민수기 27:20의 주석

ונתתה מהודך עליו AND THOU SHALT PUT SOME OF THY GLORY UPON HIM — This refers to the shining of the skin of his countenance (see Exodus 34:29—30).

ונתתה מהודך עליו, you are to confer upon him some of the aura of your regal authority while you are still alive, so that the people will get into the habit of treating him with respect.

ונתת מהודך עליו, “and you will impart some of your stature to him.” This means that Moses was to display some deference to Joshua. According to Baba Batra 75 the important letter in this verse is the letter מ in front of the word הודך, i.e. that Moses was to impart only part of his majesty to Joshua, not all of it. This also reflects the statement by our sages that Joshua compared to Moses much like the moon compares to the sun. Whereas the latter only reflects light received from an outside source the sun generates light. Nonetheless, we must not forget that the sun too received its original input from G’d as we know from Genesis 1,14 where both the sun and the moon are described as מאורות, “luminaries,” as opposed to אורים, “sources of original light.” Moses too had received his initial spiritual input from Hashem.

The face of Moshe was like the sun. Meaning: The face of Moshe shone more than that of Yehoshua. There are those who explain that like the sun takes its light from Hashem and the moon takes light from the sun, so too Moshe took the rays of light [which shone from] his face from Hashem, and Yehoshua took them from Moshe.

V. 20. הוד .ונתתה מהודך עליו, lautverwandt mit אוד, dem Begriff der wirkenden Kraft, des Mittels, und עוד, dem Begriff des dauernden Seins, ist הוד die Fülle des Seins und der Kraft in der Erscheinung. Es ist intensiv das, was הדר extensiv bedeutet. הוד ist die Größe der Persönlichkeit, הדר die Größe des Machtgebietes in der Erscheinung. למען ישמעו, es kommt שמע absolut, ohne Präposition, als gehorchen vor. So: והנה לא שמעת עד כה (Schmot 7, 16), אם תאבו ושמעתם (Jes. 1. 19) etc. Es ist aber hier vielleicht deshalb diese absolute Ausdrucksweise gebraucht und nicht למען ישמעו אליו, weil der Josua zu zollende Gehorsam im Grunde nur ein Gehorsam gegen den durch Mosche dem Josua kundgewordenen Gotteswillen sein sollte.

ונתתה מהודן עליו, “and you shall divert part of your majesty to him;” we find a similar formulation to this in Daniel 11,21: ולא נתנו עליו הוד מלכות, “upon whom they did not confer the majesty of kingship.” Moses is asked by G-d to honour Joshua publicly as his successor, so that the people will accept him as such and will obey his instructions.

מהודך SOME OF THY GLORY, and not all thy glory; consequently we learn from this: Moses’ face beamed like the sun, Joshua's face only like the moon (Sifrei Bamidbar 140:2; Bava Batra 75a).

למען ישמעו, the reason why you are to appoint him in full view of the people is so that the whole עדה, i.e. the Supreme Court, the leaders of the nation, will get into the habit of listening to what he has to say with reverence.

That they will treat him with reverence. Meaning: So that they will hear about the radiance that you gave him, and consequently they will treat him with reverence. However, one cannot explain that “will hear” means “will accept” because if so, the word אליו ["to him"] would be missing, because accordingly the meaning would be, “So that all of Yisroel will accept his words and his decrees.”

למען ישמעו כל עדת ישראל THAT ALL THE CONGREGATION OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL SHOULD BE OBEDIENT TO HIM — that they should comport themselves towards him with respect and reverence, in the same way as they comport themselves towards you (cf. Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 776).