Shabbos Parashas Shelach-Lecha - 5776

Shabbos Parashas Shelach-Lecha - 5776

Rabbi Hal Miller

And Hashem said, "I have forgiven in accordance with your word." [Bamidbar 14:20]

If someone asks me, "We erred, please forgive us", and if I am the forgiving type, my answer

will be, "Okay, I forgive you", or "I will forgive you", in either the present or the future tense.

Here, G-d uses the past tense, 'salachti'. Why? Further, if someone says as I note, my forgiveness

would be based on their current words, "we erred" and/or "please forgive". This would be

assumed, so why did G-d specify "with your word"? What word is He referring to?

In verses 14:17-19, Moshe's plea is, "And now, may now the strength of the L-rd be magnified",

for which he repeats back some of the 13 Attributes that G-d had described to him earlier. Moshe

was saying, in effect, if You are all these things, then demonstrate it for the world and forgive the

people as proof. If G-d were to agree, He would state that He forgives either in the present or

future tense. This plea and argument, then, is precisely what G-d is NOT responding to.

Although these are certainly great things, G-d has something else in mind here.

It seems that G-d already forgave the Jewish people, and did so based on something Moshe

had said before this plea. So what was that, and why did this conversation take place now?

In verses 14:11-12, G-d asked Moshe, "How long will this people provoke Me", then said, "I will

smite them and annihilate them." Moshe responds to this in 13-16, arguing that if G-d were to

do that, the rest of the world would think He was strong enough to take the Jews out of Egypt

but not strong enough to bring them successfully into the land. Moshe then goes on with his

plea in 17-19. Good debate point, but how is it relevant?

Our answers here are obvious. Moshe actually won the debate when he asked G-d whether

having the rest of the world think He was not all-powerful was worth any satisfaction He might

get from destroying the errant Jewish people. At that point, G-d forgave. When Moshe continued

to plead his case with references to G-d's attributes, G-d shut him down, saying, you've already

won your case. No need to look for other reasons. The past-time-period involved may have only

been a brief moment or two, but the Torah is letting us know that the forgiveness comes on

something other than the very last point Moshe made. The words that Moshe used referred

to demonstrating to the world that G-d is all-powerful, which for this particular situation is a

more important point than the fact that He is also slow to anger, abundant in kindness, etc.

Why did this conversation occur now? These two combined ideas, the strength of G-d and the

other attributes, set up the rest of the chapter. In the next verse, G-d refers to His glory filling the

entire world. He says that those who have seen His strength but denied it will not go into the land,

but that Caleiv and Yehoshua, who recognized all these attributes, will proceed across the Jordan.

G-d is saying, yes, all of you will die here in the desert, but I will not wipe you out. Your children

will go forward, under proper leaders, and receive what I promised your ancestors. The rest of the

book of Bamidbar stems from this idea.