Kommentar zu Dewarim 9:19

FOR I WAS IN DREAD OF THE ANGER. He is stating that because of the anger and the fury wherewith the Eternal was angry with you at first [that He wanted] to destroy you, I stood in awe even now, for there was still [enough] of that great anger upon you to destroy you, even though G-d had already repented of the evil which He said He would do unto His people.¹³⁴Ibid., Verse 14. The word “repented” here is an anthropomorphism (Ibn Ezra). Therefore I returned and threw myself down [in prayer] in your behalf for forty days and forty nights until He hearkened unto me that time also¹⁴¹In Verse 19 before us. just as He hearkened the first time before I descended [from the mountain]. For Aaron, also, I prayed at that time when I returned there [to the mountain] because, until he had cleansed [the camp of] the calf, [Moses’ main] concern was but to turn back His wrath, lest He should destroy¹⁴²Psalms 106:23. the [whole] people in a moment, [and hence he did not pray especially for Aaron until he returned to the mountain].

גם בפעם ההיא, in addition to the numerous other occasions when I prayed on your behalf.

To destroy you: As even though He already repented from annihilation, He nevertheless did not repent from destroying that generation... Such that [God's] will was that the infants would survive with Moses until they grew, as it was the scouts. But [in fact] this generation itself survived forty years; whereas at the time of the calf, the decree was to destroy that generation all at one time...

כי יגורתי, וגו', “for I was terrified, etc.;” on account G’d displaying His anger at you in so many ways. First I was afraid that He would destroy you utterly as He had threatened to do; my fear had not yet abated as even the anger described as קצף, is still a great threat to the object of that anger. True, that G’d had relented somewhat, and no longer wanted to wipe all of you out with one fell swoop, but if I spent forty days and nights prostrate on the Mountain praying on your behalf I did so with good reason, until at the end of that period G’d accepted my plea, finally. I also had to pray on account of Aaron. I prostrated myself on that occasion, as I could not do so before. Moses describes the gold dust of the burned golden calf as having been “thrown: into the brook at the foot of Mount Sinai,” instead of mentioning that the people had been made to drink from it as reported in Exodus He omitted this detail out of sensitivity for their feelings. He did not want them to feel like a Sotah, a wife suspected of marital infidelity. Such a woman is made to drink from the water in which the ash of the red heifer has been dissolved.

V. 19. יגר .כי יגרתי וגו׳ gleichbedeutend mit גור wie יטב und טוב. Es scheint, dass אף und חמה das anhaltende äußere und innere Zürnen bedeutet, während קצף wie oben bemerkt, die unmittelbar hervorgerufene Entrüstung bedeutet. Euer Verbrechen war ein solches, dass es an sich eure sofortige Vernichtung verdient hätte, wie dies ja auch sogleich Schmot 32, 10 ausgesprochen war, und wenn auf Mosche sofortige Fürbitte diese auch nicht sogleich eingetreten war, so war doch noch bis zur inneren Umwandlung des Volkes noch voller Grund zu אף und חמה vorhanden. Die Vernichtungsschuld, die noch auf dem Volke lastete, fürchtete Mosche. Dafür כפרה zu erwirken und dieser כפרה das Volk würdig werden zu lassen, war die Bestimmung der mittleren vierzig Tage, wie bereits oben zu V. 9 angedeutet.

גם בפעם ההיא, “also on that occasion.” He had already prayed for them at the sea of reeds, (Exodus 14,15) at Marah (15,25) and at Massah.(Exodus 17,4)

וישמע ה׳ אלי גם כפעם ההיא. Gott hatte ihn schon gleich, bevor Mosche den Berg verlassen hatte, auf seine Fürbitte erhört, das Verhängnis sofortiger Vernichtung nicht eintreten zu lassen (Schmot 32, 14), Gott erhörte ihn auch jetzt nach den vierzig Tagen, vollendete כפרה zu gewähren und Israel aufs neue mit dem Gottesgesetze in seinem Schoße seine weltgeschichtliche Sendung antreten zu lassen. Für den nächsten Zweck dieses Rückblicks lag vor allem daran, dem Volke zum Bewusstsein zu bringen, wie nahe sie bereits daran gewesen, um ihres Abfalls willen der gänzlichen Vernichtung anheim zu fallen, wie sie daher nimmer auf die den Vätern gewordene Verheißung hin sich der Pflichtvergessenheit gegen Gottes Gesetz hinzugeben hätten.