Every week, parshaoftheweek.com brings you a rich selection of material on parshat hashavua, the weekly portion traditionally read in synagogues all over the world. Using both classic and contemporary material, we take a look at these portions in a fresh way, relating them to both ancient Jewish concerns as well as cutting-edge modern issues and topics. We also bring you material on the Jewish holidays, as well as insights into life cycle rituals and events...
The story of Moshe hitting, rather than talking to, the rock, and thereby producing water, is a vexing one. The various commentaries twist themselves into veritable pretzels trying to figure out what exactly was “the sin”; what was so bad about Moshe’s behavior that, because of it, he was punished by being kept out of the Land of Israel.
