42 | AUGUST 4 • 2022
T
he first verse of Devarim, the
fifth and culminating book of the
Torah, sounds prosaic. “These are
the words that Moses spoke to all Israel
beyond the Jordan — in the wilderness, on
the plain opposite Suph, between Paran and
Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and
Di-zahav.” There is no hint of
drama in these words. But the
Sages of the Talmud found
one, and it is life-changing.
What is odd in the verse
is the last place-name:
Di-zahav. What and where
is this place? It hasn’t been
mentioned before, nor is it mentioned again
anywhere else in the Tanach. But the name
is tantalizing. It seems to mean, “Enough
gold.
” Gold is certainly something we have
heard about before. It was the metal of
which the calf was made while Moses was
on the mountain receiving the Torah from
God. This was one of the great sins of the
wilderness years. Might the enigmatic men-
tion of a place called “Enough gold” have
something to do with it?
From these clues and cues, the Sages
inferred a remarkable drama. This is what
they said:
Moses spoke audaciously [hiti’ach
devarim] toward Heaven . . . The school
of R. Yannai learned this from the words
Di-zahav. What do these words mean? They
said in the school of R. Yannai: Thus spoke
Moses before the Holy One, blessed be He:
“Sovereign of the Universe, the silver and
gold [zahav] which You showered on Israel
until they said, ‘Enough’ [dai], was what
caused them to make the calf . . . R. Hiyya
bar Abba said: It is like the case of a man
who had a son. He bathed him and anoint-
ed him and gave him plenty to eat and
drink and hung a purse around his neck
and set him down at the door of a house of
ill-repute. How could he help sinning?
Moses, in this dramatic re-reading, is
portrayed as counsel for the defense of the
Jewish people. Yes, he admits to God, the
people did indeed commit a sin. But it was
You who provided them with the opportu-
nity and the temptation. If the Israelites had
not had gold in the wilderness, they could
not have made a golden calf. Besides which,
who needs gold in a wilderness? There was
only one reason the Israelites had gold with
them: because they were following Your
instructions. You said: “Tell the people that
every man is to ask his neighbor and every
woman is to ask her neighbor for objects of
silver and gold” (Ex. 11:2). Therefore, do not
blame them. Please, instead, forgive them.
This is a wonderful passage in its own
right. It represents what the Sages called
chutzpah kelapei Shemaya, “audacity toward
heaven.
” (We tend to think of chutzpah as a
Yiddish word, but it is in fact Aramaic and
comes to us from the Babylonian Talmud).
The question, though, is: why did the Sages
choose this passage to make the point?
After all, the episode of the Golden Calf
is set out in full in Exodus 32-34. The Torah
tells us explicitly how daring Moses was
in prayer. First, when God tells him what
the people have done, Moses immediately
responds by saying, “Lord, why should Your
anger burn against Your people? … Why
should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil
intent that He brought them out, to kill
them in the mountains and to wipe them
off the face of the earth’?” (Ex. 32:11-12).
This is audacious. Moses tells God that,
regardless of what the people have done,
it will be His reputation that will suffer if
it becomes known that He did not lead
the Israelites to freedom, but instead killed
them in the desert.
Then, descending the mountain and
seeing what the people have done, he does
his single most daring act. He smashes
the tablets, engraved by God Himself. The
audacity continues. Moses goes back up
the mountain and says to God, “These
people have indeed committed a great sin.
They have made themselves an idol of
gold. But now, please forgive their sin —
but if not, then blot me out of the book
You have written.
’ (Ex. 32:31-32). This is
unprecedented language. This should be
the passage to which the Sages attached
an account of Moses’ boldness in defense
of his people. Why then attach it here, to
an obscure place-name in the first verse of
Deuteronomy, where it is radically out of
keeping with the plain sense of the verse.
I believe the answer is this. Throughout
Devarim, Moses is relentless in his criticism
of the people: “From the day you left Egypt
The Effective Critic
Rabbi Lord
Jonathan
Sacks
RABBISACKS.ORG
SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH