Generational Trauma

“Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring water for you out of this rock?”  Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their livestock drank.  Numbers 20:10b-11  NASB

Struck – We know this story from Sunday school days.  The ensuing punishment given by God is often explained as a result of not following God’s commandment, that is, striking the rock rather than speaking to it.  But under Hebrew judicial thinking (Midda K’negged Midda—Measure for Measure), this seems entirely uncalled for.  God’s retribution is out of proportion with the act.  We wonder why God acts so harshly.  Typical explanations like this one: “Moses’ leadership faltered in the crucial moment when he stopped trusting God and started acting on his own impulses,”[1] simply put the blame on Moses for acting imperfectly, that is, for not meticulously following the exact words of God.  Let me suggest that if this is the reason God’s judgment falls on Moses, we are all in serious trouble.  Psalm 15 describes our pitiful condition under these circumstances.

Lord, who may reside in Your tent?
Who may settle on Your holy hill?
One who walks with integrity, practices righteousness,
And speaks truth in his heart.
He does not slander with his tongue,
Nor do evil to his neighbor,
Nor bring shame on his friend;

The rabbis understood David’s words to mean “one who fulfills all the commandments,” for that is the essence of the list David provides.  But, of course, that means none of us are able to reside in God’s tent since we have all fallen.  This brought considerable distress to the rabbis, until Akiva provided an interpretation:

“Rabbi Akiva replied: . . . ‘The verse says that one who fulfills all of these commandments will never be shaken, and if one fulfills one of them, it is as if he fulfilled them all!’  Whereupon Rabban Gamaliel said, ‘You have comforted me, Akiva, you have comforted me.’

In this exegesis, Rabbi Akiva outdid himself and contradicted himself.  But it is clear that had he taken a strict and severe understanding of this psalm, no one would have a leg to stand on.  All Israel is supposed to have a share in the coming world.  But if you say that only one who does all of these is unshaken forever, there could be no hope for any creature on earth.”[2]

Given this fluid and certainly more palatable interpretation, what can we say about God and Moses?  Moses was Israel’s greatest warrior prophet.  Certainly God should have rewarded him, not excluded him from entering the Land after so many years of service.  It simply cannot be a mistake of self-asserted leadership that perpetuates such a terrible judgment.  The Christian explanation condemns us all because it fails to see the real reason for God’s reaction.  Fortunately, Zornberg directs us toward the deeper issue:

“In the Merivah moment, then, Moses does speak to the people, but his language ‘misfires.’  His speaking was to have a performative power; words of Torah would have given birth to prayer and in turn to water from the rock.  Language here was to be an act, not describing but transforming reality.  Instead, Moses speaks so as to wither possibilities in the bud.  As Rambam reads the scene, Moses’ scornful speech misrepresents God’s words.  He ‘forgets’ to address the inner lives of the people, the dynamic power of Torah and prayer to create a sense of holiness among them.”[3]

As she writes, Moses “wielded words as blunt weapons.”[4]  What Moses did is perpetuate the trauma of the past generation on this new audience.  He refuses to forgive, to transition from anger to compassion.  His opening words reveal his lack of sympathy.  “Listen now, you rebels.”  But these are not the people who came out of Egypt.  Those people have all died—except Moses—and his speech will not let the new generation be new.  As far as he is concerned, they are exactly like their forefathers and his anger at the forefathers spills over into his action on this day.  He misrepresents God’s benevolence.  He forces the people to still see God as the harsh Judge, ready to wield revenge upon them.  He is punished, not because he didn’t do exactly what God commanded, but because he bequeaths the trauma of the past to the present population.  He makes them slaves all over again.

What is the role of the healer of trauma?  “The goal of healing from trauma is to put all the shattered pieces together and make yourself whole again—really, to create a new whole self.  This is the crucial point.  You are not creating a whole from the new whole cloth; you are creating a whole from the shattered pieces.”[5]  Every one of the people standing before Moses that day carried incredible traumatic experiences.  They watched all the parents die.  They wandered for years in barren waste places.  They saw judgment (Korah).  They heard the stories.  Now God wants them to become new whole selves, ready for the task of entering the Promised Land.  And Moses stands in the way.  Worse than that, he refuses to let them reimagine themselves.  He does exactly the opposite of what God intends.  It’s not about striking or speaking.  That’s naïve.  It’s about emotional attitude, forgiveness, anger, compassion, transformation.  Moses’ remarks and actions keep God in the place of the vengeful deity.  Moses keeps the people in the place of fear precisely when God wants the people to trust.  That’s why it’s so serious.

Topical Index:  Meribah, trauma, transition, Moses, rock, strike, Numbers 20:10b-11

[1] https://www.theologyofwork.org/old-testament/numbers-and-work/moses-unfaithfulness-at-meribah-numbers-202-13

[2] Abraham Heschel, Heavenly Torah as Refracted through the Generations, p. 178.

[3] Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg,  Bewilderments: Reflections on the Book of Numbers, pp. 228-229.

[4] Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg,  Bewilderments: Reflections on the Book of Numbers, p. 229.

[5] Gretchen L. Schmelzer, Journey Through Trauma, p. 32.