nikras HA'tzur -- THE very important rock

Sorry, not a lot of time this week, so this will be brief.  2 quick points.

1) "Kol milchama ba'machaneh."  Yehoshua was the one who led Bnei Yisrael in their battle against Amalek, which was as much clash of competing ideologies as a physical battle.  Amalek attacked those stragglers who were outside the ananei ha'kavod, those on the periphery of the camp.  When Yehoshua heard the commotion of eigel worship taking place, he recognized that sound -- "kol milchama," that's the sound of battle with Amalek, with evil, but now it is, "ba'machaneh," the battle has penetrated the camp itself and is not longer restricted to the periphery.  (Sefas Emes)

2) If you have a minute, look back at the few pesukim at the beginning of ch 17 in Parshas Beshalach.  There we are told that Bnei Yisrael were camped in Refidim and had no water.  After the complaining started, Hashem told Moshe to take his staff, take the Zekeinim, and "avor lifnei ha'am... v'halachta," go walk out from the people.  "Hineini omeid lifnecha al ha'tzur b'Chorev," G-d says he is waiting by a rock at Chorev.  All Moshe has to do is hit the rock and it will produce water.  You know the rest of the story.

I don't know why I never paid attention to the fact that although the people were camped in Refidim, that's not where the miracle of the rock producing water happened.  Moshe had to leave the camp and go to Chorev, and it was there that the miracle happened.  Why?  Why not just give them water in Refidim?

Moshe already knew Chorev was a significant place.  G-d does not tell Moshe that he *will stand* -- ya'amod -- future tense, at the rock to do the miracle, but rather G-d is "omed," already standing there.  Chorev was the desert where Moshe took Yisro's sheep to graze and where he saw the burning bush.  G-d told Moshe, "You know already where I stand, where I can be found -- go back to that same place."

But more important than what had already happened in Chorev is what will happen there.  Chorev is where we came after Refidim in order to get the Torah.  There is a deliberate parallel here: G-d, the Tzur Tamim, gives Torah at Chorev, without which we cannot live; Moshe hits the tzur (note the word tzur is used for rock in this parsha, as opposed to the word sela, which is used in Chukas) at Chorev to get water, without which we cannot live.  "Ain mayim elah Torah."  The going out of the camp, the turning of attention to Chorev, is meant to bring the people to the realization of this parallel -- Torah is like water for the neshoma.  We can't live without it.  (The Ramban touches on this, but it is spelled out beautifully in the Abarbanel at the end of Beshalach.)

When Moshe in our parsha asks Hashem to reveal himself, Hashem responds that Moshe can only view what little he can see from within "nikras HA'tzur," a cleft in THE rock, with a "hey ha'yediya."  THE rock means the famous rock, the same rock that Moshe hit back in Parshas Beshalach!  You want Hashem to reveal himself?  Then you have to bury yourself in the concept that ruchniyus is as essential as water for your survival, the concept THE rock revealed.  If Torah is your life, then you will experience Hashem revealing himself to the fullest.