Are the worthiest dreams those too big to attain?

by Rick Gwynallen

In Parashat Chukat we have the moment in which Moses strikes the rock instead of speaking to it to get water from it (Numbers 20:7-8, 11), and in doing so loses the right to enter the Promised Land.

For me, the message always seemed simple.  We are all human. We can take only so much stress, only so many burdens, before our human frailty betrays us.  For Moses that was anger.

The stage was set for Moses’ emotions to overwhelm him, to lose sight of what was for the sake of heaven.  He had bourne the burden of the exodus and the internal struggles of his people, he had accepted the awesome responsibility, and now he grieves for his sister.  Grief and exhaustion are a potent brew.