Adapted from a shiur given by the Tolner Rebbe shlita, Devarim 5779
לע"נ האשה החשובה מרת אסתר בת הרה"ח ר' זאב ע"ה נלב"ע י"ד סיון תשפ"ה נתרם ע"י בנה ידידינו הנגיד הנכבד רבי זאב מאשקאוויטש שליט"א
. וּבַדָּבָּר הַזֶּה אֵינְכֶּם מַאֲמִינִם בַיהֹוָּה אֱלֹהֵיכֶּם —Yet in this matter you do not believe in Hashem, your God. Rashi explains: In this matter-- that He promises you to bring you to the land, you do not believe in Him.
The question arises: Rashi is commenting on the words, In this matter, so why does he conclude his comments with the apparently unnecessary words, “You do not believe in Him?” Even if there is some necessity for concluding with the lack of belief, all that would be necessary would be “In this matter-- that He promises you to bring you to the land, you do not believe.” Why the addition of “in him?”
Q1
Believers Sons of Believers
More fundamentally: The generation of the wilderness was the dor deah, the generation of knowledge; they were the generation that received the Torah, the greatest miracles, the splitting of the sea and the constant miracles in the wilderness. Could it be said about them, “you did not believe...?” Furthermore, the Gemara tells us that when Mosheh said to Hashem, But they will not believe me, Hashem said that they were “believers sons of believers.” Yet here, Mosheh explicitly tells them, you do not believe in Hashem!
Q2
You Too Shall Not Come There
Another difficult point in this parshah is several pesukim after our possuk: With me, as well, Hashem became angry because of you, saying, “You, too, shall not come there.” The obvious question is that Mosheh was punished for another story – the waters of dispute – as explicitly stated, and this was forty years earlier. Still Rashi does not even relate to the question.
Q3
I Shall Set it For You a Crying for Generations
Each year, we read this Parshah right before Tishah B’av. The Gemara teaches us the connection between the spies and the Tishah B’av destructions, saying that in the possuk, The entire assembly raised up and issued its voice; the people wept that night, “that night” refers to the night of Tishah B’Av. The Gemara continues with the words of Hashem as it were: You cried an unnecessary cry, and I shall set it as a cry for generations – and thus, Tishah B’av for all generations. Since we were also commanded to serve Hashem with joy, how do we mourn for Tishah B’av while still serving Hashem with joy?
