וַעֲבָדֶ֨יךָ יַֽעַבְר֜וּ כָּל־חֲל֥וּץ צָבָ֛א לִפְנֵ֥י יְהוָ֖ה לַמִּלְחָמָ֑ה כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר אֲדֹנִ֖י דֹּבֵֽר׃
אָבער דײַנע קנעכט, איטלעכער באַװאָפֿנטער צום חיל, װעלן אַריבערגײן פֿאַר גאָטס אָנגעזיכט אױף מלחמה, אַזױ װי מײַן האַר רעדט.
Rabbeinu Bahya
Having read Nachmanides’ defense of the Jewish people and Aaron, the obvious question is why the people were punished so severely that we still suffer part of that punishment today whenever we are being afflicted for our personal sins? Why were the Levites allowed to execute 3,000 Israelites? Why did G’d dispatch a plague which killed many of the people (verses 27 and 35 respectively)?
The answer is simply that whereas the whole episode with the golden calf began innocently enough as an error at worst, as it progressed it turned into deliberate acts of idolatry. This is why the Torah wrote that the people “prostrated themselves before the calf, that they offered peace-offerings to it, that they danced around it, etc. “(32,6; 32,19).
Actually, at that time, the Israelites were divided into different groups. Some of them had pure motives when offering sacrifices; the Torah reflects this by writing (verse 6): ”they offered burnt-offerings and prepared peace-offerings.” The Torah did not write: “they offered burnt-offerings to it, and they prepared peace-offerings to it.” The ones whose motives were idolatrous were the ones of whom the Torah writes (verse 8): “they prostrated themselves before it, and they slaughtered offerings for it.”
The answer is simply that whereas the whole episode with the golden calf began innocently enough as an error at worst, as it progressed it turned into deliberate acts of idolatry. This is why the Torah wrote that the people “prostrated themselves before the calf, that they offered peace-offerings to it, that they danced around it, etc. “(32,6; 32,19).
Actually, at that time, the Israelites were divided into different groups. Some of them had pure motives when offering sacrifices; the Torah reflects this by writing (verse 6): ”they offered burnt-offerings and prepared peace-offerings.” The Torah did not write: “they offered burnt-offerings to it, and they prepared peace-offerings to it.” The ones whose motives were idolatrous were the ones of whom the Torah writes (verse 8): “they prostrated themselves before it, and they slaughtered offerings for it.”
Rabbeinu Bahya
You may be inclined to ask that seeing G-d was able to save all these people and animals by working a miracle, why did He bother to command Noach to spend 120 years of his life to build the Ark altogether? Surely, G-d had a number of other alternatives once He had decided to invoke miracles! For instance, He could have enabled the people and animals who were meant to survive to walk on water, or some other miracle not involving 120 years of Noach’s time.
The answer to such questions is that the Torah always instructs man to do all in his power to achieve his objective by natural means. If, for reasons beyond his control, man cannot complete his task, G-d will supply the amount of miracle needed to bring man’s deserving endeavor to a successful conclusion. If you will examine other miracles reported in the Torah you will always find that though G-d intervened in the most miraculous manner, there were always elements in what happened which were based on the laws of nature being made full use of. For instance, when the Torah commanded the two and a half tribes of Reuven, Gad, and Menashe to join their brethren in war by donning arms and uniforms and marching at their head (Numbers 32,27), this was not because they did the actual fighting. The actual fighting was done by G-d. Nonetheless, man has to do or to appear to do whatever is within his power to try and achieve the task set for him by G-d. Similarly, we find in Joshua 8,2 that G-d commanded Joshua to set an ambush against the city of Ai and take with him his entire army although G-d Himself says “here I have already given the King of Ai and his people and his city into your hands.” Seeing that all the wars fought by the Israelites on their march from Egypt to the Holy Land were won by means of miracles you would be justified in asking why they needed to be recruited as an army at all? The reason is, as we have stated, that G-d does not intervene by means of a miracle until man has done his duty by trying to help himself.
In our situation, i.e. the building of the Ark, there was an additional reason why G-d had commanded Noach to build it. He had hoped that when people would watch the vast amount of time and energy which Noach (and his sons) put into constructing this huge Ark that he must have known what he was doing, and that at least some people would take his warning of the impending deluge to heart to repent and change their lifestyle. If they would nonetheless ignore such warnings they were obviously irredeemable sinners and would deserve whatever G-d decreed for them.
The answer to such questions is that the Torah always instructs man to do all in his power to achieve his objective by natural means. If, for reasons beyond his control, man cannot complete his task, G-d will supply the amount of miracle needed to bring man’s deserving endeavor to a successful conclusion. If you will examine other miracles reported in the Torah you will always find that though G-d intervened in the most miraculous manner, there were always elements in what happened which were based on the laws of nature being made full use of. For instance, when the Torah commanded the two and a half tribes of Reuven, Gad, and Menashe to join their brethren in war by donning arms and uniforms and marching at their head (Numbers 32,27), this was not because they did the actual fighting. The actual fighting was done by G-d. Nonetheless, man has to do or to appear to do whatever is within his power to try and achieve the task set for him by G-d. Similarly, we find in Joshua 8,2 that G-d commanded Joshua to set an ambush against the city of Ai and take with him his entire army although G-d Himself says “here I have already given the King of Ai and his people and his city into your hands.” Seeing that all the wars fought by the Israelites on their march from Egypt to the Holy Land were won by means of miracles you would be justified in asking why they needed to be recruited as an army at all? The reason is, as we have stated, that G-d does not intervene by means of a miracle until man has done his duty by trying to help himself.
In our situation, i.e. the building of the Ark, there was an additional reason why G-d had commanded Noach to build it. He had hoped that when people would watch the vast amount of time and energy which Noach (and his sons) put into constructing this huge Ark that he must have known what he was doing, and that at least some people would take his warning of the impending deluge to heart to repent and change their lifestyle. If they would nonetheless ignore such warnings they were obviously irredeemable sinners and would deserve whatever G-d decreed for them.
Ibn Ezra
he performed God ’s righteousness i.e., he fulfilled in deed the thing of which he had spoken in word — namely, the children of Gad swore that they would go out in battle with Israel against their enemies [Numbers 32: 27]. Moshe does not mention Reuven in this context, perhaps because the tribe of Gad were more valorous than the tribe of Reuven (as is suggested by the passage in Chronicles, which says of Gad, “their faces were like the face of a lion” [I Chronicles 12: 9], without any similar statement about Reuven).