Moses in Rabbinic Literature - Moses Strikes The Rock

Moses Strikes The Rock

Denying all these reasons, another explanation, based on Scripture, is that Moses and Aaron were not permitted to enter the promised land because they did not have the proper confidence in God in calling water from the rock (Numbers 20:12). Moses asked that this error should be noted down in the Torah (Numbers 20:12) in order that no other errors or faults should be ascribed to him (Numbers Rabba l.c.). This story of his lack of true confidence in God when calling forth the water is elaborated with many details in the legends.

Moses was careful not to provoke the people during the forty years of wandering in the desert, because God had sworn that none of the generation which had left Egypt should behold the promised land (Deuteronomy i. 35). When he went to call forth the water he did not know exactly from which rock it would come. The people became impatient and said that there was no difference between the rocks, and that he ought to be able to call forth water from any one of them. Vexed, he replied, "Ye rebels!" (Num. xx. 10) or, according to the Midrash, "fools!" (μῶροι). God therefore said to him: "As thou art clever, thou shalt not enter the land together with fools." According to another legend, Moses became angry because some of the people said that, since he had been a herdsman with Jethro, he knew, like all herdsmen, where to find water in the desert, and that now he was merely trying to deceive the people and to make them believe that he had miraculously called water from the rock (Midr. Petirat Aharon, in Jellinek, l.c. i. 93 et seq.; Numbers Rabba 19:5; Yalk., Ḥuḳḳat, 763).