Author: Shlomo Bar-Ayal

This week’s portion ends with the attack on the Jews by Amalek. The question is why the hatred. The answer is that they do not hate the Jews as much as what the Jews represent, morality.

Amalek attacks when he perceives the Jews to be divided and weak. This is true throughout history. Evil does not strike when we are united and strong. They know that they cannot defeat us when we are united in our mission.

Moses’s reaction to the complaints of the lack of water have to be viewed in the context of his losing his sister. The sin of the people was not recognizing that pain he was going through at the time.

When Miriam dies the people realize that the well was there in her honor. She does her job never asking for acknowledgement. She just does what is necessary.

Moses’s mistake in hitting the rock was understandable but he forgot that he was the leader and the leader is always on duty. He cannot take a break from being the leader.

The commandment of the Red Heifer does not make sense. But this teaches us to obey the commandments even when they do not make sense to us. When taken in total they do make sense.

The rebellion of Korah and his squad was a rebellion of the elites against the leadership of Moses. They based their arguments on a falsehood. This teaches us that sometimes the elites are dangerous.

The purpose of the Exodus was to train the Jews how to live a Torah life once they entered the land. It is easy to keep the Torah while in Yeshiva, the real test comes when you are dealing with the real world.

The problem with the men that Moses sent to observe the land was that they were the elites of society. They realized that once the Jews entered the land they might not be needed to lead. That lead to their mistakes.

One of the problems with the emissaries that Moses sent was that instead of just reporting the facts they editorialized. And they misinterpreted the facts as well. The job was just to report the facts, not give their opinions.