Or HaChaim on Exodus 17:3/אור החיים על שמות י״ז:ג׳

1 ויצמא שם העם למים, The people thirsted there for water, etc. One cannot help wondering why G'd subjected the people to such a trial that they came close to dying of thirst. Most ordinary people would turn heretics if subjected to this kind of trial. Besides, it is even harder to understand Moses who did not take the initiative and offer prayers on behalf of the people and their suffering instead of crying out to G'd that the people were about to stone him in their frustration? Moses' prayer sounds as if he was insensitive to the people's thirst, concerned only with his own death by stoning!

2It appears that G'd's purpose in subjecting the people to this test was to train them to raise their eyes heavenwards, to pray and to implore G'd in times of need because this is an important principle in matters of faith and attempts to perfect one's personality. You will note that G'd applied this same psychology when He allocated manna to the Israelites on a daily basis instead of giving them a weekly or monthly supply at a time. He also denied them this miraculous bread until they had pleaded with Him for sustenance. As soon as the people pleaded with G'd, He responded positively. In our paragraph we find that the Israelites contented themselves with complaining to Moses; They did not consider that their fate was subject to G'd's personal providence. As a result their situation grew steadily worse so that the Torah describes their thirst as overpowering. The Torah mentions that G'd tested them because they had not seen fit to request help from Him. When they asked if G'd were indeed in their midst or not, they demonstrated that they were not prepared to acknowledge that G'd guided their affairs by special providence. The only way G'd could prove that He was indeed in their midst was to allow the situation to become so critical that the people would learn to turn to Him as a result of the intensity of their thirst. Moses realised all this; this is why he refrained from praying to G'd sooner. When he saw that the situation had become intolerable, he asked G'd: "what shall I do for this people?" He meant "how can I deflect the people's complaint from me personally and have the people turn to You?" Clearly, Moses realised that the solution to the problem did not depend merely on prayer otherwise he would have prayed just as he had done when he faced the Sea of Reeds. He argued further that עוד מעט, if G'd were to allow the situation to deteriorate still further, the natural result of the people's frustration would be that they would stone him. It could well be that eventually and in desperation, the people would finally turn to G'd in prayer but by that time they would have killed him as a leader who had failed them.

3It was this latter argument which G'd accepted; I have been troubled by the thought that a people who had witnessed so many miracles in Egypt, at the sea, and in the desert did not turn in prayer to the G'd who had performed all these miracles. After all, these people were aware of the efficacy of prayer having seen how G'd sent them their redeemer immediately after they had appealed to G'd in Exodus 2,23. G'd had told Moses specifically that He sent him in response to the people's groaning. Perhaps the people thought that as long as G'd was in their midst there was no need for prayer. What would have been the point of G'd bringing them into the desert if He did not intend to supply their needs? If G'd did not intend to supply their needs they would be lost anyways, so what good would prayer do? They concluded therefore that the only reason they had no water was because G'd was not in their midst.