Pisqa’ 181
1
“So I instructed you at that time,
explaining all the things that you should do” (Dt.1:18).
This refers to the ten distinctions
between property disputes and capital cases.2
2
“Then we traveled from Horeb,
and crossed all that great and terrifying wasteland” (Dt.1:19).
Regarding people who have seen
serpents the size of beams,
and scorpions like bows
rotting and scattered before them,
He says:
“All that great and terrifying wasteland” (Dt.1:19).3
And doesn’t the matter follow logically?
If I vanquished before them monstrous beings,
all the more so would I vanquish ordinary people.
Thus it is said:
“All that great and terrifying wasteland” (Dt.1:18)—
[as an expression of encouragement rather than horror].