Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Mga Awit 106:23

פגעת וגו׳ Thou didst meet him, etc.¹⁰A. V., Thou meetest him, etc. When thou wast angry in former days, thou didst meet the righteous; comp. Had not Moses, his chosen, stood before Him in the breach, to turn away His wrath? (Ps. 106:23). It may also be rendered, Thou acceptedst the prayer of him, etc. Comp. לא אפגע אדם I will not accept the prayer of any man (47:3; 53:12).

IN A VISION I DO MAKE MYSELF KNOWN TO HIM. Scripture does not say: “I will appear to him in a vision,” but it says ‘I will make Myself known.’ This verse is then similar to the one which states, And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, as G-d Almighty,²⁸⁸Exodus 6:3. [the verse here] stating that the Great Name appears in a vision and through it He becomes known to the prophet, but [the prophet does not know Him]²⁸⁹Abusaula. by His Great Name, just as He said, but by My Name the Eternal I made Me not known to them.²⁸⁸Exodus 6:3. And Scripture stated [further] that the communication is in a vision, but My servant Moses is not so, for in all My house in which the prophets see dreams, he is trusted,²⁹⁰Verse 7. knowing of his own accord all the [Divine] attributes, and from mouth to mouth²⁹¹Verse 8. the communication comes to him from Me, and he beholds the similitude,²⁹¹Verse 8. not in a dream. In the words of the Sifre:²⁹²Sifre Beha’alothcha 103. “And the similitude of the Eternal doth he behold.²⁹¹Verse 8. This refers to the vision of ‘the back.’”²⁹³See Exodus 33:23.
Thus Scripture here teaches us the difference between the Divine communication received by Moses and that of the other prophets of his generation, in the same way that it mentioned this [difference between him and] those who preceded him [as it says in the verse], And I appeared unto Abraham, etc.,²⁸⁸Exodus 6:3. as I have explained; and likewise it mentions at the end of the Torah in relation to those who came after him, And there hath not arisen a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Eternal knew face to face,²⁹⁴Deuteronomy 34:10. the intention being the same in all these places. Do not be disquieted by the statement of the Rabbis²⁹⁵Rosh Hashanah 25b. See my Hebrew commentary p. 240, Note 72, concerning the source of the statement. concerning Samuel, that he was equal to Moses, as it is written, Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me, yet My mind could not be toward this people,²⁹⁶Jeremiah 15:1. since it is because G-d mentioned Samuel together with Moses that our Rabbis considered it an indication of his [Samuel’s] greatness, but not that they were comparing the prophecies [of Moses and Samuel] to each other — far it be for them [to say so]! And the intention of this verse [which mentions Moses and Samuel together is as follows]: He mentioned Moses because he stood before Him in the breach, to turn back His wrath, lest He should destroy them,²⁹⁷Psalms 106:23. both at the [incident of the] golden calf and that of the spies, when the people were in danger of destruction; and so Scripture also mentioned Samuel, because this verse is in connection with the drought²⁹⁸Jeremiah 14:1. when they needed rain, and He said, Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? etc.²⁹⁹Ibid., Verse 22. Thus G-d said that even if Samuel — the prophet who brought rain when it was not due, in the days of the wheat-harvest³⁰⁰I Samuel 12:17. — were to stand [in prayer] before Him, He would not listen to him to bring it for these people in their time of trouble. Thus Scripture mentioned the great men of the tribe whom G-d chose to minister unto Him, and to bless in His Name,³⁰¹Deuteronomy 10: 8. — Both Moses and Samuel were of the tribe of Levi. who prayed for Israel. This is also the sense of the verse which says, Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among them that call upon His Name.³⁰²Psalms 99:6.

כי יצא הקצף לפני ה' החל הנגף, “for wrath has gone forth from the Lord, the plague had commenced.” There is an angel whose name is קצף, whose power is derived from the attribute of Justice. As a result of this angel emerging from its “home” the plague had started to strike the Jewish people. Moses had become familiar with this angel at the time when the Torah had been given to the Jewish people. This is the meaning of Tanchuma Ki Tissa 20 on Exodus 32,2 where G’d had said to Moses: “Go and descend!” The message was that due to the people having committed the sin of the golden calf five destructive forces (angels) had been unleashed; they were the angels known as: אף, חמה, קצף, השמד, חרון. As soon as Moses mentioned the three patriarchs three of these angels were neutralized. This left the two angels אף and חמה who were still active, pursuing their destructive activities. This is what Moses had in mind in Deut. 9,19 when he said כי יגורתי מפני האף והחמה, “for I was afraid of Af and Chemah. In answer to Moses’ “fear,” G’d said to him: “you stand up against one of them!” [G’d meant that Moses’ personal merit was sufficient to neutralize at least one of these two angels. Ed.] “whereas I will deal with the second one.” This is the meaning of Psalms 7,7 קומה ה' באפך, “arise O Lord against Your אף,” [i.e. the angel known as אף. Ed.]. Moses himself was going to confront the other angel known as חמה, and this is the meaning of Psalms 106,23: לולא משה בחירו עמד בפרץ לפניו להשיב חמתו מהשחית, “if not Moses His choice one had stood in the breach to confront His angel Chemah preventing him from his destructive activities.”