For What Do We Really Thirst?

Rabbi Lance Sussman

Parshat Chukat

If you want to learn something interesting about this week’s Torah portion, Chukat (‘Statute’), a good place to start would be Gallery 364 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. There you will find a small painting by Dutch master Jan Steen (1626-1679) called “Moses Striking the Rock,” a fanciful, artistic interpretation of Numbers 20.

The story is well-known. Water is in short supply in the desert during the Exodus from Egypt. Moses leads the people to a rock, which he strikes twice with his staff and water gushes out. Moses calls the people “rebels” or malcontents who, likewise, rush to satiate their thirst. Steen, who is well-known for his theatrical depiction of people, concentrates more on the people and their animals than on their leaders.

Steen presents Moses and Aaron as immense Viking-like creatures, each with their own set of horns, who are set in the background. But it’s the people who catch the viewer’s eye. In the foreground, a young man in torn but colorful clothing is filling a bronze bowl with the water streaming directly from the rock. To his left is a dog licking water from the ground.

To his right is a white horse, head down, looking for water. Then there is a whole host of people, from eager babies to soldiers to upscale women all attentively imbibing the groundwater.

Everyone is thirsty and, finally, there is water to drink! None of these artistic flourishes are in the Torah itself but they are effective as visual Midrash and make the fateful scene come alive.

All of us experience thirst and luckily, we live in a place with an ample water supply. Thirst is a complex response to dehydration and has been the subject of extensive medical and scientific study. Most of us have even had the experience of being on an IV when we needed to hydrate but could not use our mouths to do so. In any event, we cannot survive without sufficient hydration, literally, all the time.

It is also true that we have many other thirsts beyond water and other fluids. First and foremost, we thirst for love in all its many manifestations. We thirst for the love of family, friends, partners and spouses. We need to be love-hydrated to survive and function as human beings. Perhaps that is why so many faiths have the idea of a Loving God, the ultimate guarantor of the connection by an Other that ensures us of the capacity to live and love ourselves.

Inherent in the human being is also the love of knowledge. Beginning as infants, we naturally want to know everything we can about the world around us. We want to learn how to talk, walk, feed ourselves and more. Nothing short of success satisfies us, and then we are off to learn the next set of things to do and understand. As we grow, our love of knowledge matures with us. Some thirst for an understanding of the natural world, others are drawn to math, some need to drink deeply at the well of literature, others want to know everything there is to know about the past.

In time, some of us lose the thirst for knowledge and the arc of learning slows and flattens. Others remain persistent in growing intellectually from cradle to grave. But without thirsting for knowledge, we cannot begin our journeys as human beings.

A third type of thirst is the thirst or even hunger for power. The quest for power can be at a very grand level and propel us to excel in politics and business. This type of thirst is hard to quench. How much power is enough? How many systems and organizations do we need to dominate? Perhaps we need just enough power to have a sense of control over our own lives?

Some of us want to dominate others. We live in a society that values success and success is often equated with domination. When is enough power enough? When do the rights of others take priority over our own longings? The thirst for power is ongoing, complex and dynamic.

Judaism also posits the idea of a thirst for justice. Beginning with Abraham, the Jewish tradition has insisted that we seek justice both as individuals and as a society. The prophet Amos declared, “Let justice roll down like waters” (5:24). In our own day, we speak of tikkun olam, the repair of the world. This thirst has resulted in joining and leading campaigns for civil rights as well as the creation of community food pantries and “mitzvah gardens.” We thirst, we hunger, for justice.

In Steen’s painting “Moses Strikes the Rock we learn that thirst is a basic need for people and animals. However, upon reflection, we can recognize that we have many thirsts, including the thirst for love, knowledge, power and justice.

What do you thirst for and how do you satiate those needs? These are the questions that ultimately define us as people and as Jews.

Lance J. Sussman is the rabbi emeritus of Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel and continues to write, teach and serve the community at large. He is a former chair of the Board of Governors of Gratz College and is a vice president of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia. The Board of Rabbis is proud to provide diverse perspectives on Torah commentary for the Jewish Exponent. The opinions expressed in this column are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Board of Rabbis.