Pisqa’ 18¹⁴⁰

1. “So I instructed you at that time, explaining all the things that you should do” (Dt. 1:18). This refers to the ten distinctions between property disputes and capital cases.¹⁴¹

footnotes: ¹⁴⁰ H:42; JN1:55. ¹⁴¹ //M. San.4:1.

2. “Then we traveled from Horeb, and crossed all that great and terrifying wasteland” (Dt. 1:19). Regarding people who have seen serpents the size of beams, and scorpions like bows rotting and scattered before them,

**“All that great and terrifying wasteland” (Dt. 1:19).**¹⁴² And doesn’t the matter follow logically? If I vanquished before them monstrous beings, all the more so would I vanquish ordinary people. Thus it is said: “All that great and terrifying wasteland” (Dt. 1:18)— [as an expression of encouragement rather than horror].

footnotes: ¹⁴² Cf. Sifre Nu. 83.