Commento su Esodo 32:17

ברעה means WHEN THEY WERE SHOUTING for they were shouting for joy and making merry.

וישמע יהושע, "Joshua heard, etc." The expression ברעה needs clarification. What precisely was the "sound" that Joshua heard which he interpreted as the sound of war? In order to understand Moses' response to Joshua one has to have prophetic insight.

V. 17. Aus Kap. 24, V8. 13 u. 14 ist ersichtlich, dass Mosche und Josua sich vom Volke entfernt hatten, und ihrer beider Zurückkunft Aaron und die Ältesten warten sollten, aus V. 15 ff. aber, dass Mosche allein zum Gipfel des Berges hinanging. Daraus ergibt sich, dass Josua fern vom Volke und von Mosche auf dem Berge geblieben war, weshalb nun hier beim Hinabsteigen Mosche zuerst Josua traf. — רוע ,בְרֵע֗ה, ursprünglich: brechen und davon רע: das sittlich Gebrochene, Schlechte, wird auch zum Ausdruck der nur in wiederholten Absätzen das Ohr, sowie das Gemüt treffenden, und dadurch erregenden, erschütternden Stimme, daher תרועה: der laute Lärm und die innere Erschütterung und הריע: eine solche Erschütterung durch solchen Lärm erregen. רֵעַ aber, Substantiv: Lärm. So למה תריעי רֵעַ (Micha 4, 9). Es steht aber hier רֵעה statt רעו, um das Volk in der sittlichen Schwäche seiner Ausgelassenheit zu zeichnen.

All of this may be understood in light of a statement in the Talmud Yerushalmi Taanit 4,5 that the righteous are able to distinguish certain sounds as implying either something positive or something negative. This power of aural perception is something G'd has granted to outstanding individuals. When Joshua heard the sound which indicated something negative happening, ברעה, he interpreted it as the sound of fighting amongst the people. Alternatively, Joshua did not refer to a civil war when he mentioned that he identified the sound as the sound of battle; rather he referred to the struggle between the evil urge and the urge to be good which he perceived as being waged inside the Israelites at that time. Moses answered him that this was not how he perceived what he heard. When Moses said that he did not hear קול ענות גבורה, he meant that he did not perceive the good urge being victorious over the evil urge; when he added that he did not hear the קול ענות חלושה either, he meant that the reason was not merely an inherent weakness amongst the Israelites; what he heard was קול ענות, a sound of affliction, i.e. that he heard the breaking of the staff of glory which used to be theirs and which had now been broken. The meaning of this is that as opposed to violating one or another of the commandments, something that is apt to occur in the life of every Jew from time to time and which weakens a person spiritually, this time they had uprooted all the commandments by becoming guilty of idolatry. This is because according to Chulin 5 the sin of idolatry is equal to violating the entire Torah.

V. 18.קול ענות גבורה und חלושה: eine Stimme, die Sieg oder Fall verkündet, die durch Siegen oder Erliegen hervorgerufen ist. חלץ ,חלש heißt: etwas Festgehaltenes aus seinem Halt ziehen. קול ענות, eine Stimme der Demütigung, Schwächung, eine Stimme, die uns kraftlos macht. Nicht das, was eine solche Stimme hervorruft, sondern diese Stimme selbst und was sich in ihr ausspricht, dasselbe, was im ה des רעה angedeutet war, die sittliche Ausgelassenheit schlägt uns nieder. Es könnte auch ענות , Schwächung und Schändung in geschlechtlicher Beziehung heißen, wie: נשים בציון ענו (Klagel. 5, 11). Ist es doch eine alte Überlieferung, dass die Frauen sich nicht an diesem Abfall beteiligt hatten. Es würde damit dann gesagt sein, dass sie mit Zwang in diese Götzenbacchanalien hineingerissen wurden und ihren Widerstand zu büßen hatten.

Perhaps the word אנכי which follows the word ענות here is an allusion to the שכינה; it is reminiscent of Deut. 32,18 צור ילדך תשי, that the commission of a sin such a idolatry "weakens" the שכינה. The word שומע refers back to Joshua who had said that he heard the sound of battle within the camp. Moses told Joshua that what he heard was the mystical dimension of the breaking apart of the שכינה, so to speak. Solomon alludes to something like this in Proverbs 10,1 ובן כסיל תוגת אמו, "a foolish son is his mother's sorrow." Having written this, I have found the following statement in the Zohar second volume page 195: "What is the meaning of the word 'ברעה'? It refers to a voice (sound) from the סיטרא אחרא, the "negative part of the emanations." [This is based on the spelling of ברע with the letter ה at the end. Joshua is perceived as like the "moon" compared to Moses, the latter being like the "sun" in our aggadic literature. The "negative emanations" are similarly perceived by kabbalists as being like the "moon" when compared to the positive emanations which are like the "sun." These negative emanations are perceived as having "stolen" the light of the moon which was equal in strength to that of the sun prior to its having had to diminish itself. Joshua was therefore especially attuned to these negative emanations. This is why he "beheld" this "voice." Moses had not heard this voice as he was attuned primarily to the positive emanations, the ones perceived as akin to the "sun." Ed.] Joshua reported to Moses on what he heard immediately.