“And the Lord spoke to Moses … ‘Avenge the vengeance of the children of Israel on the Midianites’ … and Moses spoke to the people … to execute the Lord's vengeance on Midian.”

The interpreters ask about this, “Why did Moses change the words of the Creator in telling the people ‘the Lord’s vengeance,’ and not ‘the vengeance of the children of Israel,’ as the Creator said?” They also asked about changing the phrasing, that the Creator said, “on the Midianites,” in plural form, and Moses said, “on Midian,” in singular form.

We should interpret that it is known that the purpose of creation from the perspective of the Creator is to do good to His creations. It follows that the Creator said that all the wars that we should make are in order to achieve the delight and pleasure, so the creatures will receive it.

When Moses spoke to Israel, if he told them that the war would be for their own sake they would fall into self-love called “receiving in order to receive.” But on this there was a Tzimtzum [restriction], and they would never achieve the goal in this manner.

This is why he told them, “Avenge the vengeance of the Lord,” for they need to aim that the war against the inclination will be for the sake of the Creator and not for their own sake. By this they would achieve the purpose of creation, to do good to His creations.

In truth, there are many qualities to fight against, so when the Creator said to Moses, “Avenge the vengeance of the children of Israel on the Midianites,” it means that there are many judgments that must be subdued. This is why it was said in plural form, which is what should be, namely to subdue many Midianites, which are called Dinim [judgments], who interfere with achieving the purpose of creation.

When Moses said to the people, “Avenge the vengeance of the Lord on Midian,” he thereby implied that should they walk on the path where they need only one correction, which is the vengeance of the Creator, from that perspective there is not more than one judgment, which contains within it many judgments. In other words, a person does not need to fight against all the judgments, meaning all the bad qualities. Instead, if he walks on a path that we must aim all our actions to the Creator, meaning for the sake of heaven, if this is all of our intention, then all the qualities will be cancelled by themselves and we do not need to work specifically on each quality.

The more the aim is for the sake of the Creator, if one is rewarded with this, with winning this war, so it is in order to bestow upon the Creator, then all the qualities are cancelled and revoked. This is why he spoke in singular form, “Avenge the vengeance of the Lord on Midian.”