Commento su Numeri 11:12

כי תאמר אלי means, [HAVE I CONCEIVED ALL THIS PEOPLE] THAT THOU SHOULDST always SAY UNTO ME, “Carry them in thy bosom!?” And where did He speak thus to him? When He said to him, (Exodus 32:34) “Go, lead the people”; and it further states, (Exodus 6:13) “[And the Lord spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron] and gave them a charge concerning the children of Israel” saying unto them: “Take charge of them even under the risk (lit., under the condition) that they may stone you or at least insult you” (Sifrei Bamidbar 91; cf. Rashi on that verse).

DID I ‘HARITHI’ ALL THIS PEOPLE? In the opinion of Onkelos [who rendered it: “Am I ‘the father’ of all this people?” the word harithi] is like [the expression] beyond the blessing of ‘horai’ (my progenitors),¹⁷⁰Genesis 49:26. for a father is called horeh [of the root haroh, “to conceive” or “become pregnant”] because it is he who causes conception and brings about the pregnancy [of the mother]. Thus Moses is saying: “Am I their father [who has caused their conception], or am I their mother who has given birth to them?”¹⁷¹The double question in the verse — Did I ‘harithi’ all this people? … Have I born them? — is thus explained as referring to the separate functions of father and mother. But the masters of the plain meaning of Scripture¹⁷²Ibn Ezra here. See also in Sefer Hashorashim of the R’dak, under the root haroh. interpreted the verse in the opposite manner: “Am I their mother who was pregnant with them and gave birth to them?” Similarly, ‘Vatahar’ eth Miriam v’eth Shammai¹⁷³I Chronicles 4:17. means “she was pregnant with them and gave birth to them.” “Or am I their father who begot them?” [the word y’lidetihu being] like: ‘vayoled Noach’ (and Noah begot);¹⁷⁴Genesis 6:10. thy father that ‘y’ladecha’ (begot thee),¹⁷⁵Proverbs 23:22. and other similar expressions. And Moses said, as ‘ha’omein’ carrieth the sucking child, [the word ha’omein] being a reference to the [nursing-] father or mother. In my opinion the whole verse is a figurative reference to the mother, and the meaning thereof is as follows: “Have I conceived all this people and have I given birth to them?”¹⁷⁶Ramban thus interprets the two questions (see above Note 171) as one, both referring to the mother. Moses mentioned it in this way [speaking as the mother] because it is the woman who suffers the pain of raising children, remembering what she suffered for them from birth, pregnancy, and conception.¹⁷⁷See Hosea 9:11. But Moses said omein [in the masculine] since he is speaking of himself as a nursing-father, since he is not an omeneth (a nursing-mother).

האנוכי הריתי, true, a natural father knows how to guide his children even if they have differences of opinions among them. The reason such a father can be successful is that all his children know that he loves them all and has their best interests at heart. But these people do not put their trust in me at all; they suspect me and constantly provoke me to see what I would do for them.

האנכי הריתי את כל העם הזה, "Did I conceive this whole people?" The reason that Moses made such an apparently inappropriate comparison is based on Sanhedrin 19 where we are told that whoever teaches the son of his friend Torah is considered as if he had given birth to him. There is also a comment in Tikkuney Hazohar 70 that all the souls of the people who marched through the desert were "branches" of Moses' own soul and that he was considered the father of all those souls.

ילידתיהו, as in Genesis 10,26 ויקטן ילד את אלמודד, where the Torah does not mean that the man Yoktan gave birth to Elmoded, but that he raised Elmoded as if he had given birth to him, or simply that his sperm begat him. Such an indirect “birthing” is no less significant, as G’d in Deuteronomy 11,31 describes the Israelites as “inheriting” the Canaanites. They had certainly not been direct descendants so that the term “inheriting” would seem appropriate. Nonetheless, seeing that Noach was the progenitor of mankind after the deluge, in an extended, sense the Israelites could view themselves as the “heirs” of the Canaanites. [I have elaborated on the author’s words. Ed.]

האנכי הריתי, “did I conceive this people?” Nachmanides writes that Onkelos’ opinion that the words mean “am I their father,” which is based on the phrase ברכות הורי, “the blessings of my fathers” (Genesis 49,26) is an expanded version of the role of fathers who are viewed as if they had conceived, as without the insertion of their semen in the mother’s womb the mother could not have conceived.

That You say to me. The future tense is used in place of the present tense. But its meaning is not in the future tense as is implied, because if so, how did he know this. The word כי here is used in the sense of דהא (“that” in Aramaic) which has the sense of אשר (that).

V. 12. האנכי הריתי: bin ich seine Mutter? אם אנכי ילדתיהו oder sein Vater, wie Bereschit 4, 18 u. 10, 8 ff. Sind Vater und Mutter der Erziehungsaufgabe nicht gewachsen, so ist das allerdings auch ein Unglück für die Eltern, wie für die Kinder. Allein es ist dann das natürliche, mit der Geburt der Kinder Gegebene, gehört, wie so vieles andere, zu den verschiedenen Lebensstellungen, in welchen und für welche Menschen geboren werden, und die eben die ganze Mannigfaltigkeit der zu lösenden einheitlichen Menschenbestimmung bilden, und, was hier nicht wenig in die Waagschale fällt, es sind dann ebenso von vornherein natürliche Beziehungen der Liebe, der Achtung, des Vertrauens der Kinder zu den Eltern gegeben, die das Geschäft der Erziehung wesentlich erleichtern. Allein ich bin nicht ihr natürlicher Erzieher. Du hast mich zu ihrem Erzieher gewählt und hast dir gerade einen Menschen gewählt, dem an der Macht des Wortes, an dem Imponierenden der Persönlichkeit alles fehlt, was zu einem Achtung und Einfluss gewinnenden Auftreten und Wirken in einem Volke gehört.

כי תאמר אלי שאהו בחיקך, that You should say to me: “carry them in your bosom;” Moses implies that if he had not been commanded to carry on in his position, he would by now have quit.

האנכי הריתי, “was it I who has conceived these people?” Am I their mother who had conceived them?

על האדמה אשר נשבעת לאבתיו UNTO THE LAND WHICH THOU SWAREST UNTO THEIR FATHERS hast Thou bidden me to carry them in my bosom.

ילידתיהו, there are two vowels chirik here, seeing that the active mode מפעל, miphal, of this type of verb is like the causative mode מפעיל, maphil, and the Torah had to make sure we understood what mode Moses is using. On the other hand, with roots such as ישב, which describe a direct activity of the body, we do not find this pattern of two chiriks, but a patach instead. The same applies to roots such as ישן or ירד.

אם אנכי ילידיתיהו, “did I perhaps give birth to them?” Am I their mother the one who has given birth to them? The scholars who concentrate primarily on the plain meaning, פשט, take the opposite approach, saying that the word הריתי should be understood as referring to a mother, Moses asking if he, a man, should really be expected to relate to the Jewish people as a mother is expected to relate to them, i.e. to carry them in his bosom as a mother carries her baby, etc. The verb ילד is used by Moses to describe a father’s part in producing a child, as in ויולד את נח, (Genesis 5,28) whereas the verb הרה is used by Moses to describe the mother’s input, as in ותהר את מרים “she became pregnant with Miriam.” (Chronicles I 4,17) This is why Moses illustrates further כאשר ישא האומן את היונק, “as the nurse carries a suckling.” I believe that Moses spoke in terms of what mothers have to go through before they have a baby, followed by the possibly far greater difficulties in raising their children. A mother is constantly reminded of her pre-natal pains, etc. whenever the children do not act in a manner that compensates her for the pains endured before they came into this world.

That they stone you. Meaning that you will suffer through them.

Moses may have alluded to two periods in the life of a son when the father is responsible for his deeds. The first period is an obligation of a biblical nature such as before the son reaches the age of five or six when he commences to study Torah. The second period is a rabbinic decree. According to the rabbis the father is responsible for misdemeanours committed by his son until the son reaches the age of 13 (compare Ketuvot 49 and 68 respectively). Although at the time Moses asked this question the Talmud had not yet added the additional years that a father is responsible for his son, it is something most people will accept readily, especially Moses who was a prophet. In view of the fact that Abraham is reputed to have observed all the rabbinic ordinances already in his time (Yuma 28) although they had not yet been instituted, Moses, with his prophetic insight certainly was aware of all these ordinances. Concerning the period during which a father is responsible for the deeds of his son by biblical injunction Moses asked האנכי הריתי, "did I conceive them?" Concerning the period during which a father is responsible for the deeds of his son by rabbinic ordinance he asked אם אנכי ילדתיהו "did I give birth to them?"

אם אנכי ילידתיהו, “did I sire them?” Was I their father? The root ילד has been used in this sense in Genesis 10,24. (Ibn Ezra)

To carry them in my lap. Rashi is answering the question: The verse implies “as a nurse carries an infant to the land,” but does a nurse carry an infant to the Land that You swore? He answers that “to the land” refers back to “carry it in your lap.”

The meaning of the letter ה in the word האנכי is one that expresses confirmation, i.e. willingness to accept the premise implied in both G'd's legislation and rabbinic ordinances. Had the children of Israel been minors, Moses would gladly have shouldered the responsibility that Jewish law imposes upon him. He complained that he should not be expected to shoulder that responsibility for people who had long since become adults and were responsible for their own actions. Even if the Israelites had been his own biological children he would long since have been free of the burden of being saddled with their mistakes. He added -by inference- that if he would have been asked to provide something minor for the Israelites, he would gladly have provided it providing it would be in his power to do so; however, how could he be expected to supply a whole nation with meat in the middle of the desert? By asking מאין לי בשר, Moses also implied that the request did not even constitute something necessary for the wellbeing of the people, it was merely a luxury!

על האדמה, not “on the earth,” but as in אל האדמה “on to the earth.” Compare Genesis 38,12, על גוזזי צאן, “to the shearing of the sheep.” Compare also Exodus 10,21: נטה ידך על השמים, not “incline your hand over the heaven,” but “incline your hand in the direction of the heaven.”