Comentário sobre Deuteronômio 31:3

ה' אלוקיך הוא עובר לפניך, so that you have no reason to be saddened by my absence. You will enjoy leadership superior to mine, by G’d Himself orchestrating the crossing of the river. 'יהושע הוא עובר לפניך כאשר דבר ה. Although, strictly speaking, Joshua is not he people’s leader in that crossing, he will be the one who nominally will be leading you across the river, just as G’d has said.

ה אלוקיך הוא עובר לפניך…הוא ישמיד "The Lord your G'd will personally cross ahead of you;…He will destroy these nations, etc." Moses had to repeat the word הוא, "He," a second time as he intended to console the people over his own death which represented a double loss for them. Firstly, it had been he who had repeatedly protected the people from G'd's anger such as at the episode of the golden calf and then again when G'd had threatened to wipe out the people after they had accepted the majority report of the spies. Secondly, Moses had defeated the two mighty kings Sichon and Og. They would therefore be concerned who would take Moses' place should the need arise.

He will cross over before you: Behold we saw four expressions of providence in this section: "He will precede (over) ahead of you"; "He goes with you"; "He is the one who will go ahead of you"; "He will be with you." And it is all precise. But we should first see the language of the Gemara, Pesachim 7b: Shmuel said, "With regard to all the commandments, one recites a blessing over them prior to (over) their performance." From where may it be inferred that the word, over, is an expression of precedence?... Abbaye said... "And their king preceded [vaya’avor] ahead of them" (Micah 2:13). But it is difficult, why did Shmuel say it with an expression that needs to be explained (why did he choose this unusual unclear expression, "over their performance")? He should say, "kodem (before)" their performance," or "lifnei (ahead of)" their performance!" Rather there is a profound intention in this [choice of words]. Kodem and lifnei imply that he has not started with the commandment at all. As a result, he used the expression, "over," which implies immediately adjacent; such that he is holding the item of the commandment in his hand, and he will then begin to recite the blessing. And this is the intention of, "and their king passed ahead of them" - as it is clear that the king will not begin to go until all of his army is ready to go out and they are standing at the border...

VV. 3-5. ׳ד׳ אלדיך וגו, ihr werdet mich nicht vermissen, es ist ja Gott und nicht ich, der deine eigentliche Führerschaft hat und dich auch in die bevorstehende neue Zukunft führt, und an meine Stelle hat Gott Josua bestimmt. Wie Gott euch den Sieg über die Völker verleiht, habt ihr an Sichon und Og bereits erfahren. Richtet euch nur in eurem Verfahren gegen sie ganz nach dem, was ich für eure Kriegszeit (Kap. 20, 10 f.) geboten.

'כאשר דבר ה, “as the Lord had said.” This is a reference to Deuteronomy 18,15, where G-d had promised: “that He would raise a prophet amongst them, just like Moses.” He had also told him to take Joshua the son of Nun who had been filled with the spirit of G-d (Numbers 27,18).”

From here we understand the difference between that which is written about the time of the exodus from Egypt (Exodus 13:21), "And the Lord went lifneihem (ahead of them) by day"... which implies, before Israel went - as behold Israel did not do anything, neither regarding the splitting of the Red Sea, nor regarding the killing of snakes and scorpions. However now Moses says that it shall not be so, but rather the Lord "will over (precede) ahead of you" - adjacently to your action...

Concerning the fact that he had been able to assuage G'd's anger on two critical occasions, he now said that G'd would עובר לפניך, in the sense this word occurred in Exodus 17,5 where G'd had said to Moses עבור לפני העם, suggesting that Moses forgive, "pass over" the sins he had accused the people of committing. At that time, G'd wanted the miracle of producing water to be credited to Moses rather than to Himself. On another occasion, immediately after the sin of the golden calf, G'd had said to Moses: "Let Me be so that I can destroy the people." In other words, it had been G'd who had given Moses a hint that his prayer might help (Exodus 32,9). In view of this Moses said: "He will pass over your sins Himself;" you do not depend on me doing this for you.

As far as Moses' prowess in warfare, He told the people that it was not his own personal strength which had performed all these valiant deeds but that G'd had been the real Warrior. As to the means G'd would employ in His fight against the Canaanites, Moses cited Joshua as the official representative who would march at the head of the army.

He emphasised the word הוא, "he," to make clear that the fact that Joshua marches at the head was crucial. When the army of Israel [a small contingent of about 3.000 men. Ed.] suffered a defeat at the town of Ai (Joshua 7,5-15) and there were about 36 Jewish casualties, Joshua is reported as falling on his face complaining to G'd. One of the reasons cited by the Talmud Sanhedrin 44 for this defeat was that Joshua had not been at the head of that army contingent. He had not considered the objective as deserving his personal attention. Moses here stresses that it is Joshua's task to walk in front of the army.