Comentários de Citação sobre Números 32:19

כה תאמרון לאדוני לעשו, this what you are to say to my lord Esau, etc.” This does not mean that Yaakov addressed Esau as “my lord” even in his absence. It means that Yaakov instructed messengers that if they would be asked they were to say that what they were guarding and guiding was destined as “a gift for my lord Esau”, just as the Torah describes in verse 19.

אשר בעבר הירדן, “whose habitat is on the East Bank of the river Jordan.” These Kings had seen the mourning being observed at the threshing ground of Atad (verse 10) which was located on Canaanite land on the East Bank. Just as the inhabitants of the land of Canaan proper called that region “East Bank,” in the days of Joshua who settled the Israelites on the West Bank, so the people residing on the East Bank called the area across the Jordan “West Bank. We have proof of this in Numbers 32,19: כי לא ננחל אתם מעבר לירדן והלאה כי באה נחלתנו מעבר לירדן מזרחה, “for we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan because our inheritance has fallen to us on this side of the Jordan eastwards.”

We may compare the Tablets themselves and the writing on them to the relationship between body and soul. The Tablets were the body, the writing was the soul. Once the soul has departed the body is of no value whatsoever. Such a dead body deserves to be buried under the earth. This is why Moses’ mind told him that the proper thing for him to do was to bury the Tablets beneath the mountain. The proof for our sages’ statement that the letters had flown away is found in Berachot 8 where the rabbis warn of treating scholars who have forgotten their learning due to some accident such as sickness or economic hardship without respect. They meant that even the broken pieces of the first set of Tablets were deemed worthy to be placed inside the Holy Ark. Even the stone devoid of script was not considered as having lost all sanctity. The scholar who had once been a receptacle of Torah knowledge deserves to be treated with respect even when he can no longer disseminate his knowledge (provided his present condition was due to an accident beyond his control). This is also what our sages had in mind when they said that Moses did not smash the Tablets but they fell out of his hands. As long as the letters were on the Tablets they supported not only themselves but “carried” the entire weight of such massive stone cubes. Once the letters had flown off, it was quite impossible for mortal man, even a giant such as Moses, to carry such a weight. The text supports our approach for as long as the letters were on the Tablets the Torah reports Moses as carrying both Tablets בידו, in one of his hands (verse 15). As soon as he saw the calf and the dances, he could not even carry the Tablets with both his hands (verse 19). We find something parallel with human beings. As long as the body contains a soul, i.e. is alive, it weighs less than after the soul has departed. Even a piece of iron which is white-hot weighs less than the same piece after it has cooled off, i.e. after the “life, the fire” has gone out of it. In halachic terms (Shabbat 94) this is the meaning of the principle החי נושא את עצמו, “that living people or animals carry themselves,” i.e. that one does not incur a penalty for carrying living people on the Sabbath [providing they could have walked if they had not been carried. Ed.]