וירא ראשית לו, "He saw the first (portion) claiming it for himself." According to the plain meaning of the text the tribe of Gad requested the lands of Sichon and Og which were the first part of the land of Canaan to be conquered.
The words: "for that is where the lawgiver's plot (grave) is hidden," refer to Moses' grave. The word מחוקק, usually translated as "lawgiver," may mean "an outstanding person," such as in Judges 5,9 in Devorah's song where she speaks of לבי לחוקקי ישראל, "my heart goes out to the rulers of Israel." [I suppose the author considers the term "lawgiver" inappropriate once the Torah had been given. Ed.] The reason Moses speaks of ספון, "hidden," is an allusion to the fact that the exact site of his grave would remain concealed forever. The word is used in such a sense in Jeremiah 22,14 as well as in Chagai 1,4 where it means "roofed," "covered." Moses probably also did not want to use the word קבור, "buried," as this has a ring of finality about it, whereas he considered his grave as a temporary parking place for his body pending the resurrection. He realized that the decree that he had to be buried outside the borders of Eretz Yisrael proper was in order to facilitate the resurrection of the generation of Israelites who had died outside the boundaries of the land of Israel under his leadership and whose resurrection would be due only to his personal merit (Tanchuma Chukat,10).
ויתא ראשי עם, "he came at the head of the nation;" a reference to the two and a half tribes who formed the vanguard of the army of conquest under the leadership of Joshua.
צדקת ה' עשה, "he carried out God's judgments;" by honouring his verbal undertakings to Moses the tribe of Gad carried out God's judgment. He (and the tribe of Reuven and half the tribe of Menasheh) had vowed not to return home until all the tribes had received their heritage.
A Midrashic approach based on Bereshit Rabbah 1,6: The words וירא ראשית לו, are an allusion to the tradition that the universe was created due to the merit of Moses who has been described as ראשית in our verse here.
A kabbalistic approach: the words וירא ראשית לו in our verse may be understood as part of the previous line speaking about God expanding the territory of Gad. [The reference is to expansion of intellectual horizons. Ed.] The whole verse commencing with ברוך מרחיב גד may thus be understood as וירא מרחיב גד ראשית לו, "the One Who expands (the territory of) Gad saw that the one called ראשית was His." The message is: "when the Lord looked at the emanation חכמה, which is the topmost of the operative emanations, in order to begin creating the universe [ראשית and חכמה are thus equated. Ed.], He foresaw that the burial plot of the one called מחוקק (Moses) was hidden in the portion of land allocated to the tribe of Gad, seeing Moses was so integrally part of the emanation ראשית. [Clearly the word ראשית here must be understood on two levels, both in terms of time and in terms of wisdom. Ed.] He (God) decided then to radiate the attributes known as ראשי עם from there. In order to better understand this, refer to Psalms 24,7: שאו שערים ראשיכם, where the word ראש, ראשית, is used in a similar meaning. [The word ראשיכם clearly is a concept only, seeing gates do not have heads. Solomon (the author of that psalm who found that he could not bring the Holy Ark into the newly constructed Temple) prayed for an expansion of his perceptive powers. Ed.]
The words צדקת ה' עשה ומשפטיו עם ישראל refer to the emanations תפארת and כבוד which emanate from there. This is all very clear (author's words). [It is not clear to me at all, but I suspect that the message is that seeing all abstract mystical concepts must have a place on earth from which they are made accessible to man, the author tells us that seeing Moses, who represented the emanation wisdom in the most near perfect level attainable by human beings would be buried there, i.e. would be "at home" there, it is natural that 'lower" attributes, emanations, such as תפארת and כבוד, may become accessible through him who had attained the level of a higher emanation i.e. חכמה. Ed.]
The meaning of the Midrash as well as its mystical dimension, i.e. that Moses=ראשית, is based on the fact that he was the only prophet whose prophetic powers were such that he received what our sages call אספקלריא מאירה, "a clear, unblurred vision." This type of prophetic vision is also known as ראשית, the "beginning, the top," seeing that this was the highest level of wisdom Moses had attained. Anyone who prophesies does so from the level of emanation he personally has attained. However, prophesying "from," i.e. "out of" an emanation, does not mean that the prophet has "mastered" the essence of this emanation. This explains why Moses asked for additional perceptive powers when he said to God (
Exodus 33,
18) הראני נא את כבודך, "please show me Your attribute כבוד." This request went unanswered. The reason the Torah does refer to him as מחוקק is because his prophecy was always in the name of the tetragrammaton, God's essence. All the 248 positive commandments were legislated by God in His capacity as Hashem. The numerical value of the letters מחקק =248. The total number of negative commandments is 365, a number reminiscent of God's attribute א-ד-נ-י (which is really 65). The opening letters of Daniel's prayer (
Daniel 9,
19) asking forgiveness for trespasses (transgressions of negative commandments) are ש-ס-ה i.e. 365. Each request is prefaced by use of the attribute א-ד-נ-י. The whole verse there reads אדנ-י שמעה, אדנ-י סלחה, אדנ-י הקשיבה, so that each word separately features this attribute and the three ראשי תיבות spell 365.
I believe that Onkelos may have alluded to this when he translated מחוקק as ספרא רבא, "the great scribe," seeing the source of his prophecy was the great name of the Lord, Hashem.
This association of the name Hashem with the word מחוקק is particularly marked in Isaiah 33,22 כי ה' שופטנו, ה' מחוקקנו, ה' מלכנו, הוא יושיענו. The numerical value of the letters in the word שופטנו=451, which breaks down into 365 (negative command-ments) emanated by the attribute האלוהים =86. 86+365=451. The numerical value of מחוקקנו is 312, composed of 248+the name of Hashem spelled in words instead of letters making 63. By adding the digit 1 representing the word itself we get 248+64=312.
[There probably is significance in the spelling of מחקק without the letter ו here in the Torah, and the spelling with the letter ו in Isaiah. How else could we have arrived at the allusions represented by the numerical values? Ed.] Even though Rashi understands the word מחוקק in Isaiah as מושל, "ruler," rather than as "lawgiver," he himself understands it in as "students, disciples." in Genesis 49,10. I believe that I am correct in my approach. Targum Yonathan (on the verse in Isaiah) also speaks of מחוקק as "the one who gave us אולפנא, 'religious law.'" This is correct as the Torah was given under the aegis of God's Essence, Hashem.
This may be an appropriate point at which to point out a number of things which are all associated with God's "great" name, such as the Holy Temple, for instance. It is pointedly referred to as גדול, in Kings II 25,9: "He (Nevuchadnezzar) burned down the house of the Lord, the house of the King, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and the whole great House he burned by fire." The last words clearly elaborate on what he did to the Temple. The priest serving in that Temple has also been referred to as the "great Priest." The largest river on earth the Euphrates has also been described as "the great river." (
Deut. 1,
7) In Deut. 11,7 the work of the Lord is described as מעשה ה' הגדול. When we respond during the recital of the Kaddish, we use the formula אמן יהא שמיה רבא, "Amen, may the great name be blessed." The Aramaic word רבא is the translation of the word גדול, "great´ in Hebrew. We also speak of שלמא רבא in that same kaddish prayer, referring to the "great peace," i.e. the peace under the aegis of the great name Hashem. The benediction over wine recited on Sabbath morning is known as קדוש רבא as opposed to that on Friday night.
(compare Pesachim 106).
[Perhaps the great name of Hashem is more appropriate for the day than for the night; the night is usually under the aegis of the attribute of Justice. Ed.] The seventh day of Sukkot is known as הושענא רבא, the "great salvation." The prayers on that day which feature the willow branch are addressed to Hashem more so than any other day as the day concludes 26 days from the date God commenced creating the universe on the 25th of Ellul. 26=the numerical value of the tetragrammaton, i.e. י-ה-ו-ה, hence the appellation "great" is very much appropriate for that date. If you will analyse these examples you will discover that there is a common denominator to the adjective "great" which is associated with these days or with these phenomena.