23:20 “הנה אנכי שולח מלאך לפניך לשמרך בדרך, ולהביאך אל המקום אשר הכנותי”
“Behold! I send an angel before you to protect you on the way, and to bring you to the other place that I have prepared.” Hakodosh Boruch Hu tells Moshe Rabbeinu that He will send a Malach to escort Klal Yisroel, instead of Himself, and Moshe does not say anything. In Shemos 32:34, Hakodosh Boruch Hu tells Moshe that He will send a Malach to escort Klal Yisroel, and Moshe Rabbeinu pleads with Hakodosh Boruch Hu not to send a Malach – but rather He, Himself, should escort Klal Yisroel. Why over here is Moshe Rabbeinu quiet when Hakodosh Boruch Hu tells him that a Malach will escort Klal Yisroel, while later when he is told that, he pleads with Hakodosh Boruch Hu not to do so? The following Divrei Torah will expound on this topic, and support the P’shat offered in the closing paragraph.
Rashi - 23:20
“הנה אנכי שולח מלאך לפניך לשמרך בדרך, ולהביאך אל המקום אשר הכנותי” – “Behold! I send an angel before you to protect you on the way, and to bring you to the other place that I have prepared.” Here they were informed that they were destined to sin, at the incident of the Eigel – and the Shechinah would then say to them, I will not ascend in your midst.
Rashi – 23:21
“השמר מפניו ושמע בקולו אל תמר בו, כי לא ישא לפשעכם כי שמי בקרבו” – “Beware of him, hearken to his voice, do not disobey him, for he will not forgive your transgression, for My Name is within him.” This is connected to the beginning of the Posuk, “Beware of him” for My Name is associated with him. Our Rabbis said that this is the Malach מטטרון, whose name is like the Name of his Master, in that the Gematria of מטטרון is the same Gematria as ש-ד-י.
Ramban - 23:20
“הנה אנכי שולח מלאך לפניך לשמרך בדרך, ולהביאך אל המקום אשר הכנותי” – “Behold! I send an angel before you to protect you on the way, and to bring you to the other place that I have prepared.” Rashi says that when the Posuk says that Hakodosh Boruch Hu was going to send a Malach to escort them, they were informed that they were destined to sin with the Eigel, and thus Hakodosh Boruch Hu would send a Malach to escort them in place of Himself. However, the Torah tells us that when Moshe Rabbeinu was informed that Hakodosh Boruch Hu would send a Malach to escort them, Moshe Rabbeinu pleaded for mercy, and that Hakodosh Boruch Hu should escort them – not a Malach. The Torah tells us that Hakodosh Boruch hu consented to Moshe Rabbeinu, and He Himself escorted them. If Hakodosh Boruch Hu in fact escorted Klal Yisroel even after the sin of the Eigel, then what is the P’shat here that Rashi is telling us that Hakodosh Boruch Hu was informing them that because of the Chet of the Eigel, a Malach would escort them instead of Hakodosh Boruch Hu? The answer is that only during Moshe Rabbeinu’s lifetime a Malach did not escort Klal Yisroel, but after Moshe Rabbeinu’s passing, Hakodosh Boruch Hu no longer escorted Klal Yisroel, but instead He sent a Malach.
