Komentarz do Wyjścia 23:21

אל תמר בו EXASPERATE HIM NOT — This verb is a term denoting rebellion (המראה), similar to, (Joshua 1:18) “Whosoever he be that rebel (ימרה) against thy commandment”.

FOR MY NAME IS IN HIM. This is connected with the beginning of this verse: Take heed of him, for My Name is associated with him. Our Rabbis explained³⁹²Sanhedrin 38b. that the angel referred to is Mattatron³⁹³See Ramban above, 12:12 [beginning: I will execute judgments]. whose name in numerical value is equal to that of his Master, for the sum of the letter-numbers of the name Mattatron is equal to that of Sha-dai (Almighty).”³⁹⁴The number of each is three hundred and fourteen. All this is the language of Rashi. In Eileh Shemoth Rabbah³⁹⁵Shemoth Rabbah 32:7. I have likewise seen that one of the Sages interprets the verse in this way, referring to the worshipping of the calf.
But one must ask that [we find that] this decree of I send an angel before thee did not actually take place, for the Holy One, blessed be He, had said to Moses, And I will send an angel before thee… for I will not go up in the midst of thee,³⁹⁶Further, 33:2-3. but Moses pleaded for mercy on this and said, If Thy presence go not, carry us not up hence. For wherein now shall it be known that I have found grace in Thy sight, I and Thy people? is it not in that Thou goest with us?³⁹⁷Ibid., Verses 15-16. And the Holy One, blessed be He, consented to him and told him, I will do also this thing that thou hast spoken.³⁹⁸Ibid., Verse 17. Thus also did the Rabbis interpret it:³⁹²Sanhedrin 38b. “Even as a guide we refused to accept him, as it is written, If Thy presence go not, carry us not up hence.”³⁹⁷Ibid., Verses 15-16.
The answer according to this opinion of the Rabbis is that this decree was not fulfilled in the days of Moses, and it is with reference to this that Moses said, So that we are distinguished, I and Thy people,³⁹⁹Ibid., Verse 16. and G-d answered him, For thou hast found grace in My sight, and I know thee by name,³⁹⁸Ibid., Verse 17. and He further said, And all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the Eternal [that I am about to do];⁴⁰⁰Ibid., 34:10. however, after the death of Moses our Teacher He did send with them the angel. It is with reference to this that Scripture states: And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him: ‘Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? ‘And he said: ‘Nay, but I am captain of the host of the Eternal; I am now come.’⁴⁰¹Joshua 5:13-14. And there you will see that Joshua asked him, What saith my lord unto his servant?⁴⁰²Ibid., Verse 14. Now the angel did not command Joshua anything in connection with his appearance to him, but merely told him, Put off thy shoe from off thy foot,⁴⁰³Ibid., Verse 15. nor did he explain why he came. But the vision was for the purpose of informing Joshua that from now on there would be an angel sent before them to go out in the host in battle. It is with reference to this that he said, I am now come.⁴⁰¹Joshua 5:13-14. And so did the Sages say in the Tanchuma:⁴⁰⁴Tanchuma Mishpatim, 18. “The angel said to Joshua: ‘I am he who came in the days of Moses your master, and he pushed me away and did not want me to go with him.’” The Rabbis have also said expressly:⁴⁰⁵Shemoth Rabbah 32:4. “The promise that Israel would not be turned over to ‘a captain’ all the days of Moses now became void; thus as soon as Moses died ‘the captain’ returned to his position, for Joshua saw him, as it is said, And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho… And he said, ‘Nay, but I am captain of the host of the Eternal; I am now come.’⁴⁰¹Joshua 5:13-14. This is why it is said, Behold, I send an angel before thee.”
By way of the Truth, [the mystic teachings of the Cabala], this angel they were promised here is the redeeming angel⁴⁰⁶Genesis 48:16. See Ricanti (ibid., 31:13) where he quotes this text of Ramban, and explains that the reference is to the Shechinah (the Divine Glory). See in the text Note 419. in whom is the Great Name, for in Y-a-h the Eternal is an everlasting Rock.⁴⁰⁷Isaiah 26:4. This is [what He meant when] He said, I am the G-d of Beth-el,⁴⁰⁸Genesis 31:13. for it is the custom of the King to dwell in His Palace. He is called mal’ach (angel) because the whole conduct of this world is by that attribute. And our Rabbis have said³⁹²Sanhedrin 38b. that this is Mattatron, a name which signifies “the guide of the road” — I have already explained this in Seder Bo³⁹³See Ramban above, 12:12 [beginning: I will execute judgments]. — and this is the sense of the phrase here, [Behold, I send an angel before thee,] to keep thee in the way. — And to bring thee into the place which I have prepared, referring to the Sanctuary, as it is written, the Sanctuary, O Eternal, which Thy hands have established.⁴⁰⁹Above, 15:17. The meaning of the expression: which I have prepared, is “for Myself, to be My holy and beautiful house,”⁴¹⁰See Isaiah 64:10. for there the Throne is perfect. I will yet mention⁴¹¹Further, 24:1 (towards the end). the Rabbis’ meaning in saying that Mattatron’s name [in the sum of letter-numbers] is even as the Name of his Master. His voice is thus the voice of the living G-d, and it is mandatory upon us to hearken to His voice by the mouth of the prophets. Or the meaning may be that “they should not mutilate the shoots” of faith⁴¹²See Vol. I, p. 155. and thus come to abandon the Oral Torah, just as the Rabbis have interpreted:⁴¹³P’sichta Eichah Rabbathi, 2. “And they have spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel⁴¹⁴Isaiah 5:24. — this refers to the Oral Torah.” Thus the explanation of the expression, and hearken unto his voice,⁴¹⁵Verse 21. is “to My words.” Similarly He said, But if thou shalt indeed hearken unto his voice, and do all that I speak.⁴¹⁶Verse 22. Onkelos hinted at this, for he translated [‘ki sh’mi b’kirbo’ — for My Name is in him]: “for in My Name is his word,” as he speaks with it. He said, Then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies,⁴¹⁶Verse 22. for even with the attribute of mercy I will be an enemy to them; and an adversary unto thine adversaries — through him, [the angel], through the attribute of justice. Hence He explained, For Mine angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorite etc. and the Canaanite etc. and I will cut him off,⁴¹⁷Verse 23. when he will bring you to them, that we may know that it is He [through the attribute of justice] that will cut them off. He mentioned them in the singular [“and I will cut him off], for He will cut them all off as if they were one man. Now when this angel dwelled in the midst of Israel, the Holy One, blessed be He, would not have said, For I will not go up in the midst of thee⁴¹⁸Further, 33:3. — [for He said] for My Name is in him, so He was in the midst of Israel! But when they sinned by worshipping the golden calf He wanted to remove His Divine Glory⁴¹⁹See above Note 406. from their midst, and that one of His angels should go before them as His messenger, and Moses pleaded for mercy, and He again caused His Divine Glory to dwell amongst them as before. There I will explain the verses, with the help of G-d.
The Rabbis have also hinted to this in Midrash Rabbah⁴²⁰Shemoth Rabbah 32:8. in that section. Thus they said: “Behold, I send an angel. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: ‘The one who guarded the fathers will guard the children.’ And thus you find with Abraham, that when he blessed Isaac he said, He will send His angel before thee.⁴²¹Genesis 24:7. The words were actually addressed by Abraham to Eliezer — but the goal of Eliezer’s mission was for Isaac’s blessing. In the case of Jacob we find [that he blessed Joseph’s sons by saying], The angel who hath redeemed me etc.⁴²²Ibid., 48:16. He said to them: ‘He redeemed me from the hand of Esau; He redeemed me from the hand of Laban; He fed me and sustained me in the years of famine.’ Said the Holy One, blessed be He, to Moses: ‘Now too, the one who guarded the fathers will guard the children,’ as it is said, Behold, I send an angel before thee.” Again the Rabbis have said there clearly:⁴²³Shemoth Rabbah 32:4. “The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: ‘Be heedful of the messenger, for he does not go back on his mission; he is the attribute of justice, be not rebellious against him, etc.’”⁴¹⁵Verse 21.
In any case, according to all authorities the Midrash I have mentioned is true, that as long as Moses lived the angel who was captain of the host⁴⁰²Ibid., Verse 14. did not go with them, for Moses filled his place, similarly to that which is said, And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed.⁴²⁴Above, 17:11. And in the days of Joshua it was necessary that the angel captain of the host of the Eternal⁴⁰²Ibid., Verse 14. come to him to fight their battles, this being Gabriel who fights for them, and this was why Joshua saw him with his sword drawn in his hand,⁴²⁵Joshua 5:13. because he came to execute vengeance upon the nations, and chastisements upon the peoples.⁴²⁶Psalms 149:7.
For he will not pardon your transgression; for My Name is in him.⁴¹⁵Verse 21. He is saying: “Be not rebellious against him, for he will not pardon your transgression if you rebel against his word, for he who rebels against him, rebels against the Great Name which is in him, and he deserves to be cut off by the attribute of justice.” It is possible that the expression My Name is in Him, is connected to the above verses: hearken to his voice, for My Name is in him, and his voice is the voice of the Supreme One.

השמר מפניו, not to offend his dignity. The word is used in a sense similar to Joshua 5,9 (the angel speaking) “remove your shoe from your foot!”

השמר מפניו, "Take heed of him, etc." In this verse G'd defines our relationship with this angel as involving both a positive and a negative commandment. The negative commandment is contained in the words השמר מפניו, just as in all other places where the word השמר introduces a negative commandment. The positive commandment is contained in the words ושמע בקולו, "listen to his voice."

אל תמר בו, the word תמר is a derivative of the root המר as in המר ימירנו (Leviticus 27,33) When the same word appears without a dagesh in the letter מ, is derived from the root נמר as in Jeremiah 48,11 וריחו לא נמר, “and his fragrance is unspoiled.” The construction of אל תמר is parallel to the construction of אל תפל, “do not omit,” in Esther 6,10 an imperative in the transitive conjugation hiphil of the root נפל. It does not have anything to do with the “refusal” implied in the root מרה in the sequence מרה מריתי in Lamentations 1,3. If the construction תמר in our verse were related to that root the Torah should have written אל תמרה without the dagesh in the letter מ, just as it did in Joshua I,18 where it does have that meaning and the text reads אל ימרה את פיך, “let no one show disobedience to him,” without the dagesh in the letter מ of the word ימרה.

V. 21. חַמֵר Hiphil von מרר, also: Bitterkeiten erregen, d. h. lasse keine Unzufriedenheit mit seiner Führung, kein Murren gegen ihn aufkommen. — לא ישא לפשעכם: er kann eurem Ungehorsam keine Duldung zuwenden. Bedeutsam steht hier פשע im Singular, כם im Plural, die Gesamtheit in ihren einzelnen Gliedern begreifend, während in der ganzen übrigen Anrede, so auch in dem unmittelbar vorhergehenden אל תמר בו, die Gesamtheit als Einheit gedacht ist. Es soll die Gesamtheit auch nicht den Ungehorsam und die Auflehnung einzelner ihrer Glieder dulden. Diese Duldung macht die Schuld der einzelnen zur Gesamtschuld, und die ganze Gesamtheit büßt den Ungehorsam und die Auflehnung einzelner, wie sich dies ja im Verlaufe der Geschichte wiederholt gezeigt. — כי שמי בקרבו, er trägt meinen Namen in sich, hat mich zu vertreten, spricht und gebietet nur in meinem Namen. Es ist nicht sein Wille, seine Autorität, für die er Achtung und Geltung zu fordern hat, und deren Nichtbeachtung er allenfalls nachsehen könnte. Er ist selbst nur שליח, selbst nur מלאך, hat nur den Willen und die Autorität seines Senders und Auftraggebers zur Geltung und Beachtung zu bringen, denen er — weil es eben nicht seine Sache ist — nichts zu vergeben befugt ist.

כי לא ישא לפשעכם כי שמי בקרבו, “for he has no authority to forgive your deliberate sins, as My Name is within him.” G-d means that even though he (that angel) is a celestial creature, and therefore Divine, He cannot “forgive” any trespass against Him. Another place in the Bible where we encounter a similar thought is Psalms 25,11, למען שמך וסלחת לעוני כי רב הוא, “as befits Your name, o Lord, pardon my iniquity.” Other examples of “irregularities” in treatment, are Genesis 48,14, where Yaakov insisted in giving preferential treatment to Ephrayim although Menashe was the firstborn. Another example is found in Psalms 74,2021: הבט לברית כי מלאו מחשכי ארץ נאום חמס וגו', “Look to the covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of lawlessness. Let not the downtrodden turn away disappointed, let the poor and needy praise Your name.” [Here the people ask to be promoted instead of being demoted. Ed.]

כי לא ישא לפשעכם FOR HE WILL NOT PARDON YOUR TRESPASS — He is not accustomed to it (to sin) for he is one of a class of beings who never sin. Besides he is only a messenger and only carries out the mission entrusted to him (i. e. he has no right to pardon you, for this is My prerogative: it is his only to insist upon obedience to My commands) (Midrash Tanchuma, Mishpatim 18).

ושמע בקולו, to follow in his footsteps, the reverse of what the Israelites had done (as reported) in Deuteronomy 1,28 when they were willing to listen and to follow the 10 spies who had declared that it was impossible to attain their objective, i.e. the conquest of the land of Canaan.

כי שמי בקרבו, whatever the angel commands you to do he does in My name. He does not have permission, however, to forgive anything wrong you do.

אל תמר בו, "do not rebel against him;" Here too the Torah contains a moral/ethical lesson in addition to the plain meaning of the words. The Torah hints that exchanging good for evil will result in the king being replaced by a slave and the maidservant inheriting the authority of the mistress (compare Proverbs 30,23). The message is that when Israel is sinful it will be subject to an attribute of G'd which takes "revenge" rather than elevates sins to a lesser level. The angel under discussion is not authorised to do this. When the Torah speaks of כי שמי בקרבו, this means that man has forfeited the presence of G'd in his midst because of his sins, and G'd's former presence within man is now centred in that angel. Sanhedrin 38 teaches that the numerical value of מטטרון, Mattaron (the angel G'd appointed in charge of running the universe), is the same as that of his Master, G'd's attribute שדי,=314. When man sins, G'd no longer considers Himself as "his" G'd, i.e. שדי. This is the mystical dimension of Isaiah 19,5: ונהר יחרב ויבש, "the river will fail and dry up." The intelligent reader will comprehend that the words כי אם שמוע תשמע בקולו, "if you will surely listen to his voice," sounds as if G'd is speaking about a third person, whereas the Torah continues: ועשית את אשר אדבר, "and you will do what I say." G'd was careful not to say אשר ידבר, "which he will say," in order to remind us that His name is in the midst of the Jewish people.

כי שמי בקרבו, seeing that My name is within him, he has the right to speak of himself by proclaiming: “'אני ה,” “I am the Lord,” meaning I am His general manager of the universe, known in kabbalistic parlance as Mattatron. That name can be understood as “chief of the angels,” or “G-d in miniature.” (Compare a book by Rabbi Reuben Margolies, in which all the names of the angels and their functions are listed, pages 73108.)

כי שמי בקרבו FOR MY NAME IS IN HIM — This passage must be connected with the beginning of the verse: Take heed of him etc. — for (כי) My Name is associated with his (i. e. whatever he does, he does in My Name). Our Rabbis said that he (the angel) is Mattatron (מטטרון) whose name is even as the name of his Master, for מטטרון has the numerical value of שדי “the Almighty” (Sanhedrin 38b).

אל תמר בו כי לא ישא לפשעכם, if even a single individual will sin, the punishment will include his fellow Jews. This is precisely what happened when Achan had stolen from the loot of Jericho and, because his sin had been covered up, Israel lost the first battle of Ai. (Joshua refers to this as a warning in Joshua 22,20. He reminds the people that Achan was not the only one punished for this sin but that G’d [presumably because He had invested His angel with such authority. Ed.] vented His anger at the entire nation.)

כי שמי בקרבו, and G’d does not have the power (right) to waive the honour which His angel is entitled to.