Drash Cards for Chukkat/Balak (5760)

by Marc Mangel

• An action filled parsha:  the Red heifer, Miriam dies, Moses hits the rock instead of speaking to it, Edom is attacked, Aaron dies, Arad, Amon, Basham are all defeated, Balak, Bilaam and the talking ass, Pinchas slays the Israelite who lays with the Moabite woman.

• Today I want to talk about the paradox of  hitting the rock; Ch 20, v 7-12.  God is omniscient and all powerful. Why does God let this happen?

• Answer: God knows that Moses is not the right person to lead the Israelites into the promised land.

• Reason 1: To avoid Moses worship — even 1000 years later when the Hagaddah was set, this was a concern and so Moses is not in the Hagaddah

• Reason 2: There have already been challenges to Moses’s leadership (Korach)

• Reason 3: Back to Slach Lecha, Ch 14, v 5-7: Moses’s time is waning, Joshua’s is waxing.

• Churchill is a modern example.  He was essential for the leadership of Britain during WWII and immediately afterwards but not so into the 1950s.

• Leadership must match the time and place