(Devarim 3:25) "Let me pass over and see": Is it possible that Moses would ask the L-rd to enter the land? Is it not written (Bamidbar 20:12) "You shall not bring this congregation to the land which I have given them"? An analogy (to resolve this): A king who had two servants decreed upon one of them not to drink wine for thirty days. The servant: What did he decree upon me? That I not drink wine for thirty days? I will not taste it even for a year! Even for two years! Why all this? To weaken the effect of his master's words. The king then decrees the same upon the second servant. His reaction: I cannot live without wine for even one hour! Why all this? To heighten the effect of his master's words. Thus, Moses, to heighten the effect of the L-rd's words besought Him to enter the land — "Let me pass over and see!" "this good mountain and the Levanon." All called it (Jerusalem) "mountain." Abraham called it "mountain," viz. (Bereshith 22:14) "… of which it will be said: 'On this day, in the mountain, the L-rd shall appear.'" Isaiah called it mountain (Isaiah 2:2) "And it will be in the end of days that the mountain of the house of the L-rd will be established." Nations called it mountain, viz. ( Ibid . 3) "And many nations will go, and they will say: 'Let us go and ascend to the mountain of the L-rd.'" "and the Levanon": This is the Temple, viz. (Jeremiah 22:6) "You are Gilead to Me, the head of the Levanon, etc.", and (Isaiah 10:34) "And the Levanon by a mighty one will fall." And why is it called "Levanon"? Because it "whitens" ( malbin ) the sins of Israel, as it is written ( Ibid . 1:18) "If your sins be like scarlet, they will be as white ( yalbinu ) as snow."
Sifrei Devarim 28
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