Parasha: Vayelech · Aliyah: Third (Tiferet)

כי אתה תבא את העם הזה, "for you will come with this people, etc." Moses did not say תביא, "you will bring this people," seeing it was G'd who would actually bring the people by destroying their opposition. All Joshua was required to do was to march at the head of the people. While it is true that our sages in Sanhedrin 8 drew our attention to the end of our portion (verse 23) where G'd tells Joshua "you shall bring the children of Israel to the land I have sworn to them," the reason that G'd used the expression תביא was to correct the impression Moses' words had left when he said תבא. According to Rabbi Yochanan Moses meant "you and the elders." G'd objected by saying that there can only be one authoritative spokesman per generation, i.e; dabbar echad ledor. To make this point, G'd said to Joshua "you will bring," instead of "you will come." Now that we have that verse we can interpret the verse in which Moses said "you will come" as a reminder that G'd would do the actual "bringing."

וה׳ הוא ההולך לפניך, "as to the Lord, it is He Who will walk in front of you." In this instance Moses did not refer to the Lord as "your G'd" as he did on most other occasions. The reason is that G'd does not associate His name with individuals who are still alive. When speaking of the Jewish people as a whole it is quite in order to refer to G'd as "your G'd" such as in Exodus 20,2 "I am the Lord your G'd," the opening sentence of the Ten Commandments.

When Moses refers to G'd by the pronoun הוא, saying "He walks before you," instead of saying "and G'd walks before you," he did so to preclude us from thinking that G'd plus some other force would destroy the Canaanites. Omission of the word הוא would have left us with והשם, "and G'd, etc." Moses did not want that anybody should misunderstand the meaning of the letter ו in this context.

הוא יהיה עמך, "He will be with you." Moses again stresses the הוא, to emphasise that G'd's שכינה i.e. a very high level manifestation of His presence will walk in front of Joshua. הוא יהיה עמך, this manifestation of G'd's presence will remain at Joshua's side. Its effect will be that Joshua will not weaken in face of a variety of challenges.