Kommentar zu Dewarim 10:10

ואנכי עמדתי בהר AND I REMAINED ON THE MOUNT to receive the last (second) tablets. — Since it does not state above (v. 2) how long he remained on the mount at this last ascent, he begins again with it (with that incident).

AND I STAYED IN THE MOUNT. In the opinion of our Rabbis²³⁶Tanchuma, Ki Thisa 31. Moses is stating that he remained on the mountain when he ascended there with the [second] two Tablets in his hand, according to the first days of the first Tablets, forty days and forty nights, and the Eternal hearkened unto me that third time also²³⁷In Verse 10 before us. The third ascent of Moses was on the first of Ellul and culminated on the Day of Atonement when the Eternal passed by before him etc. (see text). See also, Vol. II, pp. 574-577 on the three ascents. [as] when the Eternal passed by before him, and proclaimed: ‘The Eternal, the Eternal, G-d, merciful, etc.,’²³⁸Exodus 34:6. and Moses requested of G-d, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Thine inheritance,²³⁹Ibid., Verse 9. and He submitted and said [in Verse 11], Arise, go before the people, causing them to set forward, that they may go in and possess the Land. It is this which is stated, and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the Eternal that I am about to do with thee, that it is tremendous.²⁴⁰Exodus 34:10.

ואנכי עמדתי בהר כימים הראשונים ארבעים יום, “and I stood on the mountain just as during the earlier days, for forty days.” The Torah compared the last forty days to the first forty days; just as the people enjoyed G’d’s grace during Moses’ first sojourn on the mountain so they enjoyed His goodwill during these last 40 days that Moses spent on the mountain. This teaches that the second time Moses spent forty days on the mountain G’d was angry at the people. Moses had to keep praying for 40 days to overcome G’d’s anger on account of the sin of the golden calf.

With the first tablets, etc. This ended on the seventeenth of Tammuz, not on the twenty-eighth of Av. The comparison of the last forty days to the first ones is not to indicate that they too were with complete favor just as the first ones, for this is not true. The first ones were with complete favor — as they had not yet sinned with the calf, while the last ones were only with favor regarding the giving of the Tablets [Moshe was told “carve for yourself,” before they started]. But forgiveness for the calf was only granted on the last of [these last] forty days, which was on Yom Kippur. For then Hashem said, “I have forgiven just as you spoke.” Therefore, that day was designated for atonement and forgiveness. The comparison is only informing us that the forty days stated here, “And I stood on the mountain,” are not referring to the middle forty days [i.e., Moshe was not on the mountain only for 80 days]. Rather they are an additional forty days, which were with favor and not with anger. From this we derive that Moshe stood on the mountain for 120 days.

V. 10. ואנכי וגו׳, war diesem erst von der Zukunft ganz zu überwindenden Abstand der Volksgegenwart von der Höhe seines Bestimmungsberufes, sowie der Aufgabe des Hinaufarbeitens zu dieser Höhe für jeden im Volke durch die dritten vierzig Tage vor Erteilung der wiederhergestellten Gesetzestafeln, Ausdruck gegeben und zugleich, wie vor der Erteilung der ersten Tafeln, dem Volke, dem mit den Gesetzestafeln die Aufgabe der Wahrung und Vertretung des Gesetzes überantwortet werden sollte, wiederum Gelegenheit geboten, ohne Führer, sich selbst überlassen, in der Treue an Gott und seinem geoffenbarten Gesetze sich zu bewähren.

ואנכי עמדתי בהר, “and I had stayed on the Mountain;” in preparation of receiving the second set of Tablets after G–d had inscribed them; all the time pleading further for G–d to forgive His people’s sin completely.

גם בפעם ההוא, “also on that occasion.” He did so with a friendly mien. He did so in order that the Holy name should not become desecrated, as I had said in my prayer. (Deut. 9.28) However, once you will have defeated the thirty one Canaanite kings and you have taken over their land, if you would commence to sin again, even my prayers would not help, as in the meantime G-d had demonstrated that He had kept His part of the bargain, i.e. that He had not been too weak to overcome those nations. The people then would ask why disaster had overtaken the Jews (Compare Deut.29,23) and they would conclude that it had been their fault, not that of their G-d.

כימים הראשנים AS THE FORMER DAYS — those of the first tablets. How was it with those? They were passed in God’s goodwill! So these, too, were passed in God’s goodwill. But the intervening forty days when I remained there to pray for you were passed in God’s anger (Seder Olam 10; cf. Rashi on Deuteronomy 9:18).

THE ETERNAL WOULD NOT ‘DESTROY’ THEE. The meaning thereof is that He did not want to prevent you from entering and possessing the Land, similar in meaning to the verse, He will yet again leave them in the wilderness, and so ye will ‘destroy’ all this people.²⁴¹Numbers 32:15. Here, too, the term “destruction” is not to be understood in its usual sense, but only as a people who are “prevented” from entering the Land. Thus Moses said to the tribes of Gad and Reuben that by their decision to settle on the east bank of the Jordan, they may cause the whole people to be left in the wilderness, and so ye will ‘destroy’ all this people — i.e., by causing them not to enter the Land, which is synonymous with their “destruction.” And by way of the Truth, [the mystic teachings of the Cabala], he is stating that He [the Eternal] did not want the destruction to be from Him, so that His Great Name no [longer] be with you. I have already alluded to this subject in the section of Ki Thisa.²⁴²Exodus 32:10 (Vol. II, pp. 557-558). Having promised Moses that His Great Name, which signifies the attribute of mercy, will always be with Israel, He did not want the destruction to be from Him, so that His Great Name would no longer be with them (Beiur Ha’lvush in his commentary to Ricanti quoting the words of Ramban).

וישמע וגו׳. Es war dies die (Schmot Kap. 34) gewährte höchste Offenbarung über Gottes Waltungen mit dem Menschen, auf deren Grund hin Mosche die alle Folgegeschichte und Folgeentwicklung seines Volkes umfassende Bitte wagte: אם נא מצאתי חן בעיניך אדני ילך נא א׳ בקרבנו כי עם קשה ערף הוא וסלחת לעוננו ולחטאתנו die angestrebte ,הנה אנכי כרת ברית וגו׳ :siehe daselbst), mit deren Gewährung) ונחלתנו Sühne der Egelverirrung zum Abschluss gelangte.

וישמע ה' אלי גם בפעם ההיא, “the Lord listened to me also on that occasion;” he completed the process of completely pardoning the people. On the Day of Atonement He uttered the words: סלחתי כדבריך, “I have forgiven in accordance with your words.” This is why this day has been designated annually as Yom Kippur, the anniversary of the original forgiveness, and the completion of the process of forgiving our sins which commences on New Year’s day. Moses had to wait on the Mountain for forty days, and by Yom Kippur it had been one hundred and twenty days since the day that the people had danced around the golden calf. The first time Moses ascended Mount Sinai was on the seventh day of Sivan, the day after G–d had revealed the Ten Commandments. He ascended in order to receive the Ten Commandments in Tablet form, and he was taught the whole Torah during the forty days that he spent on the mountain. He descended on the seventeenth day of Tammuz, on the day he smashed the Tablets. On the following day he ascended again in order to plead for forgiveness for the people. (Compare Deut. 9,18) These 40 days were completed on the twenty eighth day of the month of Av. G–d then instructed him to hew out the stones for the second set of Tablets, and he ascended again on the twenty ninth day of that month. At that time Moses told the people that the following day would be the 30th day of Av, and that it would already be considered as the Rosh Chodesh for the month of Ellul, combined with the day following, officially known as the first of Ellul. On that day the people were to start blowing the shofar daily so that they would not miscalculate the day on which he would return from the mountain as they had done the first time which resulted in the catastrophe of the golden calf. The Jewish people, in commemoration of this, still blow the shofar starting on the first day of Ellul, i.e. actually the thirtieth day of the month of Av, for a total of forty days. The forty days are made up as follows: 1 day in the month of Av, 29 days in the month of Elull and 10 days in the month of Tishrey, concluding on Yom Kippur, the tenth day of that month. It became the norm ever since that the Rosh Chodesh of the month of Ellul is observed for two days. It was on the tenth day of Tishrey that G–d said to Moses that He had forgiven the sin of the golden calf, so that Moses descended from the mountain on the following day. The seventeenth day of the month of Tammuz during that year had occurred on a Thursday. Passover and the seventeenth day of Tammuz always occur on the same day of week. In the Talmud, tractate Shabbat folio 87, Rabbi Akiva is on record as having said that that the original Passover on which the Jewish people left Egypt also occurred on a Thursday. In light of this, the first set of Tablets had been given to Moses on a Thursday and New Year’s day was on the Sabbath, which means that Yom Kippur was on a Monday. In other words the first set of Tablets was given on a Thursday and the second set on a Monday, so that both these days of the week share the same distinction. This may have been the reason why Ezra decreed that there be a public reading of the Torah on both of these days of the week. This may also have been hinted at in Isaiah 55,6 in the first two letters of the word בהיותו, i.e. בה, these letters symbolising the second and fifth day of the week, respectively The prophet in that verse speaks about when it is especially appropriate to offer prayers, i.e. when G–d is closer to us than usual. On these days the court is also in session. Rabbi B’chor Shor sees in Leviticus 19,15: בצדק תשפוט עמיתך, “but in righteousness shall You judge your fellowmen,” an allusion to the planet Jupiter, tzedek, which is prominent in both the mazzalot during the night from Sunday to Monday and during the first hour of Thursday according to an explanation in the Talmud tractate Shabbat, folio 119. [My almost total ignorance of astrology and how it dominates the fates of the gentile nations, cautions me not to go into greater detail about this. Suffice it to say that the fate of Jews is not dependent on such constellations at any time. Ed.]

כימים הראשונים, “as on the first occasion;” forty days and nights on each occasion, from dawn on the twenty ninth of Av until dawn on the tenth of Tishrey.

גם כפעם ההיא: auch dieses dritte Mal. Die erste Erhörung war: וינחם ד׳ על ׳הרעה וגו (Schmot 32, 14), die zweite: ׳ועתה לך נחה את העם וגו (daselbst 34, die dritte: ׳הנה אנכי כרת ברית וגו (daselbst 34, 10).

לא אבה ד׳ השחיתך kann nicht den Inhalt der dritten Erhörung bezeichnen sollen; denn die Nichtvernichtung des Volkes war schon durch die erste und zweite Erhörung gewährt; es heißt auch nicht: ולא אבה השחיתך, es bildet einen selbständigen Satz ohne Waw kopulativum und mit wiederholtem Subjekt. Es dürfte daher nur als zusammenfassender Abschluss des Ganzen zu verstehen sein. Nach strengem Recht hattest du den Untergang verdient. Allein, die bei der dritten Erhörung mir gewordene Offenbarung über die Waltungsweisen Gottes hat mich belehrt, dass Gott, in seiner den Menschen und die Menschheit zu ihrer Bestimmungszukunft erziehenden Liebe, von Anfang an den Anforderungen des bloßen Rechts in Beziehung zu dir nicht hatte Folge geben wollen — (אבה heißt ja ganz eigentlich: einer an uns gestellten Aufforderung nachgeben — siehe Bereschit S. 323), der Vernichtungsausspruch (Schmot 32, 10) sollte nur in Mosche und im Volke das Schuldbewusstsein und diejenige Erkenntnis und Willensrichtung fortschreitend erzeugen, die ein Absehen von der Rechtsforderung, ein Weitererhalten des Volkes und endlich eine völlige Erneuung des Bundes mit ihm ermöglichten. Dass aber das Volk eigentlich bereits den Untergang verdient hatte, das Bewusstsein soll dem Volke bleiben und mit in die nun bevorstehende neue Zukunft hinübergenommen werden. Das ist ja die Tendenz des ganzen Rückblicks von Kap. 9, 4 bis hierher, und darum schließt er mit diesem Gedanken.