The Waters of Strife

As I was reading this week’s parasha, Chukkat, it struck me how prevalent the theme of water is in the Torah. In the creation story, G-d divides the waters above from the waters below. A flood destroys most of life on Earth during the time of Noah. In the Book of Exodus, Pharoah throws the infant Israelite boys into the Nile. Moses is also drawn out of the water and rescued. In the Exodus from Egypt, the waters of the Sea of Reeds split allowing the Israelites to pass through in safety. In the desert, the Israelites lack water and complain that G-d has brought them into the wilderness to die there. A well follows Miriam throughout the desert because of her compassion for her people. And in today’s parasha, G-d tells Moses to take his staff and gather the assembly so they can see him speak to the rock and watch the waters come forth from the rock for them and their animals to drink. Moses does take his staff, he does gather the congregation before the rock, but in anger he says, “Listen now, rebels, shall we bring forth water for you from this rock?” He raises his arm and strikes the rock twice with his staff. Abundant water does come forth but G-d calls them the waters of strife and informs Moses and Aaron that they will not lead the people into the land of Israel.

The Torah recognizes that water is a building block of life, a component necessary for the every day existence of human beings and animals. It has the power to sustain or destroy life.

There has been a lot of talk about water lately as we are presently witnessing the destruction of an ecosystem in the gulf of Mexico. We are now at the 59th day of the oil spill that is threatening animal and plant life in the Gulf and negatively impacting the lives of men, women, and children as the economy in the area plunges. In the stories about water in the Torah, G-d uses water to either punish or promote life. In the current story about water, human beings are destroying animal and plant life…we are the ones who are creating an environmental disaster, taking away the life-giving aspect water.

In our parsha the waters are called the waters of strife because the assembly quarreled with Moses, wanting him to act on their behalf to bring them clean water to drink. Today, we might also call the Gulf waters the waters of strife because we are demanding that the oil spill be stopped and that the clean up process be speeded up…but unlike the individuals in the wilderness, we don’t seem to know who to turn to, who will actually solve the problem for us.

We know the results of the cry for water in the wilderness. Moses responded harshly, didn’t follow G-d’s command to speak to the rock, and he and the generation he led in the wilderness were forced to die in the wilderness without entering the Promised Land. We don’t know what the end result of the oil spill will be. We can only hope and pray that action will take place that will prevent it from becoming a disaster that is felt in the area for generations to come.

Shabbat Shalom.