Anger management.

There are some say the Talmud who acquire their world in an hour,

and others who lose it in an hour.

No example of the latter is more arresting and bewildering

than the famous episode in this week's Parcia.

The people have asked for water.

God tells Moses to take a staff and speak to the rock, and water will appear.

And then we read this. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock,

and Moses said to them,

Shimonah Marim, listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?

Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff,

water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. But the Lord said to Moses,

Neron, because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites,

you will not bring this community into the land I will give him. Give them.

Zutara versus Chorah, said the rabbis, is this the Torah and this is reward? What was Moses' sin

that it merited such punishment? In previous years, I've expressed my view that Moses didn't sin,

nor was he punished. It was simply that each generation

needs its own leaders. Moses was the right, indeed the only leader, capable of taking the Israelites

out of Egypt. It needed another kind of leader and a different kind of leadership to take the next

generation into the promised land.

But this year, looking at the ethics of the Bible, it seemed more appropriate to look at a

different explanation, this time given by Maimonides in the Shmoniparachim, the eight chapters

...