Or HaChaim on Deuteronomy 3:24/אור החיים על דברים ג׳:כ״ד

1 א־דני אלוקים אתה החילות להראות, "O Lord G'd, You have begun to show, etc." This (א־ד־נ־י) form of address may be understood as similar to Samuel I 3,18 where the High Priest Eli after being told by his pupil Samuel that G'd said that He would exact retribution from the house of Eli, reacted by saying: "My Master (א־ד־נ־י) will do whatever seems good in His eyes." Eli meant that when a master loses a servant such a loss is keenly felt by him; as a result, The Master would not agree to lose the servant unless He had good reason. When Moses used the word א־ד־נ־י in this instance he meant to say that his own success and wellbeing was a matter for his master (G'd) to evaluate.

2He also used the 4-lettered name of G'd with the vowels of the attribute of Justice, i.e. אלוקים. Rashi comments as follows: רחום בדין, (the word א־דני means) "the One who is merciful even while dispensing judgment." I have seen that Nachmanides criticises Rashi claiming that he overlooked the fact that the first word א־ד־נ־י is written with the letters א־ד, whereas the second name of G'd is spelled with the letter י־ה, and that our sages have said that whenever this combination of letters in the name of G'd occurs it refers to the attribute of Mercy. Thus far Nachmanides. [According to Rabbi Chavell, Nachmanides meant that only the combination of the letters י־ה describe the attribute of Mercy. Ed.] I believe that Rashi did not refer to the word א־ד־נ־י at all when he made his comment. Rather, he referred to the fact that although the vowels in the Ineffable Name Moses used here are the ones used for the attribute of Justice, i.e. elokim, the fact remains that even when G'd dispenses justice there is always an element of mercy present. This is the reason for the strange vowelling in this instance. Sifri also understands the word in this sense when the author commented: "הויה always means mercy, whereas אלוקים always means justice." Sifri clearly refers to the relative spelling (i.e. consonants) and reading (i.e. vowels) meaning different attributes.

3The reason Moses employed a name for G'd which incorporates both attributes becomes clear when you refer to my explanation of the word לאמור at the end of the last verse. I explained that as soon as Moses' own prayer had been accepted he meant to pray on behalf of the whole generation. Moses felt that the degree against himself could be voided merely by an appeal to the attribute of Justice, whereas in order to void the decree against the people of the Exodus it required the application of G'd's attribute of Mercy. Tanchuma illustrated this with a parable. [the version of this parable in my edition of the Tanchuma is substantially different, but I am quoting the version the author describes. Ed.] A king who wanted to marry a certain lady dispatched messengers to examine the lady in question and to present her with his marriage proposal. The messengers went and came back with the report that they could not have found an uglier person than the lady in question. One of the patrons of the bride-to-be heard about this negative report and told the king that there was not a more beautiful lady in the whole kingdom than the one the king wanted to marry. The father of the bride told the King's messengers that on no account would he allow them to be present at the wedding as they had shamed the bride. When the patron who had sung the praises of the bride wanted to take part in the wedding celebrations the father would not allow him to enter either. The patron remonstrated saying to the father of the bride: "I have praised her although I have never met her, and I told the king that she is the fairest in the land." Moses used a similar argument when he pleaded with G'd. He considered it unfair that he who had been instrumental in promoting the wedding between Israel and G'd and the land of Israel should not be allowed to attend the wedding, the consummation of the deal. Moses' argument was that even if G'd applied the yardstick used by the attribute of Justice, he should be allowed to enter the Holy Land. This is the reason he mentioned the attribute of Justice. He alluded to the element of mercy by punctuating the Ineffable Name in this unusual manner as this related to his prayer for the people as a whole as I explained on the word לאמור. He made a point of using the name for the attribute of Justice as he has been quoted as only praying for himself. [The Torah does not record vowels, only consonants. The reader has to supply the vowels himself. Ed.] He used the indirect reference to the attribute of Mercy, as his prayer for the people as a whole remained potential rather than actual as long as his prayer on his own behalf had not been accepted.

4It is also possible that Moses had to allude to the attribute of Mercy in G'd's name precisely because he demanded to be heard as a matter of justice rather than merely as a matter of mercy. Who is so righteous that he can demand to be judged by the pure attribute of Justice? We have it on the authority of Psalms 143,2 "for before You no creature is in the right."

5אתה החלות, "You have begun, etc." The Sifri offers three possible meanings for the word החלות 1) The word is derived from התחלה, beginning. 2) It is an expression for prayer similar to Maleachi 1,9 ועתה חלו נא פני קל, "and now implore the favour of the Lord!" 3) it means to release, i.e. to release from a vow, etc. Moses said to G'd: "You have released me from my vow" when You said to me in Exodus 3,10 "take My people out of Egypt." At the time I told You that I had already sworn an oath to my father-in-law Yitro that I would not leave him as we know from Exodus 2,21: "Moses agreed to dwell with the man, etc." The word ויאל is used when one swears an oath. Moses argued that if G'd had seen fit to release him from that oath, He could release Himself from His own oath not to let him enter the Holy Land. Another meaning of the word is "opening." Moses said "You have provided an opening for me to implore You by prayer when You said to me in Deut. 9,32: 'let Me be so that I can destroy them, etc.' Did Moses then restrain G'd? The meaning is that G'd had opened a door for Moses by these words encouraging him to pray." We are therefore entitled to understand the word as meaning "prayer." Another explanation sees in the opening for prayer a reference to the time Moses granted the lands of Sichon and Og to the tribes of Reuven and Gad. He had provided an opening for possible cancellation of that vow. This latter explanation [that the word החלות means an opening to cancel a vow. Ed.] seems somewhat strange. What proof could Moses bring from the time G'd had released him from his vow to remain with Yitro? Moses' vow on that occasion had been easy to cancel as he had a ready answer saying that had he known at the time that G'd would call upon him to lead the Jewish people to freedom he would never have made such a vow. What possible opening was there for G'd to rescind His own oath seeing that when G'd swears an oath all future possibilities are known to Him and He could never plead insufficient knowledge of the future as a reason to cancel His vows!

6This problem may be solved when we review what Maimonides wrote in chapter six of his treatise Hilchot Shevuot. He writes: "If someone swore an oath and did not regret it, and is intent on keeping his oath, the court has to examine if keeping his oath would prevent this person from fulfilling some positive commandment or from maintaining peaceful relations with his peers. If keeping the oath were to result in either of these results, the court has to engage in negotiations with that person until it convinces him that had he been fully aware of these consequences he would not have sworn the oath in question. After that they will release him from the obligation which the oath entails." This teaches us that even if no "opening" existed for the court to cancel the vow, one uses one's intelligence to create such an "opening." This is what Moses had in mind when he said: "You have provided an opening already when You prevailed upon me to be released from my vow though I had not expressed any desire to be released from it." The proof that Moses did not ask to be released from his vow is found in Exodus 3,10 where G'd commences a campaign of seven days trying to convince Moses to accept His mission. Moses now argued that G'd could apply this procedure to His own oath not to let him enter the Holy Land even if there had not been a prima facie opening for releasing Himself from His oath. Moses, after all, was desirous of fulfilling the positive commandment of living in the Holy Land, as evidenced by his words: "let me cross so that I can see the good land, etc."

7Should you argue that the situation is totally dissimilar to the one discussed by Maimonides, and it was not G'd who would perform a commandment as a result of releasing Himself from His oath but Moses, the answer is that the reason Moses described himself as את עבדך, "with Your (G'd's) servant," was to hint that it was a well known fact that whatever belongs to the servant belongs to the Master, i.e. G'd would share equally in Moses' performing the commandment of living in the Holy Land.