Musar do Liczb 27:20

Our sages in Baba Batra 75a comment on Numbers 27,20: ונתתה מהודך עליו, "you will invest him with some of your glory" (when Moses is told to appoint Joshua), that Moses was to invest Joshua only with part of his glory, not all of it. The elders of that generation are reported there as having compared Moses' face to that of the sun, whereas they compared Joshua's face to that of the moon. The change in the quality of leadership of the Jewish people was felt by these elders to be a shame and an affront. Why did G–d withhold some of His goodness from the people at that time? In the Midrash Shocher Tov 21, the author elaborates on the verse in Numbers 27,20 that Joshua experienced that part of Moses' glory granted to him on the occasion of the miraculous crossing of the river Jordan. We read in Joshua 4,14: "On that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all of Israel, so that they revered him all his days as they had revered Moses." The Midrash continues that the glory of the Messiah will equal that of teacher and disciple (Moses and Joshua), since it is said of him in Psalms 21,6: הוד והדר תשוה עליו, You have endowed him with splendor and glory." This statement obviously needs clarification. Besides, since "one hundred" is part of "two hundred," how does the addition of Joshua's glory increase the glory of the Messiah?

Let us now return to these four groups of people who entered the פרדס. Joshua accomplished more in the פרדס than Rabbi Akiva; the Talmud in Chagigah 14 reports that the angels were about to attack Rabbi Akiva, and only G–d's intervention enabled him to re-emerge from there spiritually unharmed. Joshua, on the other hand, had been endowed with some of Moses' glory (Numbers 27,20), and Moses had demonstrated his power to prevail over the angels while he had been in the Celestial Regions and had brought down the Torah to the Jewish people from those regions in spite of the angels' objections. The elders deserted Moses on his first mission to Pharaoh (cf. Rashi on Exodus 5,1). G–d paid them back for this at the time of the revelation at Mount Sinai when they were not allowed to come close to the Mountain, as distinct from Aaron (Exodus 19,24). G–d had said to Moses: ועלית אתה ואהרון, "you and Aaron (alone) will ascend."