But He Made Me So Angry

Rabbi Joel Fleekop

Saturday, August 5, 2006

At the end of June and the beginning of July I spent eleven days traveling in Israel with my wife. We had a wonderful time. We visited old friends, saw some new sites, and spent time on the beach in Tel Aviv. The trip to Israel was great and it came with a side bonus. Because of when we were in Israel, or perhaps more importantly, because of when we were out of the United States, we had the chance to join the rest of the world in a quadrennial celebration of soccer, known as the World Cup.

Every night hotel lobbies and bars filled as strangers gathered in front of big screen TVs to watch the games. Signs of the World Cup were everywhere and the passion with which people watched the games was amazing.

It is hard to imagine that there is something that so captures the attention of so many people around the globe. But the World Cup does.

It is the largest stage in sport, a soccer tournament with cultural, economic, and political ramifications. That the event is of such importance and of such magnitude made its conclusion all the more shocking.

As you may recall the final between Italy and France was in the 20th minute of overtime, only 10 minutes from going to penalty kicks, when Zinedine Zidane seemingly snapped. Zidane, who won the tournament’s Golden Ball as its most outstanding player, who helped France win the 1998 World Cup, and who had announced that this World Cup would mark the end of his storied career, jogged past an Italian defender, turned, and head butted him in the chest, knocking him to the ground. For this act of violence, Zidane, the French captain, was thrown out of the game; a game France ultimately lost in penalty kicks, an area in which Zidane excels.

In the days after the head butting incident, Zidane apologized but he stopped short of accepting responsibility. He made it sound as though it was the other guy’s fault that he lost his temper; explaining the Italian player had insulted his mother.

Over the past few weeks we have learned that the Italian player did in fact insult Zidane’s mother. So should we accept Zidane’s account of who is responsible? And what about all the other times when people break rules reacting to the behavior of others? Who is to blame then?

Studying this week’s Torah portion provides some guidance.

As Lyla mentioned, Parshat Va’etchanan begins with Moses telling the people how he pleaded with God to be allowed to enter the Promised Land but that his pleas had been rejected. As part of his speech, Moses asserts, “Now the Eternal was angry with me on your account and swore that I should not cross the Jordan and enter the good land that the Eternal your God is giving you as a heritage.”

This statement is a bit surprising. After all, it was just a few weeks ago when we heard the story of how Moses forfeited his right to enter the land of Israel by not following God’s commandment, hitting a rock to bring forth water instead of speaking to it as God instructed.

So how could it possibly be the people’s fault? Sure they were complaining about the lack of food and water but did they take Moses’ arm and make him hit the rock?

What could they possibly have done that Moses would blame them for his mistake?

Midrash Yalkut Shimoni helps us imagine the answer.

According to the midrash Moses was leading the people through the desert, walking ahead of everyone in order to show them the way. But behind him people were questioning Moses’ leadership as well as his special relationship with God

They were saying thinks like, “Hey, did you know Moses used to work as one of Jethro’s shepherds and of course shepherds are expert in finding water. I bet when it is time to perform a miracle and bring forth water, Moses simply leads us to a place where he knows there is water and says, ‘Hey look I brought forth water.’ Why don’t we test him and ask him to bring forth water from this very rock.”

Moses being at the front of the group didn’t hear these conversations, but when he turned around to see how everyone was doing, he saw scores of small groups of Israelites gathered around different rocks in the desert, each group demanding that Moses bring forth water from the rock they were standing around.

This sight sent Moses into a rage. Angrily he found a rock that no one was standing around and, with his mind too consumed with passion to remember that God had earlier instructed him to get water by speaking to, rather than hitting rocks, twice struck the rock.

Through this midrashic story, the rabbis explain how the Israelites played a role in provoking Moses’ actions, and why Moses would blame them. But the tradition stops short of accepting Moses’ account of where blame should rest.

As the Midrash continues, God speaks to Moses and makes it very clear that while it was wrong for the people to question and taunt him, Moses alone will be held responsible for his actions. That others have angered you and maybe even wronged you doesn’t excuse whatever you do in response.

In Proverbs we read, “It is better to be forbearing than mighty, to have self-control than to conquer a city.” The behavior of Zinedine Zidane at this summer’s World Cup, and the tragic act of Moses angrily hitting the rock prove this statement to be true.

I hope and pray that we will all work towards being patient and slow to anger. And when we do act out of anger, may we have the courage and the wisdom to accept responsibility for our behavior.