Musar sobre Deuteronómio 1:37

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."

We observe that the spies made strenuous efforts to cause Israel to remain in the desert at this time by alluding to the moral superority of the Canaanites and contrasting this with allusions to the moral inferiority of the Jewish people by reminding Israel of Amalek. What they really hinted at was that the conquest would only come under Joshua. Since we have the principle that אין מלכות נוגעת בחברתה, that during the currency of one kingdom the next kingdom must not encroach upon the previous kingdom by as much as a hair's breadth (Berachot 48), they extended this to include the entire present generation who were viewed as Moses' subjects. We know that there was some substance to this argument since the reason Moses was not allowed to enter the Holy Land was because his generation had not been allowed to do so. The Midrash explains this by saying that it would be like a servant maid who had dropped a brass pail into a well and stood by the well crying. When the king's maid servant came along she dropped a golden pail into the same well. Thereupon the first servant maid started laughing and rejoicing. Upon being asked what reason she had to be happy at the king's maid servant's distress, she told her that the reason was that her pail was golden. Whoever would come to retrieve the golden pail, could at no extra effort also retrieve the brass pail. So far the Midrash. [The idea seems to be that once the time for resurrection had come, and G–d would resurrect Moses, He could also resurrect his generation with no extra effort. Ed.] Rabbi Menachem Azaryah in his book Asarah Ma'amarot, writes that this matter is alluded to in the Torah itself in Deut. 1,37, when Moses said גם בי התאנף ה' בגללכם, G–d had also been angry at me on your account." The letters in the words גם בי are the first letters respectively in גרשוני מהסתפח בנחלת י"י, "He has prevented me from attaching myself to the inheritance of G–d."

In view of this we can also understand Deut. 1,37, when Moses said: "G–d was also angry with me on your account." Moses employs the expression בי, against me. We find the same expression here when G–d said to him יען כי לא האמנתם בי להקדישני, "because you did not have enough faith in Me to sanctify Me" (20,12). In Deut. 1,32, however, the wording is ובדבר הזה אינכם מאמינים. The true significance is as I have explained, that a decree already existed, but the actions needed to trigger this decree had not yet occurred. Because of a previous sin Moses had committed, G–d had already become angry at Moses on account of Israel. Now this anger, i.e. decree, became translated into effective reality. This is the reason why the Torah stresses המה מי מריבה אשר רבו בני ישראל, "these are the very same waters of strife the children of Israel quarreled (already previously)." If it were not so, the expression המה, would be uncalled for. Now the various commentaries that have been offered on this passage.