Exodus17chapter 17

One rule of the synagogue is drawn from this chapter. Rashi reads the three men named at verse 10, Moses and Aaron and Hur, as the pattern for a public fast day, on which three men stand before the ark to lead the prayer. He infers it from the fasting Israel was engaged in during the battle, and cites the Mekhilta (Rashi on Exodus 17:10:1).

Rashi guards the miracle at the rock against a later doubt. The elders were taken along as witnesses, he says, so that nobody could claim "that there had been springs there from time immemorial" (Rashi on Exodus 17:5:2). At verse 6 he reads the wording closely, holding that Moses was told to strike into the rock rather than on its face (Rashi on Exodus 17:6:1). At verse 8 he explains why Amalek follows the question whether the LORD is among us. He gives the parable of a son carried on his father's shoulder who asks a passer-by where his father is (Rashi on Exodus 17:8:1). At verse 9 he reads the words choose out men for us as Moses setting Joshua beside himself, and the Rabbis drew a rule of honour from it (Rashi on Exodus 17:9:1). At verse 12 he explains the heavy hands as a consequence, since Moses had sent another man to the fighting (Rashi on Exodus 17:12:1). The text is the Rosenbaum and Silbermann Rashi of 1929 to 1934, in the public domain. Ramban reads the complaint of verse 3 as a practical one. The people named their cattle in it, so the whole matter needed counsel (Ramban on Exodus 17:3:1, the Chavel translation, Shilo, 1971 to 1976).

The rabbis take up the quarrel over water at Arakhin 15a:20 and Bekhorot 5b:4. On Moses fearing to be stoned they taught in the Mekhilta at Tractate Vayassa 7:8. On the rock at Horeb they taught at Bava Metzia 86b:13 and Bamidbar Rabbah 14:2. On the coming of Amalek they taught at Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 3:7:1 and Jerusalem Talmud Taanit 4:3:2. On the lifted hands they taught in Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Rosh Hashanah 3:1.