Musar do Wyjścia 32:14

However, it would be doing Moses a grave injustice to believe that he erred in the language he used vis-a-vis G–d, especially to have made the same mistake on four separate occasions! I therefore believe that what Moses wanted to know on those four occasions did not concern something in the future, but he wanted to make sure that G–d would explain something to him which He had told him previously but which Moses was not sure he had properly understood. When Pharaoh had decreed that the workload of the Jewish people be increased (Exodus 5,9) Moses suddenly entertained doubts whether he had properly understood G–d previously when He had told him to take the people out of Egypt. He thought that possibly G–d had not referred to a process that would take place immediately but only after some considerable time. He therefore wanted to know from G–d when this redemption would occur. G–d reassured him that he had understood quite correctly, i.e. that the redemption would occur עתה, now. When G–d suddenly afflicted Miriam without even telling Moses anything about the cause of it all, i.e. "G–d suddenly told Moses Aaron and Miriam: go to the Tent of Meeting," Moses was not sure why he had become involved in all this. There could have been two reasons for this: 1) They (Aaron and Miriam) were not considered fit to receive prophetic communications due to their ritual impurity, as suggested by Rashi on Numbers 12,4, and that on account of this they could hear a communication from G–d only through the mouth of Moses. 2) G–d meant to put down Aaron and Miriam, and by having Moses present at that time their embarassment would be commensurably greater. If that had been G–d's purpose their very embarassment would constitute part of their atonement. We have an example of such a consideration in Exodus 32,14 when the very fact that G–d had said that He would wipe out the Jewish people and replace them with a new nation based on Moses was part of the Israelites' atonement. The shame of having been found so unworthy compared to Moses was part of their punishment. As soon as Moses saw that Miriam had become afflicted with לפניהם he asked G–d to explain why he had been called out also, seeing that G–d was not satisfied with merely shaming Miriam in his presence. Once G–d told Moses that Miriam had to remain quarantined for seven days Moses realized that he had erred in his earlier assumption that maybe his presence was Miriam's atonement, but that the first possibility, Miriam's ritual impurity at the time, was the reason Moses had to be called out to be the intermediary for a communication from G–d to her and Aaron. Something of a similar nature took place when Moses appealed to G–d regarding his successor. In Exodus 21,1 G–d had told Moses to place the various laws before the Jewish people. The word לפניהם used by the Torah there is understood to refer to legal experts, Torah scholars, as opposed to laymen. If the process was initiated by G–d giving Moses סמיכה, ordination, then it could be presumed that from that time on this ordination would be conferred by one scholar on his disciple, etc. On the other hand it was possible that just as G–d had chosen Moses to be ordained for this task in his generation, so G–d would ordain other leaders each in their respective generations. Now that the time had come for Moses to pass from the scene he wanted to know from G–d how this process of ordination of a future leader would be handled. G–d therefore told him in Numbers 27,18 that he, Moses, was to confer this ordination on Joshua by placing his hand on him. In our פרשה, too, Moses had thought that there were indications that G–d had rescinded His decree that Moses would not lead the Jewish people into the Holy Land. Moses therefore asked G–d for clear guidance as to the true state of affairs. We note that in all the instances when Moses used the word לאמור when addressing G–d there was a perfectly legitimate reason.

And if you have hatred that has settled inside you against one of your fellows and you want to remove the hatred but are not able: As is well-known, because of the hate you already have towards him, you will see that he has shortcomings and sins. Only if you can remove the hate in your heart can you see if the shortcomings are really anything more than that. However as just mentioned, you want to remove the hatred from your heart but are not able. So then do this - write him a letter. Don't send it to him; just store in your wares. In it, you can deprecate him as much as the snake of hatred in your heart desires. For a few days, read the letter out loud and imagine that he is standing across from you and that you are cursing him with these curses and maledictions. Then after a few days, the anger you have towards him will certainly depart from your heart; and if you are more spiritually refined, you will even want to run to appease him. And do not wonder about this suggestion, and do not say that it is one of two things - either it is untrue or it is sorcery. For is this possible that when I write a letter and curse him and then read it again, I will be satisfied and I will even appease him? It is neither untrue, nor an act of sorcery. Rather it is a law of the psyche, that when one curses and maledicts one's enemies, his anger leaves him somewhat. (Editor's note from the printed edition: As it is stated in Siftei Tzaddikim in the name of R. Moshe Alshich, may his memory be blessed, on the verse, "And the Lord regretted, etc." [Exodus 32:14]) But since his fellow answers him back when he curses him, his hatred for him only grows. But you, who have written the harsh letter according to the great measure of your hate and read it out loud and disparaged him, will experience your anger towards him diminishing once you have cursed him. And when you come to read it again on the second day - when your anger has already lessened - and you are still deprecating him with the depracations of the letter that was written with the level of anger from [the previous day] when your anger was greater, your heart will already begin to rebuke itself a little on its own and say, "Did I really curse him with so many disparagements, maledictions and curses?" It will already be impossible for you to read all of the curses with yesterday's great anger. But have you not taken upon yourself to read it? Moreover not all of your anger has yet subsided. Hence you force yourself to keep reading. But on the third day, your anger is even more subdued than on the second day and it is already impossible for you to read it. You are already regretting that you revealed your feelings with so much deprecation and cursing. You will look for strategies to make up with him; and you will make up with him. One with a good heart will be quickly appeased, whereas the stiff-necked will need to read it more times. But, with God's help, all will be appeased by this. However only use this tactic of the letter on rare occasions. And be very careful not to lose it and not to show it to even your closest friends, so that your fellow not find out that you wrote it about him and his anger wax against you.

Israel are so beloved of G–d and vice versa that just because there is no intermediary between us and G–d, once we have sinned we are no longer called עם ה'. This theme is elaborated on in the Yalkut item 391 where Rabbi Berechyah is quoted as saying in the name of Rabbi Levi that we must understand this relationship by means of a parable. A king who owned a vineyard entrusted the vineyard to a leaseholder. As long as the leaseholder produced good wine the owner described the wine as his. When the leaseholder produced inferior wine, the owner referred to the inferior wine as that of the leaseholder. When the leaseholder became aware of this, he said to the king: "My lord king, why is the wine yours when it is is good, whereas when it is inferior it is mine? After all, it is yours regardless of whether it is good or inferior?" Something similar describes the relationship between the Jewish people and G–d and Moses their leader. When G–d first appointed Moses as the leader of the Jewish people (Exodus 3,10) He said to him: "Come, I shall send you to Pharaoh to free MY people the Children of Israel from Egypt." After the Jewish people made the golden calf, G–d said to Moses: "Go and descend, for YOUR people whom you have brought out of Egypt have become corrupted." Thereupon Moses said to G–d: "When they are sinful they are MY people, and when they are meritorious they are YOUR people? They are Your people and Your inheritance regardless of whether they are sinful or whether they are full of merits. Do not let Your anger blaze forth against them, etc,” Rabbi Symon added that Moses refused to budge until G–d had again called them "MY people." We know this from Exodus 32,14: "G–d renounced the punishment He had planned to bring upon HIS people."