Wednesday, July 28, 2004

VaEtchanan: When Did Moshe Pray?

The first pasuk in this week's parasha, parshat vaEtchanan (Devarim 3:23) reads:
וָאֶתְחַנַּן, אֶל-ה, בָּעֵת הַהִוא, לֵאמֹר.
"And I besought the LORD at that time, saying:"

This beseeching is for the privilege of being to enter the land of Israel and, presumably, to lead the Jews in the conquest of the last.

This is strange because immediately beforehand, in the last psukim of the previous parsha, Moshe appoints Yehoshua. Devarim 3:21-22:

וְאֶת-יְהוֹשׁוּעַ צִוֵּיתִי, בָּעֵת הַהִוא לֵאמֹר: עֵינֶיךָ הָרֹאֹת, אֵת כָּל-אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם לִשְׁנֵי הַמְּלָכִים הָאֵלֶּה--כֵּן-יַעֲשֶׂה ה לְכָל-הַמַּמְלָכוֹת, אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה עֹבֵר שָׁמָּה.
לֹא, תִּירָאוּם: כִּי ה אֱלֹקֵיכֶם, הוּא הַנִּלְחָם לָכֶם.
"And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying: 'Thine eyes have seen all that the LORD your God hath done unto these two kings; so shall the LORD do unto all the kingdoms whither thou goest over.
Ye shall not fear them; for the LORD your God, He it is that fighteth for you.'"

Why command Yehoshua to do this if he hopes to go himself, and why beseech Hashem after appointing Yehoshua? Further, Hashem, after redusing Moshe, tells him to charge and strenghten Yehoshua. Hadn't he already done that in the last psukim of last week's parsha? Devarim 3:28:

וְצַו אֶת-יְהוֹשֻׁעַ, וְחַזְּקֵהוּ וְאַמְּצֵהוּ: כִּי-הוּא יַעֲבֹר, לִפְנֵי הָעָם הַזֶּה, וְהוּא יַנְחִיל אוֹתָם, אֶת-הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר תִּרְאֶה.
"But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see.' "

A little bit of annoying grammar: The first word is וָאֶתְחַנַּן. There is a kametz vowel under the vav, which is slightly unusual. It stems from a patach under the vav - that is, the vav hahipuch, (vav which turns about) which in this instance takes a verb whose form seems future tense (called imperfect) and makes it roughly past tense (called perfect). The usual pattern of this is a vav with a patach under it and a dagesh chazak, a dot, in the next letter, which causes a doubling of the next consonant. Alas, the next consonant is an aleph, which as a gutteral, cannot be doubled. As a result a transformation called tashlum dagesh (recompensing for the dot), or in English "compensatory lengthening" takes place, in which the patach vowel under the vav becomes the longer version of the vowel, namely the kametz.

That accounts for the kametz. The remainder of the word is simply first person reflexive imperfect, which the vav hahipuch makes into first person reflexive perfect.

Which brings us to the question I asked before? Why pray now, after he has already appointed Yehoshua?

This is actually Ibn Ezra's question, and he answers by saying it is not the perfect, but the pluperfect. Both perfect and pluperfect are past tenses, but there is a difference. Consider:

He went to the store.
He had (already) gone to the store.

Both statements happen in the past. However the first just uses past tense and states what happened, while the other is already in the past and refers to something that happened even earlier from that past-tense perspective.

John ran to the store. He had put his wallet in his pocket earlier that morning, so he did not worry about having enough cash. Once he arrived at the store he bought Raisin Bran. His wife Ethel had reminded him to buy it several times in the last week.

In English, the word "had" is used to signal the pluperfect. In Hebrew, perfect and pluperfect have the same form, so you have to distinguish between them by context.

Ibn Ezra says that this first verse of the parsha is the pluperfect, which means that it is to be translated: "And I had besought the LORD at that time, saying:"

That is, before appointing Yehoshua, he had asked Hashem to be permitted to enter eretz yisrael and lead the conquest. Hashem refused, and he then appointed Yehoshua.

One could read it differently, in that Moshe already knew Hashem had said that Moshe would not enter the land. He took the first step of speaking to Yehoshua, commanding him, and then had second thoughts, so he prayed to Hashem to be allowed to lead the Jews into the Promised Land. Hashem refused, and commanded him to reiterate the command and encouragement to Yehoshua - that is, continue as before to create the transition of leadership. I thought of this but discount it - it seems a bit forced, as to why there is a second charge to appoint and encourage Yehoshua.

However, I can suggest another approach, which I do think is pshat, and in fact better pshat than that offered by Ibn Ezra. The key here is the words בָּעֵת הַהִוא - "at that time." The division of parshiot of Devarim and VaEtchanan obscures the pattern, but it is there, if you check out the chapter in mechon mamre.

Pasuk 18 reads:

וָאֲצַו אֶתְכֶם, בָּעֵת הַהִוא לֵאמֹר: ה אֱלֹקֵיכֶם, נָתַן לָכֶם אֶת-הָאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת לְרִשְׁתָּהּ--חֲלוּצִים תַּעַבְרוּ לִפְנֵי אֲחֵיכֶם בְּנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, כָּל-בְּנֵי-חָיִל.
And I commanded you at that time, saying: 'The LORD your God hath given you this land to possess it; ye shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all the men of valour.

and then continues with what Moshe told the Jews.

Pasuk 21 reads:

וְאֶת-יְהוֹשׁוּעַ צִוֵּיתִי, בָּעֵת הַהִוא לֵאמֹר: עֵינֶיךָ הָרֹאֹת, אֵת כָּל-אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם לִשְׁנֵי הַמְּלָכִים הָאֵלֶּה--כֵּן-יַעֲשֶׂה ה לְכָל-הַמַּמְלָכוֹת, אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה עֹבֵר שָׁמָּה
And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying: 'Thine eyes have seen all that the LORD your God hath done unto these two kings; so shall the LORD do unto all the kingdoms whither thou goest over.

and then continues with Moshe's encouragement to Yehoshua.

Pasuk 23 reads:

וָאֶתְחַנַּן, אֶל-ה, בָּעֵת הַהִוא, לֵאמֹר.
"And I besought the LORD at that time, saying:"

and then continues with Moshe's conversation with Hashem: the plea, the refusal, and the command.

I put forth that וָאֶתְחַנַּן is not the pluperfect, but the perfect. In a form of ain mukdam emeuchar batorah, that there is not always an imposition of a chronological ordering in the Torah, here, the style is to look at the same event from three different perspectives. First, what Moshe told the Jews. Then, what Moshe told Yehoshua. Finally, the conversation between Moshe and Hashem. It is ordered topically, by whom Moshe spoke with, rather than chronologically. And to make sure we know that these all happened in the same event, each segment is introduced with בָּעֵת הַהִוא, "at that (same) time."

Finally, a midrash I did not have a chance to track down. In this midrash, Moshe knows he cannot lead the Jews into the land to conquer it, but wants to enter as an ordinary citizen. Hashem says he (Moshe) will not be able to stand it. Moshe thinks he will, but then Hashem speaks to Yehoshua and not Moshe. Moshe asks Yehoshua what Hashem said, to which Yehoshua replies that Moshe did not tell Yehoshua all that Hashem told him. Moshe feels awful and admits that Hashem was correct that he would not be able to stand it.

I saw the above in The Midrash Says on Devarim but never saw it in the original, so I do not know the source. However, I would imagine that the current psukim factor in there strongly. Specifically, Moshe does not ask to lead the Jews but just to see the land. Further, Moshe asks this of Hashem after (before we have Ibn's Ezra's, or my answer) appointing Yehoshua. Perhaps, or actually most probably, Hashem's statement of , רַב-לָךְ--אַל-תּוֹסֶף דַּבֵּר אֵלַי עוֹד, בַּדָּבָר הַזֶּה was taken as it being too much for you, Moshe, to stand, that you will no longer be able to speak to Me as you have in the past, so pass away, and do not become an ordinary citizen. (Update: Further, רַב-לָךְ would mean Yehoshua would be a Rav to you, and you will be the student.) But we see that before Ibn Ezra was bothered with this issue, Chazal had already considered it.


No comments:

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin