The Tzemach Tzedek in his work ‘Ohr HaTorah’ on the book of Devorim brings down a question from the holy Alshich who asks: “Why did he [Moshe] choose to rebuke them [B’nei Yisroel] with a concealed rebuke and bury it [the rebuke] within hints etc. and if it truly is out of respect for the B’nei Yisroel, what changed thereafter when he [Moshe] was not concerned about their [B’nei Yisroel’s] honour when he said [in the Possuk] מַמְּרִים הֱיִיתֶּם “You have been rebelling” or when he said [in the Possuk] מַקְּצִפִים הֱיִיתֶּם “you provoked”? This is the extent of the [Rabbi Moshe Alshich’s] question.
Furthermore, perhaps, this could be answered since he [Moshe] mentions all the places in which they angered HaShem and one must not explicitly state all of these incidents in one statement as we find in Parshas B’halosecho that one must isolate between punishments and therefore he [Moshe] had to hold back his words and only allude to them in a hint.
However, when analysing this subject more closely one will observe that this is not so similar to that which is discussed in Parshas B’halosecho because over there [Parshas B’halosecho] it concerns the recording of the Parshos of the Torah in the written form whereas here [Parshas Devorim] we are discussing the spoken words of Moshe, and who says Moshe has to rebuke them for all their disobedience in one session so that he should be restricted to only allude to them in a hint, [let him rebuke them one thing at a time, one day at a time] for the duration from Rosh Chodesh Shevat (when Moshe started speaking to the B’nei Yisroel as the Possuk states: אֵלֶּה הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶּר דִבֶּר מֹשֶּה ) until the day on which Moshe passed away on the seventh of Adar he had enough time to rebuke them for each of the mentioned iniquities on its own [day] and intersperse them with other matters, for in this time they [B’nei Yisroel] were told many instructions on Mitzvah performance as is enumerated in the book of Devorim aka ‘Mishneh Torah’.
Therefore, it must be said that the reason why Moshe concealed his words and only alluded to them via a hint out of respect for the honour of the B’nei Yisroel is because that is as much as was necessary to rebuke them by doing so via a hint.
Sometimes a hint is all that is needed, and if all that is needed is a hint then to rebuke them in an overt and public manner would have been too much. Let this be a lesson for us that sometimes one needs to consider whether a full rebuke is necessary or just a reminder. There was a Rosh Yeshivah who just had to give you a certain look and already you knew exactly what you were doing wrong.
