Commentary: On Numbers

My servant Moses is not so; he is trusted in all My house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly and not in riddles, and he beholds the likeness of the Lord. (Numbers 12:7–8)

With him I speak mouth to mouth: In a vision, I show him the thing as it really is, not by means of riddles or metaphors, and everyone understands what he says in My name. [ . . . ] And thus are broken the arms of the nations of the world, who call Moses’ words allegorical—that is, riddles and metaphors, rather than what he really says. So they turn his prophecy into something entirely different, completely abstracting the word from its actual meaning. [ . . . ] For even though they translated the Torah from the holy tongue into their own language, the Holy One did not give them a mind to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear (Deuteronomy 29:3). Instead, they turn Moses’ words into something they are not, because [the Holy One] has no desire to have them cleave to His teaching.

I have even heard some of our own people expressing doubt about tefillin, mezuzot, and covering up the blood of a slaughtered animal with earth and comparing And so it shall be as a sign upon your hand and as a symbol on your forehead (Exodus 13:16) and Inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates (Deuteronomy 6:9) to Let me be a seal upon your heart, like the seal upon your hand (Song of Songs 8:6), which do not literally mean a seal on one’s arm and heart but merely “you should remember me.” They think the verses do not refer literally to tefillin and mezuzot. [ . . . ] Woe unto them for their insult to the Torah! For even they will surely one day be brought to justice.

Take the rod and assemble the congregation, you and your brother Aaron, and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it give forth its water. And you shall bring forth to them water out of the rock; so you shall give the congregation and their cattle drink. (Numbers 20:8)

This appears to me to be the incident described in Exodus 17:1–7, where Moses is told to “take the rod” and “strike the rock.” But Exodus is explaining that God provided the Israelites with manna, water, and quail in the wilderness, and scripture subsequently recounts each event in its proper place. [ . . . ] What is not explained here is explained there: that God told him to strike the rock. It is common for events to be recounted in one place and their explanation given in another. For example, in the episode of the spies, where Deuteronomy tells us that the Israelites said, “Let us send men before us, that they may search the land for us” (Deuteronomy 1:22), that is not explained in Numbers 13. There are many such cases.