בקיאות- א

ספר דברים is משה’s last will and testament. It takes place in the last thirty seven days of משה’s life. It includes:
1. תוכחה
2. משנה תורה
3. Seventy new מצוות
4. Many אזהרות about עבודה זרה

At this point, ב''י had already captured סיחון and עוג.

רש''י א אלה הדברים- ספר דברים opens up with תוכחה. משה mentions all the places that ב''י angered ה'. He ties them up and hints at them.

רמב''ן Before משה starts explaining the תורה, he gives תוכחה. Why?
1. To let us know the חסד that ה' does for us- we sinned, but ה' still acts with such רחמים.
2. The second time you do an עבירה, it’s much worse. רביו יונה sheet- שלמה המלך compares this ענין to a dog- a dog eats terrible things. When he throws them up and eats it again, its that much more disgusting then when he ate it originally. So too, the fool does an עבירה, it’s bad. The next time, it’s that much worse.
3. It pays- there’s something called תשובה. You may think that you did חטאים so you’re not going to go into א''י. Know that it pays- ''כי עמך הסליחה למען תורא''. ה' gives us the opportunity to do תשובה.
''כי בקה ה' צור עולמים''- ה' created worlds with 'י' and 'ה'. עוה''ב was created with a 'י', the smallest letter, to show us that the smallest amount of people get there. עוה''ז was created with 'ה'- it’s very easy to fall out, but ה' created a way for us to get back in. We see from here that תשובה was created with הריאת העולם.
רש''י אל כל ישראל- משה is about to give מוסר to ב''י. He gathered everyone so that no one could say “had I been there I would’ve answered משה”. Anyone who wanted to say anything in their defense could say it now.

The פסוק lists a bunch of different places. They are referring to the different עבירות that ב''י did:
1. מדבר- ב''י complained when they ran out of מצה.
2. ערבה- referring to the חטא that ב''י did בערבות מואב- בעל פעור.
3. מול סוף- different things that ב''י did by the ים סוף.
4. פארן- what they did by the מרגלים.
5. תפל לבן- refers to when ב''י complained about the מן- תפלו על המן שהוא לבן.
6. חצרת-
a. מחלקת קרח
b. מרים got צרעת here and ב''י waited for her. After this, ב''י sent out the מרגלים. They should have learnt from מרים, but they didn’t.
7. די זהב- refers to the חטא העגל.

אוה''ח בעבר הירדן- you are supposed to give someone מוסר when they are in a calm and receptive mode. משה gave מוסר when they were בעבר לירדן because he saw that they were calm and had reached the point where they would listen to מוסר.
רש''י ב אחד עשר יום מחרב- it takes eleven days to get from חרב (הר סיני) to קדש ברנע, but it only took three. ב''י left הר סיני on כ אייר and on כט סיון they sent the מרגלים from קדש ברנע, in מדבר פערן. In between כ אייר and כט סיון- they were in קברות התאוה for thirty days and they also waited for מרים for a week. (40-37-3 = 3 days.) Why did ה' make it only take three days? The שכינה wanted to hurry ב''י into א''י. But because of what you did wrong, you had to wander for forty years.

רש''י ג Why is it a good time to give מוסר right before one dies?
1. You only have to give it once-
2. The person you rebuked doesn’t have to see you again and be embarrassed.
3. The person you rebuke shouldn’t have טעינות.
4. The person who you give מוסר to shouldn’t feel like they have to run away from you and go to someone who’ll have a bad השפעה on them.
We learn this out from יעקב that he didn’t give מוסר until right before he died.

He started giving מוסר on א' שבט.

ד ב''י have already captured סיחון and עוג.

רש''י אחרי הכתו- if משה wouldn’t have given מוסר until right before they went into א''י they would have said that משה didn’t do them any good, all he did was criticize them and he doesn’t have the כח to bring them into א''י. Therefore, he waited until סיחון and עוג were captured, then he gave מוסר.

סיחון אשר שב בחשבון- if סיחון wasn’t strong but lived in חשבון, it would have been hard to capture them because the place was hard. If סיחון had lived somewhere else, it would have been hard to capture them because the king is hard. Here, there was a hard king in a hard place.

רש''י ה הואיל- it means החתיל.
The תורה was written over in seventy languages. No matter where you are in גלות, the תורה comes with you.

רש''י ו רב לכם שבת- פשט: you spent enough time. דרש: you accomplished a lot by living on this mountain- הר סיני.

רש''י ח באו ורשו- it wouldn’t have been a כבוש if not for the מרגלים. They would have just gone in and taken א''י- there would have been no need for war.

יא He’s giving ב''י a ברכה that ה' should times them by one thousand.

רש''י אלף פעמים- ב''י told משה that he’s limiting their ברכה that ה' promised א''א that they are going to be so many that you won’t be able to count them. משה said, I’m giving you my ברכה and ה' is giving you His. So why do they need משה’s ברכה? ה'’s has strings attached- you must do what He wants, but משה’s ברכה comes regardless.

רש''י יב טרכחם- this teaches us that ב''י were a טורח- they kept משה busy. If they saw that their friend was losing in דין, they would bring in more עדים, therefore judges were added.

ומשאכם- they were אפיקורסים. If משה came out of his tent early, they said that he had no שלום בית and if he came out of his tent late, they said that he was plotting against them.

וריבכם- they were kvetches.

רש''י יג אנשים- צדיקים.

חכמים- כסופים-
1. חתם סופר- they have a striving to be good.
2. ש''ח- חמודים- speak clearly.
3. חכם עיניו בראשו.

נבונים- מבין דבר מתוך דבר. What is the difference between a חכם and a נבון? A חכם can be compared to a banker- he sits by the table and checks money, but only if people bring him money. Otherwise, he has no work. A נבון is like a merchant- if no one comes to him, he takes what he has and goes further with it.

רש''י יד ותענו אותי... - ב''י were happy with this idea. But they should have been disappointed. They should have wanted to learn from משה, who had צער on the תורה. They were happy that they had שרים because they thought that since they didn’t know them, they could bribe them.

רש'י יז כקטן וכגדול תשמעון-
1. If a judge has two monetary cases before him, he may feel that he should deal with the bigger one first- they should both be equally important.
2. If you have a poor man and a rich man, you shouldn’t make the poor man win so that he can get פרנסה.
3. If the rich man losses, and it’s only a small amount of money, the judge may tell everyone that he won so that he isn’t embarrassed and afterwards tell him privately that he owes the poor man money. He can not do this- everything you do must be done openly.

לא תגרו מפני איש- don’t be afraid of anyone. If you are a judge and you take from someone not בדין, you are making it that ה' has to go and pay it back.

רמב''ן כי המשפט לאלוקים הוא- when you are judging, don’t judge for man, judge for ה' and He will be with you- you’re working for Him. ה' wants that there should be משפט in this world, and He put you to do it in His place.

רש''י תקרבון אלי- because he said these גאווהדיקwords, he didn’t know how to judge by בנות צלפחד and he had to ask ה'.

רש''י יט המדבר הגדול והנורא- there were snakes so large and thick like beams and the scorpions were like bows.

ספורנו ונלך את כל המדבר הגדול והנורא- this was a journey that no one would make because there were big snakes and scorpions. ה' did all of this to shorten the way so that they could get to א''י quickly, before they would be חוטא. It didn’t help though.

רש''י כב ותקריבון אלי כלכם- they came בערבובי'. This was in contrast to הר סיני, where they came in an orderly fashion- this was the correct way.

וישבו אתנו דבר- in the language that they spoke. Knowing the language helps psychologically.

רש''י כג וייטב בעיני הדבר- it was good in his eyes, but not in their eyes. If it was good in his eyes, why is he giving them מוסר? משל- when you are buying a car, you ask many questions. If the dealer answers with confidence, you know that you can trust him. נמשל- ב''י should have had אמונה in משה. If he thought that א''י was good, they should have trusted him and not sent people to go check it out.

רש''י כה ויאמרו טובה הארץ- יהושע and כלב both said that it was good.

רמב''ן ויאמרו טובה הארץ אשר ה' אלוקינו נתן לנו- they all said that the land is good, but there are scary people in it. Then, משה left. Ten of the מרגלם went to כלל ישראל’s tents and said that it’s an ארץ אוכלת יושבי' because they were scared of the giants. They had to wait for משה to leave because otherwise he would have said that originally you said that it was fantastic!

לז משה said that because of the חטא המרגלים, he couldn’t go into א''י. But ה' said that he couldn’t go in because of מי מריבה, so why does it say hear that it’s because of the מרגלים?

כלי יקר If ב''י would have had אמונה and not sent out the מרגלים, there would have been no חטא המרגלים- the source of the חטא was the lack of אמונה. Who was responsible for this? משה because he was not מאמין them- he didn’t make them believe. Why? Because he didn’t make a קדוש ה' by מי מריבה. ב''י’s חטא, which stemmed from the חוסר אמונה is an indication of משה’s חטא, therefore he couldn’t go into א''י.

רש''י מד כאשר תעשינה דבורה- just like when a bee stings it immediately dies, so too the אמוראים- the minute they touched ב''י, they died- ה' punished them.