Commento su Numeri 11:15

ואם ככה את עשה לי AND IF THOU DO THUS WITH ME [KILL ME, I PRAY THEE …] — The Hebrew word for “Thou” appears in the feminine form את instead of the masculine אתה to intimate that Moses’ strength grew weak as that of a woman when the Holy one, blessed be He, showed him the punishment which He was to bring in future upon them for this (for their sin). He, (Moses) therefore, said before Him, “If so, kill me first” (Sifrei Bamidbar 91).

AND IF ‘AT’ (THOU) DO THUS WITH ME. “[The Hebrew word for Thou appears here in the feminine form at, instead of atah in the masculine, because] Moses’ strength grew weak, like that of a woman, because the Holy One, blessed be He, showed him the punishment He was to bring upon them for this [sin of theirs]. Moses then said to Him, ‘If so, kill me, I pray Thee.’” This is Rashi’s language. But I do not understand this. For the pronoun at refers here to Him on high, [for since it is Moses who is speaking in the verse, his use of the second-person pronoun must be referring to G-d; so how can Rashi explain that the feminine form is used to indicate that Moses’ strength weakened like that of a woman]! But according to the plain meaning of Scripture, the custom of the [Hebrew] language is [to use the form at] even when referring to a man, such as, ‘at’ (thou) the far-covering cherub.¹⁸²Ezekiel 28:14. Here the word at refers to k’ruv (cherub), which is a masculine noun. And by way of the Truth, [the mystic teachings of the Cabala], And if ‘at’ do thus with me refers to the attribute of justice [“attribute” in Hebrew being feminine, and the meaning of the verse is: “if it be decreed that the attribute of justice encounter me, then kill me, I pray Thee], just as it is said, and the anger of the Eternal was kindled greatly.¹⁸³Above, Verse 10. Similarly, ‘v’at’ shalt speak unto us¹⁸⁴Deuteronomy 5:24. is a reference to the great fire,¹⁸⁵Ibid., Verse 22. “Fire” can be feminine or masculine in Hebrew. from which you shall speak the words of G-d unto us, and we will hear it¹⁸⁴Deuteronomy 5:24. from your mouth, and do it.¹⁸⁴Deuteronomy 5:24. Similarly, ‘at’ the far-covering cherub¹⁸²Ezekiel 28:14. Here the word at refers to k’ruv (cherub), which is a masculine noun. alludes to the second cherub.¹⁸⁶Reference is to the Glory of G-d (Abusaula). The student versed [in the mystic lore of the Cabala] will understand.

ואם ככה את עושה לי, If You in Your perfection decided not to provide me with assistants in order not to belittle me in the eyes of the people, and You want to continue to lead the people in the manner which You have done so far, הרגני נא הרוג אם מצאתי חן בעיניך, so that You will be free to appoint someone else, someone, or several, who are able to lead the people more perfectly. This is reminiscent of what the sages have said about the prophet Samuel who died before his time in order to enable the Kingdom of David to become reality sooner. (compare Tossaphot on Taanit 5)

ואם ככה את עשה לי, "but if You will deal thus with me, etc." Moses was afraid that G'd would say to him that he must continue to carry this burden even against his will as it is the fate of a servant of G'd that he continue to serve his G'd until he dies, as we know from Deut 6,5 where we are commanded to love G'd with our entire soul, i.e. even if we have to die in the process. This is why Moses said: "if that is my fate then please let me die now." He added that the reason he asked to die now was so that he would not be a witness to his own failure as a leader. Moses was afraid that if instead of G'd letting him die the people would kill him for not providing meat, he would become the cause of their becoming guilty of murder. Their punishment would be that they would be wiped out by G'd. He, Moses, would much rather die now than for Israel to become guilty of such a crime. Solomon expressed such a thought in Proverbs 17,27 when he said: "it is not good for the righteous to become the cause of retribution."

ואם ככה את עושה לי, “and if this is how You deal with me, etc.” Rashi says that the feminine mode in the word את instead of אתה when addressing Hashem, is an allusion to the fact that Moses’ spiritual reserves were close to being exhausted. Nachmanides writes that he did not understand Rashi’s conclusions about the use of the word את, seeing that Moses employed this pronoun of G’d while addressing Him. According to the plain meaning of the text the pronoun את is indeed found being used when addressing a male as in Ezekiel 28,14: את כרוב ממשח הסוכך, “You-who have been anointed to act as protector, etc.” [According to this Moses would accuse G’d of treating him as no longer deserving to be regarded as possessing the strength expected of a male. Of course, Moses would have brought this upon himself by his self-admitted inability to deal with the people’s challenges. Ed. Rabbi Chavel cites an interesting commentary on our verse by Rabbi Wolf Heidenheim.]

ואם ככה את עושה לי, ”And if this is how You will deal with me, etc.” The word את in this verse is a reference to the attribute of Justice. Moses refers to the reaction of G’d described in verse 10 where the Torah wrote ויחר אף ה' מאד, that “G’d had become exceedingly angry.” The word את as describing the attribute of Justice is also found in Deut. 5,24 when the people expressed their inability to endure the sound of the voice of G’d. It is also found in Ezekiel 28,14 את כרוב ממשח הסוכך, “You are a great protective cherub.” This is a pseudonym for the second highest ranking angel known as כבוד, his partner being the angel known as תפארת. [compare author’s comment on Exodus 25,18 on the subject of the cherubs. Ed.]
I have already explained that seeing the written text of the Torah does not contain vowels, it is possible to supply the vowel kametz when reading the word עושה with the vowel kametz under the letter ש, so that it sounds as “ossah.” The reason we have been forbidden to write the vowels in the written text of the Torah scroll is to enable a person to understand a variety of meanings in the text which he could not find if he were bound to a specific vowel pattern under or over the consonants.
For instance, in Genesis 22,12 the word ידעתי in the sequence עתה ידעתי כי ירא אלוהים אתה, normally translated as “now I know that you are truly G’d-fearing,” would have a different meaning if the letter ד in ידעתי had a dagesh in it. It would become transitive in meaning, i.e. “Avraham made known (to the world) who and what he was in relation to G’d.” Another example where a minor change in vocalization makes a substantial difference in meaning is found in Exodus 2,5 in connection with how the daughter of Pharaoh saved Moses. The conventional reading of the words is ותשלח את אמתה ותקחה, “she dispatched her maid and took it (the basket).” The word אמה then would have the same meaning as the word שפחה. However, one can understand the word אמתה as meaning “her arm” indicating a miraculous lengthening of her arm; this is the way the sages in Sotah 12 understood it as if the letter מ had a dagesh in it. There are numerous such examples throughout the Torah.

Like a female. The verse is explained as follows: “If this is the way” meaning that if You ultimately do this to Yisroel, then “You make me את” meaning that You would have made me like a female — because את (“you”) is used to address females, just as one says אתה (“you”) to males. The notation proves this, because there is a break between the words “the way” and “You.” It is impossible to say that it refers back to “I cannot…” (v.14) because the distress caused by the complaint would not have been so bad for him to say “please kill me.” Rather it was because of the punishment that Hashem would ultimately bring upon Yisroel that Moshe said this.

V. 15. ואם ככה את וגו׳. Offenbar bezeichnet hier die weibliche Form את ein Zurückbleiben der Kraft, und dürfte damit gesagt sein: wenn du so mich meiner, mir sehr wohl bewussten, Schwäche überlassen und ihr nicht durch deine, mich umwandelnd zu rüsten wohl vermögende Kraft zu Hülfe kommen wolltest — es ist dies wohl das אנכי לבדי des vorigen Verses — so bitte ich lieber, mich vorzeitig sterben zu lassen, damit ich nicht mein Unglück, d. i. das ganz Verfehlte meiner Sendung in der gänzlichen Entartung des Volkes erlebe. So hatte Mosche gleich beim Anfang seiner Sendung (Schmot 4, 10) erwartet, es würde Gott, sobald Er ihn sendet, ihn auch mit der nötigen Kraft und Macht der Rede rüsten, und glaubte in dem Ausbleiben rüstenden Gottesbeistandes — גם מאז דברך אל עבדך — umsomehr seine Unfähigkeit und Unwürdigkeit für seine Sendung zu erkennen. Er ahnte freilich nicht, wie eben dieser bleibende Kraftmangel, verbunden mit der ענוה-Größe seines Charakters, das ewige Kreditiv des Göttlichen seiner Sendung bleiben werde. Dies auch vielleicht der Sinn der Erläuterung der Weisen z. St. (siehe Raschi) תשש בחו של משה כנקבה, Mosche drückte das Gefühl seiner Schwäche durch das Ausbleiben des männlich rüstenden Gottesbeistandes aus.

ואל אראה ברעתי, “so that I do not have to look at my wretchedness.” Moses prefers to die immediately instead of his fate remaining tied to theirs.

ואם ככה את עושה לי, “and if You will deal with me in this fashion;” according to Rashi, Moses had felt that he had become weak like a woman, so that he was not even able to complete the last word, (which should have been: אתה in the masculine mode). He was full of psychological pain and anger, so that he addressed G-d as if he were addressing a human being and runs out of breath before being able to complete a sentence. Other commentators understand the word: את here as if vocalised with a segol, similar to בך, or לך, which can be used both in the masculine and in the feminine mode.

ואל אראה ברעתי AND LET ME NOT SEE MY EVIL — It ought to have written (according to the Midrashic explanation above) “and let me not see their evil”, only that Scripture modified the expression (i.e. it used a euphemistic expression referring the evil to himself instead of to the whole people). This is one of the variations occurring in the Torah such as writers make for the purpose of modifying and improving the phrase (cf. Rashi on Genesis 18:22 and Midrash Tanchuma, Beshalach 16).

HORGEINI NA HAROG’ (KILL ME, I PRAY THEE). This means that Thou should send upon me those that kill by the sword, for it is better for me to die¹⁸⁷Jonah 4:4. even by the sword of man than to live¹⁸⁷Jonah 4:4. with this grief. It is possible that the sense [of the term horgeini] is “take my life” [and not, as explained before, that it means death by human agency]. A similar [usage of the term is found in these verses]: and let their men be ‘harugei maveth’ (slain of death), and their young men smitten of the sword in battle;¹⁸⁸Jeremiah 18:21. and breathe ‘baharugim ha’eileh’ (upon these slain).¹⁸⁹Ezekiel 37:9. The reference there [according to the plain meaning of Scripture] is to those who died a natural death in the exile (see in R’dak’s commentary there). According to the tradition of the Sages, that the dry bones were those of the tribe of Ephraim who left Egypt thirty years before the exodus and were killed on the way by the men of Gath (see Ramban Vol. II, p. 157), the term baharugim is to be understood literally: “upon those that were killed [by the sword]” (R’dak).

ואל אראה ברעתי, the result of my inadequacy as a leader. If I had to witness this, this would be worse for me than dying at this time.

הרגני נא הרוג, “”then kill me now!” Moses requested that G’d dispatch one of His agents to kill him even by the sword used by a human being, as he considered it preferable to die at the hands of a human being to continuing to live a life full of frustration. Alternately, he asked for a different mode of death, and he used the word הרג, as one would say המיתני, “arrange for my death forthwith.”

One of the “scribes’ adjustments.” [Rashi] means to say that just as scribes emend their books when they write, Hashem also commanded Moshe to adjust the language when he wrote the Torah.

The reason Moses repeated the words הרגני נא הרוג, was that he was certain he would meet with death either at the hands of G'd or at the hands of Israel. If G'd were to kill him now, therefore, He would only be taking the life of a person who was already dead for all practical purposes. In order to interpret the verse in this way the word harog must be read as harug. Yalkut Shimoni item 735 on our verse expresses it thus: "If I do not give them meat they will kill me; on the other hand, if I oppose You (by speaking against You) You will be forced to kill me." The wording of our verse can tolerate all these various interpretations.

ואל אראה ברעתי, “so that I will no longer have to deal with the evil that has befallen me.”

ואל אראה ברעתי, “so that I will not have to watch my wretchedness.” The words call to mind when Jonah said to G’d repeatedly טוב מותי מ.., It is better that I die (now) than…” (Jonah)