אש אוכלה, “consuming fire.” The meaning is: “like consuming fire.” The reason for the simile is that fire consumes instantly. This is why Moses adds: “you will dispossess them quickly and destroy them.”

לא בצדקתך וביושר לבבך וגו'...כי ברשעת הגוים האלה, “not due to your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart, etc.,...but due to the wickedness of these nations, etc.” This verse causes us to think that if only the Canaanites had been righteous they would not have been dispossessed, would not have been driven out of the land of Canaan. In that event, what would have happened to G’d’s oath to our patriarchs? The situation is as follows: seeing that these nations are wicked they deserve to be exiled from that land. Even if they had been righteous they would not have been allowed to remain in that land seeing the land had been assigned to them only as a פקדון, an object to be held in trust for the real owners. Ever since the time of the patriarchs the “real” owners are their descendants the Jewish people. G’d, however, is able to give these people some other land seeing that the whole earth belongs to Him. This particular land they could not hold on to seeing G’d had already promised it to someone else. Therefore, regardless of the righteousness of the inhabitants of that land they would have to be transferred elsewhere.

ויהי מקץ ארבעים יום וגו'...נתן ה' אלי, “it was at the end of forty days,...that the Lord gave to me the two Tablets of stone, etc.” We learn from this verse that on the very day that Moses received the Tablets the golden calf was made. Previously Moses had mentioned only: “G’d gave to me the two Tablets (verse 10), without mentioning a date. This is why here he repeats the receipt of the Tablets adding the date. This is also what Isaiah 17,11 meant when he said: “on the day that You plant you see it grow...but the branches wither away.” The word תשגשגי used for “growing” by the prophet is related to סיגים, “refuse, garbage.” This was a reference to the sin of the golden calf. Targum Yonathan there also translates Isaiah in that sense.

ואתפוש בשני הלוחות ואשליחם מעל שתי ידי , “I took hold of the two Tablets and threw them from my two hands.” Nachmanides writes that Moses describes that he placed his life in jeopardy smashing G’d’s Tablets for the benefit of the people. He considered it as preferable that the people committed infidelity while not married than to their being married at the time (if they had already received the Tablets).

ואתנפל לפני ה' כראשונה ארבעים יום, “I threw myself down before the Lord as the first time, forty days;” The meaning of the word ואתנפל is that he fell on his face on the ground. Our sages derived from this wording the mode of our prayers which includes three positions, i.e. standing, sitting, and prostrating oneself. Moses mentioned all three of these positions when he referred to his sojourn on Mount Sinai. In verse 9 he referred to “sitting” on the mountain; in Deut. 10,10 he refers to his standing on the mountain, whereas in our verse he mentions prostrating himself.

A Midrashic approach based on Midrash Tehillim 90,1: Rabbi Berechyah said that Moses did not leave a single corner of the celestial regions in which he did not pray for the Jewish people. We derive this from the words ואתנפל לפני ה' כראשונה , “in the presence of the Lord,” i.e. wherever His presence extended.

A kabbalistic approach: The reflexive form ואתנפל means that Moses offered two prayers. During a period of forty days he addressed a prayer to Hashem without informing us of the contents of that prayer. However, his words in verse 18: “because of your entire sin which you committed to do what is evil in the eyes of the Lord to make Him angry,” reveal that the second prayer concerned the fundamental sin committed by the people, a sin equivalent to cutting themselves off from G’d. It was this sin which caused anger to the attribute Hashem, not just to the attribute of Justice. The prayer Moses mentions in verse 26 was addressed to the attribute of Justice seeing Moses describes part of it as his saying: ”ado-nay elo-him,” i.e. (the attribute of Justice) do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance, etc.” This was the same prayer he had mentioned in Exodus 32,11 beginning with the words למה יחרה אפך בעמך, “to what purpose will Your anger be aroused against Your people?”

ובאהרן התאנף ה' מאד להשמידו, “ and against Aaron the Lord was very angry wanting to destroy him.” Our sages in Vayikra Rabbah 10,5 explain that the word להשמיד in this verse refers to the death of Aaron’s children. They base this on Amos 2,9 ואשמיד פריו ממעל ושרשיו מתחת, “I destroyed his boughs above and his roots below.” As a result of Moses’ prayer on behalf of Aaron G’d carried out only half of His plan, allowing two of Aaron’s sons to survive. At any rate, this verse is testimony that Aaron was guilty of a great sin in connection with the golden calf, so much so that the penalty was loss of his children. Having read this, we must surely ask: “seeing that Aaron did whatever he did with the purest intentions, לשם שמים, “for the sake of heaven,” (compare author’s comments on Exodus 32,4) and even the text attributes to him only a deed which was wrong not a faulty intention, why would G’d be so angry at him? The answer is that G’d measures great people by a most severe yardstick, according to Baba Kama 50 even deviating from the straight and narrow by as little as a hair’s breadth becomes a culpable sin. That wording is based on Psalms 50,3 וסביביו נשערה מאד, “and people close around Him will be judged even by a hair.” Even though Aaron’s deed was well intentioned, he personally not having sinned in thought, he became the instrument of the Jewish people not only sinning but desecrating the Lord’s name in public. This is why when Moses confronted him he said to him: “How could you bring such a great sin upon this people?” (Exodus 32,21). We find proof of the fact that Aaron personally had not committed a sin in Deut. 33,8: ”You tested him at the waters of Merivah.” Moses also called Aaron חסיד in that same verse, i.e. he had not been guilty of any personal sin other than not speaking to the rock or reminding Moses that he was supposed to speak to the rock. I will discuss this further when discussing the verse in question in detail.

ולא האמנתם לו, “and you did not believe Him.” This refers to the commandment to trust the Lord in your heart. ולא שמעתם בקולו, “and you did not hearken to His voice.” This refers to the action stemming from belief or non belief, as the case may be.

It is possible that Moses alluded to the attribute Hashem when he said to the people: “you did not believe Him.” This is why he chose an unusual preposition, i.e. לו instead of the preposition ב which is usually associated with matters of אמונה, “faith.” Examples of the use of the preposition ב associated with the word אמונה are Exodus 14,31 ויאמינו בה' ובמשה עבדו, or Numbers 20,12 יען לא האמנתם בי, and numerous others. If the Torah had used this preposition here, there would not have been any need to write afterwards ולא שמעתם בקולו, seeing the word בו would already have referred to “His name,” and the word וקולו implies “His name.” In order to mention G’d’s attribute of Hashem specifically, the Torah first had to write לו when referring to האמנתם. The full meaning of the verse then is: ‘you rebelled against the command of the Lord your G’d and did not believe Him, i.e. the Lord your G’d; neither did you obey the Lord your G’d.”

אדני אלו-הים אל תשחת עמך ונחלתך, “O G’d, attribute of Justice, do not destroy Your people and your inheritance!” We discussed previously that this is a formula for the attribute of Justice. We encountered this already in Deut. 3,24 when Moses introduced his plea אתה החילות להראות with these words. I discussed this formula in connection with Exodus 20,1.

והם עמך ונחלתך, “seeing that they are Your people and Your inheritance.” Moses means that “You” employed these two attributes when You took them out of Egypt. If You do not forgive them, the Egyptians will interpret this as inability on Your part to carry out Your plan. They will retroactively lose all the respect they gained for You as a result of the miracles You performed for the Jewish people.