“Therefore, you will not bring” – to what is the matter comparable? It is to two women who are being flogged in court; one committed an act of licentiousness, and one ate unripe Sabbatical Year fruit. The one who ate the unripe Sabbatical Year fruits said to them: ‘I implore you, inform the people for what I am being flogged, so they will not say that I too committed an act of licentiousness.’ They brought unripe Sabbatical Year fruits and hung then on her and said: ‘That one committed an act of licentiousness and was flogged, and this one ate unripe Sabbatical Year fruits and was flogged.’
So too, Moses our teacher said: ‘You decreed upon me that I will die in the wilderness with this generation that angered You,’ as it is stated: “How often did they defy Him in the wilderness and distress Him in the desolate land” (Psalms 78:40). ‘Now they will say throughout the generations that I am like them. Let it be written in my regard for what I was punished.’ That is why He wrote: “Because you did not have faith.”