Commento su Esodo 32:11

למה ה‘ יחרה אפך WHEREFORE, O LORD, DOTH THY WRATH GLOW [AGAINST THY PEOPLE] — Does anyone become jealous of another, except a wise man of a wise man or a hero of a hero?! (Avodah Zarah 55a)

ETERNAL, WHY DOTH THY WRATH WAX HOT AGAINST THY PEOPLE? Now when Moses prayed about this great sin, it would have been fitting that he do so by way of confession and supplication, similar to what he said later on, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin,³²⁶Further, Verse 31. and just as Ezra prayed and confessed³²⁷Ezra 10:1. because of the faithlessness of them of the captivity,³²⁸Ibid., 9:4. and there is no reason why he should say, why doth the Eternal etc.? Our Rabbis, prompted by this [difficulty], have in various homiletic ways³²⁹See Shemoth Rabbah 43:7-10. tried to mention several reasons for Moses’ minimizing the sin before Him.
By way of the Truth, [the mystic lore of the Cabala], Moses is saying: “Why do You give permission to the attribute of justice to hold sway over Your people, for You have taken them out of the land of Egypt for the sake of Your Name with the attribute of mercy ruling over them, and with the attribute of justice upon their enemies.”
Now this prayer — Why doth the Eternal… Wherefore should the Egyptians speak³³⁰Verses 11-12. — appears really to be the very same prayer he mentioned in the Book of Deuteronomy, And I prayed unto G-d and I said: O Eternal G-d, destroy not Thy people,³³¹Deuteronomy 9:26. for the purport of the prayer is alike in both cases, the difference being only that here Scripture mentioned the prayer before it told us that he came down from the mountain, and there Moses mentioned it after it tells us that he came down from the mountain. But Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra’s opinion is that Moses did not pray for Israel as long as the idol was among them;³³²Hence the prayer recorded in Verses 11-13 was really not recited by Moses until after his descent from the mount and his cleansing the camp of the idolatrous worship, mentioned in Verses 15-29. — Ramban will differ with this interpretation of Ibn Ezra. but only when G-d told him, Let me alone, that I may destroy them,³¹⁸Ibid., Verse 14. and he realized that the fate [of the people] was dependent upon him, did he go down the mountain and destroy the calf, and then he returned to pray for forty days, there being no strict chronological order in the narrative of the Torah. But I do not agree with this opinion. For the prayer he recited upon his return to the mountain [after he had cleansed the camp of the idol] is the one which he mentions, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin.³²⁶Further, Verse 31. And if it is all one prayer³³³I.e., if the prayer mentioned in Verses 11-13, and the one in Verses 31-32, were both said at the same time, as Ibn Ezra would have it, namely during the forty days after he returned to the mountain, then why etc. which Moses said during the forty days after he returned to the mountain, why does Scripture divide it, mentioning here [in Verses 11-13] part of it, and after he had come down, mentioning the other part [in Verses 31-32]? Rather, these are two separate prayers. Therefore it appears that when G-d told him Let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them,³³⁴Verse 10 here. Moses immediately besought the face of the Eternal and did not delay at all, for he was afraid lest the wrath go out from G-d and the plague would begin³³⁵See Numbers 17:11. and consume them in a moment,³³⁶Ibid., Verse 10. therefore at once he said, Eternal, why doth Thy wrath wax hot against Thy people? Similarly I found it in Eileh Shemoth Rabbah:³³⁷Shemoth Rabbah 42:1. “Said Moses: ‘If I leave Israel [to their fate] and go down the mountain, they will never have a restoration again. Instead I will not move from here until I seek mercy for them.’ Immediately Moses began pleading on their behalf etc.” Thus he prayed for them and G-d repented of the evil which He said³³⁸Verse 14. to kill them and destroy them. That does not mean that He was [completely] reconciled with them, but at least He said, “I have repented, I will not destroy them.” And now that Moses had time, he went down the mountain and burnt the calf, and punished its worshippers, and afterwards he said to the people, I will go up unto the Eternal, perhaps I shall make atonement for your sin,³³⁹Verse 30. so that He should entirely forgive you. However, in the Book of Deuteronomy Moses narrated the account in another order, stating that after G-d had told him, Let Me alone, that I may destroy them,³⁴⁰Deuteronomy 9:14. he said, So I turned and came down.³⁴¹Ibid., Verse 15. The reason [for this change in the account of the narrative] is that Moses was listing to them there all their transgressions, and the pains he took for them. Thus he told them of the golden calf they had made in Horeb,³⁴²Ibid., Verse 8. on account of which he had to break the Tablets of the Law and to pray for them forty days and forty nights, and also for Aaron,³⁴³Ibid., Verse 20. and how he was put to the trouble of burning the calf. Then he continued to tell what they had done at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah,³⁴⁴Ibid., Verse 22. And when the Eternal sent them from Kadesh-barnea;³⁴⁵Ibid., Verse 23. and after he finished, Ye have been rebellious against the Eternal from the day that I knew you,³⁴⁶Ibid., Verse 24. he went back to the matter of his prayers which he had mentioned, and set down in order the two prayers, saying, So I fell down before the Eternal the forty days and forty nights that I fell down; because the Eternal had said He would destroy you³⁴⁷Ibid., Verse 25. — until I prayed, destroy not Thy people.³⁴⁸Ibid., Verse 26. It was not necessary for him to mention the second prayer³⁴⁹I.e., the prayer mentioned here in Verses 31-32: Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, etc. because he had already said there that he prayed for them forty days, and even here it does not mention [all the prayers he recited], for who can write down the many supplications and entreaties that he prayed for them during the forty days. And if you will understand what I have explained, then you will really comprehend that there were [here] two prayers, for at first he besought the face of the Eternal his G-d, and at the end [i.e., after he came down the mountain and burnt the golden calf etc. and then returned to the mountain], he fell down before the Eternal for forty days,³⁴⁷Ibid., Verse 25. as it is explained in the section, and Moses returned unto the Eternal.³⁵⁰Verse 31 here.
Now in the Book of Deuteronomy he mentioned, Moreover the Eternal was very angry with Aaron… and I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.³⁵¹Deuteronomy 9:20. This he did not mention here at all for the sake of Aaron’s honor, for Moses did not want to mention in Aaron’s lifetime that he had been dependent upon his prayer, in order that he should not feel ashamed.³⁵²Of the grief he had caused (Abusaula). But there [in the Book of Deuteronomy] after Aaron’s death, he informed us of the truth. This is the correct order in these Scriptural sections.

למה ה' יחרה אפך בעמך, Moses, does not accept that all the people have become “his” people as implied by G’d having said to him שחת עמך “your people have become corrupted.” Surely, he reasons, not all the people have sinned. Why should G’d be angry at those who did not sin, the ones who are still “G’d’s people?”

למה ה׳ יחרה אפך, "To what purpose, O G'd, will Your anger burn?" If we go back for a moment to the statement in Shemot Rabbah 42 that only the mixed multitude were involved in the making and worshiping of the golden calf, we had to conclude that G'd's anger was directed at the Israelites for not having protested what the mixed multitude were doing. In that case, Moses' question "Why be mad at Your people?" simply meant that G'd's anger should have been restricted to the mixed multitude. This suggests that Moses had made peace with the idea that G'd would destroy the mixed multitude. Perhaps we can find support for this even in Moses' words: "whom You have taken out of Egypt?" Seeing that G'd had not taken the mixed multitude out of Egypt but they had come of their own volition, G'd's image would not be tarnished if this mixed multitude were to perish! According to the Midrash then we may assume that all the members of the mixed multitude died at that time seeing that even their patron did not speak up on their behalf. Inasmuch as the mixed multitude were seducers, Moses would have been totally out of order if he had asked for mercy on their behalf especially seeing that he himself was being punished for having accepted them as converts to begin with.

בעמך אשר הוצאת. Note that G’d says: עמך, “your people,” instead of עמי, “My people.” He says אשר הוצאת “whom you have taken out from Egypt,” i.e. not “the one whom I have taken out of Egypt.”

למה ה' יחרה אפך בעמך, “to what purpose, o Hashem, should Your anger flare against Your people?” Nachmanides writes that in light of this great sin by the Israelites, it would seem to have been appropriate for Moses to plead Israel’s case by commencing with a confession, as in the formula “אנא חטא העם הזה וגו', “indeed this people have committed a grievous sin, etc.” [as he did when he ascended the Mountain again in verse 31. Ed.] Our sages have distinguished themselves in citing reasons why what appeared at first glance as a terrible sin, was in fact much less serious than it appears at first glance. The proper way to understand Moses’ words at this juncture is: ”why would You give permission to the Attribute of Justice to assume control of the fate of Your people when You had led the people out under the banner of the Attribute of Mercy, while at the same time reserving Your Attribute of Justice for dealing with their enemies?” Some commentators explain Moses’ question as being simply: “why not direct Your anger at the instigators of this sin, the mixed multitude, who had joined the Jewish people at the time of the Exodus?” This prayer, in which Moses describes that by doing away with the Jewish people Hashem would ultimately diminish His own image, which He had built up while performing the miracles in Egypt, is repeated in Deuteronomy. The only difference is that here Moses is described as offering this plea before descending from the Mountain, whereas in Deuteronomy it is described by Moses as having taken place after he had descended from the Mountain. (Deut. 9,26) Ibn Ezra feels that Moses refrained from pleading on behalf of the people as long as the symbol of their sin was still among them. He could not hope to have his prayer answered until after every vestige of the golden calf had been destroyed. Seeing that G’d had said to him that he should desist from pleading, and he realized that the matter depended upon him, he hastened to come up with some cogent reason why G’d’s anger, if it were to result in the people’s destruction, would be counterproductive from G’d’s own vantage point. [Ibn Ezra does not view our verse as a prayer on behalf of Israel, but on behalf of G’d’s image among mankind. Ed.] Personally, I do not agree. (Nachmanides speaking). Nachmanides argues that if indeed Moses had not prayed while on the Mountain for the first time, and all his entreaties (according to some scholars 40 days’ worth of them) were a single prayer, why would the Torah have divided them into what is reported here and what Moses added in Deuteronomy? I believe therefore, that we are dealing with two distinct prayers. When G’d told Moses to desist so that He could proceed with what He had in mind, Moses prayed immediately, instead of desisting. He formulated the prayer quoted in our verse. He was far too worried that if he were to wait it would prove too late, as G’d’s anger would have been translated into disaster for the Jewish people. His prayer proved effective, at least sufficiently to suspend execution of G’d’s plan at this stage. It did not mean that G’d had been mollified, how could He have been, when no remedial action both in word and deed had yet been taken? Seeing that G’d had granted Moses a stay of execution, he descended and immediately proceeded to destroy the golden calf, to sprinkle the penitent people with water containing the ashes of that cast image, and authorized the execution of the active participants who had danced around the calf proclaiming it to be a deity. Having done all this, he felt that he could ascend the Mountain again and plead for forgiveness, not only a delay of the punishment for what the people had become guilty of. On that occasion, the confession of the people’s guilt did not ring hollow, as he was able to point to the remedial action he had taken and the people having demonstrated sincere penitence. As to the reason why Moses related the sequence differently, 40 years after the event, when he said that as soon as G’d told him to desist so that He could destroy the people he descended the Mountain, (Deut. 9,14-15) this was because Moses was in the process of reminding the people [who were still alive, i.e. below the age of 60, Ed.] of a whole litany of sins committed by their fathers. In order not to interrupt the continuity of his recital, Moses did not mention what he had said to G’d in our verse at that time. He preferred to tell of what precisely had happened at hat time as well as Aaron’s role in all this. [remember that the great majority of the people whom Moses addressed at that time had not even been alive when all this happened. Ed.] After he had concluded by reminding the people that they had a long history of being rebellious against G’d, (Deut. 9,24) he came back to his prayer on behalf of the people and reminded them that he had spent an entire 40 days on the Mountain pleading the cause of his people. He wanted his audience to know that their existence at this time was not a natural event, but that G’d had initially meant to kill all their fathers, so that most of them would never have been born even, if not for his insistent prayers over a period of so many days when he did not even enjoy food and drink. He did not have to list all the details of his prayers as a list of 40 days of continuous prayer would have resulted in the Torah being an interminably long book, and the people reading it would have gone to sleep from boredom. When Moses mentioned that he had also prayed on behalf of Aaron at that time, he made clear that Aaron had been in need of his prayer at that time. He did not mention this in our verse, as it would have been embarrassing to have done so while Aaron was still alive. In Deuteronomy, a speech by Moses several months after Aaron had already died, he could mention this without fear of embarrassing him.

ויחל משה את פני ה’ אלו-היו, “Moses pleaded before Hashem, his G’d.” Moses pleaded with the attribute of Justice; the word פני when used in connection with G’d always refers to the attribute of Justice. To mention just a few examples: (Leviticus 20,5) ושמתי אני את פני באיש ההוא, “I shall set My face against that man;” or (Psalms 34,17) פני ה’ בעושי רע, “the face of G’d is set against evildoers. I have already dealt with this word in my commentary on Exodus 20,1.
We are familiar with the meaning of the word ויחל from Malachi 1,9 חלו נא פני א-ל, “please implore the favor of G’d.” Alternately, the word may be derived from תחלה, “beginning, at first.” It would mean that Moses began something that would continue through to its end. He would implore the attribute בינה until he would reach the attribute דעה, which is above it. The description by Moses of G’d as אלו-היו is something that does not occur anywhere else in the whole Torah. It would normally indicate that Moses related to “his” G’d as no one else ever did or could and G’d acknowledged this during his life time. Nowhere else do we find that the Torah described G’d as specifically Moses’ G’d, such as we find frequently in connection with the patriarchs. G’d is often described as “the G’d of Avraham,” or as “the G’d of Yitzchak,” or as “the G’d of Yaakov.” Even in connection with David we find that Isaiah 38,5 quotes G’d telling Chizkiyah: “thus said the Lord, the G’d of your ‘father’ David, etc.” However, in Moses’ case this is the only time G’d associated His name with Moses and even then only by means of a pronoun, almost like an afterthought. I believe that the Torah’s intention was to give us a hint of G’d’s partial withdrawal from the Jewish people and even from Moses due to this grievous sin. This is confirmed by G’d describing the people to Moses as עמך, “your people.” He hinted that as of then they were not “His” people. How could they be, seeing they had been unfaithful to Him?

Can there be a thought of jealousy, unless it is. . . Rashi is answering the question: Was it not right for Hashem to be angry with them for having made the Calf? Perforce, Moshe meant: “Can there be a thought of jealousy. . .” But above, on אנכי ה' אלהיך (20:2), Rashi explains [our verse differently]: “Why is it in the singular form: אלהיך ? This was meant to give an opening for Moshe. . . This is what is meant when he said: “Hashem! Why should Your wrath blaze against Your people?’ [Meaning:] ‘It was not to them that You issued the command: You shall have no other gods, but only to me.’” Both [of Rashi’s explanations] are correct.

Against Your people. God had said, “Your people have become corrupt,” referring to the mixed multitude whom Moshe took out of Egypt on his own authority. Moshe replied, “If only my people have sinned, why are You angry at Your people? And if it is because they did not protest, recall that it was only recently that You brought them from the land of Egypt.” In Egypt even the B’nei Yisrael had fallen into idol worship. How, then, could they be expected to become zealous opponents of it in such a short time?

V. 11 חלה .ויחל משה heißt krank sein, חַלֶה: somit krank machen, davon glaubte man den Ausdruck חלה פנים als: den Zorn schwächen, somit: besänftigen, erklären zu können. Allein חלה פנים kommt entschieden in Sätzen vor, wo an Zorn nicht zu denken ist. So פניך יחלו עשירי עם (Ps. 45, 13) רבים יחלו פני נדיב (Prov. 19, 6), וחלו פניך רבים (Job. 11, 19). In allen diesen Stellen bezeichnet es offenbar nicht die Besänftigung eines Zürnenden, sondern das Bestreben, die Gunst und das Wohlwollen eines Höhern zu gewinnen. Es muss somit diesem Ausdruck eine andere Anschauung zu Grunde liegen. Wir haben bereits (Bereschit 22, 2 u. 48, 1) nachgewiesen, wie חלה mit ח-Laut die dem mit ע-Laut in עלה enthaltenen Begriffe entgegengesetzte hemmende Bedeutung habe. עלה heißt in zweiter Bedeutung: die aufsteigende Entwicklung, woher עלה: Blatt. חלה heißt: die gehemmte Entwicklung, Krankheit, und תעלה die wiederhergestellte Entwicklung: Genesung. Ist nun חלה Gegensatz von עלה in dessen zweiter Bedeutung, so kann auch חלה Gegensatz von עלה in dessen erster Bedeutung, des Aufsteigens, des sich nach oben Bewegens, sein, und ebenfalls in seiner ersten Bedeutung: die in ihrer Richtung nach oben unterbrochene und zur Richtung abwärts gebrachte Bewegung sein. חַלֵה wäre demnach: das Bestreben, etwas Aufwärtsgerichtetes zur Richtung abwärts zu bewegen, und חלה פנים hieße buchstäblich: ein Gesicht, das sonst seiner Natur, seiner Stellung etc. oder dem gegenwärtigen Verhältnisse gemäß, nur aufwärts schauen würde, zum Herabsehen auf einen Niederen zu bewegen, das ist aber nichts anderes, als: sich um die wohlwollende Herablassung eines Höhern, oder um die verzeihende, sich wieder zuwendende Herablassung eines Zürnenden bemühen. Wir haben die übliche Übersetzung: Flehen, beibehalten, da sie diesem Begriffe nahe kommt. Besser und richtiger wäre es: Da suchte Mosche das sich herablassende Wohlwollen Gottes, seines Gottes, zu gewinnen, und steht das im tiefen Zusammenhange mit der Kap. 33. 12 u. 13 enthaltenen Bitte.

ויחל משה, “Moses began to pacify;” according to some commentators the prayer alluded to here is the one spelled out in greater in Deuteronomy 9,25, where Moses adds that he threw himself on the ground in prayer for forty days, etc.; this actually happened after he had already descended from the Mountain, smashed the Tablets, made gold dust out of the golden calf, had the Levites execute the ones who actively worshipped the calf and danced around it, and had purified the people by making them drink water containing ash of the golden calf. These commentators consider it unbelievable that Moses had the nerve to ask for forgiveness of the people before the latter had done their part in making penance for their grievous error. Those were the forty days during which G-d had told Moses that He would not be the One leading them up to the Promised Land. (verses 3133). When hearing this, Moses had responded with reminding G-d of His promise, commencing with Deuteronomy 33,12. According to our author, Moses did not ascend the Mountain during these 40 days, for how could he have done so without first having obtained permission to do so? At the end of those intermediate 40 days, when G-d had indicated that he had reconciled Himself to the people, He said to him: “carve yourself a second set of Tablets, etc.” and had asked him to ascend the Mountain again. (Exodus 34,1) When Moses ascended again (34,4) he remained on the Mountain and did not descend until the tenth day of Tishrey.

למה ה’ יחרה אפך בעמך, “Why, Hashem, should Your anger flare up against Your people, etc.” In Deut. 9,26 Moses elaborates in greater detail about this prayer he offered up pleading with G’d not to destroy the Jewish people. Our sages Shemot Rabbah 43,10, ask why Moses mentioned the Exodus at this time? They answer that Moses asked G’d to consider the background of the Jewish people, where they had been and under what circumstances He had taken them out of a land infested with all kinds of idolatry such as the land of Egypt. After all, it was probably not the first time Israelites had made a cast calf, though they could not make it out of gold because they were too poor.

According to the plain meaning of the verse i.e. that the Israelites themselves made the golden calf and worshiped it, Moses' argument applied to the part of the people who did not have a direct share in that sin. After all, the Torah reports that all those who had actively participated died. There were three such groups. 1) The Israelites who did not desist from worshiping the golden calf in spite of witnesses and proper warnings of the consequences were executed by the Levites. 2) The people whose sin had been witnessed but who had not been warned died at the hands of G'd, 3) those who had been warned but whose deed had not been witnessed. They too died at the hands of G'd. When G'd said to Moses that He wanted to destroy the people, He referred to those who were not included in either of the three groups we just mentioned. Moses' outcry: "Why will Your anger burn against Your people, etc.," was on behalf of the people who did not belong to any of the three groups who had been active participants in the sin. His argument was simply that the sin of omission of not protesting the involvement of the others surely did not warrant extinction! Should they cease to be called "Your people" though they had not rebelled against You?

אלקיו: der zu ihm in besondere Beziehung getreten und ihn zum Boten seines Willens berufen. Aus diesem Berufe heraus und aus dem diesem Berufe zu Grunde liegenden Zwecke ist alles folgende gesprochen.

למה ה׳ יחרה אפך בעמך, “What for, o Lord, are You becoming angry, etc.?” Moses’ reasoning was that it did not seem reasonable after all the time and effort G-d had invested in bringing this people to the spiritual level they had achieved at the time of the revelation, that all this should be wiped out in one moment, as if it were completely irretrievable? He added, that the Egyptians would have the last laugh after all, when they would hear of the annihilation of G-d’s people. He also asked what would become of G-d’s oath to the patriarchs.

אשר הוצאת "whom You have taken out of Egypt! He used this argument to refute G'd's suggestion to make out of his descendants a great nation. Moses meant that any nation descended from him will not have the experience of the Exodus. If a nation which had this experience nonetheless succumbed to the temptation of the golden calf, surely a nation which lacked that experience cannot be expected to resist such a temptation! You will find that at the beginning of the Decalogue G'd emphasised the experience of the Exodus as the basis of the Israelites accepting Him as their G'd (Exodus 20,2). This shows clearly how pivotal that experience was for the faith in G'd displayed by the Jewish people, and their willingness to obey His commands. This theme occurs again and again throughout the Torah in connection with G'd's commandments. One gains the impression that the Torah keeps reminding us that the justification of G'd demanding fulfilment of His commandments is due almost entirely to the experience of the Exodus. Please refer to what I have written on that verse. When Moses mentioned G'd as having taken the Israelites out of Egypt בכח גדול, "by expending a great deal of energy," he implied that G'd could not afford to let all of this energy go to waste by destroying the Jewish people.

מִלְרַע :לָמָה und רפה das folgende V. 12 מלעיל :למה und דגוש. Wir vermuten einen Unterschied in der Bedeutung. Im ersten Falle liegt der Nachdruck auf מה dem unbekannten, zu suchenden Objekte, und ל־ steht in der gewöhnlichen Bedeutung: zu, es heißt somit: zu was, d. h. zu welchem Zwecke? Es mag Grund dafür vorhanden sein, allein der damit zu erreichende Zweck ist unerfassbar. Im zweiten Falle liegt der Nachdruck auf ל־, auf der Beziehung überhaupt, dem Fragenden scheint das die Frage Veranlassende völlig außer Beziehung, somit durch nichts motiviert zu sein. Es ist die Frage nach dem Grunde: warum? Motiviert war ja das Zürnen offenbar, sie waren gewarnt: זכח לאלהים יחרם בלתי לד׳ לברו (Kap. 22, 19) und: לא תעשה לך פסל וגו׳ לא תשתחוה וגו׳ כי אנכי ד׳ אלקיך וגו׳ (Kap. 20, 4 u. 5), und überhaupt, die Begründung göttlichen Zürnens in Frage stellen, wäre Blasphemie. Aber den damit zu erreichenden Zweck möchte Mosche sich zum Bewusstsein gebracht wissen, und hebt den Gegensatz dieses Verfahrens zu der, wie wir gleich sehen werden, durch die Erwählung dieses Volkes von vornherein vorauszusetzenden Absicht hervor. V. 12 (siehe daselbst) ist der Erfolg ganz klar, allein es wird nach dem Grunde der Zulassung einer eine ursprüngliche Absicht diametral vereitelnden Folge gefragt. Ebenso oben Kap. 5, 22: למָה הרעתה לעם הזה למה זה שלחתני, zu welchem Zweck hast du diesem Volke, das du ja erlösen willst, dieses neue Leid gebracht, dieses Leid ist ja für deine Erlösungsabsicht zwecklos, und da sich durch diesen Erfolg sofort meine völlige Unbrauchbarkeit zu deiner Sendung herausgestellt, aus welchem Grunde hast du gerade mich, der ich mich von vornherein zu einer solchen Sendung unfähig gefühlt, mit solcher Sendung beauftragt? Ebenso Bamidbar 11, 11: למה הרעת לעבדך ולָמה לא מצתי חן בעיניך לשום וגו׳: Zu welchem Zwecke hast du mir diese leidvolle Bürde auferlegt, da ja durch die immer wiederkehrende Versündigung des Volkes die Erfolglosigkeit meines Wirkens, meine von vornherein gefühlte Unfähigkeit, somit die Zwecklosigkeit meiner Sendung konstatiert ist, und aus welchem Grunde hast du mir die erbetene Gunst versagt, mich mit einer meine Kräfte so sehr übersteigenden Aufgabe zu verschonen. Es bedürfte noch der Vergleichung aller sonstigen Stellen, um die Bedeutung festzustellen.

Seeing that G'd had refused to associate His name with the people and had referred to them as Moses' people, i.e. שחת עמך, how could Moses dare say to G'd "why would You become angry at Your people?" We must therefore understand that when Moses referred to the Exodus by saying אשר הוצאת, that at that time He had still called them His people, i.e. אשר.

בעמך אשר הוצאת וגו׳: das Volk, das du aus der irrigen Anschauung des Volkes heraus, mein Volk nennst, und von dem du nur mir sterblichem Menschen gegenüber menschlich gesagt hast, du habest jetzt gesehen, dass es hartnäckig sei, ist ja dein Volk, du hast es ja — nicht ich, der Kurzsichtige, sondern du, Allwissender, — hast es aus der Masse der Völker zu deinem Volke hervorgegriffen, ja ganz eigentlich zu der Bestimmung, dein Volk zu werden, geschichtlich entstehen lassen. Es war dir mit allen seinen Charakterfehlern, auch mit seinem hervorstechendsten, der Hartnäckigkeit, bekannt, als du es mit so großer Offenbarung deiner Wunderkraft und mit Anwendung deiner die mächtigste Menschenmacht bewältigenden Stärke aus Mizrajim hinausführtest. Nicht nach dem natürlichen Lauf der Dinge geschah es, Natur und Geschichte sprachen gegen seine Existenz. Du hast beide mit Kraft und Stärke überwunden, um gerade dieses Volk trotz seiner Hartnäckigkeit als dein Volk dahin zu stellen. Unmöglich hast du erwartet, es werde sofort in unverbrüchlicher Treue sich deinen Geboten gehorsam zeigen. Unmöglich war es deine Absicht, es sofort nach bewiesener Ungefügigkeit zu vernichten. Du hättest sonst zur Offenbarung deiner Kraft und Stärke gegen Natur- und Geschichtsgewalten einen gefügigeren Menschenstamm erwählt. Indem du gerade den hartnäckigsten zu deinen Zwecken erwähltest, hast du sicherlich einen anderen Weg als die sofortige Vernichtung auf den ersten Ungehorsam beabsichtigt, war vielleicht ebenso die, bei der sittlichen Freiheit des Menschen noch wunderbarere und erst im Laufe der Zeit zu erreichende Bewältigung der Hartnäckigkeit des hartnäckigsten Menschenstammes mit Absicht gerade seiner Erwählung, wie seine existenzlose Ohnmacht, der überwältigenden Gewalt seiner Herren gegenüber, gerade seine Erwählung zur Offenbarung deiner Natur- und Menschengewalt überwältigenden Kraft und Stärke bestimmte. — Zu welchem Zwecke willst du daher, deiner ursprünglichen Absicht gewiss entgegen, deinen in sich gewiss begründeten Zorn "dein Volk, das du mit einer so großen Kraft und einer so starken Gewalt aus Mizrajim geführt", nun sofort vernichten lassen? Es kann das nicht deine Absicht sein.