Rashi on TanakhExodus 17

Why are you testing — by saying: “Is He capable of giving water in an arid land?”

Before long. I.e., “If I wait a little longer they will stone me.”

Pass to the front of the people. “And see whether they will stone you! Why did you slander My children?!”

And take with you the elders of Yisrael. [As witnesses —]that they may see that it is through you that the waters will come out from the rock, and they will not claim that there were springs there from earlier days.

The staff with which you struck the river. Why does it state: “with which you struck the river.” But [the answer is:] Because the B’nei Yisrael said of the staff that it was intended only for the purpose of punishment. With it Pharaoh and the Egyptians were struck with many plagues in Egypt and on the sea. Therefore it states: “with which you struck the river.” Now they will see that it was intended also for good.

You shall strike the rock. It does not say עַל הַצּוּר — “onto the rock” but, rather, בַּצּוּר — “into the rock.” From here we can derive that the staff was made of a strong substance called sapphire and the rock was split by it.

Amaleik came, etc., [The Torah] places this section adjacent to the [previous] verse in order to convey: “I (God) am always amongst you and ready to fulfill all your needs, and yet you say: “Is Adonoy among us or not?” [I swear] by your lives that the dog (Amaleik) will come and bite you, and you will cry out to Me and then you will know where I am.” A parable: [this may be compared] to a man who placed his son on his shoulders and went out on a journey. Whenever the son saw a desirable object he would say: “Father, take that object and give it to me.” And he (the father) would give it to him. This happened a second and third time. They met a certain person whereupon the son said to him (that person), “Have you seen my father?” His father said to him, “Do you not know where I am?!” Whereupon he threw him off himself and the dog came and bit him.

Choose for us — “for me and for you.” He (Moshe) equated him (Yehoshua) to himself. From this they [the Sages] said: “The honor of your disciple should be as dear to you as your own.” And [the statement of the Sages that follows:]” the honor of your colleague [should be] equal to the reverence of your teacher” — from where is that derived? For it is said: “Aharon said to Moshe, ‘I beg you, my master.’” Was not Aharon older than his brother? Yet he related to his colleague as his teacher. [The following statement:] “and reverence of your teacher should be equal to the reverence for God” — from where is that derived? For it is said [Yehoshua said to Moshe:] “Moshe, my master, כְּלָאֵם,” meaning: destroy them from this world. Those that rebel against you deserve to be destroyed as if they had rebelled against God.

Go out to battle. Go out of the cloud and battle him.

“Tomorrow — at the time of battle, I will stand.”

Choose men for us — who are strong and sin-fearing (righteous) so that they may be helped by their merit. An alternate explanation: “Choose men for us — who know how to negate witchcraft,” since the Amaleikites were witchcraft practitioners.

Moshe, Aharon, and Chur. From here we derive that during a fast three people are required to go before the reader’s stand for they (the B’nei Yisrael) were then engaged in fasting.

Chur. He was Miriam’s son and Koleiv was her husband.

When Moshe raised his hand. “But was it the hands of Moshe that caused victory in battle, etc.” as is cited in (Maseches) Rosh Hashanah (29a).

Moshe’s hands became heavy. Because he was lax in the performance of a mitzvah, by appointing another in his stead, his hands became heavy.

They took. Aharon and Chur [took] —

a stone, and placed it under him. He did not seat himself on a pillow or cushion, for he said: “Yisrael is in a state of suffering. I, too, will be with them in suffering.”

His hands remained an expression of faith. I.e., Moshe was [in a state] [wherein his] hands were with faithfulness [meaning:] spread towards the heavens with faithful and well-intended prayer.

Until sunset. For the Amaleikites calculated the hours according to astrology as to what hour is best for them to triumph. Moshe held the sun back against them thereby confusing the hours.

Yehoshua weakened. He cut off the heads of his [Amaleik’s] mighty warriors and left only the weak among them and did not kill them all. From this we may conclude that they acted according to a specific command of the shechinah.

Write this as a remembrance — that Amaleik came to attack Yisrael prior to any other nation.

And put it into the ears of Yehoshua [Yehoshua being] the one that will bring Yisrael into the land. Let him command Yisrael to pay him [Amaleik] his deserved reward [punishment]. This was an intimation to Moshe that Yehoshua will bring Yisrael into the land.

For I will totally obliterate. It is for this reason that I admonish you about this, because I want to obliterate him.

And called its name. [The name] of the altar.

Adonoy is my miracle. [Meaning:] God performed a great miracle here for us. It does not mean that the altar was called ה' but rather whoever will mention the name of the altar will mention the miracle which God performed: “God is our Miracle.”

He said. Moshe [said].

“The hand is on God’s throne. The hand of God is raised to swear by His Throne to have eternal war and animosity against Amaleik. Why is it written כֵּס and not כִּסֵּא and also the Name is cut in half (י־ה)? God swore that His Name will not be whole, nor will His Throne be whole until the name of Amaleik is totally obliterated. And when his name will be obliterated the Name will be whole and the Throne will be whole, as it is said: “The enemy is finished, whose swords were eternal,” which refers to Amaleik about whom it is written: “He held onto his anger forever” [The verse in Tehillim now continues:] “And cities you uprooted their memory has perished.” And what is said afterwards? “But Adonoy (י־ה־ו־ה) is forever enthroned,” whereby the Name has become whole. “He establishes (כִּסְאוֹ) His Throne for judgment,” whereby the Throne has become whole.