In 1994, a young IDF soldier, Nachshon Wachsman, was kidnapped and held ransom by Hamas terrorists. For six days, the population of Israel was on edge; in an unprecedented vigil, 50,000 people came to pray together at the Kotel.
However an IDF rescue mission failed and the terrorists murdered the young soldier. At the tear-filled funeral, his father addressed the theological question that was on people’s minds.
He asked: “Where did all our prayers go? Why were they not accepted?”
He responded: “God did hear our prayers. But sometimes, just like a caring and merciful parent to his children, sometimes God’s response is: No!”
The opening of our parashah is a story where God says “No!” Moses pleads with God to be allowed to enter Eretz Yisrael: “Let me, please, cross over and see the good land on the other side of the Jordan, that good hill country, and the Lebanon.” But God says no: “The Lord said to me: Enough! Never speak to Me of this matter again” (3:24-26).
We don’t always get what we want. Moses had led Israel to the Promised Land. It was his life’s mission. It is almost impossible to imagine the pain that Moses felt at God’s rejection. And the commentators wonder why.
Rabbi Sacks points out that a “No” to one thing is often a “Yes” to another: “Without the strength to say 'No', we lack the ability to say 'Yes'. When two people pledge themselves to one another in marriage, they are saying 'No' to adultery. When two friends speak in confidence, they are tacitly agreeing not to share their remarks with others. Without restraint there can be no trust. Our 'Yes' implies a 'No'.”
So if God is saying “No” to Moses, to whom is he saying a “Yes”?
One approach sees this as a firm message that leaders have no special privilege, instead they are held to a higher standard than the norm: “the slightest errors of the great saintly men so close to God in their service, weigh equally to the worst sins of ordinary mortals” (Shimshon Raphael Hirsch).
If Israel had been denied access to the Promised Land for their sins, Moses cannot use his elevated rank to demand a different outcome. This broadcasts a message of divine impartiality, and a stern warning to leaders that they cannot abuse their position.
Alternatively, “Enough! Rav Lach! – enough for you! The miracles and wonders that I have performed for you are enough. Leave room for others to excel and progress” (Bechor Shor). Sometimes society needs to move on. Moses was a leader for 40 years, but however great a leader may be, there is room for new ideas, new methods, new personalities and skills for a new era. Moses may not enter the land, so that a new national leadership can emerge.
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