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The eighth principle That the Torah is from Heaven and that is that we believe that this Torah that is given to us through Moshe, our teacher - peace be upon him - is completely from the mouth of the Almighty; which is to say that it all came to him from God, may He be blessed, in a manner that is metaphorically called speech. And no one knows how it came to him except Moshe himself, peace be upon him - since it came to him. And [we believe] that he was like a scribe who is dictated to and writes down all of the events, the stories and the commandments. And therefore, [Moshe] is called the engraver. And there is no difference between "And the sons of Cham were Kush and Mitsrayim" (Genesis 10:6), "and his wife's name was" Meheitabel" (Genesis 36:39), "And Timnah was his concubine" (Genesis 36:12) [ on the one hand] and "I am the Lord, your God" (Exodus 20:2) and "Hear Israel" (Deuteronomy 6:4) [on the other]; since they are all from the mouth of the Almighty and it is all the Torah of God - complete, pure and holy truth. And anyone who says, "These type of verses or stories were written by Moshe on his own," is for our sages and prophets a heretic, and one who reveals [incorrect] faces [of the Torah] more than all of the heretics; since he thinks that there is a heart and a peel to the Torah and that these chronicles and stories don't have a point to them and that they are from Moshe our teacher - peace be upon him. And this matter of one who holds that the Torah is not from Heaven, the sages said about it (Sanhedrin 99a), that it is one who believes the whole Torah is from the mouth of the Almighty except for this one verse, which the Holy One, blessed be He, did not say, but rather it was from Moshe himself. And this is "Since he disgraced the word of the Lord" (Numbers 15:31) - God, may He be blessed, is above the statements of the heretics. Rather every single word of the Torah contains wisdom and wonders for the one who understands them. And their ultimate wisdom is not [fully] grasped, as 'its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.' And a man should only walk in the footsteps of David, the anointed of the God of Yaakov, who prayed (Psalms 119:18), "Uncover my eyes and I shall look upon the wonders of Your Torah." And so too, the accepted understanding of the Torah is also from the Almighty; and [so] that which we today make a [certain] form for the sukkah, the lulav, the shofar, the tsitsit, the tefilllin and other [such matters], it is the exact form that God, may He be blessed, said to Moshe, and which [Moshe] told to us - and he is reliable in his charge. And the statement that indicates this principle is that which is stated (Numbers 16:28), "with this shall you know that it is the Lord that sent me to do all of these acts, and it is not from my heart."

IF THESE MEN DIE THE COMMON DEATH OF ALL MEN. Now many of the people had said to Moses many times, Why hast thou brought us up out of Egypt?¹⁴³Exodus 17:3. [and yet Moses did not ask for them to be especially punished]. But these people deserved punishment more than all other [previous sinners] because they said that thou wouldst make thyself altogether a prince over us.¹⁴⁴Above, Verse 13. Thus they committed two evils:¹⁴⁵Jeremiah 2:13. they trampled upon the honor due to a teacher, and they denied all the deeds of G-d which He did in Egypt and the wilderness, and even at the Revelation on Mount Sinai,¹⁴⁶See (Exodus), Vol. II, p. 251, Note 17. where it is said and they will believe in thee [Moses] forever,¹⁴⁷Exodus 19:9. by saying that Moses was not worthy to rule over them, and that nothing but evil had befallen them through him. Therefore it is said, and Moses was very wroth.¹⁴⁸Verse 15. Also Korach said, wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the assembly of the Eternal?¹³⁹Above, Verse 3. Therefore his tent¹⁴⁹Further, Verse 32. See, however, in my Hebrew commentary p. 263, Note 18, on the exact fate that befell Korach and his tent. was swallowed up by the earth together with them. This was the intention of Moses’ words [when he said: if these men die the common death of all men] then the Eternal hath not ‘sent’ me, meaning that He has not sent me at all to take the people out of Egypt, the expression being similar to: which the Eternal ‘sent’ him [Moses] to do in the land of Egypt;¹⁵⁰Deuteronomy 34:11. and this shall be the token unto thee, that I have ‘sent’ thee.¹⁵¹Exodus 3:12. Similarly, [And Moses said]: “Hereby, ye shall know that the Eternal hath ‘sent’ me to do all these works”¹⁵²Verse 28. means the deeds which you have seen with your [own] eyes, and refers to all that he had done from the day G-d told him, Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh;¹⁵³Exodus 3:10. for the beginning of a prophet’s activity is called sh’lichuth (being sent, a commission), similar to the expressions: Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?;¹⁵⁴Isaiah 6:8. And I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.¹⁵⁵Micah 6:4. And the meaning of the expression all these works¹⁵²Verse 28. is not, as the commentators have said,¹⁵⁶This is the interpretation of Ibn Ezra. the appointment of the Levites instead of the firstborn, and [the appointment of] Aaron to the priesthood,¹⁵⁷This is the interpretation of Rashi. but it refers to the totality of the activities which Moses wrought in the sight of all Israel,¹⁵⁸Deuteronomy 34:12. as I have explained.

ואם בריאה יברא ה', “But if the Lord will display a totally new phenomenon, etc.” The reason Moses used the term בריאה, which reminds us of the creation of the universe out of no pre-existing raw materials was that he wanted to emphasize that the miracle about to occur was equal in dimension to that which was required to bring the universe into existence. It appears that the Torah should really have written: ואם בריאה יברא אלו-הים, using the attribute of G’d which He employed when starting the creative process, instead of the attribute י-ה-ו-ה which Moses employed here. After all, Moses threatened that the attribute of Justice was poised to strike these people. It was this attribute which orchestrated the sinking into the earth of Korach and associates in verse 32. However, it was not Moses’ style to invoke the attribute of Justice against the people, even against rebels of the type of Korach and cohorts. The reason he never did so was that his entire prophetic mission was under the aegis of the attribute י-ה-ו-ה, the attribute of Mercy. This is why he had said earlier (verse 28) “through this you will know that Hashem has sent me.” He meant that the attribute זאת would inform the people that Moses’ mission was at the behest of Hashem. (compare our author on Genesis 49,28 and Exodus 6,3). The sin of these men had been extraordinary in its undermining the whole basis of Moses as G’d’s delegate and faithful communicator of G’d’s words at the people’s own request as we know from Deut. 5,22. In Exodus 34,10 G’d had already allowed for the possible demon-stration of miracles which parallel those performed at the outset of creation when He had said: “in the presence of the entire people I will perform wonderful deeds the likes of which have not been created anywhere on earth, etc.” Moses considered that the time had arrived for G’d to demonstrate such a miracle. This was a practical demonstration of the principle עת לעשות ה' הפרו תורתך, “at a time when something has to be done to demonstrate the power of the Lord, when they have breached Your Torah.” (Psalms 119,126). At this juncture it was not enough to orchestrate the punishment of these people through one of G’d’s agents, intermediaries such as angels, but He Himself had to be involved in that demonstration. The situation was similar to that prevailing prior to the slaying of the Egyptian firstborn by G’d Himself when the Torah had written (Exodus 12,23) “and י-ה-ו-ה, i.e. G’d’s essence will traverse the land of Egypt to smite Egypt, etc.” Our sages (Haggadah shel Pessach) interpreted these words to mean that no angel of whatever rank would orchestrate that plague but that G’d Himself, personally, would do this. Moses concluded his prediction here with the words: “then you will know that these men had provoked Hashem.” You will note that Moses employs the expression תדעון, וידעתם, “i.e. “definitive knowledge” both at the beginning and at the end of his prediction. He hinted that just as if the people had not been redeemed after the plague of the slaying of the firstborn that would have been a desecration of the Lord’s name, so non-occurrence of the phenomenon which Moses now predicted would also be a desecration of the Lord’s, name by him, Moses. (Compare what author wrote on Exodus 11,4).