Musar zu Dewarim 3:26

I want to add a few words in connection with 22,1 that we must not idly watch the ox or lamb of a fellow-Jew outcast. Let me preface my remarks with a comment by the Kabbalists on the transmigration of souls. The words of the saintly Rabbi Solomon Alkabez [who composed the famous Lecha Dodi which we sing every Friday night, Ed.] describe these concepts in the clearest terms. I have therefore chosen to quote from his works: "On the day the Lord created Adam (Man) on earth He equipped him with 248 luminaries [in the sense of inspirations. Ed.] which contained the details of the highest spiritual regions, אצילות, within which are found His statutes, social laws, and moral instructions. The function of the positive commandments is not only to enable man to live in this spiritual world, but also to enable him to live on this earth as a form of secondary existence, i.e. בצלם. G–d also created man with 365 sinews corresponding to the 365 negative commandments. When G–d "blew" the soul of life from the most refined spiritual regions into Adam's nose, Adam, so to speak, brought a soul equipped with all these מצות into this earthly existence. These מצות formed the attire of Adam's soul and not a single one was missing. Becoming guilty of "losing" even one of all these מצות is a mortal sin which results in one's soul's inability to attain the place assigned to it in the highest Spiritual Spheres. The distance one will be short of in attaining one's goal is in direct ratio to the number of מצות one has not fulfilled. If one has not only failed to fulfill all the positive commandments but has even become guilty of transgressing negative commandments, the result is an even greater distance between the place one occupies and the place one should have occupied in the Spiritual Regions. G–d, in His great pity for His creatures, has made thoughtful provisions so as not to totally cast out a sinner. This is why He established the principle of re-incarnation, i.e. transmigration of souls. By allowing a soul to return to earth once more, it is given a "second chance" to rehabilitate itself and recapture its original place in the world of the spirits. This principle of transmigration of souls is applied in three different ways, corresponding to the attributes in which our three patriarchs excelled respectively. Some souls do not return to earth because they have to rehabilitate themselves for positive commandments neglected or for negative commandments which they transgressed when they were on earth previously. The only reason they return to earth is in order to perform acts of kindness for the people of their respective generations. Details of this are explained in ספר הפליאה, ספר התמונה, and ספר לבנת ספיר. The Torah alludes to this in Deut. 3,26: ויתעבר ה' בי למענכם. The term עבור is compared to גלגול, both meaning a kind of "transfer." Moses is in effect telling the Jewish people that his being transferred from this world at that time and place was for their own good. This paralleled the attribute of חסד which Abraham excelled in.

He continued by emphasizing ואראה את הארץ הטובה, "So that I may see the good land." I have already mentioned that there are many different levels of sanctity. Even though Moses thought that the lands of Sichon and Og were already part of the Holy Land, he was well aware that the West bank was of a higher level of sanctity than the East bank of the Jordan. Terrestrial ארץ ישראל is situated "opposite" ארץ ישראל של מעלה, Celestial Eretz Yisrael. The most holy part of terrestrial ארץ ישראל may be presumed to be "opposite" the holiest part of Celestial ארץ ישראל. Moses longed for the holiest part of ארץ ישראל למטה in order to be closest to the holiest part of ארץ ישראל למעלה. This is why he spoke of "the good Mountain, Lebanon," meaning the Temple Mount and site of the Holy of Holies on that Mount. He wished to be able to fulfill the commandments calling for one's presence in the Holy Land and, more specifically, in the Temple. When Moses continued (3,26) ויתעבר ה' בי למענכם, this means that G–d denied Moses' request precisely because granting it would result in the whole people being spiritually raised to a level even with Moses who had despised the angel. Israel was simply not worthy of such a level on its own merits. Only under Joshua, who enjoyed the assistance of the angel (Joshua 5,14) who introduced himself with the words "now I have come," could the conquest of the remainder of the land proceed. Moses had rejected that very angel in Exodus 33,15 as an inadequate level of Divine guidance. Moses therefore had to tell the people that his departure was due to their not meriting direct Divine guidance such they had enjoyed during his leadership. The scholars who specialize in רשומות, see in the respective first letters of the words גם בי התאנף ה' בגללכם an allusion to גרשוני מסתפח בנחלת ה' "G–d has expelled me from participating in His heritage."

When G–d told Moses not to belabor the point any further, we must understand this reply on two levels, as G–d addressing Himself to two arguments. First G–d addressed Moses' desire to enter terrestrial ארץ ישראל in order to fulfill מצות התלויות בארץ. Concerning this request he told Moses "רב לך." Rashi explains this as G–d telling Moses that there is a great deal more in store for him where he was going (עולם הבא) than he could hope to achieve by performing commandments in the land of Israel on earth. These words of Rashi need further elucidation.

The words: ויתעבר ה' בי למענכם in 3,26 also contain a mystical dimension. This also touches upon the subject of the great gift of Torah G–d has bestowed on the Jewish people. I have found the following comment among the writings of a great Kabbalistic scholar Rabbi Chayim, the leading disciple of the Arizal. [I will paraphrase his comments Ed.] "As a consequence of Moses' accepting the mixed multitude as converts, he became involved in the סוד העיבור, the calculations pertaining to leap months, leap years, etc., as well as their halachic implications of the time conceptions can take place. One of these calculations involves determining when a Jubilee year occurs (the fiftieth year after the conclusion of seven periods of seven years). G–d had not wanted to accept this mixed multitude as converts. Had they not been accepted, Israel would neither have experienced death nor exile, since the acceptance of the Tablets would have signified everlasting life, as our sages (Eruvin 54 on Exodus 32,16) have taught us when they said: אל תקרא חרות אלא חירות, "do not read 'engraved' i.e. Charut but 'Free' (from death) i.e. Cheyrut." Moses had not consulted G–d before accepting this mixed multitude, thinking that he was performing a good deed by bringing them closer to G–d (which had been Abraham's lifework). In addition he had developed a personal interest in the conduct of these people as he had hinted when he referred to them (Numbers 11,21) as העם אשר אנכי בקרבו, "the people amongst whom I find myself." He had also foretold that these people would convert when he told Pharaoh in Exodus 11,8 that כל העם אשר ברגליך ישתחוו לי, "all these people who now sit at your feet will bow down to me." This meant that Moses was anxious to convert these people. Alas, not only did Moses fail to truly convert them, but they also infected the Israelites proper with their lack of faith during the episode of the golden calf, so that G–d told Moses: לך רד כי שחת עמך, "Go and descend, for your people have become corrupt" (Exodus 32,7). These people and their offspring by now made up the majority of the Jews in the desert. This is why Moses was forced to insert an extra year after every 49 years. This extra year serves as a warning that Israel must not again err by accepting converts wholesale and be misled by them. [I suspect that the association between "freedom" which is emphasized in the יובל- year legislation of the Torah -although the Torah calls it דרור- (Leviticus 25,10), forms the background to the סוד העיבור which Rabbi Chayim calls "this involvement of Moses in each generation in the determination of the Jubilee year." He must mean that the need to proclaim freedom would not have arisen but for Moses' accepting the mixed multitude when he did Ed.]

My father of blessed memory (author's), explained a Rashi on Deut. 3,26, in which the word רב is understood as "G–d has a great deal more in store for you, more than merely crossing the Jordan." At first glance Rashi's comment seems quite unrelated to the text. My father explained Rashi's description of the conversation between G–d and Moses as follows: G–d to Moses: "You surely did not think that by not crossing the river Jordan you will merely be denied to taste the fruit of the Holy Land, but what you aimed for was fulfilling the commandments which can only be fulfilled in that land. If this is your concern, רב לך, there are many more commandments which you would not be able to fulfill even if I allowed you to cross the river Jordan. You cannot fulfill the string of commandments applicable only to priests, etc. You cannot fulfill the commandment of the levirate marriage, neither many other commandments." Rashi therefore means that G–d reassured Moses: "just as you will receive credit for fulfilling the commandments relating to residence in the Holy Land, so you will also receive credit for all the other commandments you have not fulfilled in practice but have studied." This whole subject matter has been discussed at length in קול בוכים on Lamentations 4,16: פני ה' חלקם, "The Lord's countenance has turned away from them." The author claims that just as terrestrial man's body has 248 limbs so his soul – which represents Torah study – has 248 parts. This is the meaning of רב טוב אור הגנוז, "there is a wealth of good light stored up in the heavens for Moses", and this is why the sages described the face of Moses as comparable to the "face" of the sun, whereas the face of Joshua was as the "face" of the moon. The difference was due to the fact that Moses received the Torah directly from its Source. It was a relatively easy matter for Moses to understand all parts of the Torah and therefore to fulfill the requirements of residence in the land of Israel on a spiritual plane employing all 248 parts of his soul. Joshua, on the other hand, observed those commandments in practice. The fulfillment of the commandments on a spiritual plane seems of still greater value. In Proverbs 6,23 Solomon speaks of נר מצוה ותורה אור, that the relationship between individual commandments and the totality of Torah is like the relationship between a single candle and a luminary.

Now to the subject of the Hereafter. Israel had been afraid that if they were to continue to acquire greater insights, i.e. over and beyond what they were spiritually and intellectually equipped to digest, they would surely die. They therefore had asked Moses that he should approach G–d and serve as their intermediary. They did this because, since Moses had already experienced the insights other people achieve only in the Hereafter, he had no reason to fear premature death. They realized that Moses had attained the fiftieth of the שערי בינה. When you take the letter ה which symbolizes the 5 Books of Moses and the letter י which symbolizes the Ten Commandments and you multiply them which each other the result is 50, an allusion to the fact that between the Ten Commandments and the five Books of the Torah you have the wisdom contained in the fifty שערי בינה. When Israel sinned at the golden calf, G–d told Moses: לך רד, "go and descend from the lofty platform of לך=50," as we have outlined earlier. Now G–d said: אל תוסף (3,26). The message was that during one's lifetime on earth the fiftieth level of בינה would not again be attained. This had to await a person's death. Only when separated from his body would one's soul-personality be able to attain that level of insights. To demonstrate that Moses did attain this level again when he died, the Torah describes his death as an ascent, i.e. ויעל משה … אל הר נבו (34,1). I have already mentioned that the name of the Mountain can be read as נ-בו, "50 is attainable through this Mountain." The choice of the word ויעל here is, of course, the reverse of the word רד G–d used when He told Moses about the sin of the golden calf. Moses attained during his lifetime what other צדיקים achieve only after their death. Once their bodies are left behind on earth their souls may behold what the Psalmist describes in Psalms 17,15: אשבעה בהקיץ תמונתך, "When I awake I will behold a vision of You." Concerning Moses, the Torah has testified that already during his lifetime: ותמונת ה' יביט, Moses was able to behold visions of G–d at will (Numbers 12,8). No one has an idea of the quality of עולם הבא in store for Moses; it is beyond anything we can imagine seeing that only G–d knows where even his body is buried.