The Desert Generation

Sometimes a careful reading of the Torah text will make this clear even before the Talmud puts things into correct perspective: when the generation of the desert asked for water and were called failures for doing so, a careful reading shows that they had walked for three days in the Sinai desert without water and uttered not a word in protest or request. Only when three days without water presented the prospect of imminent death for them and their children did they ask when water would appear — and found themselves branded as failures in the area of faith. Why do you ask? Do you not know that God will provide as He has provided for you thus far? Where is your trust? At their level, facing death should have constituted a minor ordeal; the criticism that follows their failure shows that. But a small-minded and superficial view reads that passage as an account of a people who constantly moaned and complained, were never satisfied and always ungrateful, ready to fail every challenge at the merest provocation. In fact, that generation sinned ten times in forty years; not a slight achievement. And when it is clear that those sins were perpetrated at the highest level by a people capable of reaching into the rarefied realm of a face-to-face meeting with God, it becomes apparent that criticism must be measured by a different rule.

A childish reading of Torah assumes that when that generation produced a golden calf they were guilty of idolatry in the primitive sense of mindless fetishism. A moment’s thought will show how far that must be from the mark; that generation lived at a sublime level of awareness of God such as no other has since. They are known as the “Dor De’ah — the Generation of Knowledge.” Their meeting with God caused their souls to cleave to Him with an intensity that burns in Jewish consciousness to this day. To imagine that they meant to supplant God with a material object of their own production is to accuse them of insanity. In fact what they were attempting was the setting up of an intermediary for the purpose of reconnecting with God after they were shown a false vision of Moses’ death.⁴ (When they referred to the calf as: “This is “eloheicha” (your god) who has brought you out of Egypt,” the word they used is the Name of God that indicates not His essence but His connection with the world.) They were attempting to replace Moses, not God. Their channel of access to God had disappeared and they attempted to replace him; they chose a golden object for that purpose according to deep spiritual perception — in fact shortly thereafter they were commanded to do something very similar: to make golden cherubs to place atop the Ark to serve as the focus for God’s communication. But despite all the arguments justifying their action, at their level of greatness they were guilty of nothing less than idolatry.

Levelling Criticism

In this light it should be noted that when the nations berate the Jewish people on the basis of God’s expressed criticisms as documented throughout Torah (especially in the writings of the Prophets), they fail to realize that God is criticising his beloved people whom He considers to be capable of near-perfection. Indeed, a teacher will criticise most severely exactly that student who has real potential. There is little point in criticising one who cannot improve. The very fact that a student receives repeated criticism shows that he is worthy. Sharp, uncompromising criticism by a great teacher is a sure sign that the student has promise; the student who is never criticised is probably hopeless.

Credits:From the book "Will, Freedom & Destiny" by Rabbi Akiva Tatz