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.
1) though Yehoshua hears the insider's war on Torah/kedusha (at 32:17) as comparable to the outsider's war with him at 17:11-13, Moshe hears otherwise (32:18). is this difference the reason why, when the time comes to execute punishment for the eigel, the navi's navi doesn't simply summon the men whom he had Yehoshua choose for battle (at 17:10), but rather has men self-select* (32:26) for the (yet unmentioned**) task (:27)?
ReplyDelete*do the shotrim of Devarim 16:18, concerned chiefly with Israelite misconduct, apply for the job (self-select), or are they plucked unawares from the general population? is Moshe's set of shotrim at Devarim 1:15 (penultimate word), appointed in Shemos perek 18, conveniently comprised of Yehoshua's draftees from (Shemos) perek 17?
**but anticipated?
2) can we run all this in reverse? Rav Yehoshua ben Korcha says* that inasmuch as Moshe hid his face at the sneh, Hashem hid His face at "THE rock" -- what if Moshe had been desperately thirsty at the climax of his hike in the wilderness? maybe he'd have looked directly to the miraculous flame in the bush for directions** to the nearest water!
*Shemos rabba 3:1
** 'see that there rock Moshe?...'
1) 'Moshe hears otherwise'
Deleteand this is why the Levi'im sing-- of course their manual service with the Mishkan comes to reconfigure the slaughter of 3000 of their fellows {psalm 24 a. :3 mi...mi..., following Moshe's mi l'Hashem (32:26); and b. :4 n'ki kapayim, as per the immediate dedication of Levitical hands (mi'l'u yedchem, 32:29)[and so their subsequent receipt of blessing: v'la'seis aleichem ha'yom bracha, 32:29 >> avodas ha'levi'im, 38:21]}, but their singing [in the Temple]? to counter the distress that Moshe heard, kol anos anochi shomea (32:18)-- that distress would rally them round the navi and win them permanent in-House service, but [the sound] had to be converted in the process, and carried evermore...
2) but even without water [40 days & nights without], Moshe finally faced off with Fire, descending the mountain with ~~~~radiant~~~~ face (34:29/Mishlei 27:19, ha'panim la'panim)
2) "the famous rock"
ReplyDeleteit would be a shame to stop at Beshalach when one can backtrack to the motherlode itself, to the even ha'shtiyah! consider 33:21, hi'nei Makom iti -- the Place where He will choose to rest His Name!
we have here an unclaimed case of kefitzas ha'derech*: Moshe stands on the rock in Chorev, v'nitzavtah al-ha'tzur, then stands of a sudden in eretz Yisrael but DOES NOT KNOW IT** (he is hidden in a cleft*** after all, with a Hand over his eyes, then focused entirely on His Back)
*twofold/round-trip
**had he seen into the burning bush, perhaps Moshe would have known?
(***apparently there is a 'gap' of some sort in the southern side of the stone under the current dome on har ha'Bayis, a "nikras" between it and the ground...)