After Moses tells the people that he pleaded with God to let him enter the Promised Land, he rebukes the people saying, “But God became angry with me because of you and He did not listen to me” (Deuteronomy 3:26). The Arizal derived a remarkable concept from this verse. The words “became angry with me” (vayitaber be) could be read as “he caused an ibbur of me.” The concept of ibbur, which literally means an “impregnation,” is important to the Arizal’s teaching of reincarnation. According to the Arizal a soul does not necessarily need to incarnate itself in a new body for an entire lifetime, the soul can also “impregnate” another body for a limited time during which it either completes its own rectification or assists its host in his or her life’s mission. There is a sod, a Kabbalistic tradition, recorded in the Zohar that a portion of Moses’ soul is present in every generation; according to the Arizal, our verse, is one of this tradition’s sources.
Rashi explains that the phrase “because of you” means literally “for your sake.” Because the people made Moses angry causing him to hit the rock (instead of speaking to it as God had commanded him), God refused to let Moses enter the Land for their sake. In a sense, God’s anger with Moses and his subsequent punishment can be understood as God’s “measure for measure” response to Moses’ anger at the people.
The Arizal, aware of Rashi’s interpretation, seems to give it a mystical twist. According to the Arizal, not only was Moses’ request rejected “because of you” but also in a positive sense, “for your sake”: the soul of Moses is present in every generation for the Jewish people’s sake. This verse teaches us that the soul of Moses, the greatest leader and teacher the Jewish people has ever known, returns in every generation to assist the Jews, further revealing their mission and teaching them Torah.
The notion of Moses’ soul returning to help his people also fits in well with our suggestion earlier in this portion that Moses’ longing to enter the Promised Land was deeply implanted in the Jewish people’s consciousness. In fact, the verse preceding the one we have been explaining contains Moses’ plea to enter the Land: “Let me now please cross over and see the good land that is on the other side of the Jordan, this good mountain and the Lebanon” (Deuteronomy 3:25).” It is fascinating to note that the Hebrew word meaning “cross over” (la’avor) has the same Hebrew root as “vayitaber be” (became angry with me) found in the very next verse – the very phrase which the Arizal read as “he caused an impregnation of me.” In light of the Arizal’s interpretation, the connection between the two verses is obvious. Moses’ pleading to cross over into Israel is impregnated into the Jewish consciousness (what Carl Jung would later call the collective unconscious) and also into the hearts and minds of the numerous leaders throughout the generations who guided the Jewish people towards their ultimate return to the Promised Land.
The Arizal further explains that Moses’ presence in each generation also serves to rectify his ignoring God’s explicit warning against allowing the mixed multitude (discussed in “Throwing Caution to the Wind” in the portion of Miketz) to leave Egypt with the Jewish people. Throughout the forty years in the desert, the mixed multitude was the cause of much grief, including the disastrous sin of making the Golden Calf. God told Moses that the mixed multitude needed one more generation before they could be properly integrated into the nation of Israel but Moses was impatient and insisted on taking them out of Egypt.
In fact, though, Moses spiritual instincts were based on precedent. After all, he was following in the footsteps of the forefathers of the Jewish nation in wanting to rectify the world. Abraham prayed to save the wicked people of Sodom, for he had a prophetic insight that the spark of Mashiach was in Sodom. He was correct as the seed of Mashiach was present in his nephew Lot who was saved. Later Joseph tried to circumcise the Egyptians in order to rectify and elevate their souls, for he hoped this would pave the way for worldwide redemption. Therefore, in essence, Moses’ intentions were noble; indeed, the Arizal revealed that the mixed multitude was connected on a soul level to the Jewish people. They were just not ready, as God had warned, to be fully integrated.
Moses’ impatience also has a number of historical precedents. According to Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, impatience caused three of the greatest sins in history. Had Adam and Eve not been impatient and waited for a few hours till Shabbat, they would have been able to eat from the Tree of Knowledge as well as from the Tree of Life. Had the Jewish people exhibited even a modicum of patience when Moses failed to return on the expected date from Mount Sinai, they would not have committed the heinous sin of making a Golden Calf. King David tragically slept with Bathsheba, whom he had foreseen was his spiritual mate, before their relationship was morally unobjectionable. The grave spiritual ramifications of Moses’ impatience were similar in magnitude to those stemming from these three sins, as the mixed multitude was primarily responsible for making the Golden Calf, a sin whose effects still reverberate through the ages.
Since Moses’ intentions were righteous his enormous spiritual achievements were not nullified, but he still had to rectify this aspect of impatience. Indeed, it was this same lack of patience with the people that allowed Moses to momentarily lose his temper, causing him to rebuke the people and consequently hit the rock. Perhaps the very high price he paid for his angry reproach caused him to begin the book of Deuteronomy with a subtle and controlled rebuke (see “How Could It Have Come to Pass” in Devarim).
Just as Moses embodies righteousness and the need for spiritual rectification so too does Elijah the prophet – who impetuously complained to God that the Jews had abandoned their covenant with Him. The Zohar (2:169a) relates that God told Elijah that because of this disparaging statement he would have to come to every future circumcision to attest to the fact that the Jewish people did not break their covenant with God. On the one hand his appearance at every circumcision is a necessary tikkun (rectification) for Elijah, while on the other hand, his lifelong spiritual achievements still allowed him to ascend to heaven in a fiery chariot and be transformed into a spiritual being transcending time and space. Elijah appears in all sorts of guises in order to assist people and especially to teach them heavenly secrets. Like Elijah, Moses’ appearances in every generation both provide him with an opportunity for rectification and are an enormous help to the Jewish people.
