… to be denied entrance to the Promised Land.

Yeah, I know, he hit the rock.

So what?

When he remembers the incident, he tells the people it’s because of them that he doesn’t get to go into the land. It’s their fault he didn’t follow instructions? C’mon. He must have got crabby in his old age, and somehow he won’t take responsibility for his own faults. Old people are like that. As I grow older, I find that my problems are caused by other people, not me. This must be what they mean by growing older and wiser: shifting blame is a very clever trick.

Back to Mo.

When God tells him he’s not going into the land, God says (Num. 20:12) “Lo he’emantem bi / לֹא־הֶאֱמַנְתֶּם בִּי.” What does this mean? Ahhh, the never-ending question.

One option: you (Moses and Aaron) did not believe in me. That’s why you hit the rock–you didn’t believe me when I told you to just talk to it.

The word for “believe” is in the causative form. It’s always in the causative form, so it could be intransitive (you believed) or transitive (you made someone believe). So we come to option two: you (Moses and Aaron) did not bring about belief in me. That’s to say, you guys had one principal job: to get the Hebrews to believe in God. That’s why you had all those tricks you could do with your stick. When the people cried, “Give us a show, Mo,” you could pick up your stick and show them a trick, like parting the sea. This wasn’t for entertainment: your job was to get them to understand that all the miracles come from God who chose them.

In Deut. 3:25, Moses brings up the question of entering the land, and God slaps him down. Why does Moses bring up the question? One commentator (I heard from someone well learned) suggests why. After the spies/scouts came back, the people lost confidence that God would help them fight–their belief wavered. Years later, before Moses’ death, he sends the people to attack Sihon and Og, and they don’t hesitate. So Moses could think that they’ve recovered their belief, that this proves he’s done his job successfully, and that he’s got a chance at entering the land. No dice, but nice try.

One more option. Imagine you change the last vowel of “he’emantem” so it reads “he’emantAm.” This would mean you (Moses) did not get them to believe. To change TEM to TAM, all you need to do is connect the dots in the E vowel. (If you can read Hebrew, you know what I mean, and if you can’t, I’m sorry.) The Torah is written without vowels, but we have no ancient authority to support this change, so it’s just something to think about.

Moses’ job was to get the people to connect the dots between the miracles they had seen and the reality behind those miracles: a loving God who chose to bring this people from slavery to freedom. If Moses failed, it’s at least party because the people just weren’t faith material, so he might as well blame them for not taking to heart the lesson he taught.