Why Couldn't They Enter the Land? - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

let's turn to chapter 20 verse one actually verses one through three then came the people of israel the whole congregation into the desert of zine in the first month and the people of bowdoin kadesh and miriam died there and was buried there and there's no water for the congregation and they gathered themselves together against moses and against aaron and the people quarreled with moses and spoke saying would god that we had died when our brothers died before the lord meaning they they just they wished that they were dead that they died before so i i you know i don't know if you had the same thought when reading this but i was like it's just such an impulsive like a natural thought oh no not again are you complaining again you're complaining again you know when are they going to learn that that's just not a good idea but whenever i have that thought i try to work on reserving judgment right they were just in such a different reality that it's impossible to understand plus if you've ever really felt true thirst like real thirst like you're dying thirst they were dying that's what it was and by the way we learned from the immediate lack of water following miriam's death that it was in her merit that the nation had the miraculous well of water all of these years after all that was her name right miriam maryam it means bitter waters and by the way we actually don't see hashem enraged this time with their complaints right there were there were differences between these complaints and and past was that they weren't complaining about luxuries like meter quail right water is like just a need uh and and they weren't saying that they wanted to go back to egypt they were simply saying that they could have taken a a better route that had water at least that's what the sages say was the gist of their complaint and it's understandable and so it goes straight into the into the next verse so hashem tells uh moshe numbers 20 verse 8 take the rod and gather the assembly together you and aaron your brother and speak to the rock before their eyes and it shall give forth his water and you shall bring forth to them water out of the rock so you shall give the congregation and their beasts drink so this is an important verse because first of all it's a little bit confusing right if he has to speak to the rock this time why does it say take the rod as the very first verse of the portion indicates and i actually i'm asking that question and i actually don't really know the answer i don't know maybe someone if you can find it i'll look for it more but that's a good question why did it say take the rod and then he used the rod to strike the rock and he's punished for that nonetheless it's it's it's very clear hashem wanted moshe to speak to the rock and by the way the sages teach that it says ha the rock to teach that this rock was the rock that provided water for hagar to sustain her right when her and yishmael were in the desert it's the very same rock moshe hit 40 years before when he was told to hit the rock and the same rock from which water had been flowing like a like like a well throughout their desert journey until the moment miriam died and all moshe had to do was talk to it but what happens let's look numbers 20 verses 9 through 12. let's look inside and moshe took the rod from before the lord as he commanded him and moshe and arun gathered the congregation together before the rock and he said to them now he said to them hear now you rebels must we fetch you water out of this rock and moses lifted up his hand and with his rod he struck the rock twice and the water came out abundantly and the congregation drank and their beast also and the lord spoke to moshe and aron because you did not believe me to sanctify me in the eyes of the people of israel therefore you shall not bring this congregation into the land which i have given them okay so now hidden within these verses is the reason that motion arrow cannot enter the land of israel right and there are volumes written about these verses that are just trying to make sense of it all and uh and we don't have the time to even scratch the surface on this but let's just talk for a moment right with your permission i'd like to share just a couple that speak to me and i know we're running out of time here but within verse 10 there are two potential insights right now let's read inside again right and moses aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock and he said to them here now you rebels must we fetch you water out of this rock so the first insight that was shared with me many years ago by a man named eli yosef and it touched me so deeply that i've carried it in my heart ever since and he said the reason moshe didn't enter the land was because he called the nation rebels but it seemed like there were they were definitely being there's truth to that no there it seems like sort of an accurate description maybe not at this moment but overall so anyway so so friday this past friday leading up to shabbat dwash was all over baby sheila and despite our warnings to calm down she got carried away and she gave him a little hit on the head and he started to cry now did i pick her up and say bad girl you're a bad girl never i would even just saying those words hurts my heart right now even just talking about dimash makes me want to like just run upstairs and get her and show her to you because i miss her so much but we're not going to talk about this isn't about we're not going to talk about vash right now but if anything i said to her something like it's a bad thing to hit shiloh and you're such a sweet good girl that's not what good girls do and you're a good girl right but for that moment moshe rabbenu in his anger which by the way is the reason maimonides gives as to why he was not able to enter the land because he got angry which severely compromised his judgment and his thinking as it does to all of us anyways in his anger he was confused and he confused the behavior of the nation with their essence he didn't say they were acting rebellious he said they were rebels now after what he'd been through with them you know i i could understand i don't think any of us would have made it that long without bursting out and rage and calling them rep you know maybe some of you would would have i really think so but i'm pretty sure that i wouldn't but nonetheless the righteous are judged on an entirely different level than we are and so for moses this was a grievous sin because the righteous have such great responsibility and he is building their self-identity and he needs to always remember israel the nation of israel are all righteous even though it doesn't seem like that to the naked eye any another reason given can be found in the latter part of the verse right moshe said right meaning shall we bring forth water from this rock shall we bring forth water from this rock he said shall we not shall hashem and so he missed a critical opportunity to sanctify god's name by giving him credit and instead he said we right implying him in our own and it's obvious he didn't mean that but that's what he said right he said we and he didn't say hashem but the reason that actually most speaks to me i can't find a source for but i refuse to believe that this hasn't been discussed and that it's my original idea i don't think so but either way the thought that i had that just puts my heart at peace about this is uh is about the nature of hitting versus speaking so hitting the rock seems like i know i'm not describing this perfectly i need to chew on it more but it seems like ritual you know what i mean by that like it reminds me of like the mixture of the red heifer of the ingredients of a sacrifice it has that same feeling of instructions to pacify a deity with a series of ingredients or actions which we really don't understand but when we speak right when we speak it's from our hearts right if moshe had spoken to the rock as commanded it would have been a very important sanctification of god's name and that it shows that hashem listens to our speech it demonstrates that he's attentive to our words which is uh what the land of israel is all about right this is the land of prayer and yes we are immersed here in in this worldly things in agriculture and government and wars and army but ultimately great success or abject failure comes down to prayer and this was the time for the nation to learn that and the moshe didn't demonstrate to them that israel is the land of prayer also demonstrated that perhaps moshe wasn't ready to really enter the land i could be wrong about that i don't know but but at the very least you know the spirit of this idea really really spoke to me i don't know does it make sense to you guys