“Go up to this mountain of Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and see the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Children of Israel as an inheritance. For you will see the land from afar, but you shall not enter there, into the land that I am giving to the Children of Israel."
At the end of Parashat Haazinu, which this year is read between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, God informs His faithful servant that the decree has been definitively sealed: he will not enter the Land of Israel. Although Moses spent his entire life sanctifying God's Name in the world, on the eve of Israel's entry into the Land, he missed the opportunity to sanctify God's Name among the Children of Israel on an even higher level, through sanctifying the power of speech. Alternatively, because he used the expression, “Listen now, you rebels," when addressing the holy flock of Israel, neither repentance, nor a plea for divine mercy, nor any of his 515 prayers could overturn the decree against Moses.
It is difficult to understand: How could the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, which helped Moses save the entire people of Israel from destruction, not help him save himself from being barred from entering the Land of Israel? How could the Thirteen Attributes not help the man whom the Creator called a “faithful servant" when he stood before Him at Mount Sinai? If the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy were revealed to Moses as a means by which mercy could be aroused even after a decree had been issued, why did they help him save all of Israel from destruction, while when he pleaded on his own behalf to enter the Land, God told him, “It is enough for you; do not speak to Me further about this matter"?
The question becomes even more striking when we consider that throughout Parashat Haazinu, Moses warns the Children of Israel against idolatry, against the very sin they committed with the Golden Calf, a sin for which the recitation of the Thirteen Attributes saved them from destruction. “And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed," , a special prayer that brought down the Attribute of Mercy, whether it was said by God Himself or by Moses. Either way, it has no equal.
Regarding this verse, Rabbi Yohanan said: Were it not written explicitly in Scripture, it would be impossible to say such a thing. This teaches that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, wrapped Himself like a cantor and showed Moses the order of prayer. He said to him: Whenever Israel sins, let them perform this order before Me, and I will forgive them. “The Lord, the Lord", I am He before a person sins, and I am He after a person sins and repents. “God, merciful and gracious", Rav Yehuda said: A covenant has been made concerning the Thirteen Attributes that they will never return empty-handed [when Israel mentions them in its prayers during a fast, they do not return empty-handed, according to Rashi], as it is stated: “Behold, I am making a covenant." [Rosh Hashanah 17b]
And what is the order? “The Lord, the Lord, God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in kindness and truth; preserving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin, and cleansing." These Thirteen Attributes open the gates of mercy.
In other words, God reveals to Moses an “order of prayer" through which the Attribute of Mercy can be aroused even after a sin has been committed. Indeed, when Israel sinned in the episode of the spies, Moses used precisely this language of the Thirteen Attributes: “And now, let the power of the Lord be great, as You have spoken, saying: ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in kindness. Forgive, please, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your kindness." This is why our Sages established that during fasts, such as the Fast of Gedaliah observed this week, as well as in the various Selichot prayers and the Ne'ilah prayer on Yom Kippur, we arouse divine mercy by reciting the Thirteen Attributes no fewer than seven times, just as Moses recited them.
Why, then, did Moses himself not merit forgiveness and pardon? It seems that the decisive difference is that Moses did not ask for the punishment itself to be abolished, but rather for the severity of the punishment to be reduced, the destruction of Israel. They deserved punishment, but certainly not destruction, because if they were to be annihilated, this would not constitute a sanctification of God's Name; rather, it would bring about a terrible desecration of God's Name. The very missed opportunity to sanctify God's Name that was attributed to Moses became the argument for why God could not destroy His people. Moreover, such destruction could itself cause a terrible desecration of God's Name.
As Moses said: “And Moses entreated the Lord his God and said: Why, O Lord, should Your anger burn against Your people whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say: ‘He brought them out with evil intent, to kill them in the mountains and annihilate them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce anger and relent concerning the evil against Your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Yourself and said to them: ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of the heavens, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’" Moses presented two arguments: one was the desecration of God's Name, and the other was the failure to fulfill God's promise to the forefathers.
Indeed, “And the Lord relented concerning the evil that He had said He would do to His people." Yet there is something shared by God's response to Israel and His response to Moses. In both cases, there was a partial mitigation of the punishment. Regarding the sin of the Golden Calf, it says: “And now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you; behold, My angel shall go before you, and on the day that I make an accounting, I will bring their sin upon them." From that point onward, it would no longer be God Himself who would go before the camp of Israel, but an angel. Moreover, the Gemara in Sanhedrin [102a] says: “Now I have heard you concerning not destroying them completely." Yet whenever I call their sins to account, I will also reckon with them for a little of this sin, together with their other sins. There is no punishment that comes upon Israel in which there is not some partial repayment for the sin of the Golden Calf.
With regard to Moses, our Sages state explicitly: “The decree against him was sealed," and therefore he would not enter the Land. In an especially powerful passage in Deuteronomy Rabbah , it says that Moses prayed and prayed until the heavens and earth trembled. What did the Holy One, Blessed Be He, do? He proclaimed at every gate of every heaven and at every court of judgment that Moses' prayer should not be accepted or brought before Him, because the decree against him had been sealed. According to the Midrash, Moses prayed 515 prayers on his own behalf, corresponding to the numerical value of the word Va'etchanan (“I pleaded"). But with regard to Israel, the Thirteen Attributes were intended to serve as a path of mercy after their sin. With Moses, however, there was already a personal decree that had been sealed. Nevertheless, as noted, there was still a certain mitigation of the punishment. In God's response to Moses, He says: “Do not speak to Me further about this matter," and immediately afterward God tells him: “Go up to the summit of the mountain." And in our portion: “Go up to this mountain of Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and see the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Children of Israel as an inheritance." Entering the Land, no. Seeing it, yes.
And in the Sifrei on Deuteronomy [section 29], an intriguing reason is given for why God was strict with Moses, even though he certainly mentioned the Thirteen Attributes in all his prayers. It was so that Moses would serve as an example to the judges of Israel for generations to come. “You are an example to the judges, who will say: If Moses, a great sage, was not shown favoritism by God, because he said, ‘Listen now, you rebels,’ and a decree was issued that he should not enter the Land..." The Sifrei teaches that the fact that Moses was not answered through his status and righteousness, his prayers, or the Thirteen Attributes that he recited is itself part of the message God wished to teach Israel: If even Moses our teacher could not circumvent a judgment that had been issued against him, all the more so an ordinary person cannot distort or circumvent justice. The Sifrei derives this from Moses' words to the Children of Israel: “But the Lord became angry with me because of you and did not listen to me." “Because of you", this happened to me for your sake.
Regarding the partial mitigation of Moses' punishment, allowing him at least to see the Land, the Gemara in Berakhot [32b] says: Rabbi Elazar said: “Great is prayer, more than good deeds, for there is none greater in good deeds than Moses our teacher, and yet he was answered only through prayer," as it is written: “Do not speak to Me further about this matter," and immediately afterward: , , “Go up to the summit of the mountain.", ,
Perhaps we can understand why the Thirteen Attributes worked specifically in Israel's favor, because the “Thirteen Attributes" are not an “automatic mechanism" that cancels every decree. After all, within the very revelation of the Thirteen Attributes it is stated: “and cleansing He does not cleanse," and our Sages interpreted this as: “cleansing" applies to those who repent; “He does not cleanse" applies to those who do not repent. [Shevuot 39a] In other words, mercy operates within a system of justice, repentance, correction, and divine purpose. Therefore, in the episode of the spies, Moses could say: “Forgive, please, the iniquity of this people," and God responds: “I have forgiven according to your word." This does not mean that the generation would enter the Land. On the contrary, the Sages and commentators emphasize that this was forgiveness from destruction, but not cancellation of all the consequences of the sin. The Thirteen Attributes saved Israel from destruction, but they did not abolish the punishment. The generation of the wilderness did not die immediately, nor did it enter the Land.
The Thirteen Attributes of Mercy were not intended to make Moses “exempt from judgment"; they were intended to allow Moses, as the shepherd of Israel, to arouse God's mercy on behalf of Israel. The greatness of Moses is expressed precisely in the fact that he used this power to save the entire nation, while on his own behalf he was ultimately required to accept the judgment. And there is perhaps another fascinating point found in the Midrash: Moses was prepared to have his name erased from the Torah, when he said to God, “If not, erase me from the book that You have written." He was prepared to sacrifice himself for Israel, something he did not say when he pleaded on his own behalf.
At a further level, it seems that we should not be satisfied with simply placing the two situations side by side, Moses praying for Israel and Moses praying for himself. Moses did not merely recite the Thirteen Attributes; he applied the Attribute of Mercy to Israel. “And Moses entreated the Lord his God", Rabbi Isaac says in the Gemara in Berakhot [32a]: “This teaches that he applied the Attribute of Mercy to them." In other words, Moses' action was not merely a request for forgiveness; he succeeded in bringing about a situation in which the Attribute of Mercy was applied to Israel.
God reveals to Moses the path of the administration of mercy, and in the sin of the Golden Calf, Moses uses this power as Israel's advocate. It is no coincidence that in Selichot, before reciting the Thirteen Attributes, we say: “God, King, seated upon a throne of mercy."
Moreover, in the same passage, pay attention to how Moses felt and how he acted as the leader of Israel: He teaches that Moses gave himself over to death on their behalf, as it says: “And if not, erase me from the book that You have written!" In other words, Moses did not merely stand on the sidelines and ask for mercy for Israel, “God, please have mercy upon them." Rather, he placed himself within their fate. This was despite God's desire to destroy Israel and begin anew with Moses: “And I will make you into a great nation."
But Moses, the humblest man upon the face of the earth, responds to God with his characteristic humility: “And what of a throne with three legs, it cannot stand before You in the hour of Your anger; how much more so a throne with one leg!" The three legs are the forefathers. Moses was saying to God: If You destroy Israel and establish a new nation from me, there will be no salvation here. On the contrary, the new nation will lack the merit of the forefathers.
Moses adds: “Moreover, I am ashamed before my forefathers. They will now say: ‘See the leader whom he appointed over them, he sought greatness for himself, but did not seek mercy for them.’" [Berakhot 32a] Moses effectively gives up the extraordinary possibility and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become the father of a new nation. He prefers to remain with Israel, even if that means that he himself will be erased. Therefore he says to God: “And if not, erase me from the book that You have written." “This teaches that he gave himself over to death on their behalf."
By contrast, when Moses prayed on his own behalf, after all 515 prayers, he understood that a decree had gone forth from before God, and he therefore stopped asking. Yet, as noted, he was answered partially. Moses had asked for two things: “Let me cross over, please, and let me see the good Land." In other words: A. “Let me cross over", to enter the Land. B. “And let me see", to see the Land. His request to “cross over" was not granted. But his request to “see" was granted! For God says: “Go up to the summit of the mountain and lift your eyes... and see with your eyes." Prayers do not return empty-handed. This is what the Gemara in Berakhot means when it says: “Great is prayer, more than good deeds, for there is none greater in good deeds than Moses our teacher, and yet he was answered only through prayer."
As stated, the Thirteen Attributes do not mean that every decree can be overturned simply by reciting them. Rather, they open the possibility of mercy within the framework of judgment.
The first time Moses prayed for the people of Israel, “And Moses entreated," Moses was essentially saying: If there is judgment, and God does not apply the Attribute of Mercy to Israel, I am with Israel. If Israel dies, I die as well. In his words: “And if not, erase me from the book that You have written." In the words of our Sages: “He gave himself over to death on their behalf." And indeed, God immediately responds: “This teaches that he applied the Attribute of Mercy to them." In other words, Moses himself became a vessel for the Attribute of Mercy.
The Meiri says: “A person should always increase his prayer and supplication and mention the Thirteen Attributes, and through this he will be answered. Our Sages said, as an expression of emphasis and praise: A covenant has been made concerning the Thirteen Attributes, that they do not return empty-handed." [Meiri, Rosh Hashanah 17b]
The second time Moses prayed on his own behalf, “Va'etchanan," it concerned a personal decree. And regarding this, God says: “It is enough for you; do not speak to Me further about this matter." Beyond what has already been said, there is a Midrash in the Sifrei that answers our question from another angle: Why was Moses not answered despite all his prayers, which certainly included the recitation of the Thirteen Attributes? It offers a different understanding of God's response to Moses in the words “It is enough for you."
Its wording is: “Moses, you have much stored up for you in the World to Come! It is like a person saying to his friend, ‘You have much stored up for you with me; do not embarrass me.’" [Sifrei Deuteronomy, section 29]
The meaning is not necessarily, “Stop asking." Rather, God is telling Moses: You already have immense reward and immense merit awaiting you in the World to Come. Please do not ask Me for this particular thing. Your greatness does not depend upon entering the Land.
May we all receive a good final decree, and may we merit that the Attribute of Mercy rest upon us throughout the coming year for good.
The author is the CEO of Tzifha International Real Estate.