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Ascent to this mount of Abarim… and die on this mountain… and be gathered to your people… because you trespassed against Me among the Bnei Yisrael… because you did not sanctify Me among the Bnei Yisrael. (32:49,50,51)

Perhaps Moshe Rabbeinu could have sanctified Hashem more emphatically.  Why, however, is this considered to be a transgression against the Almighty?  Did Moshe’s error constitute such an incursion against Hashem that hundreds of entreaties  and prayers were not sufficient to effect his passage into Eretz Yisrael?  Hashem refused to allow Moshe to enter the land, neither as a living being or as a corpse, as an animal or even an inanimate stone!  He could not pardon Moshe’s error!  Moshe’s behavior demanded serious consequences. Why? Horav Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi, Shlita, employs a practical approach to explaining this anomaly.  Heads of state…

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I put to death and I bring life; I struck down and I will heal. (32:39)

Hashem is the only source of healing.  He strikes down, and He heals.  Horav Yechezkel Abramski, zl, raised and addressed a pertinent question regarding the brachah of “Refaenu” which we recite in Shemonah Esrai.  We say, “Heal us, Hashem – then we will be healed.  Save us – then we will be saved, for You are our praise.”  Why do we add the words, “For You are our praise“?  Why is this the only brachah in which we emphasize Hashem’s unique involvement?  Horav Abramski commented that in the field of medicine, one has the opportunity to attribute his recovery to…

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Hashem will see and be provoked by the anger of His sons and daughters. (32:19)

Simply, the Torah is telling us that Hashem will be angry as a result of our iniquity.  Horav Nissan Alpert, zl, makes a novel homiletic exposition to the pasuk, implying a valuable lesson.  Hashem sees the iniquity, but that alone does not cause Him to become angry.  After He sees how His children, Klal Yisrael, act when they do not get their own way, when they do not get their hearts desires, He is provoked to anger.  It is one thing to make demands, to entreat Hashem for favors and hope that they are fulfilled.  How do we have the…

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Remember the days of yore, understand the years of generation after generation. Ask your fathers and they will tell you… when the Supreme One gave the nations their inheritance… He set the borders of the peoples according to the numbers of the Bnei Yisrael. (32:7,8)

In recounting Jewish history, Moshe notes that after the Mabul, flood, surviving generations attempted to build the Tower of Bavel.  Hashem scattered them, dividing them into seventy nations. Each nation had its own distinct language, corresponding to the number of Bnei Yisrael, the seventy members of Yaakov Avinu’s family who later went down to Egypt.  The Shem M’Shmuel remarks that the correspondence between the seventy souls in Yaakov’s family and the seventy nations of the world is significant in Jewish thought.  Although today there are certainly more than seventy nations, after the Mabul initially seventy nations emerged.  Likewise, when Yaakov’s…

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May my teaching drop like the rain, may my utterance flow like the dew. (32:2)

The Zohar Ha’Kadosh tells us that the “rain” is an analogy for Torah She’Biksav, the Written Law, and the “dew” represents Torah She’Baal’Peh, the Oral Law.  Just as the former is celestial in nature, the latter is earthly and mundane in nature.  We infer from this statement that the Written Torah contains principles and laws from a pure, Heavenly point of view, while the Oral Torah emphasizes rules and regulations from the perspective of earthly society. The commentators emphasize the various differences between dew and rain, suggesting their parallel to Torah study.  Horav Eli Munk, zl, observes that while raindrops…

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