Another matter: “These are the words” – this is what the verse said: “One who rebukes a man will later find more favor than one with a slippery tongue” (Proverbs 28:23). Rabbi Pinḥas said in the name of Rabbi Ḥama bar Ḥanina: “One who rebukes” – this is Moses. “A man” – this is Israel, as it is stated: “You are My flock, flock of My pasture, you are man” (Ezekiel 34:31). What is “later [aḥarai]”?
The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘In order to bring them after Me [aḥarai].’1The word aḥarai can be a form of the word aḥarei, later, or aḥar, after, in which case aḥarai would mean “after me.” “Will…find…favor” – this is Moses, as it is written: “And you also found favor in My eyes” (Exodus 33:12). “Than one with a slippery tongue” – this is Bilam, who was slippery-tongued in his prophecies,2Bilam was slippery tongued in the manner in which he expressed his prophetic blessings of Israel, meaning that he flattered them excessively. and they [the Israelites] became haughty and stumbled in Shitim.3They grew haughty as a result of his blessings, and this led to their sinning with the daughters of Moav (see Numbers 25:1–3).
Another matter, “one who rebukes a man will later [aḥarai]” – Rabbi Yehuda ben Rabbi Simon said: What is aḥarai? The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘Moses, as it were, rebuked Me to follow Israel, and rebuked Israel to follow Me [aḥarai].’ To Israel, he said: “You have sinned” (Exodus 32:30). To the Holy One blessed be He, he said: “Why should Your wrath be enflamed against Your people?” (Exodus 32:11).
What is “why”?4After all, this was stated in the immediate aftermath of the egregious sin of the Golden Calf. Rabbi Yitzḥak said: When Israel crafted the calf, the Holy One blessed be He sought to eradicate Israel’s enemies.5This is a euphemistic reference to Israel. Moses said to Him: ‘Master of the universe, this calf is useful to assist You.’ The Holy One blessed be He said to him: ‘In what way can it assist Me?’
Moses said to Him: ‘If You cause the rain to fall, it can cause the dew to rise; You can produce the winds, and it, the lightning.’ The Holy One blessed be He said to him: ‘Are you, too, straying after the calf?’6How can you ascribe any power to this inanimate object? Moses said before Him: ‘Then, “why should Your wrath be enflamed against Your people?”’7Moses argued that God should not appear to be jealous of an object that actually has no power (Maharzu; see also Etz Yosef).
To Israel he said: “You have sinned a great sin” (Exodus 32:30). Rabbi Yehuda ben Rabbi Simon said: To what is this matter comparable? To a king who became angry at his wife. He struck her and expelled her from his house.
The groomsmen heard about this. They went to the king and said to him: ‘Oh, my lord, is this what a man does to his wife? What did she do to you?’ They went to her and said to her: ‘Until when will you anger him?
Is it your first time? Is it your second time?’ Moses, too, when he went to the Holy One blessed be He, he said to Him: ‘“Why should your wrath be enflamed against your people,” are they not Your children?’ When he went to Israel, he said to them: ‘Until when will you anger Him?
Is it your first time? Is it your second time?’ Likewise it says: “In the wilderness, in the Arava, opposite the Red Sea.”8Moses, in mentioning these places to the Israelites, was alluding to various occasions on which they angered God.