Comentários de Citação sobre Êxodo 32:31

Evil gossip is a greater sin than “mere” murder, idolatry or indulging one’s carnal instincts indiscriminately. Proof that it is worse than murder is deduced from Genesis 4,13 where Kayin describes his sin as too severe to endure its burden. It is more serious than indulging one’s carnal instincts with partners forbidden to one as we know from Joseph (Genesis 39,9) who explained the severity of that sin to the wife of Potiphar. It is more serious than idolatry seeing that when Moses described this sin committed by the Jewish people to G’d when they worshipped the golden calf he said: “indeed the people committed a very great sin.” When describing the sin of לשון הרע on the other hand, (Psalms 12,4) David invokes G’d pleading: “may the Lord cut off all flattering lips, every tongue that speaks גדולות, “arrogance.” The commentators understand the plural of the word גדולות in that psalm as describing the sin of abusing the power of the tongue as a “double” sin, i.e. more severe than a single sin such as worshipping idols, for instance. This is why Solomon said that life and death are at the disposal of one’s tongue.
Look at what happened to Miriam who was struck with the disease of tzoraat (Numbers 12,1) because she spoke against Moses. What did she do that was so terrible? She spoke to her own brother (Aaron) privately, not within the hearing of Moses nor of anyone else. She was well-intentioned meaning to reunite Moses with his wife whom he had divorced. The Torah describes G’d’s reaction as fierce, and had Moses not interceded on her behalf she would not have been cured. To this day we recite the lines of Deut. 24,9 in which the Torah demands that we remember what Miriam was guilty of and how G’d punished her. You may apply a little logic to see how serious is the ordinary sin of spreading evil gossip when you reflect on what happened to well-intentioned Miriam who had spoken privately to her brother. How will G’d react to people who deliberately besmirch someone’s reputation by the tales they spread about him? Consider what the Torah wrote immediately prior to the reminder to remember what G’d did to Miriam (Deut. 24,8) The Torah writes: “beware of the tzoraat affliction, be very careful and act according to everything the priests and Levites teach you.” Even Aaron, who was the High Priest, (and had not said a word) was struck with that affliction seeing that the Torah said that G’d was angry “at them,”‘ i.e. not merely at Miriam. Aaron was healed immediately, seeing his was the lesser sin as he had not said anything, had only listened without admonishing Miriam. We know that Aaron must have been cured immediately as the Torah only writes of Miriam having been quarantined outside the camp for seven days delaying the Israelites’ journey during that period (Numbers 12,15).
You will also find that the original serpent, the first creature ever to engage in slander against its Creator, was struck with tzoraat as the Torah reports G’d saying to the serpent “because you have done this, etc., you are cursed” (Genesis 3,14). The curse consisted of the serpent being afflicted with tzoraat. Our sages derive this from the expression צרעת ממארת היא in Leviticus 13,52. On these words Rav Hunna quoted a comment by Rabbi Joshua ben Levi who said that the scales on the skin of the snake are a form the tzoraat took when it afflicted the serpent (compare Bereshit Rabbah 20,4). This was not the full extent of the serpent’s punishment. We have a tradition that in the world to come (after the resurrection), people who suffered from diverse deformities while on earth the previous time will be resurrected as completely healthy and with unblemished bodies. The snake will be the only exception to this rule. Seeing that Isaiah wrote (Isaiah 35,6): ”then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall shout aloud,” the prophet prophesies resurrection of the beasts mentioning that domesticated beasts and lions will graze together; however the snake will still have to eat dust as it will never be cured from its affliction (compare Isaiah 11,6). The reason is that the serpent through its use of the tongue dragged man into the dust, (caused his mortality, Tanchuma Metzora 2).

NOW MOSES TOOK THE TENT AND WOULD PITCH IT WITHOUT THE CAMP. Rashi wrote: “This was practiced by Moses from the Day of Atonement until the Tabernacle was set up [five and a half months later — on the first day of Nisan], but not afterwards. For on the seventeenth day of Tammuz the Tablets of the Law were broken, on the eighteenth he burnt the calf and brought the sinners to judgment, and on the nineteenth he ascended the mountain and stayed there for forty days. On the first of Ellul it was said to him, and come up in the morning⁴³⁵Further, 34:2. to receive the second Tablets. There he spent another forty days [which terminated on the tenth day of Tishri]. On the tenth of Tishri the Holy One, blessed be He, became reconciled with Israel, and He handed over to Moses the second Tablets, whereupon Moses came down the mountain and began to command them concerning the work of the Tabernacle. This occupied them till the first of Nisan, and from that time on, since the Tabernacle was set up, G-d only communicated with him from there.” This also is the opinion of Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra, that all this [narrated here in Verses 7-11] took place after Moses brought down the second Tablets [the account of which is narrated further on in 34:1-10], there being no strict chronological order in the narrative of the Torah.
But it does not appear to me to be correct, for what reason is there to mention this [practice of Moses] here in the middle of the section? The words of our Rabbis in all Midrashim are also to the effect that Moses did this on account of their sin with the calf. Thus they explained⁴³⁶Shemoth Rabbah 45:3. [that Moses said], “One who is excommunicated from the master, is also excommunicated from the disciple,” and as Rashi mentioned [that G-d said to Moses], “I am angry and you are angry; if so, who will bring them near to Me?” Now if the removal of the Tent was after the Day of Atonement [as Rashi and Ibn Ezra have it], the Holy One, blessed be He, as well as Moses, was already in [complete] reconciliation with them! Rather, it appears that on the day that he came down from the mountain — on the seventeenth of Tamuz — he burnt the calf and punished the worshippers.⁴³⁷And not, as Rashi has it, that the burning of the calf and the punishing of the sinners took place on the eighteenth of Tammuz. On the next day, [i.e., on the eighteenth of Tammuz] he told them that he would go up to G-d to seek atonement for them,⁴³⁸Above, 32:30. and so he went up to the mountain where the Glory was. This is the sense of the verse, And Moses returned unto the Eternal,⁴³⁹Ibid., Verse 31. and prayed briefly: Oh, this people have sinned a great sin,⁴³⁹Ibid., Verse 31. and G-d answered him, Whosoever hath sinned against Me, etc.;⁴⁴⁰Ibid., Verse 33. And now go, lead the people,⁴⁴¹Ibid., Verse 34. and the plague began.⁴⁴²Ibid., Verse 35. Then He commanded him, Depart, go up hence, thou and the people etc.,⁴⁴³Verse 1 here. and Moses told this to Israel, and they mourned, and stripped themselves of the ornaments.⁴⁴⁴Verses 4-6. Then Moses realized that the matter was a very long one, and did not know what the end thereof would be, therefore he took the tent and pitched it outside the camp so that the Divine Glory would communicate with him from there, for it was no longer dwelling in the midst of the people, and if the tent were to be in the midst of the camp, He would not communicate with him from there. Scripture continues, and it came to pass, that every one that sought the Eternal…,⁴⁴⁵In Verse 7 here. meaning that everyone who sought the Eternal used to go out to him.⁴⁴⁶Ramban interprets the Hebrew yeitzei (the imperfect — “was going out”) as yotzei (a participle — taking of the nature of both a verb and an adjective — “used to go out”). Rashi explained it likewise. Then Scripture [in Verse 8-11] completed the narrative of all that happened whilst the tent was there until the Tabernacle was set up, which was, according to the opinion of our Sages, from the Day of Atonement until the first day of Nisan.⁴⁴⁷See Ramban further, 40:2.
I have seen in Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer [the following text]:⁴⁴⁸Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer, Chapter 46. “Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha says: “[After the Revelation] Moses spent forty days on the mountain, studying the Written Law at daytime, and the Oral Law at night. After the forty days he took the Tablets and came back to the camp. On the seventeenth of Tammuz he broke the Tablets and killed the sinners of Israel, and then stayed in the camp forty days until he burnt the calf and ground it like dust of the earth. Thus he eliminated idolatry from Israel, and established each tribe in its place. On the first of Ellul the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, come up unto Me into the mount⁴⁴⁹Deuteronomy 10:1. [to be given the second Tablets]. Then the ram’s horn was sounded throughout the camp, announcing to the people that Moses was going up the mountain, so that [they might not be alarmed by his absence] and not be misled anymore after idols. [On that day] the Holy One, blessed be He, was exalted by the sound of that ram’s horn, as it is said, G-d is gone up amidst shouting, the Eternal amidst the sound of the horn.⁴⁵⁰Psalm 47:6. “For by the sound of this horn Israel vowed eternally never again to be deceived by the idols” (R’dal; see my Hebrew commentary, p. 518). And thus likewise the Sages ordained that we blow the horn every year on the first day of Ellul.”⁴⁵¹The Shofar is now sounded in the synagogue every morning during the whole month of Ellul, except on the Sabbaths and on the day before the New Year. Thus far are the words of this Agadah. And if this is so, then the whole section from: Moses took the tent, applied to the time from the eighteenth of Tammuz till the end of the forty days [i.e., up to the first of Ellul], and from the Day of Atonement till the first of Nisan [when the Tabernacle was set up]. But this exposition does not fit in well with what Scripture says, And I fell down before the Eternal, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I did neither eat bread etc.,⁴⁵²Deuteronomy 9:18. and it is further written there, So I fell down before the Eternal the forty days and forty nights that I fell down; because the Eternal had said He would destroy you,⁴⁵³Ibid., Verse 25. and it is impossible that all this refers to the last forty days [i.e., between the first of Ellul and the Day of Atonement], since He told him, Hew thee two Tablets of stone… and come up unto Me into the mount,⁴⁴⁹Deuteronomy 10:1. thus these last forty days were already those of G-d’s good-will, after He had already nullified the decree that He would destroy you!⁴⁵⁴From all this it is thus obvious that there was an intervening period of forty days [i.e. from the eighteenth of Tammuz to the twenty-ninth of Ab] when Moses was on the mountain interceeding for Israel. So how could the Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer hold that there were only two ascents of forty-day periods of Moses? — In his commentary to that Midrash, Rabbi David Luria answers Ramban’s question by suggesting that the phrase He would destroy you does not refer to the beginning of that verse, so I fell down before the Eternal, but reverts to the very beginning of the incident of the calf, when G-d had said He would destroy them. The verse itself can still apply then to the final forty days, which culminated on the Day of Atonement.

ETERNAL, WHY DOTH THY WRATH WAX HOT AGAINST THY PEOPLE? Now when Moses prayed about this great sin, it would have been fitting that he do so by way of confession and supplication, similar to what he said later on, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin,³²⁶Further, Verse 31. and just as Ezra prayed and confessed³²⁷Ezra 10:1. because of the faithlessness of them of the captivity,³²⁸Ibid., 9:4. and there is no reason why he should say, why doth the Eternal etc.? Our Rabbis, prompted by this [difficulty], have in various homiletic ways³²⁹See Shemoth Rabbah 43:7-10. tried to mention several reasons for Moses’ minimizing the sin before Him.
By way of the Truth, [the mystic lore of the Cabala], Moses is saying: “Why do You give permission to the attribute of justice to hold sway over Your people, for You have taken them out of the land of Egypt for the sake of Your Name with the attribute of mercy ruling over them, and with the attribute of justice upon their enemies.”
Now this prayer — Why doth the Eternal… Wherefore should the Egyptians speak³³⁰Verses 11-12. — appears really to be the very same prayer he mentioned in the Book of Deuteronomy, And I prayed unto G-d and I said: O Eternal G-d, destroy not Thy people,³³¹Deuteronomy 9:26. for the purport of the prayer is alike in both cases, the difference being only that here Scripture mentioned the prayer before it told us that he came down from the mountain, and there Moses mentioned it after it tells us that he came down from the mountain. But Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra’s opinion is that Moses did not pray for Israel as long as the idol was among them;³³²Hence the prayer recorded in Verses 11-13 was really not recited by Moses until after his descent from the mount and his cleansing the camp of the idolatrous worship, mentioned in Verses 15-29. — Ramban will differ with this interpretation of Ibn Ezra. but only when G-d told him, Let me alone, that I may destroy them,³¹⁸Ibid., Verse 14. and he realized that the fate [of the people] was dependent upon him, did he go down the mountain and destroy the calf, and then he returned to pray for forty days, there being no strict chronological order in the narrative of the Torah. But I do not agree with this opinion. For the prayer he recited upon his return to the mountain [after he had cleansed the camp of the idol] is the one which he mentions, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin.³²⁶Further, Verse 31. And if it is all one prayer³³³I.e., if the prayer mentioned in Verses 11-13, and the one in Verses 31-32, were both said at the same time, as Ibn Ezra would have it, namely during the forty days after he returned to the mountain, then why etc. which Moses said during the forty days after he returned to the mountain, why does Scripture divide it, mentioning here [in Verses 11-13] part of it, and after he had come down, mentioning the other part [in Verses 31-32]? Rather, these are two separate prayers. Therefore it appears that when G-d told him Let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them,³³⁴Verse 10 here. Moses immediately besought the face of the Eternal and did not delay at all, for he was afraid lest the wrath go out from G-d and the plague would begin³³⁵See Numbers 17:11. and consume them in a moment,³³⁶Ibid., Verse 10. therefore at once he said, Eternal, why doth Thy wrath wax hot against Thy people? Similarly I found it in Eileh Shemoth Rabbah:³³⁷Shemoth Rabbah 42:1. “Said Moses: ‘If I leave Israel [to their fate] and go down the mountain, they will never have a restoration again. Instead I will not move from here until I seek mercy for them.’ Immediately Moses began pleading on their behalf etc.” Thus he prayed for them and G-d repented of the evil which He said³³⁸Verse 14. to kill them and destroy them. That does not mean that He was [completely] reconciled with them, but at least He said, “I have repented, I will not destroy them.” And now that Moses had time, he went down the mountain and burnt the calf, and punished its worshippers, and afterwards he said to the people, I will go up unto the Eternal, perhaps I shall make atonement for your sin,³³⁹Verse 30. so that He should entirely forgive you. However, in the Book of Deuteronomy Moses narrated the account in another order, stating that after G-d had told him, Let Me alone, that I may destroy them,³⁴⁰Deuteronomy 9:14. he said, So I turned and came down.³⁴¹Ibid., Verse 15. The reason [for this change in the account of the narrative] is that Moses was listing to them there all their transgressions, and the pains he took for them. Thus he told them of the golden calf they had made in Horeb,³⁴²Ibid., Verse 8. on account of which he had to break the Tablets of the Law and to pray for them forty days and forty nights, and also for Aaron,³⁴³Ibid., Verse 20. and how he was put to the trouble of burning the calf. Then he continued to tell what they had done at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah,³⁴⁴Ibid., Verse 22. And when the Eternal sent them from Kadesh-barnea;³⁴⁵Ibid., Verse 23. and after he finished, Ye have been rebellious against the Eternal from the day that I knew you,³⁴⁶Ibid., Verse 24. he went back to the matter of his prayers which he had mentioned, and set down in order the two prayers, saying, So I fell down before the Eternal the forty days and forty nights that I fell down; because the Eternal had said He would destroy you³⁴⁷Ibid., Verse 25. — until I prayed, destroy not Thy people.³⁴⁸Ibid., Verse 26. It was not necessary for him to mention the second prayer³⁴⁹I.e., the prayer mentioned here in Verses 31-32: Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, etc. because he had already said there that he prayed for them forty days, and even here it does not mention [all the prayers he recited], for who can write down the many supplications and entreaties that he prayed for them during the forty days. And if you will understand what I have explained, then you will really comprehend that there were [here] two prayers, for at first he besought the face of the Eternal his G-d, and at the end [i.e., after he came down the mountain and burnt the golden calf etc. and then returned to the mountain], he fell down before the Eternal for forty days,³⁴⁷Ibid., Verse 25. as it is explained in the section, and Moses returned unto the Eternal.³⁵⁰Verse 31 here.
Now in the Book of Deuteronomy he mentioned, Moreover the Eternal was very angry with Aaron… and I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.³⁵¹Deuteronomy 9:20. This he did not mention here at all for the sake of Aaron’s honor, for Moses did not want to mention in Aaron’s lifetime that he had been dependent upon his prayer, in order that he should not feel ashamed.³⁵²Of the grief he had caused (Abusaula). But there [in the Book of Deuteronomy] after Aaron’s death, he informed us of the truth. This is the correct order in these Scriptural sections.