For Your Sake

Parshas Devarim

From Rosh Chodesh Shevat until Moshe died on the seventh of Adar, a total of 36 days passed, equal to the numerical value of “eileh.” Here Moshe lightly rebuked the people of Israel for their ingratitude to G-d during the 40 years of their sojourn in the desert. The rebuke was light because although Moshe was blaming them, he was also acting as their defense attorney by pointing out the mitigating circumstances that contributed to their conduct.

They were still unsettled on the east side of the Jordan wondering when they would ever reach home. They were roaming in an uninhabited desert with little food and water. They were enticed beyond control by Moabite women to serve the idol of Peor in the plains of Moav. They were frightened out of their wits when they saw the Egyptians chasing after them as they approached the Red Sea. They worried after they heard the report of the spies that they would not deserve the miracles necessary to vanquish the Canaanite giants in their fortified cities. They were concerned that the manna which was absorbed in their system, so that they never needed to relieve themselves, would finally make them sick. True, they slandered the land of Israel, but since when is talking badly of sticks and stones a sin? Besides, it was the over-abundance of gold and silver that G-d allowed the Jews to take from the Egyptians that spoiled them and gave them the wherewithal to build the golden calf. They did not want so much gold. They even protested and said “di Zahav – we have enough gold” (Sanhedrin 102a). Yet, You G-d lavished them with it. So what did You expect from children who are left with so much money that they never have to work a day in their lives? Did You really expect them not to get up to mischief?

Moshe waited 39 years, till the people were on the verge of entering the land of Israel, before he dared rebuke them. He waited until after G-d had vanquished Sichon and Og (1:4), the mighty kings of Cheshbon and Bashan and had taken from them territories which they had previously annexed from Amon and Moav, so that the tribes of Gad and Reuven could settle there (Rashi, Bamidbar 32:3; Chullin 60b). Having witnessed these miraculous victories, the Jews could no longer claim, like Dasan and Aviram before them (Bamidbar 16:13; Rashi, Devarim 1:4), that the reason G-d kept them in the desert for 40 years was because He was frightened of these powerful kings and their formidable armies.

Now the time was ripe to draw their attention to their shortcomings. That was the only way he could prepare them for the laws of Bein Adam Lechavero, the laws of social interaction, that he was about to lay out before them (1:8). If one is not aware of one’s failings, one will not perform the steps, the mitzvos, needed to cure them.

The Torah was presented three times, once from Sinai, then from the Ohel Moed during their wanderings in the desert, and one more time, here, from the plains of Moav. Although it was the same Torah that was presented on each occasion, the focus was different. At Sinai, the focus was on the Torah itself and how the people were to serve G-d through the mitzvos. At the Ohel Moed, the focus was on korbanos and how the people were to attain forgiveness if they failed to keep the mitzvos. And here at Arvos Moav, the focus was on how they were to behave to one another, now that they were about to leave the welfare state of the wilderness, where all their needs were taken care of, and enter the competitive life of society in the land of Israel, where each person had to fight for a living.

So now that the people had been softened up by the pep talk, they were ready to listen to the laws of “loving one’s neighbor as oneself,” which is what the Book of Devarim focuses on. Moshe could now clarify for them the laws of Bein Adam Lechavero. The word the Torah uses for clarify is “bei’er” (1:5), the same word which means a wellspring. This is because the laws of Torah are deep and infinite. Try as one may, one can never entirely plumb their depths.

“G-d was angry at me for your sake,” says Moshe (1:37). What does that mean? Well, Moshe knew that the people of his generation would never enter the Promised Land. and as their leader, he did not want to abandon them. So he would be the captain who would go down with the ship. He could not abide the thought that the people would accuse him of being the only one of his generation who would make it into the land.

But that was not all. Moshe was the most righteous of all beings and G-d will not undo the work of the righteous. If Moshe would have entered the Land of Israel, he would have immediately built the Beis HaMikdash, just like he immediately set aside cities of refuge on the East bank of the Jordan, even though he knew that they would not be used until cities of refuge would be set aside in the future on the west bank of the Jordan (Makkos 10a; Rashi, Devarim 4:4.). G-d will not destroy the work of the righteous and certainly not the work of Moshe. And so, when the time would come to destroy the Beis HaMikdash because of the sins of the Jews, he would have destroyed the Jews themselves instead of exacting punishment on sticks and stones. That is why Moshe was barred from entering Israel – “biglalchem,” for your sake.