' It took them a long time to finally reach redemption. But eventually, as with Moses, the part of them that was still constricted and enslaved died off. Their self-examination and inquiry brought them closer to God. And the waters of Meribah, the place of so much quarreling, is where the questioning began. It was the water that would allow the seeds of redemption to sprout and someday to become fully realized trees of life. Out of a world of chaos comes a world of order.
Thoughts? Comments? Feelings? Reactions?
Dauer
What was the sin of Moses that kept him from entering the Holy Land? At Kadesh, at the waters of Meribah, instead of speaking to the rock and giving credit to God, he became consumed with his own anger and frustration and hit the rock, giving the appearance that it was his own power that brought the water forth. He disobeyed God by giving into his base impulses. But this is not what kept him out of Israel. After hitting the rock, he still could have entered the Holy Land. But he never went back to the people and made good on his impulsive reaction. God says to Moses and Aaron (Bamidbar 20:12) ""Since you did not have faith in Me to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly to the Land which I have given them." Moses never sanctifies God through the tikkun of seeking forgiveness and making good on his past actions. Had he done that work of repair, he still would have sanctified God. Because of this, although he did begin the journey out of Mitzrayim, out of the place of his constricted consciousness, he never made it beyond the wilderness. He got stuck in a transitional state where he still felt he had to create armies within himself to fight down the armies of the yetzer hara. But as his armies became stronger, the armies of the yetzer hara became stronger, and so he was not at peace. A person who was successful in making peace and putting his base drives to work for him was Jacob who was finally able to embrace Esau and see even within Esau the pervasive holiness of the Blessed Holy One. He realizes he was only demonizing a vital part of himself that, by denying, he had simply let get out of hand. Moses finally learns this difficult lesson when he is confronted with his own death. There he realizes that the internal struggle became a war of his own creating. He realizes that he doesn't have to look at other people, see their examples of behavior, and react to them. He can place himself out of love and trust into the supportive hands of God, into a higher calling that requires him to go above and beyond the examples and most basic behavioral requirements of society. Every time we look back and see the progress that we've made in our wandering journey to our promised land we realize that in the most subtlest, most sublime, most holy of ways, a piece of the slave we'd carried with us from our narrowness has died off. Through our trust in God we allow God to become the Mayyim Chayyim to wash away the hurt that we had been just chapters earlier in our lives carrying on into our actions with our fellow people.
Why was Aaron included in this punishment? He sees Moses' actions, his brother with whom he is very close, and he never says to him: "Moses, the way you're acting is wrong. It's not healthy. It's not good for you or for the people around you." Instead he was the mouthpiece, the enabler of his closest friend's external manifestation of internal struggling.
For Moses it started as righteous anger against one man who abused his fellow. Over time it hardened until the righteousness of his anger faded away and he could only shout at the world out of self-pity.
Why does the water still come from the rock? Moses was usually good to the Israelites. Even when they doubt and challenge him he continues the task that God gave him, in touch with his greater purpose in the world. Acting out of anger was out of character. It was embracing something that had been building up inside of him. When someone acts out of character it surprises us whether it is a positive exception or a negative one. When it is negative we begin to ask questions, especially when it is a person we usually look to for guidance and strength or who is a pillar of the community. 'Who does he think he is?' 'Why is he acting that way?' 'Is there something wrong with him?' 'Could it have been me?' 'Did I play a role in bringing out all of that hostility?' It took them a long time to finally reach redemption. But eventually, as with Moses, the part of them that was still constricted and enslaved died off. Their self-examination and inquiry brought them closer to God. And the waters of Meribah, the place of so much quarreling, is where the questioning began. It was the water that would allow the seeds of redemption to sprout and someday to become fully realized trees of life. Out of a world of chaos comes a world of order.
Thoughts? Comments? Feelings? Reactions?
Dauer
(Glad you are still around, pohaikawahine--I have just recently figured out how you probably pronounce your name. That's so lovely. I'm reading and meditating....