Q:
You’re saying Klal Yisroel was such an am kodosh. So how was it that they could have such complaints against Moshe Rabbeinu when they didn’t have water?
A:
Your question is, if they were such a holy nation like I am putting them up to be, so how could they complain about water?
So let’s picture now a real picture. We’re walking three days in a desert. Forget three days. Suppose you had to walk a half a day and there’s no water available. Also no Cherry Cola. Nothing. Would you complain?
Let’s start at the beginning. Let’s say somebody came along and said, “Look. I have a project. Let’s get out of this place. We’ll travel someplace and Hashem sent me and I’m taking you to a good land.”
So you say, “Alright. I’m trusting you, however. I’m taking your word for it.”
And now he’s taking you for a long hike. And you walk and walk and walk and walk and not a single candy store is in sight.
So what’s this? Six hours walking, nothing to drink?!
Now, let’s say you didn’t walk six hours. You walked for three days and nothing to drink. It’s a miracle we could still walk. And not only you’re walking there, but you happen to have a wife and children too, little children. And their tongues are hanging out by the middle of the first day. And your heart’s breaking.
So in the middle of the first day, you’re thinking, “What’s happening here? Look at the children!”
And your wife is saying, “Chaim! Look! Don’t keep quiet! The children are dying!”
So you say to her, “Wait. Wait. Moshe Rabbeinu told us that it’s OK. We have to have faith in him.”
So your wife waits another hour and then she’s frantic. And the children are really fainting. It looks like they’re going to collapse. And you understand it because you’re fainting yourself.
And another day passes. A day passes without drinking water! And another day! At the end of three days, וילכו שלשת ימים – they went three days (Shemos 15:22). What do you expect them to be, angels? If they wouldn’t have complained, we could say they’re lunatics.
And what did they do? They offered a polite complaint. They should have taken stones and smashed his head! That’s what you’d do! And not after three days! After a half day, you would take stones and break his head! And they went three days and didn’t break anybody’s head. They complained a little bit. So what about it? It’s a glorious nation. On the contrary, it’s a glorious nation!
The trouble is when we learned Chumash, our rebbe put on his spectacles. And the spectacles were as black as could be. And he was teaching. “Three days and they went and they asked for water! Such a wicked people.”
Ask your rebbe to go two hours without water.
Listen to the teachers of the youth.
I once gave a speech about this. I was speaking to lady teachers. There was a meeting someplace and they asked me to speak to them. I said, “You’re teaching anti-Semitism.” Can you imagine? Imagine a pious lady teacher. She knows Chumash, she knows Rashi. She was never in the Slabodka shmuessen. She knows it like that. So she puts in all the venom, all the poison she can into these words: “They asked for water and they rebelled.”
So, you teach Chumash that way, so you’ll raise up a generation of anti-Semites.
And that’s what the Jewish people have become. By learning Chumash in such irresponsible ways. It’s not realistic! It’s common sense, after three days, if they’re still speaking polite words, then they’re the most noble there ever lived.
(January 1973)
