[Avodah] Tetzaveh "Be Careful What You Wish For"

[Michael Makovi]

> It seems strange to me that for someone who was considered to be
> the most humble Biblical character of all time, had the chutzpah to
> say to the Almighty: "If you don't forgive them, then count me out." It
> sounds like a threat.
> ri

Maybe it was a threat. Moshe knew that he was a tzadik, and he said to
Hashem, "Maybe they deserve to be wiped out, but I sure don't! If you
wipe them out deservedly, you'll have to wipe me out (undeservedly)
too, and You can't do that!". It's similar to an explanation I once
read of how praying for someone else works: "Hashem, maybe he deserves
to be troubled, punished, etc., but do I deserve to be troubled by his
trouble?"

Additionally, it shows not so much chutzpah as it does selflessness.
Moshe lived for the people. He tells Hashem how he is basically our
mother and has to carry us around like he bore us. He tells us how he
never took a single prerogative for being king. Chazal tell us that he
ceased relations with his wife for the sake of prophesy (and this
prophesy was for the sake of the *nation's* Torah). So Moshe is
telling Hashem, "If you wipe them out, I have no more reason to exist,
and I won't want to exist!"

Mikha'el Makovi