פירוש על דברים 5:24

ואת תדבר אלינו AND SPEAK THOU (את the feminine form of the pronoun) TO US — you weakened my strength as that of a woman, (cf. Rashi on Numbers 11:15), for I was distressed because of you (because of your words) and you weakened my hands, since I saw that you were not anxious to approach Him out of love. Indeed, was it not better for you to learn from the mouth of the Almighty God, and not to learn from me?!

V’AT’ (AND THOU) [Moses] SPEAK UNTO US. “[The feminine form of the word v’at indicates] that you caused my strength to be sapped like that of a woman, for I was distressed because of you and you weakened my hands when I realized that you were not anxious to approach Him out of love. For was it not better to learn directly from the Almighty rather than from me?!” Thus far is Rashi’s language from words of the Agadah.¹⁹⁰See Abodah Zarah 5 a. If so, Moses is saying that he was concerned [over their failure to approach G-d] and G-d informed him [in the following verses] that they did so because they feared Him and it was beneficial to them! But the subject is, as I have explained there,¹⁹¹Exodus 20:16. Vol. II, pp. 324-325. that they thought that G-d wanted to communicate the entire Torah to them; however, the [Divine] Will before Him was to proclaim to them only the Ten Commandments as they desired.
Know that now they requested of Moses that they should not hear the voice of the Glorious Name¹⁹²Further, 28:58. — neither on that day nor during any of the succeeding generations — for it is not at all times that miracles occur [and, as they said in Verse 21, their very survival after hearing the voice of G-d was a miracle in itself, a miracle that could not be expected to recur during future revelations], and that they do not want another such Revelation; rather, they will believe in the prophets and do G-d’s will [as revealed] through them. In compliance Moses told them, A prophet will the Eternal thy G-d raise up unto thee, from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; according to all that thou didst desire of the Eternal thy G-d in Horeb. etc.¹⁹³Ibid., 18:15-16. If so, the meaning of this request [of the people in the verse before us — and thou shalt speak unto us — that they wished to hear from prophets rather than from G-d] was meant for future generations.

ואת תדבר אלינו, even though your words will be inferior in value to G’d’s words.

ושמענו ועשינו, "when we hear (them) we will carry (them) out." The reason the word ושמענו is introduced by the conjunctive letter ו is that the people had asked Moses to be their intermediary when receiving G'd's commandments. They explained that initially, in Exodus 19, 9 they had asked to hear the words from the teacher i.e. G'd Himself, instead of merely from the pupil, i.e. Moses. However, in light of their deathly fear they reversed themselves concerning who they were willing to hear the words from. They now made Moses their intermediary. The letter ו in the word ושמענו is the allusion to their previous attitude in the matter. They added the word ועשינו "and we will do" to indicate that the manner of their מצוה performance would be as if they had heard the instructions from G'd Himself instead of merely from Moses, His intermediary.

ואת תדבר אלינו, “and you will speak to us.” Rashi, explaining the feminine pronoun את when being applied to Moses, an outstanding example of manhood, sees Moses as reflecting that the people with their many demands, complaints, etc., had weakened his stature so that he felt no stronger than a woman. What upset him most about his people was, that instead of being desirous to come ever closer to Hashem, demonstrating their love for Him, they tried to distance themselves, relating to Him from feelings of fear and fright. If so, Moses expressed concern that G’d might react negatively to the people’s conduct. This is not compatible with the fact that G’d had told Moses that what the people had done was out of a feeling of profound reverence, “fear of the Lord” for Him, meaning that it was something positive. He therefore continues that the true interpretation is in accordance with what he himself had written, i.e the people not realizing that they would be hearing only the Ten Commandments, thought that G’d would reveal the entire Torah in the same manner, at once. Thinking about that, they became very much afraid that they would not be able to endure such a revelation for such a length of time. At any rate, G’d was pleased with their reaction and revealed only the Ten Commandments at that time. You should realize that the people’s request included not only that the supernatural nature of the revelation be cut short on that occasion, but they meant that at no time in the future would they want to be exposed to such overwhelming experiences as they had just experienced. They meant to include in that request even the generations after them, something that the Talmud (Pesachim 50) calls: לאו כל שעתא מתרחש ניסא, “miracles do not happen all the time;” we derive the meaning of what the people had in mind from verse 21 in our chapter: “this day we have seen that man can survive being addressed by G’d directly.” The word הזה, “this,” is restrictive, meaning only on this day was there such demonstration. It will not occur again. The people as an exchange for foregoing such revelations in the future, undertook to have complete faith in G’d’s prophets, thus making such revelations unnecessary. G’d’s (Moses’) response was יקים לך (Deut. 18,15) ...כמוני יקים לך נביא מקרבך, “He will make arise for you a prophet just like me, etc.” They were to follow the instructions of such prophets, just as they followed Moses’ instructions after the latter had enquired for guidance by G’d.

You have diminished my strength like that of a woman, etc. For the second-person masculine is אתה, and the second-person feminine is את.

V. 24. ואת תדבר, du wirst dich dem Gottesworte gegenüber weiblich, d. i. rein passiv verhalten. Wir haben das Vertrauen zu dir, dass du uns nur das überbringen wirst, was du von Gott empfangen hast. Du wirst nichts als treues Organ sein. Daher auch das die Aufgabe des "Hörens" prägnanter hervorhebende שֲׁמע statt שְׁמע.

ואת תדבר אלינו, “and you shall speak to us;” Moses’ voice, a voice familiar to them and not so overpowering, would be easier to bear, so that they could understand it better.

For I was distressed about you and you weakened my hands, etc. Everyone raises the question: Had not Hashem agreed to their words and said, “Everything they said is excellent (v. 25)”? The answer is: [This verse] is presenting Moshe’s opinion, for he suspected the reason for their speaking in this manner was because they were not anxious to come near to Him out of love. And [in the next verse] Hashem says to Moshe that the reason for their speaking in this manner was because of their fear of Him. Hashem said all this to remove Moshe’s suspicion of the Jewish People.

THAT THEY MAY DO THEM IN THE LAND. I have explained it.¹⁹⁹Above, 4:5.