הלה' תגמלו זאת, "is it to Hashem that you plan to repay thus?" This is a reference to their becoming corrupt against their father in heaven who had performed so many deeds of loving kindness for them.
Another way of explaining the verse commencing with the word הצור, is that seeing that this was the day on which Moses was going to die, it was up to him, as it is up to any mortal at that stage of his life, to acknowledge God's righteousness and justice in letting him die at that point. He therefore said that all of God's ways are perfect; even death did not represent something perverse or twisted, עקש ופתלתל. He is א-ל אמונה, "a God of faith, etc." Moses meant that all those who in this life do not appear to have been dealt with equitably, will find out after the death of their bodies that that there is an accounting, and that any reward which has not been paid in life on terrestrial earth will be paid then. We have many verses on this subject, to quote but one from Samuel I 26,23: "and the Lord will requite every man for his right conduct and loyalty" (David speaking to King Shaul). Other verses on this subject are found in (
Psalms 89,
38, et al). The words following, i.e. ואין עול, mean that God will not let the sinners get away with their iniquities, even if this was not noticeable while these people were alive on earth. They too will be dealt with after their bodies have died.
The words following this, i.e. צדיק וישר הוא, "He is righteous and straightforward," mean that He manifests righteousness in the world to come, the world after resurrection of the bodies, and He is straightforward in the עולם הבא, the world of disembodied souls awaiting the resurrection.
With these words Moses alluded to a total of four worlds
[in terms of time rather than in terms of space. Ed.] They are: 1) this present terrestrial world of bodies and soul. 2) the world of disembodied souls. 3) the era when souls and bodies are reunited. 4) the period after that. You, the reader, are already aware that all of these four worlds are alluded to in a single verse in Proverbs 6,22: בהתהלכך תנחה אותך, בשכבך תשמר עליך, והקיצות היא תשיחך. "When you walk it will guide you; when you lie down it will protect you; when you are awake it will talk to you." The first three words refer to the present terrestrial world; the next three words refer to the world of the souls; the word "when you awake," refers to the period after the resurrection, whereas the final words היא תשיחך "she will talk to you," refer to the fourth world.
Our verse also contains references to these four different worlds which the soul of the righteous will experience. According to the above-mentioned interpretation it is extremely appropriate that we have the custom to recite this verse (הצור תמים) in the prayer known as צדוק הדין at funerals, or even when we visit the cemeteries. If the father of all prophets saw fit to recite this verse on the day of his own death, it is certainly in place for us to do so also.
Another reason why Moses may have chosen to refer to God as צור on that occasion may have been his own sin when he accused the Jewish people of almost stoning him to death, and when God commanded him (
Exodus 17,
6) "here I will stand before you by the rock in Chorev; you shall strike the צור and water will emerge, etc." It had not been Moses' practice, throughout the Torah, to make reference to this name of God which conveys an image of aggressiveness and overlordship; Moses had always preferred to invoke the names of God which reflect on His attribute of Mercy. There were only two exceptions to this; the first time in the שירה, when he described the attribute י-ה as עזי (
Exodus 15,
2) when he spoke of this manifestation of God against the Egyptians, and the second time when he spoke about the ongoing battle God wages against Amalek where Moses said כי יד על כס י-ה מלחמה לה' בעמלק (
Exodus 17,
16).
When Moses now mentioned the attribute צור, he did so as he wanted to praise God with the same word as he had once sinned against Him. This would correspond to what the sages said in Shemot Rabbah 5,23 that the reason why Moses commenced the song of thanksgiving after the crossing of the Sea of Reeds with the word אז, was to atone for a previous occasion when he had used the word אז, criticizing God for having worsened the fate of the Jewish people from the time he, Moses, had been appointed as their leader (
Exodus 5,
23).
If you will analyse this verse still further you will find in it an allusion to the seven disciplines (emanations) of wisdom. The words תמים פעלו refer to the emanation חסד; the words כי כל דרכיו משפט refer to the emanation גבורה; the words א-ל אמונה refer to the emanation אמת, the "center" of the diagram of emanations. The words ואין עול refer to the emanation נצח; an emanation we know from Samuel I 15,29 וגם נצח ישראל לא ישקר ולא ינחם; the word צדיק refers to the emanation יסוד, seeing the צדיק has been described as the foundation of the universe (its raison d'etre.) The word וישר refers to the emanation מלכות. Moses added the word הוא in order to show that the previous attributes are all to be considered as part of a whole.
שחת לו לא בניו מומם, Nachmanides writes on this that the words are to be understood as "its corruption reflects upon itself, not upon God; because of their blemish they are no longer His children." The word מום, blemish, describes and defines this corruption. It is a similar construction to Leviticus 22,25 כי משחתם בהם מום בם, "for their corruption is in them, a blemish is in them." The reason the Torah here refers to the people of Israel as לא בניו, "not His sons," is precisely because in times when God feels favorably disposed towards them they are described as בניו, "His sons." Seeing that their "father" is צדיק וישר, how can the people of Israel be described a His sons, seeing they are perverse and twisted? Hence the only description which fits them is "לא בניו." This interpretation is correct.
However, seeing the word לא has the tone-sign
tipcha, i.e. it belongs to the words preceding it, so that the words בניו מומם belong together but not to the preceding word לא, it is possible to offer the following interpretation. The words שחת לו לא belong together and mean that the reason the Israelites have become corrupted is because they themselves rebelled against the word of the Lord. We find something similar in Isaiah 42,24: ולא אבו בדרכיו הלוך, "and they did not want to walk in His ways." Whenever Moses wanted to guide them along a certain path, the straightforward path, the true path, they did not want to and responded by saying לא נעשה, "we are not going to do this." In other words, their corruption revealed itself in their constant use of the word לא, "no." Seeing that previously they had been called God's children, (
Deut. 14,
1) בנים אתם לה' אלוהיכם, "You are children to the Lord your God," they have to be described as "not His children" when they act rebelliously. This refusal to accept God's (Moses's) leadership is a major blemish, one which deserves to be characterized as עקש ופתלתל, perverseness and being twisted.
הלה' תגמלו זאת עם נבל, "do you thus requite the Lord, o tiresome people?" The nation that strained themselves when accepting the Torah. The people considered having accepted the Torah as something which made them weary. The word נבל is reminiscent of what Yitro said
(Exodus 18,18) נבל תבול, which Onkelos translates מילאה תלאי, "you will become very weary." In our verse, Onkelos likewise translates עם נבל "they are a people who received the Torah." According to this interpretation these words were meant as a compliment.
[According to Rabbi Chavel, the meaning of Onkelos here is that the people welcomed the Torah by exerting themselves in intense study and performance, so that Moses did not criticize Israel with these words but complimented them.]
Nachmanides writes that נבל is the description of someone who is ungrateful for favors received, whereas someone who performs kind deeds without recompense is called a נדיב, donor. He quotes Isaiah 32,5 לא יקרא עוד לנבל נדיב as proof that a נבל is an ingrate, the opposite of a נדיב, seeing he repays kindness not only with indifference but with evil. This is the reason why Avigail in her conversation with David refers to her own husband (Samuel 25,2) Naval HaCarmeli as: "as his name so is he," i.e. repaying kindness with evil. David had done him great favors protecting his property only to be repaid with insolence. This is also what God had in mind when He instructed Job's companions (
Job 42,
8) to offer sacrifices as atonement for the way they had treated Job. He said: לבלתי עשות עמכם נבלה, "not to treat you vilely; Job was going to pray on their behalf though they had accused him of a variety of wrongdoing. The companions, in defending God's treatment of Job, had described him as deserving the afflictions he had endured. Thus far Nachmanides.
הלוא הוא אביך, "is He then not your father, etc.?" Moses means that God made Israel His possession, bringing them out of nothing into something. Every יש, is by definition the property of the one who brought it into existence. This is also the meaning of Proverbs 8,22: ה' קנני ראשית דרכו, "the Lord acquired me at the beginning of His way." Similarly, God is referred to as owning heaven and earth, seeing He created them (
Genesis 14,
19).
In Bereshit Rabbah 43,5 the word קנך is understood in its normal meaning, i.e. an acquisition from someone else. The Midrash answers the question from whom God could have acquired heaven and earth by saying: "from the raw material they are constructed from." I have referred to this in Genesis 14,19.
God is called "our father," as He created the soul which He blew into Adam in order to make him come alive. Just as the physical father deserves this appellation vis-a-vis the body which he sires, (seeing his sperm is the first input) so God is described as the true and eternal father, who has provided the original input for all life. David also referred to God as his father when he said (
Psalms 27,
10) "for my father and my mother have abandoned me, only the Lord is taking me in." Also the prophet Isaiah speaks of God as father when he said (
Isaiah 63,
16) "surely You are our Father: though Avraham regard us not, and Israel recognize us not, You, O Lord, are our Father from of old, Your name is 'Our Redeemer.'"
You should appreciate that the word ה-ליה-וה is written as two words, i.e. the first letter ה has the vowel patach and the letter ל which follows has a silent sheva instead of a semi vowel, i.e. sheva na, as in לישראל. The reason is that it is humanly impossible to pronounce two successive sheva na. This is why the sages decided to allow the sheva under the letter ל to remain silent so as to enable us to pronounce the sheva na under the letter י [for those for whom it is allowed to pronounce the tetragrammaton. Ed.] Otherwise, part of the Holy Name of God would be "concealed" (if it is incapable of being enunciated). The word is totally strange, there is no parallel for it in the whole Bible. It is also impossible to put the vowel chirik under the letter ל as we do in the word ליהודה, because then too one dot of the correctly spelled and vocalised tetragrammaton would be missing, or "hidden."
You should further realise that this letter ה which is written separately is written in larger script and is one of 22 such letters in the Torah which are written in larger script. (Each letter of the א-ב appears once in larger script in the Torah, compare details in the Encyclopedia Talmudit, 1,191)
A Kabbalistic approach: it is possible to view this letter as alluding to the specially small letter ה in Genesis 2,4. Perhaps Moses wrote the letter ה here large, at the end of the Torah, as opposed to when he wrote it "small" at the beginning, in order to remind us that this is the letter (last letter of the tetragram) with which the Lord created the terrestrial universe. The extra large letter ה at the end of the Torah is an allusion to the extra small letter ה near the beginning (
Genesis 2,
4), to show that the large letter ה at the end provided the extra power needed for the small letter ה to create the universe with. The large letter ה in our verse is symbolic of the repentance of the souls; in other words the ultimate repentance by man made the creation of the universe a wothwhile project for the Lord.
It is an accepted concept that when the Jewish people are full of merits they thereby reinforce the power of the Shechinah, whereas when they accumulate demerits, this power wanes somewhat. Moses asks the people by using the preface ה-לה', "are you going to be responsible by your deeds for reducing the power of the Shechinah, for making God feel that He wasted His time in creating man?"
[freely translated. Ed.] The word זאת describes the attribute of God which would "suffer" through the iniquities committed by a people who are perverse, etc. This is why Moses added: "If only they would have drawn on the source of the attribute חכמה, they would have understood this and prevented it from coming about." They would then have strengthened the attribute זאת instead of weakening it. The whole verse 29 refers to the fact that if the people had displayed the wisdom and intelligence generally attributed to them, they would have contributed to more knowledge all around as a result of which God's image and attribute זאת would have been greatly enhanced. They would have considered the consequences of failing to do so.
The line הלא הוא אביך קנך is read by the Kabbalists as if the word קנך had been vocalised "kinecha," your nest." The first small letter ה in the Torah we referred to is understood to refer to God as the "nest" of the universe, performing a function similar to that which the birds' nests perform for their inhabitants. It is perceived as the foundation of the existence of the birds; where there is no nest, birds cannot develop. Some of these considerations are reflected in the commandment of שלוח הקן, the sending away of the mother bird before emptying her nest of its young. The last letter ה in this verse, i.e. הוא עשך, is a parallel construction to הוא עשנו ולו אנחנו, "He has made us and we are His" (
Psalms 100,
3).
The word ויכוננך, "He has established you firmly," means that God has constructed Israel in such a way that it may be rehabilitated.
A Midrashic approach based on Sifri Haazinu; the word וכוננך means: "a metropolis which contains everything" — It is a people which produces its own priests, prophets, scholars, scientists, scribes, etc. It does not have to rely on outsiders, non-Jews. This is the meaning of Zecharyah 10,4: "from them shall come cornerstones, tent pegs, bows of combat, and every captain shall arise from them." [The prophet speaks of the self-sufficiency of the Kingdom of Yehudah.] Pharaoh had not found anyone amongst all his wise men who could interpret his dream satisfactorily, but he had to turn to Joseph. Nevuchadnezzar did not find an interpreter among all the wise men of Babylon and had to turn to the Jew, Daniel.