Parshas Devarim - Why did Moshe hint at his rebuke?

The passuk says at the beginning of this week’s sedrah (1:1)

אֵלֶּה הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר מֹשֶׁה אֶל כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּעֵבֶר הַיַּרְדֵּן בַּמִּדְבָּר בָּעֲרָבָה מוֹל סוּף בֵּין פָּארָן וּבֵין תֹּפֶל וְלָבָן וַחֲצֵרֹת וְדִי זָהָב

These are the words that Moshe addressed to all of the benei yisrael on the other side of the Yarden. Through the desert, in the plain near Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Lavan, Chazeroth, and Di-zahav.

The Medrash Rabbah says (Bereishis 12:3)

אמר רבי אבהו, כל מקום שנאמר אלה, פסל את הראשונים

Rabbi Avahu said, “Whenever the passuk says אלה it means to invalidate that which is mentioned previously. [However, when the passuk says ואלה, it means to add on to that which is stated previously.]

• What do the words אלה הדברים come to invalidate?

Rashi comments on this passuk:

אלה הדברים: לפי שהן דברי תוכחות ומנה כאן כל המקומות שהכעיסו לפני המקום בהן לפיכך סתם את הדברים והזכירם ברמז מפני כבודן של ישראל

These are the words: Because they are words of rebuke and Moshe enumerated here all the places where they angered Hashem, therefore he obfuscated the matter and mentioned them through hints in order to protect the honour of the benei yisrael.

One of the hints which Moshe rebuked the benei yisrael with concerned the egel ha’zahav.

ודי זהב: הוכיחן על העגל שעשו בשביל רוב זהב שהיה להם שנאמר (הושע ב', י') וכסף הרביתי להם וזהב עשו לבעל

And Di-zahav: He rebuked them for the egel ha’zahav which they made because of the abundant gold which they possessed, as the passuk says, “And I increased their silver and gave them gold which they then used to fashion idols for Baal.”

However, in Parshas Ekev (9:12), Moshe explicitly rebuked the benei yisrael concerning the egel ha’zahav and provided all the details of that incident.

וַיֹּאמֶר ה' אֵלַי קוּם רֵד מַהֵר מִזֶּה כִּי שִׁחֵת עַמְּךָ אֲשֶׁר הוֹצֵאתָ מִמִּצְרָיִם סָרוּ מַהֵר מִן הַדֶּרֶךְ אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתִם עָשׂוּ לָהֶם מַסֵּכָה

And Hashem said to me, “Get up, go down quickly from here, for the people whom you brought out of Mitzrayim have become corrupted. They have quickly strayed from the path which I commanded them to follow, they have made for themselves a cast idol.”

• Why did Moshe later openly rebuke the benei yisrael, if this was not in accordance with their honour?

Rashi continues:

אל כל ישראל: אלו הוכיח מקצתן היו אלו שבשוק אומרים אתם הייתם שומעים מבן עמרם ולא השיבותם דבר מכך וכך אלו היינו שם היינו משיבים אותו לכך כנסם כולם ואמר להם הרי כולכם כאן כל מי שיש לו תשובה ישיב

To all of the benei yisrael: Had Moshe only rebuked some of them, then those who are in the marketplace would have said, “You heard all that from Ben Aram and you did not refute his rebuke by saying such-and-such? Had we been there we would have answered him back.”

Therefore Moshe gathered all of them and he said to them, “Look, you are all here. Anyone who has something to say back to me, should say it.”

• It would appear difficult to understand, according to Rashi, what Moshe gained by gathering all of the benei yisrael. If the benei yisrael really thought that Moshe was getting at them and did not have their best interests at heart, then the fact that he proved to them that they were unable to answer him back does not address the fundamental issue that they could not benefit from his rebuke, as long as they thought that he was just having a go at them?

The Divrei Yoel explains as follows:

The passuk says at the beginning of Bereishis (1:1)

בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹקִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ

In the beginning of the creation of the heavens and the earth.

Rashi comments:

בָּרָא אֱלֹקִים: ולא אמר בָּרָא ה'. שבתחילה עלה במחשבה לברואתו במידת הדין; ראה שאין העולם מתקיים, הקדים מידת רחמים ושיתפה למידת הדין. היינו דכתיב (להלן ב' ד'): בְּיוֹם עֲשׂוֹת ה' אֱלֹקִים אֶרֶץ וְשָׁמָיִם.

Elokim created: The passuk does not say that Hashem created. Because initially Hashem thought to create the world through the attribute of strict judgement, but then Hashem saw that the world would not be able to exist in such a way, therefore he brought forward the attribute of mercy and he joined it with the attribute of strict judgement. And that is why the passuk says later, “On the day that Hashem (denoting the attribute of mercy) Elokim (denoting the attribute of strict judgement) created the earth and the heaven.”

This means to say:

It is more advantageous for a person to live in a manner when they are judged with Hashem’s attribute of strict judgement than if they are judged with Hashem’s attribute of mercy, because in that case they are able to achieve a higher madregah and will be given a greater reward. One of the differences between living in a way where one is judged with Hashem’s attribute of strict judgement and where one is judged with Hashem’s attribute of mercy is that in the former case, the hashgachah pratis of Hashem is more evident than in the latter case.

When the benei yisrael lived in the midbar, they were very close to achieving the initial thought of Hashem in Bereishis, wherein they would be judged according to the middas hadin. For example we find that with the man (see Koheles Yitzchak, Beha’alosechah) if someone did an aveirah, then the next morning the man would fall further away from the door of his tent. If he did another aveirah, then he would have to start cooking the man before his family was able to eat it.

The benei yisrael rebelled ten times against this strict hanhagah, and therefore, in the beginning of Devarim, Moshe told them that they would now receive a different hanhagah, in which they would be conducted by the middas ha’rachamim. That which the rebuke that they received from Moshe was not in accordance with their honour, was because the rebuke was that they would now be on a lower madregah of hanhagah, than they had previously been.

This is why at the beginning of Devarim, Moshe only hinted to the egel ha’zahav, but in Parshas Ekev he explicitly detailed that aveirah, because there he was not talking about the lower hanhagah by which they would be conducted as a result of the egel ha’zahav, rather he was simply talking about the punishment that they had received at the time because of that aveirah.

Similarly, when Moshe gathered all of the benei yisrael in order to rebuke them, he meant to tell the entire klal yisrael that from now on they would be conducted according to a more merciful hanhagah from Hashem, which intimated that it was not possible for them to live in such close proximity to the shechina. Had some of the benei yisrael not been present, they would have commented to those that were present that they could have proven to Moshe that they were capable of carrying on living in close proximity to the shechinah, despite the attendant middas ha’din. Since all of the benei yisrael were present, and even jointly they could not prove to Moshe that they were capable of elevating themselves to such a level, it was evident that Moshe’s assessment of the need for them to be conducted according to a different hanhagah, was correct.

This is also why the passuk starts with the words אלה הדברים. The passuk does not mean to say that that which went beforehand was invalid. Rather the passuk means to say that the proximity to Hashem and the strict judgment which the benei yisrael had previously merited was no longer fitting for the madregah which they were currently on, and that from now on they would be conducted according to the middas ha’rachamim.