Commento su Deuteronomio 2:17

וידבר ה' אלי, “the Lord spoke to me;” Rashi comments here that since the debacle with the spies G-d had not been reported as speaking to Moses, in the mode of dibbur, which signifies fondness for the person addressed. This line proves that the Jewish people were in disgrace during the entire thirty eight years since then, and if G-d had communicated such a communication is described as amirah as opposed to dibbur. The former is a reference to a very brief and succinct communication. During all these years,G-d communicated with Moses not on the “face to face basis,” while he was awake, but by nocturnal images.