(Numb. 20:12:) BUT THE LORD SAID TO MOSES AND AARON: BECAUSE YOU DID NOT TRUST IN ME…. If Moses sinned, how did Aaron sin?¹⁴⁴., Numb. 6:10, just before the parallel to the previous section. The matter is comparable to creditor who came to take away a debtor's barn. He took away both his barn and that of his friend. The debtor said: If I am guilty, how has my neighbor sinned? Similarly Moses said: Sovereign of the World, I did become angry, but how has Aaron sinned? Therefore the Holy One praises¹⁴⁵; cf. Gk.: kalos. him, where it is stated (in Deut. 33:8): AND OF LEVI HE SAID: [LET] YOUR THUMMIM AND URIM [BE WITH YOUR FAITHFUL ONE, WHOM YOU TESTED AT MASSAH AND WITH WHOM YOU CONTENDED AT THE WATERS OF MERIBAH]. Moses said to the Holy One: Sovereign of the World,¹⁴⁶ see, you have decreed for me to die in the desert along with this wicked generation, as stated (in Ps. 78:40): HOW OFTEN DID THEY DEFY HIM IN THE DESERT AND GRIEVE HIM IN THE WILDERNESS. Now the future generations will say I was like them. Let it be written about me why I came to be punished. It is therefore written (in Numb. 20:12:) BUT THE LORD SAID TO MOSES AND AARON: BECAUSE YOU DID NOT TRUST IN ME. The Holy One said to Moses: With what countenance do you want to enter the land?¹⁴⁷ The situation is comparable to a shepherd who went out to feed the king's flock, and the flock was carried off. When the shepherd wanted to come into the king's palace,¹⁴⁸; Gk.: palation. the king said to him: They will say that you caused the flock to be carried off.¹⁴⁹ 6:10, near the end. A similar addition appears in Numb. R. 19:13. Here also the Holy One said to Moses: Your glory is that you are the one who led sixty myriads out of bondage. However, you buried them in the desert and are bringing another generation into the land. Now they will say: the generation of the wilderness has no share in the world to come. Rather sleep with them, and come along with them. Thus it is stated (in Deut. 33:21): [FOR THERE IS AN HONORED LAWGIVER'S PORTION,] WHERE HE CAME AT THE HEAD OF THE PEOPLE. HE CARRIED OUT THE LORD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HIS ORDINANCES FOR ISRAEL.

footnotes: ¹⁴⁴ Numb. R. 19:9, end; Tanh ¹⁴⁵ Rt.: QLS ¹⁴⁶ Numb. R. 19:12. ¹⁴⁷ Numb. R. 19:13. ¹⁴⁸ Lat. palatium ¹⁴⁹ The addition in the angle brackets comes from the parallel in the traditional Tanhuma