כשחטאו ישראל אמר לו לא כך אמרת לי ארך אפים לצדיקים
What did Moses see?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' This verse follows the enumeration of God's thirteen Attributes. Which of these did he see, that he hastened to bow and worship?
');"><sup>36</sup></span> — R. Hanina b. Gamala<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Var. lec. 'Gamaliel.'
');"><sup>37</sup></span> said: He saw long-suffering [as one of His attributes].<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Ibid. 7.
');"><sup>38</sup></span> The Rabbis say: He saw [His attribute of] truth.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Ibid. 7.
');"><sup>38</sup></span> It has been taught in agreement with the one who holds that 'he saw long-suffering,' viz.,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'For it has been taught.'
');"><sup>39</sup></span> When Moses ascended on high, he found the Holy One, blessed be He, sitting and writing 'long-suffering'. Said he to Him, 'Sovereign of the Universe! Long-suffering to the righteous?' He replied, 'Even' to the wicked.' He urged, 'Let the wicked perish!' 'See now what thou desirest,' was His answer.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' It is an ill-advised request, which thou wilt revoke at a future occasion, viz., at the sin of the Golden Calf. ');"><sup>40</sup></span> 'When Israel sinned,' He said to him, 'didst thou not urge Me, [Let Thy] long-suffering be for the righteous [only]?'
Shenei Luchot HaBerit
There is an interesting comment by Yalkut Shimoni on 11,13 item 863. We note that the word כל is missing when the Torah speaks about our collective observance of its commandments. The Torah writes: והיה אם שמוע תשמעו אל מצותי אשר אנכי מצוה אתכם היום, "It will come to pass when you will surely listen to My commandments which I command to you this day." The Yalkut explains that the wording is designed to forestall our argument that we cannot fulfill all the commandments, that "its measure is longer than the earth" (Job 11,9). We may compare the situation to a king who possesses a deep pit, so deep that no one has probed its exact depth. He tells a member of his staff to hire workers to fill up the pit; he does so. One of the more foolish of the workers takes a look into the pit and asks: "Will I ever finish filling up this hole?" The intelligent worker relates quite differently to the task at hand He is not concerned with the time it may take to complete the task but reasons that, since he is a day laborer and gets paid for the amount of time he puts in, he is happy to have found work which may assure him of a continued livelihood for an indeterminate period. This is what G–d says here to the Jewish people. He tells us not to worry about the immensity of the task but to view ourselves as day laborers and to be happy that we will receive a reward for every day that we keep observing His commandments. Thus far the Yalkut. This Yalkut presents a difficulty. We can understand the comparison offered when we adopt the viewpoint expressed by Rabbi Yochanan in Sanhedrin 111 in connection with Isaiah 5,14: "Sheol has opened wide its gullet and parted its jaw in a measureless gap." Rabbi Yochanan differed from Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish; the latter applied this verse to the consignment to purgatory of people who have omitted only a single statute in their observance. Rabbi Yochanan did not agree that G–d is so demanding and therefore preferred the opposite interpretation, i.e. that observance of a single statute is enough to save a person from being consigned to purgatory. How can we reconcile the view of Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish with that of the Yalkut?
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