God now appeared to Moses, bidding him convey the following words to
the people: "You kindle My anger on account of the very benefits I
conferred upon you. When I clove the sea for you that you might pass
through, while the Egyptians stuck in the loam at its bottom, you said
to one another, 'In Egypt we trod loam, and He led us out of Egypt,
only that we might again tread it.' I gave you manna as food, which
made you strong and fat, but you, perceiving of it, said: 'How comes it
to pass that twenty days a human being dies if after four or five days
he does not excrete food he had taken. Surely we are doomed to die.'
When the spies came to Palestine, I arranged it so that as soon as they
entered the city its king or governor dies, in order that the
inhabitants, occupied with the burial of their ruler, might not take
account of the spies' presence and kill them. Instead of being thankful
for this, the spies returned and reported, 'The land through which we
have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants
thereof.' To you I gave the Torah; for your sake I said to the Angel of
Death, 'Continue to hold sway over the rest of the world, but not over
this nation that I have chosen as My people.' Truly I had hopes that
after all this you would sin no more, and like Myself and the angels
would live eternally, without ever tasting death. You, however, in
spite of the great opportunity that I offered you, conducted yourselves
like Adam. Upon him also did I lay a commandment, promising him life
eternal on condition he observed it, but he brought ruin upon himself
by trespassing My commandment and eating of the tree. To him I said,
'Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.' Similar was My
experience with you. I said, 'You are angels,' but you conducted
yourselves like Adam in your sins, and hence like Adam you must die. I
had thought and hoped you would follow example of the Patriarchs, but
you act like the inhabitants of Sodom, who in punishment for their sins
were consumed by fire." [539] "If," continued God, turning to Moses,
"they suppose that I have need of swords or spears to destroy them,
they are mistaken. As through the word I created the world, so can I
destroy the world by it, which would be a proper punishment for them.
As through their words and their talk they angered Me, so shall the
word kill them, and thou shalt be their heir, for 'I will make of thee
a greater nation and mightier than they.'" [540] Moses said: "If the
chair with three legs could not withstand the moment of Thy wrath, how
then shall a chair that have but one leg endure? Thou are about to
destroy the seed of the three Patriarchs; how then may I hope that my
seed is to fare better? This is not the only reason for which Thou
shouldst preserve Israel, as there are other considerations why Thou
shouldst do so. Were Thou to destroy Israel, the Edomites, Moabites,
and all the inhabitants of Canaan would say [541] that Thou hadst done
this only because Thou wert not able to maintain Thy people, and
therefore Thou didst destroy them. These will furthermore declare that
the gods of Canaan are mightier than those of Egypt, that Thou hadst
indeed triumphed over the river gods of Egypt, but that Thou wert not
the peer of the rain gods of Canaan. Worse even than this, the nations
of the world will accuse Thee of continuous cruelty, saying, 'He
destroyed the generation of the flood through water; He rased to the
ground the builders of the tower, as well as the inhabitants of Sodom;
and no better then theirs was the fate of the Egyptians, whom He
drowned in the sea. Now He hath also ruined Israel whom He had called,
'My firstborn son,' like Lilith who, when she can find no strange
children, slays her own. So did He slay His own son." [542] Moses
furthermore said: "Every pious man makes a point of cultivating a
special virtue. Do Thou also in this instance bring Thy special virtue
to bear." God: "And what is My special virtue?" Moses: "Long-suffering,
love, and mercy, for Thou art wont to be long-suffering with them that
kindle Thy wrath, and to have mercy for them. In Thy very mercy is Thy
strength best shown. Mete out to Thy children, then, justice in small
measure only, but mercy in great measure." [543]
Moses well knew that mercy was God's chief virtue. He remembered that
he had asked God, when he interceded for Israel after their sin of the
Golden Calf, "Pray tell me by what attribute of Thine Thou rulest the
world." God answered: "I rule the world with loving-kindness, mercy,
and long-suffering." "Can it be," said Moses, "that Thy long-suffering
lets sinners off with impunity?" To this question Moses had received no
answer, hence he felt he might now say to God: "Act now as Thou didst
then assent. [544] Justice, that demands the destruction of Israel, is
on one side of the scales, but it is exactly balance by my prayer on
the other side. Let us now see how the scales will balance." God
replied: "As truly as thou livest, Moses, thy prayer shall dip the
scales to the side of mercy. For thy sake must I cancel My decision to
annihilate the children of Israel, so that the Egyptians will exclaim,
'Happy the servant to whose wish his master defers.' I shall, however,
collect My debt, for although I shall not annihilate Israel all at
once, they shall make partial annual payments during the following
forty years. Say to them, 'Your carcasses shall fall in this
wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole
number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against
Me. And your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years,
and shall bear you whoredoms, until your carcasses be consumed in the
wilderness.'" [545]
This punishment was not, however, as severe as it might appear, for
none among them died below the ages of sixty, whereas those who had at
the time of the exodus from Egypt been either below twenty or above
sixty were entirely exempt from this punishment. Besides only such were
smitten as had followed the counsel of the spies, whereas the others,
and the Levites and the women were exempt. [546] Death, moreover,
visited the transgressors in such fashion that they were aware it was
meant as punishment for their sins. Throughout all the year not one
among them died. On the eighth day of the month of Ab, Moses would have
a herald proclaim throughout the camp, "Let each prepare his grave."
They dug their graves, and spent there the following night, the same
night on which, following the counsel of the spies, they had revolted
against God and Moses. In the morning a herald would once more appear
and cry: "Let the living separate themselves from the dead." Those that
were still alive arose, but about fifteen thousand of them remained
dead in their graves. After forty years, however, when the herald
repeated his customary call the ninth day of Ab, all arose, and there
was not a single dead man among them. At first they thought they had
made a miscalculation in their observation of the moon, that is was not
the ninth day of Ab at all, and that this was the reason why their
lives had been spared. Hence they repeated their preparations for death
until the fifteenth day of Ab. Then the sight of the full moon
convinced them that the ninth day of Ab had gone by, and that their
punishment had been done away with. In commemoration of the relief from
this punishment, they appointed the fifteenth day of Ab to be a holy
day. [547]