Speak to the Rock

[Num. 20:2] And there was no water for the congregation: and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.
In the Kabala, “water” is associated with Divine emanation of Chesed-Love.
There was at Kadesh a fountain, En-Mishpat (Gen. 14:7), and at the first encampment of the Israelites there was no want of water. It was then either partially dried up by the heat of the season, or had been exhausted by the demands of so vast a multitude. Water which having followed them through all their former journeys, began to fail them here, because they were now come near countries, where water might be had by ordinary means, and therefore G-d would not use extraordinary, lest he should seem to prostitute the honor of miracles. This story, though like that, 17:1-7, is different from it, as appears by divers’ circumstances. It is a great mercy, to have plenty of water; a mercy which if we found the want of, we should own the worth of. Their sin was much greater than that of their parents because they should have taken warning by their miscarriages, and by the terrible effects of them, which their eyes had seen.
Here is a fresh ebullition of the untamed and discontented spirit of the people. The leaders fled to the precincts of the sanctuary, both as an asylum from the increasing fury of the highly excited rabble, and as their usual refuge in seasons of perplexity and danger, to implore the direction and aid of G-d.
Take the rod which had been deposited in the Tabernacle (17:10), the wonder-working rod by which so many miracles had been performed, sometimes called the rod of G-d (Ex. 4:20), sometimes Moses (20:11) or Aaron’s rod (Ex. 7:12), was laid up in some part of the Tabernacle, though not in or near the Ark, where Aaron’s blossoming rod was put.
Speak - to the rock. The Messiah (the rock) can only be struck one time. Ex. 17:8-6.
The conduct of the great leader on this occasion was hasty and passionate (Ps. 106:33). He had been directed to speak to the rock (20:8), but he smote it twice (20:11) in his impetuosity, thus endangering the blossoms of the rod and, instead of speaking to the rock, he spoke to the people in fury. He lost his temper, using a harsh expression to present the people and their needs. Unbelief and failed to glorify G-d. Rebelled against G-d. Aaron being with his shared in Moses punishment.
The congregation drank, and their beasts - Physically the water afforded the same kind of needful refreshment to both. But from a religious point of view, this, which was only a common element to the cattle, was a sacrament to the people (1 Cor. 10:3-4) B it possessed a relative sanctity imparted to it by its divine origin and use.