Commentaire sur Le Deutéronome 3:25

אעברה נא LET ME PASS OVER, I PRAY THEE — The term נא is a term of request (it does not here signify "now").

אעברה נא, in order to exterminate all the inhabitants of the land of Canaan in order that the Jewish people will never be exiled from that land. (compare our author on 1,34)

אעברה נא, "please let me cross, etc." Why did Moses say נא? Besides, why did he say: "so that I will see?" Is seeing the land not a natural result of crossing the Jordan? Perhaps Moses wanted to rebut reasons which had prevented him from entering the Holy Land. Our sages say that there had been two such reasons. 1) The time for Joshua to reign had arrived, and the rule of one monarch must not overlap with the rule of a second monarch by as much as a hair's breadth (Berachot 48). 2) G'd foresaw that the Israelites would sin in the future and He would have to pour out His wrath at them. He therefore preferred to use the Holy Temple as the object on which to pour out His wrath rather than on the people themselves. We have dicussed this in connection with Psalms 79 where Assaph appears to write a hymn in honour of the destruction of the Holy Temple (my translation page 1766). We explained that if Moses had crossed the Jordan the Temple he would have built would have stood forever, and whenever the Israelites would sin G'd would have to vent His wrath on them rather than on the Temple. Compare my commentary on Deut. 1,37.

The word נא is a term denoting a request. I.e., pertaining to the word נא appearing here. But [where it appears] elsewhere in the Torah it means, “now.”

V. 25. אעברה נא. Weit alle die Größe und Allmacht, von welchen du mir bereits eine Ahnung hast aufgehen lassen, überragt an Bedeutung das Land, welches ja das Ziel aller deiner bisherigen mir kund gewordenen Waltungen in sich trägt, und von welchem aus du גדלך וידך החזקה, die Erziehung und Überwindung des Menschengeschlechtes zur Begründung deines Reiches auf Erden zu vollbringen gedenkest. Ein Anblick dieses Landes wird mir einen weiteren Einblick in die Größe und Macht deiner Waltungszukunft eröffnen. את הארץ הטובה, wie es so ganz seiner großen Bestimmung entspricht. ׳ההר הטוב וגו ist Apposition zu הארץ הטובה. Mosche schauender Geist faßt die Bedeutsamkeit des Landes topisch in die Bezeichnung zusammen: ההר הטוב הזה ההר הטוב .והלבנון ist der Tempelberg, der ׳הר ד, der ׳הר בית ד (Jes.2, 2 u. 3), von welchem, als der Stätte des göttlichen Gesetzesheiligtums, das von Mosche den Händen und Geistern anvertraute Gottesgesetz zuerst die Erleuchtung und Heiligung des jüdischen Volkes, und sodann einst der Gesamtmenschheit vollbringen soll, והלבנון, und welchem sich das ganze übrige Land von Süd nach Nord hinaufsteigend als Libanonterrasse anfügt. Die Moriahöhe, der Zionsberg, die letzte Berghöhe des Libanons im Süden, wird als die Wurzel des Libanons begriffen, zu ihr steigt man vom Gipfel des Libanons im Norden nieder, sie heißt daher ירכתי לבנון ,ירכתי צפון (Ps.48, 3 und Kön. II. 19, 23): das Richtungsziel des Nordens, das Richtungsziel des Libanons (siehe Schmot 26, 22; Ps.128, 3 und Jirmija 22, 6: ראש הלבנון, Haupt — der Bedeutung nach — oder Anfang des Libanons). In sinnig lehrender Deutung fasst daher der Midrasch der Weisen die schneeige Weiße, auf welche der Name לבנון hinweist, in der sittlichen Bedeutung des Weißen als Farbe der Läuterung und der Reinheit auf, und spricht mit Hinblick auf das jesaianische: והלבנון זו בית ,אם יהיו חטאיכם כשנים כשלג ילבינו (ספרי) המקדש also, dass in dieser Anschauung der ganze Libanon seinen Namen von der "Läuterungsstätte" trägt, die auf seiner letzten südlichen Erderhebung ihre Begründung fand.

אעברה נא ואראה את הארץ הטובה, “please let me cross and see first hand the good land;” the question asked by most commentators is if Moses really only wanted to cross the Jordan for the mundane purpose of enjoying the fruit that grew in the Holy Land. It appears unbelievable to them that this could be the correct interpretation of this verse. They therefore conclude that the meaning of Moses’ plea was that he wished to be able to fulfill the many commandments of the Torah that can be fulfilled only while the person doing so is on the soil of the Holy Land.

ההר הטוב הזה THAT GOODLY MOUNTAIN, i.e. Jerusalem (that was situated on hills) (Sifrei Bamidbar 134:5).

ואראה את הארץ הטובה, let me see it so that I can bless it with the blessing that its goodness be at the Jewish people’s service for ever.

A reference to Jerusalem. As it is written, “Jerusalem is surrounded by mountains (Tehillim 125:2).”

This is why Moses referred to these two scenarios with his words. Concerning the fact that the time of his reign must not overlap with the time assigned to Joshua, he said "let me cross," i.e. he did not ask to cross in his capacity as the leader but was content to cross as a simple citizen; he did not expect to be given any special honour. Concerning the eventuality of the Temple becoming the excuse for G'd venting His wrath on the people in any future sinfulness by the people, he said: ואראה, "in order that I may see the land," i.e. he had no aspirations to build the Temple. Moses was thus careful to forestall any argument against granting his wish. As to his using the expression נא, this means that he was ready to abdicate his position as king immediately.

והלבנון, “and the Lebanon.” The word: הלבנון here is a simile for the permanent Temple. (Ibn Ezra) Seeing that Solomon used the cedar wood of that region to line the inner walls of the Temple that he built, this interpretation is not as far fetched as it might appear to some.

והלבנן AND LEBANON — this is a term for the Temple (Siphre).

A reference to the Bais HaMikdosh. Why is the Bais HaMikdosh called, “Levanon”? Because it whitens (m’labein i.e., cleanses) a person of his sins.

It is also possible that Moses pleaded for the Israelites to cross the Jordan river immediately before the end of the day so that he could cross at a time when his crossing would not interfere with the period G'd had ordained for Joshua's reign. If you accept my interpretation that the words בעת ההיא referred to the time immediately after G'd decreed that the generation of the spies would not enter the Holy Land, there would not have been any problem with the time, as that event took place 38 years prior to the period when Moses addressed the people here. From Moses' words it is easy to surmise that he prayed on behalf of the whole people seeing that G'd had only decreed that they would die in the desert. He had not decreed that they would die prematurely, i.e. before reaching the age of 60 which would have meant that they died by the karet penalty. If Moses were to enter the Holy Land at that time (38 years ago) it would be understood that the people would enter with him as G'd had not decreed that they had to die prior to age 60.

There is another way of explaining Moses' choice of words based on Bamidbar Rabbah 19,13 that the redeemer for the people of the generation of the Exodus would be Moses himself. [The Midrash quotes G'd as saying that if the generation Moses had led out of Egypt would die in the desert whereas Moses would lead the younger generation into the Holy Land this would be construed as a sign that there was no hope for the present generation ever to enter the Holy Land. Ed.] There is suppport for this in a statement in the Zohar volume 2 page 120 that this is already alluded to in Kohelet 1,9: מה שהיה הוא שיהיה, "whatever has been, is what will be." Moses knew of this as G'd had revealed to him that it would be part of his role in the future to cross the river Jordan to the Holy Land. In view of this knowledge he merely begged to fulfil his role now instead of in the distant future. The words אעברה נא therefore mean: "let me cross now (we are speaking about 38 years ago)."

The words אעברה נא may also be part of Moses' answer to something we have learned in Midrash Rabbah that the reason that Moses had to die outside the boundaries of the Holy Land was to enable him to lead his generation to their hereafter, as we have already explained. Moses used the term אעברה, i.e. a temporay crossing rather than a permanent crossing of the Jordan indicating he was quite willing to die and be buried on the East Bank after having first crossed the Jordan, so as to be able to play his appointed role of helping the people of his generation to attain their share in the hereafter. [Our author is vague, speaking of עולם הבא; I believe he may have referred to the time of the resurrection. Ed.]

Yet another meaning of the term אעברה may be connected to the statement in Ketuvot 111 that any person who has had the good fortune to walk four cubits inside of ארץ ישראל has thereby assured himself of a share in the hereafter. Moses wanted to assure himself of that by crossing the Jordan even temporarily.

אשר בעבו הירדן, "which is on the far side of the Jordan, etc." Although at first glance these words appear totally superfluous, Moses had to spell this out as there is a good land in the celestial regions known as the "good land," a land which David referred to in Psalms 116,9 as "the land of life" when he asked G'd to let him walk therein. Moses also had to spell out the words: "this good mountain, the Lebanon" in accordance with what we learned in Sotah 14 where the Talmud says that Moses referred to his desire to perform the commandments which can be performed only inside the boundaries of ארץ ישראל. This is why he enumerated the various locations where it would be possible for him to perform these various commandments he had in mind.

In addition he was astute enough to word his request in such a way that G'd would not be able to say to him that he could accomplish all that he had spoken of by merely looking at the land, albeit with an enhanced power of vision. What he wanted to accomplish in the places he had named he could not accomplish merely with his eyes.