Or HaChaim on Numbers 14:17/אור החיים על במדבר י״ד:י״ז

1 ועתה יגדל נא כח השם, "and now, I pray, let the Power of the Lord be great!" We need to analyse why Moses said: "and now," as well as why he said that G'd's power should appear great although He had not done anything to demonstrate wherein His power was so great. The word יגדל implies that G'd would perform some act which would enhance people's awe for His power. Why did Moses use the word נא in the middle of the verse? If it were meant as a plea he should have started the sentence with that word. If it meant something like "now," he had already said ועתה. Furthermore, what did he mean by the words כאשר דברת, as You have said?" What had G'd said, and when did He say it? What is the meaning of the word לאמור? To whom was G'd supposed to say this?

2Seeing that Moses had been clever in his argument about the damage to G'd's world-wide image which killing the Israelites would entail, he added that there was another advantage for G'd if He would allow His anger to dissipate and let the Israelites enter the land of Canaan, an advantage that G'd had not enjoyed previously. The advantage to G'd would be that in view of the exaggerated report of the toughness of the inhabitants of that land G'd's power would indeed be perceived as great when He demonstrated it by helping the Israelites to conquer them.

3Moses added: כאשר דברת. This is a reference to the first verse in our portion where G'd's reason for despatching the spies is described as "to tour the land I am about to give them." We explained there that the land was not subject to conquest by the Israelites and could only be attained by them as a gift from G'd. G'd Himself had told Moses at the time to point this out to the Israelites. This was the meaning of the word לאמר in 13,1.

4The meaning of the word נא is "now." Moses repeated this word. We have beeen told in Bereshit Rabbah 21,6 that the word ועתה invariably means that G'd provided an opening for man to do תשובה, to repent. Moses apologised so to speak for having said things to G'd about Him which should not be said by any human being although he had only paraphrased what he presumed that the Gentiles would say. We find an analogous situation in the Talmud when witnesses were required to repeat the exact words they heard a blasphemer say before such a blasphemer could be convicted (Sanhedrin 60). The witnesses in question have to rend their garments in grief and remorse at the words their mouths had to utter. Moses did something similar and that is why he added the word ועתה in addition to the word נא.

5He may also have hinted that the word ועתה represented the remorse of the Israelites who prayed that G'd's power would be perceived to be great henceforth and that G'd should accept their repentance. We are told in Berachot 34 that repentant sinners are on a morally higher plateau than people who have never sinned. The reason is that G'd's name is sanctified more when the world perceives that sinners have changed their ways. Moses alluded to this when he said יגדל נא כח השם, i.e. "now Your power O G'd is even greater than heretofore seeing the Israelites had repented after their rebellion." The repetition of the thought by the word נא may also allude to the statement in Avot 4,22 that "one hour spent as a repentant sinner in this life is worth more than the the whole life in the world to come."

6Another approach to our verse is this: Moses did not ask G'd to extend His pardon to all the people who had spurned Him, but only ועתה יגדל נא כח השם, to exact retribution from the perpetrators who spurned Him, from the spies themselves. When G'd is perceived as punishing the wicked His name is sanctified and exalted. Moses added: כאשר דברת, referring to G'd having said in verse 12 that He would smite them with pestilence. This statement could be read as referring only to the spies themselves. Moses added the word נא meaning "now," suggesting the spies be punished immediately as only then would their death be understood as the penalty for their crime. G'd complied with Moses' request as we read in 14,37 that "the men who had slandered the land died through pestilence in the presence of G'd." Please read on what I have written on that verse. The reason Moses added the word לאמור may be that He asked G'd to tell the spies before their deaths why they were being punished. It is also possible that Moses wanted G'd to tell the Israelites that the people who had spread lies about the land were being punished in order to frighten the people into not causing G'd to become angry again on their account. We find something analogous in Psalms 9,17 בפעל כפיו נוקש רשע הגיון סלה, "He works judgments; the wicked man is snared by his own devices. Higgayon, Selah." [The verse comes on the heels of the Psalmist demonstrating that G'd's powers of retribution were seen to have reached the enemies of the Jewish people. Ed.] The initials of the words ועתה יגדל נא כח equal the numerical value of the name of G'd, i.e. 86. The name used for G'd in the verse is also a reference to G'd in His capacity as Judge. Having said all this, Moses reverts to ask G'd's mercy for the people.

7Yet another meaning of the word ועתה is that Moses referred to G'd's suggestion to create a new Jewish nation making him the founder. We have a tradition that the curse of a wise man, even if it was only conditional, leaves a mark (Makkot 11). A blessing by a scholar certainly does so also. When the blessing has been pronounced by G'd Himself, there is no question that He will not withdraw it. Moses prayed that G'd should preserve the Jewish people and be aggrandised through their very survival even though He was aware that what G'd had promised him would come true. We find indeed that Berachot 7 tells us that the descendants of Rechaviah (Chronicles I 23,17) Moses' grandson from his son Eliezer amounted to well over 600,000. Moses used the words דברת לאמור, to indicate that at the very time G'd had spoken harshly of the Israelites He had exalted him by contrast. [the word לאמור is used again in the sense of Deut. 26,17. Ed.]

8Still another meaning of כאשר דברת, is that it refers to Moses himself becoming a great nation, even greater (in numbers) than the Jewish people at present.

9If we accept this, we must examine why Moses did not react in this fashion as soon as G'd proposed to make him into a replacement of the present Jewish people. The words כאשר דברת refer to the time when G'd had offered to make a new Jewish nation with Moses as the founder at the time of the golden calf episode (Exodus 32,10). The word עתה, "now," means "this time" as distinct from the previous occasion.

10A careful comparison will reveal that on the previous occasion when G'd had offered to make a new Jewish nation based on Moses, He had not added that that new Jewish nation would be more powerful because it would be ממנו, based on the original Jewish people, as G'd had done here in verse 12. I have explained that one of the possible reasons for the statement that the new and powerful nation G'd had referred to would be more powerful is that they would not have absorbed the morally negative influences due to having been part of the Egyptian culture. Having prayed that the Jewish nation should continue to exist in its present form, i.e. the nation that had experienced the Exodus, Moses now turned to G'd's promise to make a nation out of him. He declined, seeing that all G'd had promised was to use him as the founder of a continuation of the Jewish people [seeing he himself was a member of that nation. Ed.]. This is why he said to G'd: "now let Your power be great, etc." At the time G'd had offered to make a nation out of Moses during the episode of the golden calf, G'd had not used the word ממנו, i.e. that the new nation would be a continuation of the original Jewish people. It could be assumed that although, at the time, G'd had changed His mind about wiping out the people immediately, the promise made to Moses to make him into a great nation had not been cancelled. G'd could be presumed to have planted new souls at the time that would be fruitful and multiply. Perhaps this may even have been the meaning of the sages (quoted by Rashi) who claimed that Moses argued that if a stool with three legs had proved unstable how could a stool with only a single leg (Moses) be expected to be more stable? Moses had referred to the three patriarchs as the three legs of the Jewish people. This appears to be a very weak argument. After all, Moses himself was also a descendant of the patriarchs and the new nation would therefore be based on himself plus the "three legs" represented by the patriarchs? If you accept my interpretation that G'd planted new souls at the time He made that original promise in Exodus 32,10, then Moses' argument was solid, seeing these "new" souls would not have been descendants i.e. reincarnations of souls who had existed at the time of the patriarchs. As a result, they would have only a solitary "leg" to rely on i.e. their founding father Moses.

11Another reason why Moses prayed at this juncture may be related to the word עצום which G'd had used to describe such a new "Jewish" nation. Moses understood that term to refer to the element of sanctity to be found in that new nation who would therefore not spurn Him. He prayed to G'd that this part of the promise should be speedily fulfilled. He added the word נא in the knowledge that the choice of doing good or evil was not something under G'd's control (Berachot 33). He begged G'd to create souls which had a tendency to be good.