ציטירנדיקער פּירוש אויף משלי 17:26

'ומה אזעום לא זעם ה, “how could I successfully curse someone whom Hashem has not cursed?” Bileam, who specialised in timing G–d’s “moods,” knew that at that time G–d had not had any reason to be angry at His people. If you were to quote the prophet Micah in Micah 6,5, who refers to Bileam having detected that G–d did display anger at Israel at the time, (as interpreted by the Talmud, tractate B’rachot 7,) that anger lasted but a moment and did not enable Bileam to pinpoint accurately. At least Bileam did not have time enough to curse all the Israelites before the curse was turned into a blessing as we know from what Moses said in Deuteronomy 23,6 where he describes G–d as interfering in Bileam’s attempt immediately He had become aware of it. If Bileam had cursed them with the single word: כלם, “make an end of them” he would have had time enough. According to the Talmud the words ותרועת מלך בו, “and the King’s shofar blast is active on their behalf,” (in verse 21 of our chapter) hints at how G–d annuls Bileam’s attempt at cursing the Jewish people. The word מלך, “King,” consisting of the same letters as the word כלם,” destroy them,” shows how G–d interfered with Bileam’s curse. Our author raises an objection to this methodology of turning curses into blessings by quoting the Talmud on the same folio where it reports Rabbi Yoshua ben Levi being harassed by a member of the Tz’doki sect, raising what he considered contradictory verses in the Torah. One day the Rabbi took a cockerel, positioned him at the bottom of his bed, and looked at that bird intently, intending that as soon as the time when G–d is briefly angry would arrive, he would curse that Tz’doki. By the time that hour arrived, the Rabbi had fallen asleep, (and missed his chance). When he awoke, he realised that he had been saved from committing a sin by having fallen asleep at the crucial time, and he interpreted Proverbs 17,26: גם ענוש לצדיק לא טוב, “it is also not good to punish the righteous,” to mean that one must not deliberately become the instrument by which G–d punishes the wicked. Our author questions how Rabbi Joshua ben Levi could have succeeded to successfully curse that Tz’doki at the precise moment of G–d’s anger, as it would have taken too long, according to what we just learned? He therefore comes to the conclusion that what is critical is only if the beginning of one’s curse coincides with the precise moment at which G–d is angry. He supports his theory by pointing to the Talmud in tractate Sanhedrin folio 105 where Rabbi Yochanan is quoted as having said that the very wording of Bileam’s blessings hinted already at the fact that they had been meant to be curses which G–d had reversed. When he had meant to say that he wished that the Israelites would lack synagogues and Torah academies he commenced with the words: ”how goodly are your tents, etc?” [The word אהל for “tent” in which to study G–d’ Torah occurs frequently, commencing with Yaakov in Genesis 25,27. Ed.] He quotes some other “blessings” of Bileam there as similarly revealing what his curse would have sounded like had he been permitted to pronounce it. Clearly, he would not have had time enough to pronounce all these curses in the minute time span G–d remains angry. This proves that the very beginning of uttering what was in his mind is what is critical.

הלהרגני אתה אומר?, “are you going to say something which will kill me?” From this phrase we learn that Moses had killed the Egyptian by cursing him in the name of the ineffable G’d. This does not contradict what the Torah wrote, i.e. ויך את המצרי, “he struck (dead) the Egyptian,” (verse 12) The Bible uses the verb הכה to describe words, such as in Isaiah 11,4 והכה ארץ בשבט פיו, “and he will smite a land with the rod of his mouth.” (the Messiah when he comes.) Although, according to Sanhedrin 105, what Solomon means in Proverbs 17,26 when he says גם ענוש לצדיק לא טוב, is that the righteous should never place themselves in a position of causing or administering punishment, even when the victim would be a confirmed heretic, this situation did not meet the criteria discussed in the Talmud. The victim of Moses was guilty of raping a married woman, and clearly deserving the death penalty, as our sages derive from the words ויפן כה וכה, that Moses saw not only what this Egyptian had done in the field, but what he had done prior to this in the house of the Jew whom he had killed. Nachmanides questions this whole line of exegesis, writing that if Moses had used the holy name of G’d to kill the Egyptian, who had told the quarrelling Jew about this? He reasons that possibly Moses had placed his hand on the Egyptian prior to cursing him, so that the words ויך את המצרי, “he struck the Egyptians,” may be understood literally without contradicting the opinion that his death was caused by G’d honouring Moses’ curse. When the Egyptian suddenly fell dead as his feet, Moses became afraid and covered him with sand, The wicked Jew who had observed all this realized that either G’d had caused the death of the Egyptian, or if he had not observed the actual death, assumed that Moses had killed him with the sword, and that therefore he had buried him to obliterate the fact that the man had been killed violently, seeing he only had seen Moses burying the corpse. If we follow the plain meaning of the text, the words אתה אומר, need not refer to words spoken by mouth at all, but may describe someone’s intention, as in Kohelet where Solomon repeatedly introduces a thought with the words אמרתי אני בלבי, “I used to say in my heart.”

ואם ככה את עשה לי, "but if You will deal thus with me, etc." Moses was afraid that G'd would say to him that he must continue to carry this burden even against his will as it is the fate of a servant of G'd that he continue to serve his G'd until he dies, as we know from Deut 6,5 where we are commanded to love G'd with our entire soul, i.e. even if we have to die in the process. This is why Moses said: "if that is my fate then please let me die now." He added that the reason he asked to die now was so that he would not be a witness to his own failure as a leader. Moses was afraid that if instead of G'd letting him die the people would kill him for not providing meat, he would become the cause of their becoming guilty of murder. Their punishment would be that they would be wiped out by G'd. He, Moses, would much rather die now than for Israel to become guilty of such a crime. Solomon expressed such a thought in Proverbs 17,27 when he said: "it is not good for the righteous to become the cause of retribution."