כל חבל ארגוב, “the whole district of Argov;” according to Rashi the word refers to “a province;” other commentators believe that Argov is the name of an individual who used to own this strip of land, having inherited it, and that it had been measured with a rope to determine its boundaries, hence the word חבל ארגוב. Onkelos translates it as בית פלך טרכונא, “the resi-dence in a district by that name, i.e. a famous palace.” Our verse then would refer to the province in which the palace was situated.

לבד מערי הפרזי, “apart from the ‘open’ cities;” the ones scattered throughout the countryside, not protected by a wall. The word occurs in connection with Jerusalem in Zecharyah 2,8 where the prophet suggests that in the future Jerusalem will not need a wall around it to protect it against invaders.

צידונים יקראו לחרמון שריון והאמרי יקראו לו שניר, “The people of Tzidon would call Mount Hermon Siryon, whereas the Emorite would refer to it as Senir.” We find here three separate names seeing that in Deut. 4,48 Mount Hermon is also called Siyon. Why did the Torah have to record all these names of Mount Hermon? It was to give us an idea of the prominence and esteem in which the land of Israel was held. Everyone of these respective nations (their kings) would refer to his own land by a name reflecting a location in the land of Israel. [By calling his capital Mount Hermon in their language, they would pay tribute to that Mountain in Israel and to their own standing in Israel. Of course, in their arrogance, they would make believe that the Israelites had named their mountain to correspond to the capitals of their own respective countries. Ed.] (Sifri Eykev 37).

כי רק עוג מלך הבשן נשאר מיתר הרפאים, “for only Og, King of Bashan, was left of the remnants of the giants” whom Amrafel and his colleagues had killed, as we read in Genesis 14,5: “they killed the Rephaim in Ashtarot Karnayim.” Og had escaped from the battle; this is why the Torah reports “the escapee” as reporting to Avram that Lot had been taken captive (Genesis 14,13). Our sages in Tanchuma Chukat 25 identify this “fugitive” as having been Og.

באמת איש, “by the standard measure “cubit” applied to everybody else.” Onkelos translates this as אמת מלך, “by the measure known as “cubit” in the country under control of that king.” The measure was called after this king who had established it. The word מלך when used by Onkelos is a defective spelling for the word מלכא, King, in Aramaic. Onkelos alludes to the fact that Og was the only survivor of the descendants of Kayin whose giants had been introduced to us by the Torah in Genesis 6,2 as בני אלוהים. (Compare author’s comments at the end of Numbers, 21,34 and this Editor’s translation.)

ההוא יקרא ארץ רפאים, “the land called ‘the land of the Rephaim,’” i.e. the land G’d allocated to Avraham.

ואצו אתכם בעת ההיא, ”I commanded you at that time, etc.” Moses was now speaking to the tribes of Gad and Reuven. Seeing that they were part of the people of Israel, Moses used the pronoun אתכם, “you,” as if his commandment applied to all the tribes. Actually, it would have been less misleading if he had used the pronoun אותם, “them.” (compare Ibn Ezra). We find something similar at the end of the Torah where Moses “officially” addresses the Levites (Deut. 31,25-27) commencing with “Moses comman-ded the Levites ... to take the Torah scroll and to place it at the side of the Ark; “I have known your rebelliousness and stiff neck, etc.” Although Moses is reported as speaking to the Levites, he addresses the whole people. [The Levites most certainly did not have an exclusive on being rebellious, rather the reverse. Ed,]

עיניך הרואות את כל אשר עשה ה' אלו-היכם לשני המלכים האלה, כן יעשה ה' לכל הממלכות, “your eyes who have witnessed all that the Lord your G’d has done to these two kings, thus will the Lord do to all the kingdoms.” Moses reinforced the people’s confidence regarding the battles ahead by recalling to them what they had themselves experienced in the war against Sichon and Og. This would give them the necessary faith in G’d that they would easily overcome the 31 kings who would be defeated before the Israelites under the leadership of Joshua. Also Joshua’s heart was strengthened by these reminders of Moses that it would be he who would enter the land that Moses himself had not been allowed to enter.

A Midrashic approach (Midrash Tehillim 136) Sichon and Og were more difficult to overcome than Pharaoh and his armies at the time. Seeing that the people had celebrated their victory over Pharaoh by reciting a song of thanksgiving to the Lord, they should most certainly have done so also after their victories over Sichon and Og. Since they failed to do so, David made up for this omission in psalm 136, 17-20: “Who struck down great kings, His steadfast love is eternal; Sichon, king of the Emorites, Og king of Bashan, and gave their land as an heritage to His servant Israel for His love is eternal.”

מלוה ה' חונן דל וגמולו ישלם לו, “G’d is a lender to him who is gracious to the poor; He will recompense him.” (Proverbs 19,17)

In this verse Solomon explained to us the usefulness (on a functional level) of practicing charity and the great reward in store for performance of this commandment both in this life and in the world to come. It is a well known fact that the eyes of the wealthy person are turned inwards towards his wealth or to the many people whom he believes to be his friends. Solomon himself said in Proverbs 14,20 that the rich have many friends. The poor on the other hand, has no one to focus his eyes on except Hashem. He cannot rely on his personal wealth, seeing he does not have any. He cannot turn to his friends either, seeing that the poor do not have many friends. Even if he had friends from before he became poor, they will likely abandon him as they do not want to be associated with “a loser,” a person whom they now perceive as a failure. Solomon already taught us this piece of human psychology in Proverbs 19,7: where he said: “all the brothers of a poor man hate him; how much more is he shunned by his one time friends. He pursues them with words but they are not to be found.” In verse 4 of that same chapter Solomon had already said that a poor man finds himself separated from his friend. Solomon means that even if he had one solitary friend left, this one too soon turns his back on him. Seeing the poor is shunned by his peers, G’d loves him instead. This point is made succinctly in Isaiah 14,32: “in it (Zion) the needy of His people shall find shelter.” Seeing that the Jewish people (Zion) act as lenders to Hashem in supporting the poor when they perform charity, Hashem in turn is indebted to them and has to repay them both in this life and in the hereafter. It is not the custom for the Book of Proverbs to mention commandments explicitly written in the Torah unless a new dimension of that commandment is added to our understanding of it thereby. When Solomon speaks about חונן דל instead of מרחם, in Proverbs 19,17 “granting grace to the poor, instead of extending mercy to the poor,” the reason is that the word חונן suggests חינם, extending help for free, without demanding any sort of recompense from the recipient. Even when the recipient did not have a claim on such largesse, G’d extends it “without strings attached.” He had explained this as being one of His attributes when He told Moses at Mount Sinai וחנותי את אשר ארחם, “I reserve the right to extend My grace to whomsoever I will extend My mercy” (Exodus 33,19). We are commanded to emulate this attribute of Hashem when the Torah writes in Deut. 28,9: והלכת בדרכיו, “you shall walk in His ways,” i.e. just as G’d extends His mercy not asking for anything in return, we too must relate to the poor without asking anything in return. When someone practices this commandment and he makes certain requests from Hashem in the course of his prayer, his prayer will be favorably received. We have proof of this In Psalms 30,9 where David says: “I called to You my Lord, to my Lord I made appeal.” The repetition is an explanation of why David thinks he has a right to make such an appeal. Moses did something similar in the first verse of our portion when he describes himself as having pleaded with G’d, i.e. ואתחנן. He was busy for 40 days and 40 nights praying and none of his prayers was responded to positively until he used the תחנה prayer.

ואתחנן אל ה' בעת ההיא לאמור, “I pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying:” the words בעת ההיא, “at that time,” refer to the aftermath of the defeat of Sichon and Og, whose lands were given to the Israelites. At that time Moses had dared hope that maybe the decree that he would not be allowed to enter the Holy Land had been canceled. This verse is a continuation of verse 21 when the Torah mentioned ”these two kings.”

לאמור, “to say.” This expression is strange as who was G’d to say this to? The fact is that the word לאמור here refers to the movement of the lips of Moses during prayer. We have encountered a similar construction in Numbers 12 13: ויצעק משה אל ה' לאמור, “Moses cried out to Hashem saying.” On that occasion I already commented on the meaning of the word לאמור at that juncture.

A Midrashic approach to the words ואתחנן אל ה' בעת ההיא לאמור; Moses said to G’d: “You have called me ‘servant,’ seeing You have said to Miriam and Aaron: “not so My servant Moses” (Numbers 12,7). I am Your servant and Leviathan is Your servant. I am pleading with You and Leviathan is pleading with You. We know that Leviathan is pleading with You from Job 40,27: “Will he plead with you at length? Will he speak soft words to you?” You have accepted the pleadings of Leviathan [why else would Job be unable to catch the Leviathan unless G’d had responded to its pleas? Ed.] Moses continues: “Leviathan apparently has made a covenant with You to remain Your lifelong slave.” Moses argued that seeing G’d had also said to him that He had made a covenant with him (Exodus 34,10) why should G’d listen any less to his entreaty than to that of the Leviathan?” Moses added that apparently G’d did not mean to keep this covenant with him else why did He tell him that he would die on the mountain he would ascend (Deut. 32,3)? There is another verse in Exodus 21,6 that if the slave does not want to leave the master and go free that he will have his ear pierced and serve the master forever? Moses claimed this right for himself in his prayer. He complained that G’d did not apply that rule to him. G’d answered him: רב לך, meaning: “as far as you are concerned Your adversary, i.e. Adam, the first human being, already caused the decree that you or any human being cannot live forever seeing he had eaten from the tree and he and his descendants have been condemned to become mortal. The very Job whom you have cited as discussing the fate of Leviathan already said (Job 31,35) concerning Adam: ‘O that I had someone to give me a hearing; O that Shaddai would reply to my writ; or my accuser draw up a true bill!’” Which was the book he talked about? The ספר תולדות אדם, the Book of the descendants of man (Genesis 5,1). Thus far the Midrash.

אדוני אלו-הים אתה החילות להראות את עבדך את גדלך...אעברה נא ואראה, “My Lord, G’d You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness...please let me cross so that I may see, etc.” There are a number of puzzling points in this entreaty by the foremost prophet that ever lived. How does the fact that G’d showed Moses some of His greatness relate to his desire or entitlement to cross the river Jordan into Eretz Yisrael?

According to the plain meaning of the text the words: “You have begun,” refer to the giving of the Torah, the performance of which is man’s purpose on this earth. This was the reason Moses injected the words את עבדך, “Your servant,” to point out his function on earth to keep the laws of the Torah, [some of which he could most certainly not keep if denied entry into Eretz Yisrael. Ed.] The word את גדלך, “Your greatness,” Moses chose seeing that in connection with the giving of the Torah, the Torah itself spoke about את כבודו וגדלו, “G’d’s having manifested Himself in His glory and greatness” on that occasion (Deut. 5,21). The words את ידך החזקה are also a reference to what occurred on that occasion at Mount Sinai as we know from that same verse where the Torah writes: ואת קולו שמענו מתוך האש as well as 4,36: מן השמים השמיעך את קולו ליסרך ועל הארץ הראך את אשו הגדולה אשר יעשה כמעשיך; all these quotations of G’d’s attributes Moses mentioned, the Torah had mentioned in connection with the revelation at Mount Sinai. The word מעשיך refers to G’d manifesting Himself in the heavens, the word גבורותיך, to G’d manifesting Himself on earth. This is the reason that Moses addressed two attributes of G’d at the beginning of his plea when he said “Lord-G’d.” When G’d commenced the decalogue He introduced Himself as אנכי י-ה-ו-ה- אלוה-יך. You may best understand the sequence of the verses to which Moses referred as follows: “seeing that You G’d have begun to give the Torah through me, and the Torah in the main cannot properly be observed except in the land of Israel, and we have a principle that if someone commences to fulfill a commandment he is given an opportunity to complete it, it follows that I should be allowed to cross the Jordan in order to complete fulfilling the commandment which I began fulfilling when You G’d gave us the land of Sichon under my leadership”. This is the way my great and revered teacher Rabbi Shlomo Aderet explained Moses’ prayer.

It is possible to view Moses’ prayer as a plea to allow him to translate into terrestrial reality his spiritual accomplishments in understanding the structure of the emanations. The words אתה החילות להראות are a reference to the enlightenment in these matters he had been granted; by saying אעברה נא ואראה, Moses asks to be allowed to relate all these insights to what needs to be done on earth to bring these two spheres, the celestial and the terrestrial, into tandem. [I have paraphrased this paragraph and condensed it. Ed.].

A Midrashic approach, based on Devarim Rabbah 2,8: the words אתה החילות are a reference by Moses to G’d Who was the first One to refer to the Israelites as rebellious when He said in Numbers 17,25 למשמרת לאות לבני מרי, “as a sign for the rebellious ones,” (the Israelites who had challenged the appointment of Aaron). Seeing that G’d had decreed Moses’ punishment on account of his having addressed the Israelites as שמעו נא המורים, “listen please you rebellious ones,” (Numbers 20,10) and immediately thereafter G’d had decreed that Moses could not enter the land of Israel, Moses now argues that he had been entitled to use this word seeing G’d Himself had already called the Israelites by that adjective.

A kabbalistic approach: with the words ”you have begun to show me Your greatness, etc.,” Moses refers to his first encounter with G’d at the burning bush. When he goes on to describe G’d’s attributes, he means that it had been his privilege to acquaint the Jewish people with these attributes of G’d and His accomplish-ments in his capacity as His prophet. (David uses similar language in Psalms 86,8) Seeing that this has been so, Moses begs to be allowed to see the Holy land with his own eyes. The reason the name of G’d is spelled א-ד-נ-י in his plea here is that Moses alluded to Psalm 114 7-8 in which G’d is called אדון חולי ארץ, in connection with turning the rock into a lake of water. That verse referred to the incident at the rock where Moses had become guilty of this punishment. He now begs forgiveness by alluding to his sin in this indirect way. The word י-ה-ו-ה with the vowels of “elo-him” are an aspect of the attribute of Justice which contains a large measure of the attribute of Mercy. The word ואתחנן is used next to the attribute of Justice by Moses as when one asks forgiveness one does not address the attribute of Mercy but first has to assuage the attribute of Justice. We also learn this from Job 8,5: אם אתה תשחר אל א-ל ואל שדי תחנן, “if you want to pray to the Lord (to forgive your sins) first plead with the attribute Shaddai.”

הארץ הטובה,ההר הטוב, “the good land, the good mountain.” Tanchuma Va-etchanan 1 explains Moses’ words by means of a parable. A king who wanted to marry a certain lady sent some of his trusted messengers to look over the prospective bride. When the messengers returned they reported that the bride was the most ugly woman they had ever seen. A friend of the king who overheard this report by the king’s emissaries upbraided them by saying: “how can you have the nerve to give such a report seeing that the girl in question is extremely beautiful, unmatched in fact!” When it came to the wedding, the father of the bride told the king’s emissaries that none of them would be allowed to participate in the wedding feast seeing they had slandered the bride. When the friend of the king was about to enter the wedding feast the father of the bride told him that he too was not welcome. To this, the friend of the king said: ‘how can you deny me entrance seeing that I have praised your daughter without even having seen her whereas the other messengers of the king described hers as indescribably ugly!’ Now I want to see her to see if perchance the messengers had spoken the truth or if I have been right all along!” This is what happened when Moses prayed to cross the Jordan. As long as the spies who had been sent to evaluate the bride (the land of Canaan) had issued a negative report saying that this land ate up its inhabitants, and Moses had been full of praises to the people of Israel concerning that land, he had done so merely on faith. Now he asked G’d for a chance to see if he had been right all along. This is why he said: “please let me cross the Jordan so that I can see the good land and the good mountain with my own eyes.” ההר הטוב הזה והלבנון, “this good mountain and the Lebanon.” These words are similes for the Temple which “whitewashes,” מלבין, the sins of the Jewish people (Sifri Vaetchanan 28).

ויתעבר ה' בי למענכם, “the Lord was angry at me on your account.” According to the plain meaning of the text G’d became filled with anger on account of your many complaints. We have a similar verse in 4,21 where the wording is והתאנף ה' בי על דבריכם, “the Lord was angry at me on account of your words. Moses’ own reaction to some of the Israelites’ complaints was described in similar language, such as in Psalms 106,32: “and Moses suffered on their account.” [His error had been caused by the Israelites’ annoying G’d. Ed.].

A Midrashic approach to these words: The word ויתעבר is basically the same as ויעבור in Exodus 34,6 ויעבור ה' על פניו, “the Lord passed in front of Moses.” Moses refers to the time after the sin of the golden calf when, seeing that G’d had endowed him with greatness on account of the Jewish people and “G’d passed before him,” he pleaded with G’d to forgive his own sin as well, but G'd did not accept his plea.

A kabbalistic approach: the word ויתעבר contains an allusion to the mystical dimension of calculating the lunar calendar. This idea is reinforced by Moses using the word בי instead of the word עמי, “with me.” On other occasions when the word התעבר is used as an expression of G’d’s anger such as in Psalms 89,39 the preposition used is עם, i.e. התעברת עם משיחך, “You were angry with Your anointed.” It is common knowledge that the expression סוד העבור, is chosen as it depicts an element of עברה, זעם, i.e. Divine anger. The mystical dimension of all the orbits, the constant revolutions of celestial bodies which are a feature of this present imperfect universe (עולם הזה), are manifestations of the attribute of Justice. This is also the mystical dimension of Exodus 34,20 that G’d is פוקד עון אבות על בנים, that He remembers and punishes the sons if the sins of their fathers have not been expiated I have alluded to this principle when I discussed that verse and subject. Another meaning of the expression פרשת העבור is that offered in Berachot 29, where Rav Chisda says that even when G’d is angry the needs of a pregnant woman, עוברה, are constantly part of His concern. Moses prayed that G’d should not allow His anger to blot out any other consideration. Some commentators in the Talmud there read instead of באשה עוברה, “at,” or “of” a pregnant woman,” כאשה עוברה “like a pregnant woman.” This error is responsible for these people misunderstanding the Talmud, as they thought G’d’s anger is compared to a pregnant lady. There can be no doubt that the correct text is באשה עוברה. This is also the view of the famous Kabbalist of Gerona, Rav Yitzchak the blind. [Incidentally, his house is the only trace of a Jewish presence ever in Gerona. This editor visited Gerona]. The reason that the science of calculating the time when the moon renews itself month after month is known as סוד העבור is that G’d knows all developments in human history long before they occur as well as the dates on which they will occur, as we know from Isaiah 41,4 קורא הדורות מראש, “He Who announced the generations from the start (of history).” [If the sages who calculate our calendar would err with the date the new moon is to appear and fix our calendar according to their faulty calculations this would cause confusion and play havoc with G’d’s plans seeing He authorized the Jewish sages to determine the calendar. Ed.]. This is why the סוד העבור is also known as כח הדורות, “the force determining human development.” All manifestations of trans-migrations of souls derive from the concept that G’d has foreseen all developments and finds ways of achieving His objectives in spite of man’s freedom of choice. The word עבור is also closely related to the word רבוע, “square, divided into four equal parts,” (same letters differently arranged), an allusion to such transmigrations of souls being limited to a total of four such lives i.e. the original and a maximum of three transmigrations. Another mystical dimension of the word עבור is that such transmigrations do not occur outside, (beyond) the original family of the body the soul lived its original life in [if I understand the author correctly. Ed.]

רב לך אל תוסף, “enough for you; do not carry on.” According to our sages (Sifri Pinchas 135) G’d meant: “what has been reserved for you as reward in the hereafter is sufficient.” The word רב is understood by Sifri in the same sense as Psalms 31,20: “how abundant is the good that You have in store for those who revere You.”

A Midrashic approach by Tanchuma Vaetchanan 6: when G’d said to Moses רב לך אל תוסף, Moses replied: “not only did my mother have to gnash her teeth when she had to throw me in the river, but now she even has to gnash her teeth in death (when I die).” G’d answered that this is the way He had decided in His מחשבה, and this is the way of the world, i.e. everyone has to die. [If I understand this, the Midrash refers to the word אל תוסף, interpreting these words as G’d saying to Moses: “do not add new rules to the way the world is run.” Ed.]

ימה וצפונה ותימנה ומזרחה, “westward, northward, southward and eastward.” We do not find that the Bible describes the four directions of the wind in a uniform manner. Sometimes the Bible commences by mentioning the direction “east,” such as in Job 23,8: הן קדם אהלך ואיננו ואחור ולא אבין לו שמאל בעשותו ולא אחז יעטוף ימין ולא אראה, “but if I go (forward) East — He is not there; and backward (West) — I still do not perceive Him; “on the left hand (North) where He does work — since He is concealed, I do not behold Him; on the right hand (South) He is hidden, and I cannot see Him.” This is the appropriate order in which the directions should be referred to seeing they represent two straight lines, East to West and North to South. The sequence we find in Job also corresponds to the promise G’d made to Yaakov in his dream (Genesis 28,14) “you will spread out West and East, North and South.” On other occasions such as Genesis 13,14, North is mentioned first, such as when G’d said to Avraham: “raise your eyes please and look from the place where you are standing, to the North, to the South, to the East and to the West.” It is possible that the reason that in the case of Yaakov and Moses the reason why the Torah commences by mentioning West first is that the Shechinah which descended with Yaakov to Egypt (Megillah 29) is perceived as being in the West (Baba Batra 25). Here too, Moses addresses the Shechinah in the first instance and mentions תימנה as “southward,” instead of the more customary נגבה. The reason may be that in this way he was able to include one half of the Holy Name, i.e. either י-ה, or ו-ה in each of the four directions he made mention of. Had he said ונגבה, the second י-ה would have been missing. We must remember that Moses had previously exalted G’d by calling Him א-ל אלו-הי הרוחות, “the Lord G’d Who presides over the winds (directions of the earth). The reason why G’d used the words עיניך twice when He responded to Moses’ prayer and why He told him to “raise” his eyes before looking and to physically ascend the summit is because from that location he would be able to behold the four corners of the land with his physical eyes and at the same time understand by means of focusing with his mental eyes on the four-lettered name of Hashem which symbolizes the highest מרכבה, on all directions of the world.

You should appreciate that the four directions of the world, i.e. מזרח, מערב, צפון, דרום, are known by three names each. מזרח, (East) is known as מזרח, קדם or פנים. West is known as either מערב, ים or אחור. South is known as דרום, נגב or ימין. North is known as צפון, אסתן or שמאל. the meaning of these various terms for these directions is as follows: The reason the Hebrew word מזרח means East, is that the sun “shines” זורחת in the morning from the East. The reason it is also called קדם is because it proceeds in a forward direction from the East as it spreads its light over more parts of the globe. It is also called פנים (face) as when G’d created man he made him face East after completing him. His back faced westward, his right side southward, and his left side northward. The name מערב for West, i.e. “mixing,” derives from the fact that the sun sets in the West; it is a time when the shadows merge, become confused and indistinct. It is also called ים as the great Sea, the Mediterranean, is the western boundary of the Holy Land. It is also called אחור, “rear,” seeing its counterpart, East, is also known as קדם, “front.” Incidentally, Onkelos calls the Mediterranean the ים האחרון, “the Sea of the rear,” or “the ים המערבאה, the Sea of the West.” The word אחור, meaning “West” occurs in the verse from Job 23,8-9 we quoted earlier. The South is known as דרום, seeing that at its highest point at midday the sun is high in the sky. The word דרום is a combination of the two words דר רום, “residing on high.” Alternatively, we may view the word as an acrostic of דרך רום from Chabakuk 3,10 רום ידהו נשאת ”lifted up his hands on high.” The reason South is called נגב, is that that direction is very dry, exposed to extreme heat of the sun which spreads out over that region more than on any other. This is what Solomon referred to when he said (Kohelet 1,6) “it travels toward the South and then describes a turn moving northward.” Solomon uses the verb הלך in connection with the sun’s motion while shining, whereas he uses the verb סבב, “turning,” when describing the sun’s motion when out of view of man’s eyes. We have been told by the “scientists” that it happened once that someone living in the South forgot a wooden bowl outside and left it lying outside in the midst of the sun’s rays in the middle of the summer. When he returned to pick it up in the evening he found it completely dried out, shrunk as if it had been burned by the fire. This is why the South is called נגב i.e. ”dried up.” We know this from Judges 1,15 where Calev’s daughter complains to her father that the land she was given was parched, dried out, deprived of water, and she requested sources of water to offset it. The Targum there renders the words ארע דרומא, normally translated as “southern land,” as ימין, the right side, seeing that it is on the right of man as he was when first created, i.e. facing East. It is also possible that the reason for this translation is that the sun always has the south on its right. We have a verse in Daniel 1,5 וימן להם המלך, “the king provided for them.” This is the reason the provisions the Israelites received in the desert from heaven were called מן. The word reflects the fact that it was ready for them on a daily basis, i.e. available like “provisions.” The North is also called צפון because the sun is perceived as “hiding” in that region while invisible to man at night. Furthermore, the northern extremes of the globe are known to be unfit for human habitation. Our sages in Baba Batra 25 interpret Job 26,7 נוטה צפון על תהו to mean that ”He stretches Tzafon over chaos” means that the north wind does not operate there. The word אסתן is not a Biblical term but one coined by our sages occurring as a proverb in Ketuvot 23 and meaning that when someone’s witnesses are in an inaccessible, “hidden” region, how can they be relied on? Rashi understands the word as meaning “north.” The author quotes some sources showing that the north wind is associated with therapeutic qualities, [maybe freezing kills the bacteria. Ed.]. At any rate, this would agree with the tradition that the Israelites did not circumcise their children while in the desert due to the absence of this North wind and its therapeutic effects on wounds. The reason North is also known as שמאל, left, is that when man faces East, as we said, North is always on his left. It may also be due to the fact that it is on “the wrong side” of the sun, i.e. the sun never shining in that direction. The “left,” basically is associated with negative connotations, something inferior. The word, phonetically speaking, is related to סומא, “a blind person.” When we speak about something hidden, the Talmud uses the term סמוי מן העין, “hidden from the eye.” According to a Midrash quoted in Tosafot Baba Batra 25 the reason that David spoke about Adam describing himself as having been created “both forward and backward” (Psalms 92,8), was because he faced forward toward sources of light, whereas his rear faced darkness, an absence of light, i.e. the rear of the sun being perceived as having no light to radiate. His right side, the one always exposed to the light of the sun was called “right,” his left, the northern side, always out of reach of the sun was called שמאל. This is the side with which man does not perform his work.

כי לא תעבור את הירדן הזה, “for you are not going to cross this Jordan.” G’d meant that even Moses’ remains would not cross the river Jordan (Sifri Pinchas 135). This is what Moses had in mind when he said in 4,22: “I am going to die in this land, I will not cross the Jordan.” Seeing that if he were dead he could not cross the Jordan, the last part of the verse means that even his bones would not be put to rest in Eretz Yisrael. If Moses had not previously been informed of this decree, surely he would have commanded Joshua and Eliezer to bring his remains for burial in the Holy Land. Or, he could have commanded the entire Jewish people to see to it that he would be buried in Eretz Yisrael, just as Joseph had done, and just as he must have done seeing he had carried Joseph’s coffin with him all these 40 years in the desert. Yaakov, the last of the patriarchs, one of the supports of the מרכבה, was afforded burial of his entire body in Eretz Yisrael. Joseph only had his bones buried there. Moses, who surpassed both Yaakov and Joseph in his relationship with G’d, did not merit to have any part of his body interred on holy soil. It was G’d’s wish that none of Moses’ body be interred in Eretz Yisrael as a form of respect for the entire generation of Jews who had died in the desert and whose remains had also not been interred in Eretz Yisrael. Also, it was a consolation for all the many hundreds of generations of Jews throughout the Diaspora who died and were buried in exile. The souls of all these people are in G’d’s care pending the resurrection, at which time not only Moses but the vast majority of them will also be resurrected.

ונשב בגיא מול בית פעור, “We stayed on in the valley across from Bet-Peor.” We had already been encamped there, as this was the ראש הפסגה Moses had mentioned in verse 27; seeing this was where the people had committed idolatry and adultery. Moses warns them once again concerning the sin of idolatry in the following paragraph.