פרשת חקת ועבודה לשמה
This week’s Parsha tells us about the fateful events which led up to Moshe Rabenu’s sin of hitting the rock. The Jews complained to Moshe and Aharon about the lack of water in the desert and Moshe asked Hashem what to do. Hashem told Moshe to speak to the rock and ask it to produce water. When Moshe tried this and was not successful, he went ahead and hit the rock and for this minor infraction, was prohibited from entering into the land of Israel.
All of the Meforshim on the Torah attempt to pinpoint what exactly was the mistake that Moshe Rabenu made and they all offer interesting possibilities. I would like to focus on the proposal of the “Madregas Ha’adam”, the Sabba from Novordok. The Sabba explains (based on the Midrash) that when Moshe was commanded to produce water from the rock, the Jews were not impressed with this commandment. They said that Moshe was a well trained shepherd, and was adept at finding water even in desert wastelands. They claimed to Moshe that they should be allowed to pick which rock would be the one to produce the water. So Moshe was caught in a bit of a pickle. On the one hand, he knew that if he were to listen to the Jewish people, Hashem could certainly allow water to come forth from whichever rock He wanted and that way, Hashem’s name would be lauded in the world. On the other hand, to produce this great Kidush Hashem, it would mean ignoring a direct commandment from Hashem. So the Sabba explains that Moshe erred and chose to try to sanctify God’s name by speaking to a different rock than he was commanded.
However, the Sabba presses further. Where exactly was the mistake? If all Moshe wanted to do was glorify Hashem’s name on this earth, how could this possibly be wrong? The Sabba explains that Moshe erred in his calculation, as is evidenced clearly by the results. He proves this by invoking the words of the Yalkut Shimoni which says that when Moshe hit the rock, all the rocks in the desert began to spring forth water. The Sabba asserts, based on a Kal Vechomer argument, that had Moshe actually listened to Hashem, then the result would have certainly been as grand if not grander. So although Moshe wanted to sanctify Hashem’s name, he erred in that he should have had a little more faith that if he had done what Hashem had told him, Hashem would have been able to sanctify His own name and He did not need Moshe to “help Him”, rather just to listen to Him and trust that the result would be good.
R’ Chaim Shmuelevits argues emphatically on the Sabba’s position and explains that Moshe Rabenu’s mistake was not in miscalculating as the Sabba asserted, rather it was in the fact that Moshe had any calculations at all! When Hashem commands you to do something, you do not think whether or not the result will be favorable. You perform! A person’s reaction to a commandment from God should be like that of a servant to his master. He performs his master’s will without question or thought. This was Moshe’s mistake. R’ Chaim goes on to explain that this is every Jew’s primary focus – to reach the level where everything he does on a day to day basis is solely because God commanded him to do so.
Similarly, the Ohr Hachaim explains that this is really the theme of this week’s Parsha. The Parsha opens up, “These are the statutes of the Torah”, and then goes on to talk about the laws of the Red Heifer. It should have said, “These are the laws of purity and impurity”. The Ohr Hachaim explains that the Torah is teaching us with this verse that it is not only the laws of the Red Heifer which we don’t understand, but rather the entire Torah which we don’t understand and when we perform a Mitzvah for this reason – solely because God said so – it is as if we performed the entire Torah. That’s why the verse says, “These are the statutes of the Torah”.
The Ohr Hachim goes on to explain that there is a very good reason for this incredible reward. When we perform Mitzvos on a daily basis, it is not clear if we are doing them because God said so, or if it is because we feel good when we do them because we think they are a good idea. Take for example charity. There are a lot of people in the world who give charity for any number of reasons. They want to impress other people. It’s a great tax break. Or even because it makes them feel good about themselves to help other people. But none of these motivations will give a person any reward as they are not doing Hashem’s will, rather their own. But the minute they do even one commandment solely because God commanded it, such as Sha’atnez or the Red Heifer, they testify about themselves that even the other “understandable” Mitzvos that they did, such as charity were also for the sake of God and they collect reward for all the other “understandable” Mitzvos.
It comes out from the Ohr Hachaim that even the laws which we think we know the reason for, we don’t fully understand, and our motivation should never be because we think we know what God wanted. Our work on this earth is to keep the Torah as a servant who is commanded by his master – for no other reason than the fact that this is what his master told him to do. The minute we begin to keep the Mitzvos because we think we can “help God” or because they are so “moral”, we have fallen into the same mistake of Moshe in this week’s Parsha and this is not the optimal intent.
We see a similar principle demonstrated in Avraham Avinu. Avraham was commanded by God to sacrifice his first born son. But this commandment made no sense! Had God not told Avraham that He would make him a great nation through Yitzchak? Yet Avraham did not contemplate this seeming contradiction, and went forth with God’s explicit commandment, paying no heed the intellectual problems it raised. Had Avraham even questioned God about this apparent contradiction, even if God would have answered satisfactorily, it is brought down that he would not have passed this tenth and final test. This test was so pivotal in Avraham’s growth, that had he not passed this aspect of the test, he would not have merited to be our forefather! When Avraham, our Father did this monumental act, he paved the way for all future generations and taught us how to serve God like a servant serves his master with no ulterior motives or agendas, solely because this is what Hashem commanded us to do. From the fact that Avraham only merited to be our forefather on account of his excellence in this Midah, we see how integral the concept of serving God Lishma is meant to be.
May we merit to be true servants of Hashem and perform His will Lishma!