Tafsiran Ulangan 9:18: Rashi, Chizkuni, Da'at Zekenim & Ibn Ezra

ואתנפל לפני ה׳ כראשנה ארבעים יום AND I FELL DOWN BEFORE THE LORD, AS AT THE FIRST, FORTY DAYS, as it is said (Exodus 32:30) “And now I will go up to the Lord, perhaps I may atone [for your sin]”. At that ascent, which was the second I made, I tarried there forty days — consequently these terminated on the twenty-ninth of Ab, since he had ascended on the eighteenth of Tammuz. On that same day in Ab He became reconciled with Israel and said to Moses (Exodus 34:1) “Hew thee out two tablets”. He stayed there another forty days; consequently these terminated on the Day of Atonement (the tenth of Tishri). On that same day, the Holy One, blessed be He, was gladly reconciled (i.e. completely reconciled) with Israel and said to Moses, I have forgiven according to thy word. On this account it was appointed for pardon and forgiveness. And whence do we know that He was reconciled with them with complete goodwill? Because it is stated in respect to the forty days of the last tablets (in respect to third period of forty days) (Deuteronomy 10:10), “And I stayed in the mountain according to the first days”! What was the case with the first days? They were passed in God’s goodwill! (for they had not yet committed the sin of worshipping the golden calf). So, too, the last forty days were in God’s goodwill! You must now say (admit) that the intervening forty days were passed in God’s anger (Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 31; cf. Rashi on Exodus 18:13).

ואתנפל לפני ה' כראשונה ארבעים יום וארבעים לילה. I prostrated myself before the Lord, as previously, for forty days and forty nights. This verse does not refer to Rashi’s commentary here that G-d responded to Moses with the words: סלחתי כדברך, “I have forgiven, in accordance with your words.” This phrase occurs in Scriptures only once, after the Sin of the Spies and the subsequent rebellion of the people. But the verse here alludes to Moses’ second period of isolation to obtain forgiveness after the sin of the golden calf.(Exodus 32,30.) That quote is Rashi’s own words, for on the seventeenth of Tammus during the first year of the Exodus Moses returned up to the Mountain in order to obtain forgiveness for the sin of the golden calf. The spies had not been dispatched until the twenty ninth day of Sivan in the second year of their wanderings.

ואתנפל לפני ה' כראשונה, “I threw myself down before the Lord as I had done the first time;” Moses refers to the first time he had thrown himself down after G–d had told him to desist from pleading so that He could proceed with wiping out the Jewish nation; (Deut. 9,14) He remained in that position until G–d had conceded that He would not wipe out the nation. This was reported as having taken place in Exodus 32,14, where we read וינחם ה' על הרעה, “the Lord renounced the evil,” i.e. punishment He had intended to subject the people to. He had not, at that stage, forgiven, any part of their sin. Now, Moses explains that he faced the problem of obtaining forgiveness for his people. He did so out of fear and dread. (verse 19) As a result of his persistence, G–d decided to pardon the sin which He had originally meant to punish with destruction of the people.