Author Topic: From Which Book does Moshe Ask to be Deleted? - Maharal vs. Rashi  (Read 2004 times)

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Offline edu

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http://www.ttidbits.com/1222/1222.txt

Quote
Maharal on the Sedra

From Which Book does Moshe Ask to be Deleted?

Sh'mot 32:32 - And now, bear their sin! Otherwise, please erase me from Your book that You wrote.
Rashi - Moshe is pleading to Hashem to forgive His people.  "If You bear their sin, then good, I am not asking You to erase me.  But if not, erase me." This is an abbreviated verse, lacking the consequence of the first clause, and there are many like it. "From Your book" means the entire Torah, so that it not be said of me that I was not worthy enough to seek mercy for them.
Gur Arye - Moshe can't intend that "Your book" means the book Moshe himself wrote, for the final book of that Torah would not be written by Moshe for another forty years. By saying "which You wrote," the possibility that the book is the Five Books of Moshe (the Chumash) is clearly eliminated. What Rashi refers to here is the Torah which is the "Law of Fire from His right hand" [D'varim 33:2], described by Rashi as "black fire on white fire" -  This is the Torah that was the blueprint for Creation. This is the Torah from which Moshe asked to be erased.
This view is not congruent with the view of our Sages [Rosh HaShana 16b] that this verse refers to the three Books of Life. "Erase me" refers to the book of evildoers, "from Your book" to the book of in-betweens, and "which You wrote" refers to the book of the righteous.  Just as the world is reflected by a supernal, spiritual representation, man's deeds are similarly represented in the higher spheres. Do not think that when a deed is completed, for good or evil, it no longer exists.  Its spiritual "picture" is permanently recorded in this book. Moshe asks to be erased from this book if he fails to gain atonement for his people. This is the Book of Universe, also known as the Book of the History of Man.

- Column prepared by Dr. Moshe Kuhr
Rashi might be able to answer the following (I am using the online Chabad translation):
Shmot/Exodus Chapter 24
4 And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, and he arose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and twelve monuments for the twelve tribes of Israel.
Rashi:
And Moses wrote: [the Torah’s text] from “In the beginning” (Gen 1:1), until the giving of the Torah. He [also] wrote the commandments that they were commanded in Marah. [Again, since all this took place before the giving of the Torah, Moses could write only up to that point.]
Rashi can answer some of the text of the Torah was already written when Moshe/Moses asked to erased, if G-d would not bear the iniquity of Israel from the sin of the Golden Calf.