"Grief is Normal."
Miriam, the sister, daughter, midwife, leader, visionary, prophetess dies
in this week’s parsha.
"Miriam died there and she was buried...”
In response, the waters that issued forth from the rock
to sustain the people traveling in the desert dries up.
The nation becomes thirsty and anxious and demand water from Moses and Aaron.
“Why did you make us leave Egypt to bring us to this wretched place,
a place with no grain or figs or vines or pomegranates?
There is not even water to drink!”
Moses consults with God who tells him to take his staff and
speak to the rock to bring forth water.
However, Moses, "raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod.
Out came copious water, and the community and their beasts drank.”
Moses is held accountable for hitting the rock and
not following God’s direction to speak to it.
There are many commentaries on what it was that Moses did wrong and why.
I’d like to offer a thought I saw from Rabbi Sacks who suggests
that we should understand that Moses had just lost his older sister and
that he was in a state of profound grief.
In the early days after losing a beloved one we are so stricken with grief
that the world feels empty and chaotic.
One’s world has been turned upside-down and one is unable to think or act clearly.
Perhaps Moses was so deeply in shock that his hitting the rock
came from that place.
This holds a lesson for us to be aware of how death affects those left behind.
Mourners may look the same, but their world has radically changed.
May we create societies where we support those who are grieving and approach them with compassion, forgiveness, kindness and love.
Shabbat shalom
Elissa
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