Tiferes Yehonasan - 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 Malachei Hashareis do not agree to the concept of Teshuva. (The Shlah Hakodosh explains that Teshuva is only for Klal Yisroel, and the Malachim cannot do Teshuva). Thus, at this point in time, when Klal Yisroel had not yet done the Chet Ha’eigel, Moshe was fine with a Malach escorting them. However, later, after Klal Yisroel did sin with the Eigel, the Malachim did not agree with Teshuva, and that is what Klal Yisroel needed, and that is why Moshe Rabbeinu beseeched Hakodosh Boruch Hu that He Himself should come and not a Malach, because the Malach would come as a prosecutor, and not a defender.
