I implored Hashem at that time, saying... Please let me cross and see the good land that is on the other side of the Jordan... and Hashem said to me, “It is much for you! Do not continue to speak to Me further about this matter. Ascend to the top of the cliff and raise your eyes westward, northward, southward and eastward, and see with your eyes..."
Moshe prayed that he be allowed to ‘cross and see the land’. Hashem replied that although He would not allow Moshe to cross into the land, He would permit him to see it from afar. The Gemara in Brachos (לב ע"ב) gathers the following lesson from Hashem’s acceptance of Moshe’s prayers. R’ Elazar said: Prayer is more effective than good deeds, for you have no one greater in good deeds than Moshe Rabainu, yet nonetheless he was not answered except through prayer, as it says in the Passuk: Do not continue to speak to Me further about this matter, and adjacent to it it says: Ascend to the top of the cliff... and see with your eyes.
The commentaries ask on this Gemara; how can R’ Elazar prove that prayer is more effective than good deeds from that which Moshe was answered only after he prayed, as we can equally justify it by saying that in truth, prayer is just as effective as good deeds, and the reason why Moshe was answered only after he prayed, was because one needs both, prayer and the merit of good deeds, in order to receive Heavenly deliverance? Furthermore, we need to understand why R’ Elazar would demonstrate the efficacy of prayer from the latter part of the Passuk, ‘Do not continue to speak to Me further about this matter’, where Hashem essentially told Moshe to stop praying, rather than demonstrate it from the beginning of the Passuk that says, ‘I implored Hashem at that time, saying... Please let me cross and see the good land that is on the other side of the Jordan’, in which the Passuk relates to us that Moshe did indeed pray to Hashem.
Regarding Moshe’s prayers, Rashi expounds on the inference of the word 'ואתחנן' - which is the word that Moshe chose in relating to the Jews that he prayed to Hashem to allow him to cross into the land - and says; forms of the word 'חִ נוּן', imploring, always indicate a request of a gift for free, and although the righteous can request a gift as reward for their good deeds, nevertheless, they don’t seek from Hashem to be rewarded for their good deeds. About these prayers, Hashem explicitly told Moshe; ‘Do not continue to speak to Me further about this matter’. We can explain that the reason for this is because Hashem didn’t want the Jews to see Moshe’s prayers going unanswered, as that might give the impression that prayer is ineffective. In summary, Moshe prayed that his request be fulfilled in the merit of his prayers alone, without adjoining any merits of his good deeds, and nevertheless, Hashem declared that if his prayers were to go unanswered, it would appear as if prayer is not ever so powerful. Accordingly, we can clearly deduce that prayer alone, without the merit of good deeds, is intended to bring about a salvation.
We can still ask what Hashem achieved by asking Moshe to stop praying, for although He thereby protected the image of the effectiveness of prayer in the eyes of the Jews, nevertheless, the effectiveness of the merit of good deeds would now become diminished in their eyes. For we all know that Moshe had many good deeds, and in that merit alone his wishes should have been fulfilled. Thus, when the Jews would see that Moshe’s good deeds could not give him what he so yeaned for, it would belittle the power of good deeds in their eyes. Accordingly, we can clearly deduce that good deeds alone are not intended to bring about a salvation, and therefore when the Jews would see that Moshe’s good deeds did not bringing about the fulfillment of his wishes, it would do nothing to diminish the power of good deeds in their eyes.
We can now understand the words of R’ Elazar. When Hashem told Moshe to stop praying so as not to give off a negative impression about the effectiveness of prayer, yet showed no concern for a negative impression to be established about the effectiveness of good deeds, it clearly confirms that ‘Prayer is more effective than good deeds’, for prayer alone is effective, while good deeds alone are not. Additionally, this is confirmed, not when we find Moshe actually praying, rather when we find Hashem telling Moshe to stop praying, for that was the moment that Hashem demonstrated that although He was concerned in regards to the formation of a negative impression about prayer, He was not concerned about that happening to the impression regarding the merit of good deeds.
(זרע שמשון פרשתנו אות ב)
