When Moses recounted his frustrated plea to enter the Promised Land, he told the Israelites: "And the Lord was wroth with me because of you" (Deuteronomy 3:26). The Hebrew word "bi" — meaning "with me" — caught the attention of Rabbi Elazar ben Shamua, who saw a double meaning hiding inside two small letters.
The word "bi," Rabbi Elazar explained, is also a conventional form of polite request in everyday speech — like saying "please" or "I pray you." It is the language people use when making a plea to someone more powerful than themselves. Moses was speaking to Israel, but the echo of his original plea to God lingered in the word itself.
Then came the sharper point. "Lest you say it lies in me" — lest anyone think Moses was personally unworthy, that some secret sin or flaw of his own character barred him from the land — the verse specifies "because of you." The fault was not Moses' alone. It was the people's rebellions, their constant testing of God, their complaints at the waters of Meribah, that sealed his fate.
Moses was making a precise legal distinction. He was not saying he was blameless. He was saying the punishment exceeded his personal guilt. The decree came down on him, but the weight of Israel's sins tipped the scale. "Because of you, and not because of me, I cannot enter the land." One of the most devastating lines a leader can speak — I am paying the price for what you did.