Reb Rafael Aryeh!

Your question is challenging and intriguing and has been addressed by Rishonim and Achronim. I will give you a condensed answer, and references to the sources so you can look deeply at the full answers. If you don't find the Seforim available to you, get back to me and I will help you out.

First, let's clarify your questions (both explicit and implied). I may restate them for the purpose of clarity, but if I have not done this accurately, please inform.

The questions:

1) Why didn't Moshe Rabeinu "scream 40 years!?!"

2) You acknowledge that there is a Machlokes in Maseches Gitin how the Torah was written down, but I would like to comment on the significance of that.

3) Certainly, Moshe Rabeinu received all of the Torah at Har Sinai, and thus should have reacted to this information. His lack of reaction seems to imply that he was not privy to this information.

The answers:

1) The Ramban (Bamidbar 21 Pasuk 1) brings our Pasuk as an example of a future event which the Torah includes in a story in order that the narration should be complete. According to this, even if this Parshah was written before Cheit HaMeraglim, this Pasuk was only added afterward.

2) Even if the Pasuk was written contemporaneously with the rest of the Parsha, the Mabit (Sefer "Beis Elokim" Sha'ar HaYesodos Chapter 25) says that the Elders of the Jewish Nation had a tradition that they would spend forty years in the desert.

3) He adds that the Pasuk can be understood to mean that even if they spend 40 years in the desert, they have a promise that they can depend on the Man falling every day.

4) You broach the obvious question, "didn't Moshe Rabeinu know everything at Har Sinai?". The Mabit (ibid) addresses this as well and says (after referring to the Ramban in the introduction to his commentary on Chumash) that the entire Torah was written as one long word, an ultimate name (or string of names) of Hash-m. All of what was meant to occur was written there, but it was not every meaning - in terms that we can understand - was revealed to Moshe. Those "stories" that later became historical fact were only revealed in their intelligible form after the fact and at that time that Moshe wrote the down (that is according to the opinion "Megilah Megilah Nitnah"). Similarly, individual mitzvos that were transmitted to Moshe Rabeinu in their encrypted form at Har Sinai were revealed and taught to Moshe and written down by him throughout the 40 years. So, at Har sinai, Moshe Rabeinu knew the entire Torah, but not every meaning was revealed to him at that point.

5) It is well known that there is no contradiction between the existence of free will and the fact that Hash-m knows the future; it is also well known that the Rambam says that there is no way for man, the creature, to understand this knowledge which is germane only to Hash-m the creator. In this way, even if a sin was stated in the Torah before it was given, "Cheit Hameraglim" for example, since it was written only before Hash-m (as one long word/name) it is not a contradiction to free choice.

6) The Da'as Emunah explains that once it was given, revealed and written down by Moshe in the form we have the Torah today, it would be a contradiction to free choice. Therefore, after Matan Torah (in its pristine original form to Moshe) the Torah was only revealed piece by piece over the 40 years (or written only at the end). This can explain how Moshe "knew everything" and yet there was still free choice, for the aspects that depended on peoples free choice were still not revealed. The Da'as Emunah proposes the it might also be true that the giving of the Torah to Moshe Rabeinu did not affect free choice, as Moshe is referred to as "Ish HaElokim" and he was privy to perceive the Torah in the fashion of Hash-m himself.

Bibliography:

Mabit- Beis Elokim 25

Ramban- Introduction to his Commentary on the Torah

Ramban- Commentary on the Torah Bamidbar 21:1

Da'as Emunah (R. Ehud Rakovsky) vol. II, pgs 311-316

Tov Nehorach (R. Naor Auerbach) pgs 36-38

Shimon Brodie