Sanctified Eyes: When a Word Is Enough

1“And speak to the rock before their eyes …”¹² This verse has troubled all the commentators. The Torah testified of Moshe Rabbeinu, “In all My house he is trusted.”³ How could he, Heaven forbid, depart from Hashem's command and strike the rock instead of speaking to it?

2Let us first look at the verse “And Yosef was the ruler over the land; he was the provider to all the people of the land; and Yosef's brothers came and bowed down to him with their faces to the ground.”⁴ Read plainly, this whole verse seems unnecessary. The earlier verses have already told us that Yosef had become second to the king, that all the people of the land lived by his word, and that the whole land came to Yosef to buy grain.⁵ What, then, does the verse add by saying “he was the ruler over the land; he was the provider to all the people of the land”? Likewise, “Yosef's brothers came and bowed down to him …” would seem to belong in the previous verse, “And the sons of Yisrael came to buy grain.”⁶ That verse should have gone straight on: “and they bowed down to Yosef with their faces to the ground.”

3We may explain it as follows, and the same approach will also make our passage clear. We know the saying of Chazal, “The whole world is sustained for the sake of Chanina My son.”⁷ The idea is that a tzaddik who guards the covenant, keeping himself pure, embodies “the tzaddik is the foundation of the world.”⁸ He is granted a kind of kingship, so that whatever he decrees is fulfilled, and all the blessing that flows to the world passes by way of him and through him. This is what the Torah wants to teach us here. As is well known, Yosef HaTzaddik withstood the test in exactly this area,⁹ and he was privileged to be crowned in full with the level of “the tzaddik is the foundation of the world,” the one who guards the covenant. So he was granted both gifts: kingship, so that whatever he decreed was fulfilled, and a flow of blessing that passed by way of him and for his sake. That is the meaning of the verse “And Yosef was the ruler over the land.” Because he ruled over artziyus, earthiness, the pull of “the land,” and reached the level of “the tzaddik is the foundation of the world,” “he was the provider to all the people of the land.” And because he was granted kingship as well, “they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground.”

4This lets us explain the episode of Mei Merivah, the Waters of Strife. Here an abundance of blessing had to be drawn down on Klal Yisrael, to bring forth water for them. So Hashem said, “And speak to the rock before their eyes,” choosing the words “before their eyes” with care. He was telling Moshe Rabbeinu that to draw down the blessing, he must sanctify the eyes of Bnei Yisrael, so that they would become a vessel to receive it. If Bnei Yisrael were truly prepared and worthy, the smallest effort would be enough, no more than “and speak.” It would be a case of “the tzaddik decrees and the Holy One, blessed be He, fulfills,”¹⁰ and not even prayer would be needed. This is along the lines of what my great-uncle, zt"l, writes in the holy sefer Aron Eidus.¹¹

5Moshe Rabbeinu, however, held that at Bnei Yisrael's lesser level, mere words without any action would not be enough, and so he struck the rock. This is along the lines of a story we heard from my holy father and teacher, zt"l, about the holy Baal Shem Tov, zt"l. Once, before he became known, the Baal Shem Tov had no money for his Shabbos needs. On Friday morning he knocked on his neighbor's window, said that he needed money for the holy Shabbos, and ran off at once. The neighbor went looking for him until he found him and asked what this meant: he was willing to give money for Shabbos, so why had the Baal Shem Tov run away? The Baal Shem Tov taught him that each person must make an effort for his livelihood in keeping with his level of faith and trust. For the Baal Shem Tov himself, with his great trust, knocking on the window was effort enough, and nothing more was needed. The same holds here. Had Bnei Yisrael been prepared and complete at the level of “the tzaddik is the foundation of the world,” speaking to the rock would have been enough for them, in the spirit of “the tzaddik decrees,” with only a little effort. But Moshe held that they had not reached this level, so mere words would not do; an effort of action was needed, the striking of the rock.

6Even so, the Holy One, blessed be He, was exacting with him and said, “Because you did not believe in Me, to sanctify Me before the eyes of Bnei Yisrael …”¹² He meant: you should have believed in Me and relied on Me that Bnei Yisrael would surely rise to their proper holiness, and that their eyes would be repaired. That is “to sanctify Me before the eyes of Bnei Yisrael.” Had you, despite everything, devoted yourselves only to sanctifying the eyes of Bnei Yisrael, they would have been privileged to reach the proper level, where speaking to the rock alone would have been enough.

7aIn this way we can also understand what Chazal tell of R' Shimon bar Yochai. When he and his son came out of the cave, R' Shimon said, “They forsake eternal life and busy themselves with the life of the moment!” and every place on which they set their eyes was burned at once.¹³ But we know that “many acted like R' Shimon bar Yochai and did not succeed,”¹⁴ so why did R' Shimon complain so strongly against them? The answer is that after sanctifying themselves so intensely in the cave, the two of them had reached a lofty, exalted level. They understood that it was in their power to repair the eyes of Israel, and in this way to draw down blessing on Israel in abundance, with no need for toil or effort. It was not that they resented a person on a lower level and wanted to burn him and deny him blessing. Quite the opposite: they did it so that he would receive blessing without the physical toil and labor they saw people doing, plowing and sowing. That is why the Gemara mentions “their eyes”: whatever place they set their eyes on was burned, so that the holiness of their eyes would easily draw blessing down on that person.

7b[That is, the blessing would not reach him through physical labor in the field, but would come to him in another way. As for Heaven telling them to go back to the cave so as not to destroy the world,¹⁵ we may say this is because the world must be run by way of nature. Not all creatures can bear being run in this other way.]

8As we stand in this holy place,¹⁶ with the summer before us, we must all pray to be privileged to reach the level of “to sanctify Me before the eyes of all Israel,”¹⁷ receiving the holiness of Hashem that depends on the eyes. As we have explained, this is the merit through which we will be granted healing, salvation and consolation, which we need so very much at this time. And may we be privileged to see the redemption soon. Amen, may it be His will.