Comentários de Citação sobre Deuteronômio 31:28

A Midrashic approach based on Tanchuma Behaalotcha 9-10: [In order to understand this one must remember that the word חצוצרות is related to חצץ which also means crushing stones into pebbles. Ed.] According to this Midrash there is a connection with Psalms 24,7 where Solomon prayed for the gates of the Temple to raise themselves, seeing they were too low to admit the Holy Ark. When the gates demanded to know who was going to enter that they had to change their posture, Solomon said that “the king of glory wants to come in.” This did not satisfy the gates and they demanded again who this king of glory was. Solomon replied that it was ה' עזוז וגבור ה' גבור מלחמה, “the Lord, mighty and valiant, the Lord valiant in battle.” This still did not prove enough to persuade the gates to raise their heads until Solomon added that the king of glory he spoke about was ה' צבאות הוא מלך הכבוד סלה, that it was “the Lord G’d of hosts, He is the king of glory, Selah.” Up until that moment the gates had threatened to crush Solomon. When they heard the latter description of G’d, they opened up immediately. Seeing these gates had shown this honor to G‘d, G’d in turn promised to reward them saying that if and when He allowed His Temple to be destroyed these gates would not fall into the hands of the enemy or into the hands of any other creature.
You should know that when the Babylonians took King Yehoyakim into captivity together with most of the furnishings of the Temple (Daniel 1,2), the gates were hidden. This is the meaning of Lamentations 2,9: “its gates sunk into earth.”
The reason G’d is referred to as the king of כבוד, “glory,” is because He shares some of His glory with His creatures. How do we observe this in practice? We know that G’d is called אלו-הים. We find that G’d accorded the title Elohim to Moses when He told him: “here I have made you Elohim for Pharaoh” (Exodus 7,1). We know that it is G’d’s prerogative to kill and bring to life. Yet we find in Kings I 17,23 when Elijah told the mother: “here your son is alive (again)” that G’d had transferred this power to revive the dead to the prophet Elijah. G’d is known as “king” as we know from Psalms 47,6-8 עלה אלו-הים בתרועה....כי מלך כל הארץ אלו-הים, “G’d ascends as part of the teruah; ....for the king is king over the whole earth.” Moses has also been accorded the title “king,” as we know from Deut. 33,5 ויהי בישורון מלך, “he was king in Yeshurun (the Jewish people). Just as people herald the impending arrival of a king by blowing trumpets so G’d told Moses to make for himself two silver trumpets that were to be blown at the time the Israelites would be assembled (compare verse 3).
The words עשה לך, “make for yourself,” mean that they will be yours exclusively; you will make them and no one else is to use them. Even Moses’ successor and foremost disciple, Joshua, never used the trumpets to blow in but only ram’s horns, such as when he was about to capture the city of Jericho (Compare Joshua 6,3). In fact we have reason to believe that Moses hid these trumpets already during his lifetime as we read in Deut. 31,28: that Moses commanded the Levites to assemble the people to him so he could address them. If the trumpets had ben available at the time, why did he not sound the trumpets to assemble the people? Obviously, they had already been hidden in order to fulfill the statement in Kohelet 8,8 that there is no authority exercised by a ruler on the day he dies. [Deut. 31,28 quotes happenings on the last day of Moses’ life. Ed.]
We find a verse in Chronicles II 29,26 discussing matters which took place in the Temple during the time of King Chiskiyahu. ”The Levites stood equipped with the musical instruments of King David and the Priests were (blowing) the trumpets.” In verse 28 of the same chapter we read והשיר משורר והחצוצרות מחצצרים, “and the song was sung and the trumpets were blown, etc.” This was in contrast to David personally who favoured playing the harp as we know from Psalms 57,9 “awake, O my soul (my glory), awake, O harp and lyre, I will wake the dawn.” We are told that he had a harp hanging over his bed and that as soon as midnight arrived and the North wind began to blow the harp would start playing on its own. As soon as this occurred David would rise from his bed and together with all the other students they would study Torah and chase the sleep from their eyes until dawn.
According to the Tanchuma the reason the verse in Psalms speaks about “waking dawn” in connection with his soul awakening was to demonstrate that David’s personal כבוד was nothing compared to G’d’s כבוד, glory. David “woke” dawn not just for himself but he wanted to shake up people from their slumber.
A more kabbalistic approach: the two trumpets symbolized the tekiah and teruah, i.e. the attribute of Mercy and the attribute of Justice. When G’d said to Moses “these shall be for you an instrument to call the congregation to journey,” this is equivalent to His saying to Moses: “they shall be for you as either tekiah or teruah.” If so, this is clear proof that the journeys and campings of the Israelites were subject to the two attributes mentioned, i.e. that the words על פי ה' יחנו ועל פי ה' יסעו את משמרת ה' שמרו which are written adjoining the paragraph instructing Moses to make the trumpets are conceptually closely connected, and that the words על פי ה' refer to both attributes, as the case may be.
If we consider that Moses was entrusted with these two trumpets and what they symbolised you can appreciate his elevated status, i.e. that he could call upon either the attribute of Justice or the attribute of Mercy at will, so to speak. This proves his status as king.
The reason the trumpets had to be made only of silver, and that no other metal was acceptable as a substitute (as opposed to the Menorah), is discussed in Menachot 28. The Talmud says that the silver used for their construction was a silver bar. Whereas smaller pieces of silver scrap were acceptable as the raw material, other metals were not. The reason there had to be two such trumpets was in order for Moses to be able to address and be addressed by the attribute of Mercy on a “face to face” basis,” as sort of a vision within a vision, there had to be two. The construction is described in the Torah as מקשה, “hammered, beaten work,” This is the mystical dimension of what is written in verse 3 ונועדו אליך כל העדה, “the tekiah element when blowing both trumpets” is the signal to assemble the entire congregation to be exposed to the communication from the attribute of Mercy which addressed the Israelites out of the fire. This is what Moses had in mind when he told the people in Deut. 4,15: “on the day the Lord spoke to you at Chorev out of the fire.” When the tekiah was blown out of only one of the trumpets this was the signal for the princes who were unique people to be assembled around Moses. Moses who was unique, would hear the voice of G’d who was unique. He was the only one who could understand the voice of the attribute of Mercy speaking to him. The teruah sound would be blown to signal that the people were to get ready to journey, part of their campaign to conquer the Holy Land. The fact that the attribute of Justice (symbolized by the teruah sound) was called upon is a compliment to the stature of the Jewish people. Seeing that no other prophet had attained the stature of Moses to be addressed both by the attribute of Mercy and the attribute of Justice on a “face to face” basis by means of the trumpets, these trumpets had to be “hidden,“ so that no one else would use them. The very words והיו לך, “they shall be yours,” which G’d said to Moses concerning these trumpets mean that only Moses would have access to these two attributes of Hashem in such a manner. Seeing these trumpets were so sacred they had to be hidden prior to Moses’ death.
Do not wonder why they were made of silver (and not of gold). The manner in which they were hammered out of one piece made it impossible to construct them of any metal other than silver. The cherubs on the kapporet of the Holy Ark were also constructed in a similar manner, (out of gold). In the case of the cherubs the attribute of Justice was subordinate to the attribute of Mercy contained within it. Hence a soft metal, gold, was used. By the same token seeing that in the case of the trumpets the situation was the reverse, i.e. that the attribute of Mercy was subordinate to the attribute of Justice which was part of it, a hard metal, silver, had to be used to symbolize that concept. Joshua was not allowed to use the trumpets and he used the shofar instead to symbolize the attribute of Justice which was poised against his enemies, the inhabitants of Jericho. David also was not allowed to use the trumpets and used the harp instead which corresponded to his principal attribute, virtue. The author draws a comparison between the word כנור and the lake called ים כנרת, (sea of Galilee). The blue applied to the tzitzit is drawn from a fish in that lake, this is why his attribute is known as כנור דוד. (Rabbi Chavell found a source in the Zohar Beshalach 48 for this.) There are kabbalistic writings explaining why תכלת represents these attributes of Justice. [Remak (Rabbi Moshe Cordovero) quotes a saying that any color one sees in one’s dream is acceptable except techelet, as this represents the attribute of Justice in its full power. Pardess Rimonim discusses the colours and their mystical significance in a chapter called שער הגוונים. Ed.]. What we learn from the above is that every great historical personality was given the tools appropriate to his spiritual level to use in communicating with G’d or on behalf of G’d.

king This denotes Moshe, from whose mouth the heads of the nation heard the Torah elucidated [the halakha [Rosh HaShana 32b] is that this verse may be used in the liturgy to refer to God’s majesty — Translator]. The intent of the verse is that Moshe was like a king, who gathered before him the chiefs of the tribes. This explanation is substantiated by the verses which state that the Torah was given to the kohanim [31: 9] (who — in my opinion — are meant by “all His holy ones are in Your hand” [: 3]), and then to all the elders of Israel [31: 9] (they being meant by when the chiefs of the people assembled). In fact, in the above-cited passage, Scripture states, “Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes” [31: 28]. However, Rabbi Y e hudah HaLevy, of blessed memory, said that the king was allegorical of the Torah. He also gave a similar explanation to “There was no king in Israel” [Judges 18: 1].

A Midrashic approach (Pessikta Zutrata): The “king” referred to in the line ויהי בישורון מלך, is Moses, seeing that people had heard the entire Torah (legislation) from his mouth. The Torah means that the manner in which all the people including their tribal heads assembled around him, gave Moses the stature of king. This was not the first time that Moses had acted as lawgiver. It had occurred in Deut. 31,9 already when he had given the Torah to the priests, the Levites, carriers of the Holy Ark. We also find Moses ordering all the people to appear in his presence in Deut. 31,28.
Another way of understanding our verse is that the “king” described here is G’d Himself. The Torah describes that G’d became king only when all the tribal heads assembled. We find something similar described in Psalms 47,8-10 where David refers to G’d’s position as “king” in connection with the leaders of mankind indicating that they accept Him as such. In the case of the Jewish people: “when the leaders of the people volunteered to rally around Him.” We have another similar description of G’d becoming king in Amos 9,6. [The prophet portrays that G’d cannot build His chambers in heaven until an assembly of His loyal people have laid the foundation for this on earth. Ed.] The common denominator in all these verses is that G’d does not impose Himself as “king,” but waits until His creatures manifest their desire for Him to be their king.

warned an expression of warning, as in (Deut. 31:28): “And I will warn them before the heaven and the earth.”