Commentary for Exodus 33:3

ארץ זבת חלב ודבש UNTO A LAND FLOWING WITH MILK AND HONEY do I bid you to bring them up.

אל ארץ זבת חלב ודבש, the wording suggests that the place where G’d made this promise is dry and that it requires miracles by G’d to gain an adequate livelihood from that earth. At this point in time the Israelites had not qualified for G’d to perform such miracles for them. G’d promises that they would proceed to a land where they would not have to depend on constant miracles in order to gain their livelihood. [The author may have mentioned this as we know that around Mount Sinai at the time there was plenty of grazing land, suggesting that it might have been a fit location to settle. Ed.]

פן אכלך בדרך, "lest I consume you on the way." There is no comparison between someone who angers his teacher while in his teacher's presence to someone who takes advantage of the teacher's absence to anger him. בדרך, "on the way." This is a hint that the announcement that "only" an angel will accompany the Jewish people would not apply at all times and in all circumstances. When Israel would be in a city, i.e. in a relatively safe environment, G'd Himself would be near them (compare Isaiah 26,1).

פן אכלך, as if the Torah had written auchalcha, i.e. “I will consume you.” G’d has been described elsewhere as “consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4,24)

אל ארץ זבת חלב ודבש, ”to a land flowing with milk and honey.” G’d meant that the land itself would not become ruined by their inhabitants nor as a result of the sins of their inhabitants, but neither would the land condone the sins of its inhabitants and G’d would expel the six tribes as mentioned previously. G’d added, as an expression of His goodwill,

Do I tell you to bring them up. [Rashi is explaining] that this connects to v. 1: “Leave, go up from this. . . to the land of which I swore.” It does not connect to what immediately precedes, [for then it would convey:] “And I will drive out the Canaanites. . . to a land flowing with milk and honey.”

V. 3. Vers 2 ist Parenthese, und Vers 3 setzt die in V. 1 begonnenen Gedanken fort. Es beginnt aber ein selbständiger Satz mit אל ארץ זבת וגו׳, und das: כי לא אעלה וגו׳ ist hiervon und nicht von: ושלהתי מלאך das Motiv. Nach Siporno: Ihr müsst hinein in ein auf natürlichem Wege Nahrung gewährendes Land; denn hier in der Wüste könntet ihr nur durch die besondere göttliche Wundermacht gespeist werden, für deren Führung ihr euch noch unreif erwiesen und deren Nähe ihr nicht ertruget. Die Wanderung in der Wüste bedingt die völlige Hingebung an Gott, bedingt das Bewusstsein, der Mensch habe nur an die Erfüllung seiner Pflicht zu denken und alles übrige Gott anheim zu stellen, bedingt das Bewusstsein, dass eben diese Pflichterfüllung, die Verwirklichung seines Gesetzes, das einzige, aber auch das ewige und unmittelbare Band ist, das den Menschen mit Gott verknüpft und ihn hoch über alle Voraussetzungen physischer Bedingungen auf den Adlerschwingen der unmittelbaren göttlichen Führungen emporträgt. Nichts in der Wüste zu vermissen, weil uns Gott gewiss ist, wenn wir sein Gesetz bei uns haben, das war ja die Prüfung, die sie am Horeb bestehen sollten, aber nicht bestanden haben. Darum müssen sie aus der Adlerschwingenhöhe unmittelbarer Gottesführung wieder in die Erdenniedere des gewöhnlichen physischen Daseins gebracht werden. פן אכלך וגו׳ siehe Vers 5.

כי לא אעלה בקרבך BECAUSE I WILL NOT GO UP AMONG THEE, therefore I say to thee, I will send an angel before thee.

כי לא אעלה בקרבך, this is why I am telling you to move on from here, you and the people (verse 1). Do not wait to break and make camp at G’d’s signal, i.e the moving of the cloud. G’d explains that His not moving with the people would be for their protection,

כי לא אעלה בקרבך, “for I, in My capacity of My essence, will not go up amongst you.” This was not a description of the Israelites’ unworthiness at that time, but was meant as a protective device. In the event that the Israelites would sin again, in spite of being in the presence of G’d’s manifest Shechinah, He would be forced to react in a manner that would spell their destruction. As a result of the golden calf episode Israel suffered two major setbacks. 1) the absence of the Shechinah from the camp; 2) leadership by means of an angel until the destruction or expulsion of the Canaanites from their land. Once this promise to the patriarchs had been fulfilled, they were not even promised the presence of an angel as visible evidence of G’d’s continued personal interest in their fate. To make this point clear, G’d described the terms of reference for His angel as being limited to בדרך, “while on the way,” Concerning all this the Torah continues with:

For this reason I say to you. . . I.e., this gives the reason for (32:34), “Behold, My angel will go before you.” It is because, “I will not go up among you. . . I may destroy you.” This does not connect to what immediately precedes, rather to (v. 1): “Leave, go up from this.”

According to the Kabbalists the desert is the home of Samael who succeeded on several occasions to overpower and kill Jews who lacked G'd's protection due to their share in the sin. The Zohar volume 2 page 157 expands on that theme when commenting on the words המדבר הגדול והנורא in Deut. 1,17. It uses that verse as proof of how dangerous it is to be בדרך, "on the way."

כי עם קשה ערף אתה FOR THOU ART A STIFF-NECKED PEOPLE, and if My Shechina were in thy midst and thou rebelledst against Me, I might become exceedingly angry with thee and destroy thee on the way.

פן אכלך בדרך, lest I would be forced to kill you while you are on the way. G’d implies that if He were to be present personally when the people sinned, their punishment would be commensurably greater for having rebelled against the presence of G’d also.

And you are rebellious against Me. . . [Question:] It is written in 34:9, “Let my Master go among us, for ( כי ) it is a stiff-necked people.” Does this not show the contrary to be true, that being stiff-necked makes it fitting for God to go among them, thereby contradicting what it says here? [The answer is:] Rashi already resolved this by explaining that the כי written there means “if,” conveying: “Since You bear iniquity. . . if they will be a stiff-necked people and rebel against You. . . You will forgive our iniquity.” (Re”m)

אכלך is an expression for ‘‘destroying”.