parshat Chukat

A brief Dvar Torah on the Parsha, based on R. Samson Raphael Hirsch’s Torah Commentary

The Rambam explains that Moshe Rabenu's sin in the waters of dispute [Mei Meribah] was anger. A person should stay completely away from anger, but there is a place behavior like anger.

While we must always employ our brain and our innate sense of right and wrong, when Hashem clearly tells us to do something – even if it goes against our own logic & instinct – we have to trust that G-d knows what He is saying, & knows exactly what is best for us.

One of the great lessons of Judaism is that we are to attempt to behave rationally even if at the very same time, we realize that much in our personal and national lives is simply beyond our understating.

Our thanks to Hashem should match the intensity of our pleas. Birchas hagomeil gives us a concrete beracha to say to awaken our thanks for deliverance. After what flights or illnesses do we say this Beracha?