Moses Barred from the Land While Israel Goes Free at Beth-peor

"And we abode in the valley over against Beth-peor" (Deuteronomy 3:29). Moses said to them: See how beloved you are before the Omnipresent. To me the Holy One, blessed be He, said that I should not enter the Land, and wrath filled against me like a pregnant woman, for your sake, because I said to you "Hear now, you rebels" (Numbers 20:10). But as for you — "And we abode in the valley over against Beth-peor" — you went astray after the idolatry of Beth-peor, and He did not decree upon you that you should not enter the Land; rather He decreed upon me, that I should teach you statutes and ordinances. For so it is said: "And now, O Israel, hearken unto the statutes and unto the ordinances" (Deuteronomy 4:1).