Our Sages, when confronting the issue of Moses not entering the land of Israel, offer various explanations. Some claim that, as the text of the Torah explicitly states, Moses was punished because instead of talking to the rock he hit it. Rashi elaborates that had he spoken to the rock and it would have given forth its water, Israel would have garnered a great lesson. If a rock listens to the commands of G-d, certainly we, as humans, should do so as well. Other commentaries query as to why Aaron was punished for the same sin as Moses, since Aaron was not even explicitly mentioned in this incident at all.
There are those commentators who state that the sin of Moses was not that he hit the rock but that he lost his temper and degraded the Jewish people by calling them “rebellious.”
The Abarbanel offers a unique approach and states that both Aaron and Moses were punished for two separate misdeeds. Aaron was punished for his involvement in the Golden calf debacle, and Moses was punished because of the incident of the spies and the apparent 40-year delay that the Jews had to endure before they entered the land of Israel. Since Moses had the final word on whether to send out the spies and he chose to send them out, he is responsible for the aftermath that occurred to the Jewish people. The reason, the Abbarbanel continues, the Torah quoted the incident of hitting the rock rather than the true reason, was not to embarrass either Aaron or Moses. This is also why Aaron died before Moses, because the golden calf episode occurred before the spy event.
As I studied this story and related ones in the Torah, it occurred to me that Moses, at times, seemed to have lost his faith in the Jewish people. At the end of the portion of Vayelech, Moses tells the Jewish people that he knows that they will rebel against G-d, and ultimately will be severely punished. How can any nation possibly succeed if its leader has no confidence in them and predicts their failure? Moses our teacher was giving a “No confidence” vote for his own people. Could you imagine a child coming into his classroom at the beginning of the year and the teacher looks at him squarely in the eye and says, “I know your going to fail my class”? The child doesn’t have a chance to succeed. His teacher – and supposedly his advocate – has just declared him a disaster zone, a total failure.
I believe that this might also have been a reason that G-d punished Moses and refused his entry into the land of Israel. A leader that has lost faith in his people cannot lead his people and conquer the land of Israel. If you don’t believe in the innate good of your people, then you cannot lead any more.
Teachers and rabbanim must also feel that their students are special and unique. They must be their advocates. They must believe that they can achieve and succeed.
Children have an uncanny ability to perceive when someone believes in them and when they do not. Even the most difficult student will attempt to achieve if she knows that the teacher or principal believes that she can succeed. She will seek her approval and will await any opportunity to please her and to prove her innate worth.
On a large scale, to lead a nation requires of the leader that he believe in his constituents. On a smaller scale, a principal or a teacher in a school can only be successful if she believes that her students have the ability and the potential to be successful.