Bibbia Ebraica
Bibbia Ebraica

Musar su Salmi 106:16

וַיְקַנְא֣וּ לְ֭מֹשֶׁה בַּֽמַּחֲנֶ֑ה לְ֝אַהֲרֹ֗ן קְד֣וֹשׁ יְהוָֽה׃

Erano gelosi anche di Mosè nel campo e di Aaronne il santo dell'Eterno.

Shenei Luchot HaBerit

Another difficulty is the Torah saying: "Moses heard and fell on his face" (16,4). Sanhedrin 110, asks what it was precisely that Moses had heard, and Rabbi Samuel son of Nachmeyni says that he had heard that these people suspected him of committing adultery, since we read in Psalms 106,16: "ויקנאו למשה במחנה," which is interpreted by Rabbi Shmuel bar Vitzchak that each Jewish husband suspected Moses of a adultery with his wife, since the Torah had stated that "Moses took his tent and put it up outside the camp" (Exodus 33,7). The question arises that even granted the Jewish people were sinful, how could they have suspected Moses of adultery?! After all, Miriam had criticised Moses for not even living with his own wife, much less with other husbands' wives! What possible reason could these people have had to suspect Moses of something so patently absurd? Many commentators have written that this accusation is not to be taken at face value, but rather that the rebels denied the quality of Moses' prophetic insights, claiming that it was not, as stated, of a פנים אל פנים variety as described in Deut. 34,10, i.e. qualitatively superior to the prophetic powers of other prophets. The rebels claimed that these other angels by means of whom prophetic images are transmitted are known as "אישים," "men," meaning that they are the means by which humans receive intelligence from celestial sources. The recipient would then be described as אשת איש, "a married lady", much as a wife describes herself as such, seeing she is the "passive" part of her husband. Their intention then was to deny Moses his special relationship with G–d. It was this special relationship which Maimonides describes. In his Moreh Nevuchim he describes the people protesting Moses' arrogant behavior in claiming special status!
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