NUM251 (Continued from [[LEV585]] Leviticus 19:17 rebuke WAGS 74-5). Rambam is of the opinion that this was Moshe Rabbeinu's sin at the mei merivah--he addressed the Jewish people in an angry manner, as the verse says, "Listen, rebellious ones…" [this verse]. Rambam explains that the simplest Jew of Moshe Rabbeinu's generation reached the same level of spiritual awareness as Yechezkel Ben Buzi the prophet. Thus, it was wrong of Moshe to express anger to people of such stature. Furthermore, the Jewish people understandably concluded that Moshe's anger was a manifestation of Hashem's anger toward them; in actuality, Hashem was not angry with them. Thus, in a certain sense, Moshe Rabbeinu was guilty of desecrating the name of Hashem.

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NUM254 Excessive anger has a harmful effect not only on others, but also on ourselves. The Talmud teaches, "When a person becomes enraged, [even] if he is wise, his wisdom deserts him" (Pesachim 66b). According to the Torah, even Moses acted foolishly when angry. In the Book of Numbers, Moses becomes enraged at the Israelites with their constant whining about water. When God tells him to speak to a large rock, from which God will send water to satisfy the people's thirst, Moses disobeys God's command, and strikes it with a rod, saying, "Listen, you rebels, shall we get water for you out of this rock?" [this verse] Although Moses surely did not intend it, the "we" implied that it was he and his brother Aaron (who was standing beside him), and not God, who were responsible for the miracle of the water that gushed fourth. His was a dangerous comment, and could have led the Israelites to believe that Moses himself was a god. He paid dearly for his loss of self-control, when God denied him entry into land of Israel (Numbers 20:12). Like Moses, many of us hit objects when we are angry. And, like Moses, many of us also pay dearly for the stupid things we say and do. For example, we may walk out of a relationship that should have been preserved, or refuse to reconcile with someone with whom we have had a falling out. If our wisdom deserts us when we are enraged, we must learn to hold our tongues, particularly when we are the most angry.

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NUM255 See [[LEV95]] Leviticus 10:16 angry TZADIK 241-3

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NUM257 See [[NUM84]] Numbers 11:22 enough SINAI2 44

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NUM256 … rarely did Moses retort with impatience or anger. Fundamentally he was a leader with a boundless love and devotion for his people. As the Midrash put it, he had a pact with the Almighty: "When Moses grew angry at the people Israel, the Holy, Blessed One would reconcile him. Should the Holy One be angered at the Israelites, Moses would reconcile Him" (Midrash Rabbah, Exodus xlv 2; Deuteronomy iii 15; Midrash T'hillim xxv 6). Every present-day Jewish leader would do well to study and emulate Moses--be he Prime Minister of Israel, Rabbi of a synagogue, or the president of an organization. Should he begin to falter or weaken under a steady barrage of petty, carping criticism, let him remember our Law-giver, and bear with our people, as Moses did. Despite massive doses of frustration and irritation, Moses never condemned his people out of hand, to send them to perdition. Over and over again he defended them before the Almighty, and returned to guide them gently but firmly, slowly but surely toward righteousness and moral achievement. The Hatham Sofer, though, raises an objection: If, as the mishnah teaches, no sin could occur through him, how could Heaven let him smite the rock at Kadesh instead of speaking to it, when the error was to cost him the right to enter the promised land? [this verse, Numbers 20:7-13]. The answer lies in the reason behind the principle: No sin will occur through the leader, we noted, so that his disciples should not go on to eternal life in the Hereafter and he to perdition; once he has brought a multitude to virtue, his destiny remains linked with theirs, that he may share fully in their eternal reward. The generation of the wilderness, to whom Moses taught and gave the Torah, had already been sentenced to die without reaching the promised land. Therefore Heaven allowed Moses this one serious transgression, that his destiny should remain linked with theirs. And so, when Moses later told of his sentence, he said, "the Lord was angry with me on your account ..." (Deuteronomy 3:26). But though he did not enter the promised land, he had a share in mitzvoth which could be observed only there, when they were done there by the younger entering Israelites; for he had taught them the mitzvoth.

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NUM258 The Torah does not hide anyone's sin. It is fearlessly honest about the greatest of the great. Bad things happen when we try to hide people's sins. That is why there have been so many recent scandals in the world of religious Jews, some sexual, some financial, some of other kinds. When religious people hide the truth they do so from the highest of motives. They seek to prevent hillul Hashem. The result, inevitably, is a greater hillul Hashem. Such sanctimony, denying the shortcomings of even the greatest, leads to consequences that are ugly and evil and turn decent people away from religion. The Torah does not hide people's sins. Neither may we.

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NUM259 The greatest of the prophets, the primary teacher, lived, taught, and died outside the Holy Land. These facts will exist in eternal tension with any tendency to make the land the exclusive place of revelation of God's presence. Thus the symbols and literary motifs heighten the extraordinary interaction and balance between possession of the land and rootedness in God.

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NUM260 It would appear, based on several incidents described in the Bible, that it is permitted to discuss well-known cases of wrongful behavior in order to educate people not to do such things. Thus the Bible reveals negative behavior by some of its leading characters; its probable motive for doing so was to warn readers against such behavior... The Bible details for us Moses' occasional bad temper, and how it caused him to be denied entry to the land of Israel (Numbers 20:1–13). Telling us about this in the Torah can perhaps likewise be designated as a kind of "lashon hara for a purpose." ... The Talmud rules that if a matter has become known to many people, it is no longer regarded as lashon hara (Arachin 16a). [Even in such cases, we must be careful to say only what we know to be true; exaggeration still puts us in violation of the prohibition against slander (see chapter 43)]. Nonetheless, common sense suggests that when such incidents are mentioned to influence people to act more righteously, it might be best to use age-old incidents from the Bible and Talmud, rather than to cite current or recent incidents that will cause shame to the person who sinned, and to the person's family.

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NUM261 See [[NUM254]] Numbers 20:10 we TELVOL1 253

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NUM262 See [[NUM108]] Numbers 12:3 humble AMEMEI 184-5

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