answers to shlach

Shelach 5731
Alef.

שמות פרק לב	במדבר פרק יד
יא) ויחל משה את פני יקוק אלקיו ויאמר למה יקוק יחרה אפך בעמך אשר הוצאת מארץ מצרים בכח גדול וביד חזקה:	יג) ויאמר משה אל יקוק ושמעו מצרים כי העלית בכחך את העם הזה מקרבו:
יב) למה יאמרו מצרים לאמר ברעה הוציאם להרג אתם בהרים ולכלתם מעל פני האדמה שוב מחרון אפך והנחם על הרעה לעמך:	יד) ואמרו אל יושב הארץ הזאת שמעו כי אתה יקוק בקרב העם הזה אשר עין בעין נראה אתה יקוק ועננך עמד עלהם ובעמד ענן אתה הלך לפניהם יומם ובעמוד אש לילה:
יג) זכר לאברהם ליצחק ולישראל עבדיך אשר נשבעת להם בך ותדבר אלהם ארבה את זרעכם ככוכבי השמים וכל הארץ הזאת אשר אמרתי אתן לזרעכם ונחלו לעלם	טו) והמתה את העם הזה כאיש אחד ואמרו הגוים אשר שמעו את שמעך לאמר:
	טז) מבלתי יכלת יקוק להביא את העם הזה אל הארץ אשר נשבע להם וישחטם במדבר:
	יז) ועתה יגדל נא כח א-דני כאשר דברת לאמר:
	יח) יקוק ארך אפים ורב חסד נשא עון ופשע ונקה לא ינקה פקד עון אבות על בנים על שלשים ועל רבעים:
	יט) סלח נא לעון העם הזה כגדל חסדך וכאשר נשאתה לעם הזה ממצרים ועד הנה:

1. (See Alon HaDeracha,  1^st opening paragraph.) The similarity between Moshe’s two prayers is the argument that should God Destroy the Jewish people, Chas VeShalom, the non-Jews will draw the conclusion that God is not all Powerful. While He Showed Power during the Exodus, He apparently was not up to the task of keeping them alive in the desert. Furthermore just as there is a plea for forgiveness towards the people in Shemot 32:12, a similar plaint appears in BaMidbar 14:19. However the two prayers diverge with respect to two additional arguments that are made in Shemot but are absent in Devarim. Besides bringing up the concern regarding what other nations will think should God Fail to Bring the people to Canaan, Moshe also says that since God “Exerted” so much effort when He Extracted them from Egypt it would not make sense to suddenly Remove His Protection from them, as well as He has an obligation to Honor the commitment that He Made to the Forefathers to both Multiply as well as Bring their offspring to the Promised Land.

2.  (See Alon HaDeracha, 2^nd opening paragraph.) The prayer after the sin of the spies has to be put into the context of the actions of the people beginning with BaMidbar 11.

         11:1-3   The complainers resulting in a plague of fire.

               3-34 The complaints about meat resulting in another deadly plague.

         12  The sin of Miriam and Aharon against Moshe resulting in Miriam’s Tzora’at.

13:1-39 The sin of the spies ultimately resulting in the decree that the generation of the Exodus, with the exception of the Levites, as well as Yehoshua and Kalev would not be allowed to enter the land of Israel.

Since the bloom was somewhat off the rose in light of the Jews’ continuous challenges to God’s Authority, arguments for how beloved these particular people ought to be lose their credence, resulting in Moshe resorting to an argument that does not depend upon the fealty of the Jews, i.e., how their punishment will be seen by outsiders. Since it is clear from sources such as Shemot 7:5 that HaShem Intended to Make an impression upon the Egyptians, and in Shemot 15:14-16 that He Succeeded in Impressing other nations as well, for all of the positive achievements in terms of calling attention to God’s Omnipotence to be suddenly negated would be counterproductive.

Beit.

1. In Shmot 32, HaShem Begins (v. 7) by calling the Jews “your (Moshe’s) people”, in effect distancing Himself from them due to their idolatry, an application of Mida KeNeged Mida, i.e., if the people distances itself from God, He will Do the same vis-à-vis them. (The Midrash [Shemot Rabba 42:3] attributes to God the very human tactic of one parent who is displeased with a child’s behavior, referring to the child as belonging to the other parent. The Midrash also explains that initially HaShem Discouraged Moshe from allowing the Mixed Multitude to accompany the people out of Egypt, perhaps fearing their undue corruptive influence. But Moshe insisted that they be allowed to come, and it therefore becomes possible to understand that God is Blaming Moshe for not realizing how his decision was counterproductive for the welfare of the Jewish people as a whole. While eventually Jewish identity would be established strongly enough to be able to absorb outsiders, at this point in the people’s development, rather than influencing others positively to adopt Jewish values and beliefs, they were the ones who would most likely be influenced negatively, and revert back to pagan ideas.)

In v. 9 God slightly Eases the accusation against Moshe and refers to the people not as “your people” but rather this people, assuming a neutral stance.

V. 11-2 record how Moshe’s prayer includes the phrase “Your People” reflecting an insistence by the prophet of God not Disowning the nation that He had Redeemed from Egypt.

V. 14 objectively describes God as no longer desiring to harm “His People”, in effect an acceptance of Moshe’s plea.  

In contrast to the back-and-forth that appears in Shemot 32, both Moshe and God refer to the people in BaMidbar 14 as “this people”. They both evidence a sense of distance and frustration with the nation for the most part, and while Moshe still prays on their behalf and God eventually acquiesces to not destroying them, nevertheless there is a sense of distance on the parts of the prophet and God that remains throughout.

2.  The use of the article “this”:    The use of the possessive pronoun:

   Beraishit 37:19 The brothers showing resentment Beraishit 37:26 Yehuda trying to win

         towards Yosef.       sympathy for Yosef so that

                                                   the brothers spare his life.

II Shmuel 13:17 After Amnon had his way with  II Shmuel 13:5 By referring to Tamar in   Tamar, he refers to her impersonally.   a friendly fashion will not raise Jeremiah 5:14 A reference to the people    suspicions regarding his   about whom punishments are predicted.  intentions.    

Jeremiah 5:23 A reference to how rebellious  II Shmuel 13:11 Amnon seeks to get

      the Jews are.       Tamar to come closer so that he

                                                can more easily attack her. 

                                          Jeremiah 5:27 The disconnect between          evildoers and the people in          general is more pronounced          when the people are referred          to as God’s People.

                                          Jeremiah 5:31 It seems to me that the          possessive pronoun is           employed in this instance          ironically, i.e., the situation is so         bad with respect to false          prophets and power hungry          priests, and “My People” see          nothing wrong with this.

It would appear that the general rule would be that the use of the possessive pronoun reflects a generally positive approach to the individual or nation being referenced, while the use of the article “this” suggests a distancing and disapproval.

Gimel.

1. The answer to Abrabanel’s question revolves around the purpose of the Creation in general and the Jewish people in particular. If God is Desirous of having people acknowledge his Rulership, then by allowing the Jews to be downtrodden and therefore subject to derision by the nations simultaneously engenders disrespect for God Himself. God does not Need the respect; however, if other nations are to become at least monotheist, adhering to the seven Noachide Commandments, only a healthy respect for God will motivate them to do so.

2.  Alef.

In Devarim, HaShem States that the only thing that stopped Him from Destroying the Jewish people was the readiness of the enemies of the Jews and God to take credit for such a destruction. While in his Tefilla in BaMidbar Moshe does not suggest that the Egyptians would aggrandize themselves by claiming the victory over the Jews as their own, nevertheless they would be ready to disparage God and His Power were the Jews to fail to reach the land of Israel as they had been originally promised. 

Beit.

It would appear that Abrabanel’s comment makes more sense within the context of Moshe’s prayer. The Egyptians weren’t enemies of God per se, as Amalek was depicted as being. Rather they were observers of what was going on and drawing conclusions regarding God’s Power. In Ha’azinu, mention is made of God’s Enemies. It would make more sense that He would be interested in directly refuting them than neutral bystanders.

Gimel.

  RaMBaN emphasizes that HaShem “Needs” witnesses to His Impact on the world, and by extension, for His Creation of the world. By allowing the Jews to disappear, there would no longer be any group of individuals who would give credence to these historical events. BaMidbar 14:14 emphasizes the close relationship experienced by the Jews.

Daled.
      1. Mishneh Kesef (Ibn Kaspi) is closer to RaShBaM and Ibn Ezra than ShaDaL.

2. Mishneh Kesef: Moshe calls upon HaShem to Exercise the Middot by which He Described Himself in Shemot 34:6.

   ShaDaL: Cause Your Name and Reputation to be enhanced among the nations by your forgiving the Jews.

3.  In light of the mention of the Middot of HaShem in 14:18, it would appear that the more literal interpretation of 14:17 would be an appeal to HaShem to Act in accordance with His Middot.

4.  It is unclear why the Middot of HaShem are invoked by Moshe at this point. If Moshe is simply asking that the Jews not be destroyed, even if they were evil and deserving of punishment, nevertheless the negative impression re God that would be made on the surrounding nations had to be avoided, whether the Jews deserved being forgiven or not. Consequently Mishneh Kesef explains that while the intended result is that the Jews not be destroyed at this point, the mechanism by which this could be accomplished is already in place with respect to HaShem’s Capacity of Giving sinners time to repent and not Punishing immediately.

Heh.

1. Since in the second half of the verse, the directive not to be afraid of the Canaanites is repeated, but this time instead of preceding this statement with a warning not to rebel against HaShem as in the first clause, but rather the positive statement that “HaShem will Be with us”, this demonstrates that one depends upon the other, i.e., if there is no rebellion against HaShem/if HaShem is with us, then there is no reason to be fearful of the inhabitants of the land.

במדבר פרק יד

(ט) אך ביקוק אל תמרדו ואתם אל תיראו את עם הארץ כי לחמנו הם סר צלם מעליהם ויקוק אתנו אל תיראם:

2.  RaShI wishes to distinguish between the two “Ana”’s in the verse, i.e., the first one connotes to what extent will they continue to aggravate Me, whereas the second instance implies for how long will they not believe in Me?

3.  RaShI wants to point out that the preposition “Bi” is not synonymous with the preposition of “BeChol”. Rather than understanding the verse as stating, “How long will they not believe in Me, i.e., in all of the signs that I Did in their midst,” RaShI reads, “How long will they not believe in Me due to all of the signs that I Did in their midst.” One could wonder what the signs have to do with God’s Ability to Bring them into the land and defeat its inhabitants. Consequently RaShI states that the signs are an indication of God’s Omnipotence.

4.  RaShI adds the words because otherwise the essence of the argument appears to be missing, i.e., the negative impression will not be made due to the fact that HaShem Took the Jews out of Egypt, but rather because He Caused them to die. Why should no mention be made of this until verse 15? Moshe should begin immediately with the claim if he felt the situation was desperate and the destruction of the people immanent.