Kommentar zu Bamidbar 12:5

בעמוד ענן [AND THE LORD CAME DOWN] IN THE COLUMN OF THE CLOUD — He came alone to punish them, not as is the manner of human beings: when a human king goes to war, he goes with numerous troops, but when he goes forth peaceably, he goes forth with only a few. But the manner of the Holy One, blessed be He, is that He goes to war alone — as it is said, (Exodus 15:3) “The Lord alone is the man of war, but He goes forth for peace accompanied by His hosts, as it is said, (Psalms 68:18) “The chariots of God are twenty thousands, even thousands of angels of peace (שנאן)” (Sifrei Bamidbar 102).

וירד ה׳ בעמוד הענן, G'd descended within a pillar of cloud. We need to know why G'd did not first descend prior to His calling upon Moses, Aaron and Miriam. At least it appears from the order of our text that He waited with descending until after He had called to them. The fact that G'd told the three to leave their tents and come to the Tabernacle also suggests that He had not yet descended, otherwise he would have had to assign a certain place for them as they would have observed the place where the cloud had taken up position. According to the scholars who hold that both Aaron and Miriam were ritually impure at the time, we can well understand why G'd waited before He descended in His cloud. He did not want to descend and then have to wait until Aaron and Miriam had undergone their purification rites. It might also make those who had been called and had not responded promptly subject to posssible punishment. As it is not. G'd's wish to do something which results in people being punished, He decided to wait until both Aaron and Miriam were able to respond to His call. The reason G'd descended at all and did not address them by His voice emanating from higher regions as He had done when He first called out to them was in order to lend publicity to the event. When they would see the cloud take up position at the entrance of the Tabernacle all of Israel would become aware that G'd had been greatly concerned that someone had imputed base motives to His trusted servant Moses and that He had punished that someone.

ויקרא אהרן ומרים, “He summoned Aaron and Miriam.” He called them aside so that He would not have to dwell on Moses’ virtues in his presence, [something that would make him feel most uncomfortable. Ed.]

He went alone. For if not so, why does the Torah write “Hashem descended in a [pillar of] cloud”? Surely it had already stated “Hashem said: Come out, all three of you,” thus it should have merely said “and He stood at the entrance of the Tent…” However in Parshas Ki Sisa where it is written “Hashem descended in a cloud” (Shemos 34:5), at the beginning of the revelation of the Divine Presence to Moshe in the morning, there one may say that it comes to inform of the revelation of the Divine Presence to Moshe, but not to teach that He descended alone with the pillar of Cloud as Rashi expounds here.

ויקרא אהרן ומרים, “He called Aaron and Miriam’” He did not invite Moses to become part of this conversation. He did not want the Israelites to say that G-d had been angry at Moses also.

ויקרא אהרן ומרים AND HE CALLED: “AARON AND MIRIAM!” — that they should proceed further, and go forth from the court towards God (more lit., the Divine Speech) (Sifrei Bamidbar 102).

So that they would be drawn away. (Nachalas Yaakov) According to this, there is a difficulty: Since He did not speak to them in the presence of Moshe, why then did He call to Moshe and say “come out all three of you”? One must answer that it was in order that he would pray for Miriam immediately. (Kitzur Mizrochi) answers in the name of the Ramban that it was in order that Moshe would see Hashem’s zealousness on behalf of his honor. In the name of the Baal HaIkarim he answers that since they were not then ready for prophecy, for they had been somewhat ostracized, they would not have been able to receive the spirit of prophecy without Moshe.

ויצאו שניהם AND THEY BOTH WENT FORTH — And why did He bid them go further and so separate them from Moses? Because there is a rule that one should utter only a part of a man’s good qualities in his presence, but that the whole of them should be told only in his absence. Similarly we find in the case of Noah, that in his absence (i.e. when Scripture speaks about him) it says of him: “a righteous and whole-hearted man” (Genesis 6:9), whilst in his presence (i.e. where God is speaking to Noah) it states, (Genesis 7:1) “for thee I have seen righteous before me”, (and it does not add: whole-hearted) (Sifrei Bamidbar 102). — Another explanation is: God bid only Aaron and Miriam to draw near in order that he (Moses) should not hear the reprimand administered to Aaron.