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Portion Vaetchanon continues the story of Moses who is unable to enter the Land of Israel. In the English translation of this portion, it almost seems as though Moses blames the Children of Israel for his exclusion from the Land. However, when read in Hebrew, it could be understood that Moses was excluded from the Land for the sake of the Children of Israel. How can that be? And what does this portion have to do with the bones of Joseph? It’s time to sit back and enjoy another Torah teaching from Shmuel. Shabbat Shalom!
I doubt this could be the reason. What I believe is, Moses didn’t obey God when God asked him to ask the rock for water. Instead, Moses struck the rock with his shaft.
Wrong. Moses was rejected from going into the land because he gave himself and Aaron the credit for the miracle of water from splitting the rock. He rightly should have give that credit to El Shaddai, [Jehovah, Yahweh, Yahuwah]. So the angel banished him from entering.
Num 20:10 and Moses and Aaron summoned the assembly to the presence of the rock, and he said to them, “Please listen, you rebels; can we bring out water for you from this rock?”
Num 20:11 Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice. And abundant water went out, and the community and their livestock drank.
Num 20:12 But Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you have not trusted in me, to regard me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this assembly into the land that I have given to them.”
Num 20:13 Those were the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarreled with Yahweh, and he showed himself holy among them.
We are to bless God in every way and situation; in good times and bad times!
always appreciate views you bring to light. as we know there are many points to each Torah portion that only just begins to reveal its depth of Truth, as cuts on a diamond display its beauty. blessings!
Torah is very clear, in Numbers 20 : 12 But Adonai said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in Me so as to esteem Me as holy in the eyes of Bnei-Yisrael, therefore you will not bring this assembly into the land that I have given to them.” So to me it’s very clear as I’ve always believed. It was the disobedience of Moses to Hashem that stopped Him from entering the promised.
Some interesting points here. The fact that when Moses effectively disobeyed G-d he was of a different generation to those who left Israel with him. He was indeed well known to the people who left Egypt. Maybe the attitude of Moses in hitting the rock when told to speak to the rock underpinned his failure to respond correctly to G-d and the situation he faced. Often our disobedience reflects not a ‘one-off’ situation, but a progressive deterioration with age that finally was exposed by that incident.
Even if Moses was ‘G-d-like’ but he was not G-d! Certainly G-d spoke to him as a ‘friend’. He had a status before G-d that no one in the Scriptures acquired. However, he did fail at that point which was an expensive failure.
We need to take note here re our obedience!.