Rabbi Freedman’s Shabbat Message

As an experiment, I entered into Google the following question: ‘Why was Moses not allowed to enter the Promised Land?’ The answer, supplied by AI was exactly as expected: “According to biblical tradition, Moses was barred from entering the Promised Land because of an act of disobedience at the Waters of Merivah. When the Israelites complained of thirst, God told Moses to speak to a rock to produce water, but in his frustration, Moses struck the rock twice with his staff instead.”

If one asked the same question to a group of children at any of our Jewish Day Schools, I would be delighted if they provided a similar answer, it would demonstrate a reasonable knowledge of the Chumash.

That being the case, many would be surprised to find a verse in the opening chapter of this week’s sidra that seems to contradict the traditional explanation.

Moses, in recapping his time as leader of the Israelites, related how twelve spies, one per tribe were sent to spy out the Land of Canaan, a mission that lasted forty days. Following the report by ten of them that the land would be nigh impossible to conquer, the Israelites lost all confidence in God and were too apprehensive to advance. God punished the Israelites for their lack of faith and a forty day mission resulted in forty years of wandering in the wilderness until that entire generation had passed away. (Incidentally, the Mishna in Ta’anit 4:6 says בְּתִשְׁעָה בְאָב נִגְזַר עַל אֲבוֹתֵינוּ שֶׁלֹּא יִכָּנְסוּ לָאָרֶץ that God’s decree against the Israelites was made on the 9th Av, the first of five catastrophic events on that date which resulted in that day being designated a fast day. Tisha B’Av occurs this coming week on Wednesday night and Thursday.)

In relating this story, Moses concludes with words that are somewhat surprising given the generally accepted view that he was forbidden from entering Canaan because he struck the rock instead of speaking to it.

גַּם־בִּי֙ הִתְאַנַּ֣ף ה’ בִּגְלַלְכֶ֖ם לֵאמֹ֑ר גַּם־אַתָּ֖ה לֹֽא־תָבֹ֥א שָֽׁם:
The Lord became angry with me as well on your account, and He said: “You too shall not enter the land.” (Deuteronomy 1:37)

So the question remains, why was Moses refused entry into Canaan? Was it because he struck the rock, or was it because the Israelites rebelled against God, and Moses had to take some of the blame? To make matters even more confusing, Moses, in his final address to the Israelites, offers a third suggestion:

Moses continued to speak to the Children of Israel and he said to them: “I am a hundred and twenty years old today and I am no longer capable of leading the people. This is why the Lord has said to me, you shall not cross over the River Jordan.” (Deuteronomy 31:1-2)

This last explanation relieved Moses of any guilt. Perhaps it was Moses’ way of saying that the end of his tenure as leader wasn’t as a result of some wrongdoing, it was just that as he grew old he suffered relatively normal physical and/or cognitive decline and so had to be relieved of his position. There is no shame in that! However, the statement made by Moses at the beginning of Deuteronomy, and repeated on two other occasions in the book, that he was punished due to the misconduct of the Israelites at the time of the Spies is problematical, because it is a clear contradiction of what had been said 40 years earlier when he struck the rock.

A number of our traditional commentators examine this issue and ask whether Moses was attempting to deflect the blame away from his own shortcomings at Merivah. If so, he most certainly wouldn’t be the first person to do such a thing. In Genesis, both Adam and Eve basically say – don’t blame me – it wasn’t my fault!

The Lord God called to Adam and said, “Where are you?” The man answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman answered, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:9-13)

Aaron, Moses’ brother, was another person who did his best to shift the blame on to others following an episode that displayed his own lack of judgment. We pick the story up when Moses descended Mt Sinai and saw the people worshipping the Golden Calf – at that point he challenged Aaron:

“What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?” “Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil. They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’ So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ They gave me the gold; I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”
(Exodus 32: 21-24)

In later Jewish history, King Saul tried to justify his decision to proceed with offering a sacrifice, even though he himself was not a member of the priesthood, by blaming Samuel the Prophet for the debacle.

“What have you done?” asked Samuel. Saul replied, “When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Mikhmas, I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the Lord’s favor.’ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.” “You have done a foolish thing,” Samuel said. “You have not observed the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time.
(I Samuel 13: 11-13)

In examining the case of Moses blaming the Israelites for his sorry predicament, Rashi addresses the difficulty by distinguishing between direct and indirect causation. Moses was indeed punished for striking the rock. Nevertheless, the people created the circumstances that led to the sin. Had Israel not complained and rebelled, the episode would never have occurred. According to Rashi, Moses’ words in Deuteronomy do not deny his own responsibility. Rather, he is telling the people that their conduct brought about the chain of events that resulted in his punishment. This interpretation preserves the integrity of both texts. The Book of Numbers identifies the immediate cause; the Book of Deuteronomy refers to the broader context.

Abraham ibn Ezra rejects the notion that Moses is referring to the Spies. Instead, he argues that Moses is alluding to the events leading up to the striking of the rock. The word בִּגְלַלְכֶ֖ם found in Deuteronomy 1 meaning that it was on your account that I was punished infers, says Ibn Ezra, that the people’s quarrelling and complaints provoked the circumstances in which Moses lost patience. Moses is not claiming innocence. He is saying that their behavior contributed to the situation.

Abarbanel made an ingenious suggestion. He argued that Moses and Aaron were not punished for what they did at this point. Rather, their offences lay in the distant past. Aaron sinned by making the Golden Calf. Moses sinned in sending the spies. Those were the reasons they were not privileged to enter the land. Rabbi Sacks in an essay on the subject explains Abarbanel’s words. In order to defend their honor, the sins of Moses and Aaron are not made explicit in the biblical text. Their actions at the rock were the proximate rather than the underlying cause. Sacks compares this to a hurricane which may be the proximate cause of a bridge collapsing, while the underlying cause, was in reality a structural weakness in the bridge itself.

All of these interpretations are fascinating, but the literal text remains problematical and it exposes what psychologists in the modern age would recognize as very normal human behavior. Decades ago, researchers discovered that people tend to take credit for themselves when things go well, but lay blame on circumstances when things go poorly. This phenomenon is called “self-serving bias,” and nearly everyone is a culprit. I myself always joke that being the ‘second’ rabbi at our shul is a wonderful position – if anyone ever comes to me to complain about something, I refer them to my colleague, but if they come to me in order to praise an aspect of shul life – I simply look at them and say, “Thank you!”.

In general life, for example in commerce or sport, it is exactly the same. If a company hired you following an interview, how often did you credit yourself, your qualifications, your prior experience, your excellent interviewing skills? Likewise, how often did you discredit the interviewer or company when you didn’t receive a callback? When our favorite football team wins, it’s due to their skill, dedication and hard work. When they lose, it’s all down to the referee! Blaming circumstances is one thing, but it’s entirely different and to a degree, disingenuous when one blames others for your own mistakes. Blaming others for our own slip-ups will inevitably affect our relationships, both at home and at work.

According to experts, the blaming tendency can often be traced back to early childhood. Most people blame others because they never developed so-called ‘self-soothing skills’ to deal with powerful feelings, like guilt or shame. Some learned the strategy after observing parents who modeled it. Others, with a measure of intelligence, learn to deal with gaffes, missteps and blunders through experience. Making a mistake is normal and acceptable, learning from one’s mistakes is an art form – it takes courage and humility to admit one is at fault and to take responsibility for one’s actions. I recall once not diarizing a matzevah (a stone consecration) – as a result I failed to attend the cemetery when expected.

It was to be fair an unusual case – the family had changed the date at least four times, the last occasion when I was travelling back to Sydney on a long-haul flight. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t their fault, it was mine and when I rang the family to say sorry for my non-attendance – I did not offer any excuses, I just said I was at fault and I sincerely apologized for my mistake. On that occasion I was rewarded by the family, who forgave me and understood that even rabbis aren’t perfect. The truth is that anyone and everyone can make mistakes – but what happens next is what is really important. Is a person brave enough and honest enough to admit them, and will those affected be big enough and compassionate enough to excuse the person, and maybe take into account all the good things he/she has done for them in the past.

Why do people blame others? Blaming others is, essentially, “blame avoidance.” Like all defense mechanisms used to evade uncomfortable feelings, blame is considered a form of emotional avoidance. People typically blame others for a whole range of reasons.

 It’s easy
 It feeds a need for control
 It fuels a desire for perfectionism
 It avoids accepting one’s vulnerability
 It protects the ego

Blame offers a quick escape from guilt and is effortless when feeling defensive. After all, if you never hold yourself accountable for adverse consequences or contributions to a problem, you can continue believing you have no flaws or areas requiring improvement. It’s a major cognitive error for many.

What makes the Bible so special is that although it describes events that occurred thousands of years ago, events that raised serious concerns at the time – such issues remain highly relevant today. The truth is that while circumstances and of course personalities change, the fundamentals of human psychology remain the same – and with regard to the subject under discussion, it is somewhat reassuring to discover that even the greatest of our biblical heroes struggled with problems that remain challenging for many in today’s world.

Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi David Freedman