number - Shemona Ushloshim?

Who knows thirty-eight?

Please cite/link your sources, if possible. After about one business day, I will:

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  Upvote all interesting answers.

  
  


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  Accept the best answer.

  
  


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  Go on to the next number.

  
  
  

Answer

38 are the years during which the Jewish People were "nezufim," under a Divine ban (from the 9th of Av 2449, after the sin of the Spies, to the 15th of Av 2487).

During this time, too, Hashem's communications with Moshe were not with the same degree of closeness as before and after. This teaches us that all prophets, Moshe included, have the Divine Presence rest on them for the sake of the Jewish People, not because of their own personal merits. (Deut. 2:14-17, and Rashi on 16)