Deuteronomy · Chapter 10

At that time Hashem said to me: Carve for yourself two stone tablets like the first ones, and come up before Me to the mountain, and make for yourself an ark of wood.

בעת ההוא AT THAT TIME — At the end of forty days He was reconciled with me and said to me, פסל לך HEW FOR THYSELF [TWO TABLETS] and afterwards, ועשית לך ארון עץ MAKE THEE AN ARK OF WOOD. I, however, (see v. 3) made the Ark first (Midrash Tanchuma, Eikev 1), because when I came with the tablets in my hand where could I place them? Now this was not the Ark which Bezaleel made for the Tabernacle, because with the Tabernacle they did not occupy themselves until after the Day of Atonement, for only when he came down from the mountain on that day did he give them the command regarding the construction of the Tabernacle, and Bezaleel made the Tabernacle first and afterwards the Ark and the other articles (Berakhot 55a). It follows, therefore, that this was another Ark; and it was this, that went forth with them to battle, whilst that which Bezaleel made went forth to battle only once, in the days of Eli — and they were punished for this, for it was captured by the Philistines (cf. Jerusalem Talmud Shekalim 6:1).

AT THAT TIME THE ETERNAL SAID UNTO ME: ‘HEW THEE TWO TABLETS OF STONE.’ After I cast myself down in prayer before G-d for forty days and forty nights, He was reconciled with me that He would write the second Tablets. However, the first ones were the work of G-d, and the writing was the writing of G-d, whereas these [second Tablets] He commanded me that they be hewn by my hands and the writing will be like the writing on the first ones, by the finger of G-d. AND MAKE THEE AN ARK OF WOOD. The meaning thereof is that you put the Tablets into this ark when you descend [the mountain]. Now this ark, including its cover, is to be entirely from wood [and not overlaid with gold], like all arks, and the Tablets should remain there until the Tabernacle is made. [Only] then, they made the ark which was covered with gold and the ark-cover upon it of pure gold. He did not tell Moses [to make an ark] for the first Tablets because it was manifest before Him that he would break them [immediately upon coming down the mountain]. And the meaning of the verse, and there they were, as the Eternal commanded me is that the Tablets were there [in the ark] until the Tabernacle was made concerning which He commanded me, And thou shalt put the ark-cover above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the Testimony that I shall give thee. This is the good and correct [interpretation] of these verses. And Rashi wrote: “Now, this was not the ark which Bezalel made [for the Tabernacle], because they did not occupy themselves in the making of the Tabernacle until after the Day of Atonement, for it was only when he came down from the mountain that he commanded them concerning the construction of the Tabernacle, and it was Bezalel who made, first the Tabernacle, and afterwards the ark and the vessels. Thus it follows that this [ark mentioned here] was a different one, and it was this [ark] that went forth with them to battle, while the one that Bezalel made did not go forth to battle except in the days of Eli and they were punished for this and it was captured [by the Philistines].” This is the Rabbi’s language, quoting words of Agadah which he found written in the Tanchuma. Now one may ask: “And after they removed the Tablets from this ark and placed them in the ark which Bezalel made, what happened to this ark? And why did this one go forth with the people to battle [since it was empty, the Tablets having been removed]?” Some say that the broken Tablets lay in that ark, and so in fact it is found in the Agadah, but these are the words of a single Sage, for thus we learned in Tractate Shekalim: “We are taught [in a Beraitha]: Rabbi Yehudah the son of Rabbi Ilai says: Israel had two arks in the wilderness, one in which the broken Tablets lay etc. But the Rabbis say: there was only one, and once it went forth [to battle] in the days of Eli and it was captured [by the Philistines].” The opinion of our Rabbis throughout the Talmud is also not so [that there were two arks]; but t...

"At that time" — during the forty days mentioned. "An ark of wood" — the Transmitters (of blessed memory) said that Moses first made a different ark, the proof being [the sequence]: "And I made an ark" — and afterward he says "and I hewed" — and he says "and I placed the tablets in the ark that I had made." Their understanding is broader than ours, for it seemed to us that "and the glory of Hashem dwelt" is connected with the glory that the elders saw, and we do not know when Moses ascended. For it appeared in the plain sense that Moses fasted only eighty days, since the meaning of "I stood on the mountain as the first days" is an inversion — the sense being: as I stood on the mountain during those forty days, Hashem heeded me and said, "Go, journey on" — and this is [the meaning of] "go, lead the people." And so "an ark of wood" was [made] by command, and it is the ark that Bezalel made.

בעת ההיא אמר ה' אלי "פסל לך", in spite of all my prayers, the repair, the reconstitution of what had been damaged, proved to be incomplete,for the substitution for the first set of Tablets was not something made by G’d Himself, and this is why He commanded me: פסל לך, “carve it out by yourself!”

בעת ההיא אמר ה׳ אלי, "At that time G'd said to me: 'hew for yourself,' etc." Seeing that the materials for the first Tablets were G'd-made as opposed to the raw material being provided by Moses, and that after the episode of the golden calf the Israelites were no longer worthy of such Tablets, G'd told Moses to hew them out of materials that the Israelites were able to relate to, instead of G'd providing supernatural materials unfamiliar to the people which they were unable to relate to and to esteem properly. G'd continued by telling Moses that he was to make a wooden ark for these tablets. The expression "make for yourself" a wooden ark does not mean that the ark would be Moses' property or would be paid for out of Moses' private funds; but, seeing that the materials the Tablets were made of were man-made, Moses was also to provide a man-made ark to house the Tablets. This is in sharp contrast to the first Tablets when G'd had not commanded that Moses bring an ark to the Mountain to house the Tablets. Seeing that the original Tablets were of material provided by G'd they did not need a protective cover such as an ark, other than the ark which G'd had commanded Betzalel to construct in Exodus 25,10. Compare what I have written on Deut. 9,17 in connection with the words מעל שתי ידי, "above my two hands." Moses was specific in repeating G'd's command ועשית לך, to teach us that inasmuch as the Tablets were really his (as opposed to the people's), it was appropriate that he be the one to construct the ark for them.

בעת ההיא, “at that time;” on the night of the twenty ninth of Av;” this is a reference to Exodus 34,1, when G-d said to Moses to that he was to carve out stones for the second set of Tablets. ארון עץ, “an ark made of wood.” There is disagreement among the sages in the Jerusalem Talmud, tractate shekalim, chapter six halachah 1, if this refers to a single ark or to two. The latter opinion holds that one of these arks was to contain the Torah scroll, and the other was to contain the second set of Tablets.

בעת ההיא, “at that time,” at the end of the forty days when G’d was finally mollified and said: “carve for yourself!” ועשית לך ארון עץ, “and make a wooden ark for yourself!”. Moses reports that he first made the ark (compare verse 3) and only after that did he carve out the Tablets. He followed this sequence in order to have a “home” ready for the Tablets when he would return with them from the mountain. If he had not first made the ark where would he put the Tablets when he arrived among the people with them? Our sages have a tradition that the “ark” mentioned by Moses in verse 5 was the one that he had made immediately after receiving the instructions to carve out the second set of Tablets. In other words, this was not the same Ark which Betzalel was instructed to make for the Tabernacle in Exodus 25,10 (based on Tanchuma Eikev 10). The ark which Moses made was strictly temporary in order to have a place for the Tablets to be put pending the instructions to build the Tabernacle and to make a permanent home for the Tablets. The wooden ark made by Moses was the ones the people would take with them when they went to war. The Ark made by Betzalel was removed from the Tabernacle (except during the journeys when the Tabernacle itself was dismantled) only at the express command of G’d when the people marched around Jericho with the priests carrying the Holy Ark in front of them (Joshua 6,12). When, several hundreds of years later, the sons of the High Priest Eli took it upon themselves to take the Holy Ark to war with them against the Philistines, the Ark was captured and the sons of Eli died as a punishment for their high handed action. (Samuel I 4,8 describes that although, initially the Philistines were frightened of the Ark, they fought the Israelites and were victorious, capturing the Ark). The ark (box) made by Moses contained (initially) both the Tablets and the broken pieces of the original Tablets which Moses had smashed. After Betzalel made the Holy Ark for the Tabernacle the contents of Moses’ ark were transferred to it. This is the meaning of Exodus 25,16: “you will place inside the Ark the testimony which I shall give you.” Even though the Talmud in Baba Batra 14 states: “there was nothing inside the Holy Ark except the two Tablets,” this is not to exclude the broken pieces of the first Tablets, as whenever two restrictive clauses are employed consecutively, the meaning is that something additional is meant, in this case the remnants of the first Tablets. This was after the Temple of Solomon had been built. As long as the Tabernacle of Betzalel functioned as the Temple, the Holy Ark contained the second set of Tablets whereas Moses’ ark contained the broken pieces of the first set of Tablets. (Compare Tosafot Eyruvin 63. Tosafot base themselves on the verse quoted by the Talmud in Baba Batra which appears in Kings I 8,9.) I have already mentioned in connection with Exodus 16,32 that the Ark constructed by Betzalel was secreted inside the Temple (of Solomon) together with the bottle of manna and certain other sacred vessels at the instruction of King Yoshiah who hid them under an area of the Sanctuary known as מחילה. There was a special reason why these specific vessels were selected for hiding rather than others. The reason that King Yoshiah hid the Ark rather than most other sacred vessels was twofold; one reason was its superior holy status unmatched by other sacred vessels. Seeing that it was the first of the holy vessels to be constructed, its holiness was greater than the vessels fashioned later. It was perceived as a symbol of the celestial throne. As a result of such considerations it was feared that loss of the Ark would be equivalent to a departure of G’d’s presence from the land of Israel. The king knew that the state of Israel was going to be destroyed by Nevuchadnezzar as the prophets of his time had been threatening this if the people did not return to G’d wholeheartedly. It was clear to him that the conquerors would capture and take with them the holy vessels of the Temple to Babylon; this is why he was so concerned with the honour of the Holy Ark that he preferred to bury it and hide it. The second reason was that the Holy Ark symbolized for him the journeys of the Jewish people. He experienced that the staves of the Holy Ark which protruded a long distance beyond either corner to enable it to be carried. [It was very heavy due to the outer and inner layer of solid gold plus the weight of the Stone Tablets. I have seen a calculation of the total weight of the Ark complete with contents in Eliyahu Ki Tov’s commentary on Parshat Terumah or Tetzaveh. If my memory does not deceive me the weight approximated 3 tons. (76,000 lbs) Ed.] During the reign of King Yoshiah these staves became visibly shorter, making transportation by means of them impossible. They reverted to the size they had been in Moses’ time. The king viewed this as a bad omen. Originally, the staves could be seen protruding through the dividing curtain of the Sanctuary from the Holy of Holies by causing the curtain to protrude into the airspace of the Sanctuary where it was pushed by these staves. The retraction in the length of these staves meant for King Yoshiah that the Ark was once more destined to travel, just as in the days of Moses. The Israelites, when looking into the open doors of the Sanctuary, could no longer perceive the curtain bulge at the point they were used to see it do so. The king also saw that when the High Priest Chilkiyah came to perform the service in the Sanctuary (Kings II 22,8) that he found a Torah scroll on the side of the Holy Ark which had rolled into the Sanctuary instead of remaining in its assigned place in the Holy of Holies on top of the Ark (compare Deut. 31,26 and Talmud Baba Batra 14). These occurrences meant for him that the Temple would be destroyed. This is the reason why Targum Yonathan renders Ezekiel 1,1 “it was in the thirtieth year” as a reference to the year that Chilkiyah found the Torah scroll we mentioned. When considering these various omens King Yoshiah decided to hide the Holy Ark so that it would not have to travel into captivity. We have established that the sanctity associated with the Ark applied to the Ark made by Betzalel, not the box made by Moses to accommodate the Tablets when he would come down from the mountain many months before the Tabernacle had been erected. Moses’ “ark” was strictly a temporary housing for the Tablets pending the construction of the Tabernacle. Concerning the Ark constructed by Betzalel, the Talmud in Eiruvin 63 taught that whenever the Ark and therefore the Presence of the Shechinah were not in their assigned abodes the Israelites were forbidden to engage in marital relations with their wives. It is totally impossible to understand this statement of the Talmud as applying to the ark made by Moses, i.e. the ark that went to war with the people. Seeing that the Holy Ark was held in captivity by the Philistines for seven months (Samuel I 6,1), we cannot assume that during all this time the people did not practice the commandment to be fruitful and to multiply. [I do not understand the author here. He had previously accused the sons of Eli of taking Betzalel’s Ark to war without G’d’s authorization although normally only Moses’ ark would be taken to war. Moreover, note that in Samuel I 4, it is clear that it was not Moses’ ark the people took to war on that occasion. Ed.] David is also reported to tell Uriah (Bat Sheva’s first husband) to go home and engage in marital relations, all of this while war was in progress (Samuel II 11,8). Surely the prohibition mentioned in the Talmud could have applied only to the Ark of Betzalel. The lesson the sages taught must have been “When the HOLY ARK was not ‘at home,’ i.e. G’d was not at home, how could the people feel “at home,” by indulging in marital relations and carry on “business as usual!”

בעת ההיא אמר ה' אלי: "פסל לך שני לוחות אבנים", “At that time Hashem said to me: ‘carve for yourself two stone Tablets;’” This was a sign that G’d looked once more favourably upon me, seeing that He was willing to inscribe these Tablets Himself. However, the second set of Tablets was distinctly different from the first set, seeing that the first set of Tablets was entirely the work of Hashem, He even supplied the raw material, presumably material not even found on earth. ועשית לך ארון עץ, “you will make for yourself a wooden ark.” Rashi explains that this is not the Holy Ark constructed by Betzalel when he made the Tabernacle about 3-4 months later. The meaning of the instruction in our verse is that the Tablets would be housed in the ark made by Moses until the time when the Tabernacle would be built and inaugurated. [at this point in time G’d had not even instructed Moses to build a Tabernacle. Ed.] After the Tabernacle was built, the ark constructed by Moses now would house the broken pieces of the first set of Tablets. Nachmanides comments that our sages do not appear to agree with Rashi’s explanation (Baba Batra 14 and Menachot 99) The opinion expressed in the Talmud is that both the second set of Tablets and the broken pieces of the first set reposed in the same ark, i.e. the ark constructed by Betzalel. This appears as the more logical scenario, seeing that the ark constructed by Moses was not inside the innermost and most sacred part of the Tabernacle during the 40 years the people traveled through the desert. According to tradition, the only time the Holy Ark left the Tabernacle/Temple, was when the High Priest Eli’s sons took it with them in the war against the Philistines, as a result of which it fell into captivity until it was eventually repatriated by King David to Jerusalem, about 50 years later. According to the sages, the ark Moses constructed was to serve his carrying the second set of Tablets in on his descent from the Mountain, and they would repose there until the consecration of the Tabernacle almost 6 months later. The reason that Moses was not instructed to make an ark prior to receiving the first set of Tablets was that it was foreseen that these would be smashed and did not need an ark to house them. Therefore the words ויהיו שם in verse 5 mean that the Tablets would remain in that ark pending the construction of the Holy Ark surrounded by gold and covered with the golden lid on which were mounted the two cherubs. Taking a more pragmatic approach to the text, i.e. the peshat, it is possible to understand G’d’s instruction to make a wooden ark as already referring to the ark that would be constructed by Betzalel later, seeing that long before Betzalel was appointed to be the artisan in charge of constructing the Tabernacle, Moses had been charged by Gd with that project in Exodus 25,10 after G’d had told Moses to collect the requisite donations from the people for that project (Exodus 25,2-9). Execution of that project had been sidelined due to the sin of the golden calf until after G’d had become reconciled to the atonement for that sin having been adequate, [although it was never totally forgiven Ed. (Sanhedrin 102)] When the time had come, G’d briefly told Moses to make an ark for the Tablets, this being none other than the ark already mentioned in Exodus It was a way of G’d indicating to Moses that what had been interrupted due to the episode of the golden calf could now be resumed, including the collection of the donations for that project. This is the meaning of Moses adding after the words ויהיו שם, “they remained there,” the words: כאשר צווני ה', “as Hashem had (previously) commanded me.” He meant that the Tablets were to repose within that ark permanently. When Moses descended from the Mountain carrying the second set of Tablets he deposited them in the אהל מועד, “the tent of testimony,” [the one Moses had retreated to after the sin of the golden calf, compare Exodus Ed.] in order to remain there until the Tabernacle had been constructed. If Moses had not smashed the first set of Tablets, he would have deposited them in that tent until Betzalel would have completed the Ark that was intended to house the Tablets permanently. It is most likely that what happened to the second Tablets also happened to the remains of the First Tablets. [By the way, Eliyahu Ki Tov, ז'צ'ל in his booklets on the portions of the Torah’ illustrates by a calculation how both the first set of the Tablets in their fragments plus the second set, plus the Torah scroll written by Moses could be fitted within the dimensions given by the Torah for the size of the Holy Ark. He also adds a fascinating calculation as to the combined weight of the Holy Ark when it was being transported. Ed.] It is impossible to explain this in a different fashion, as Moses most certainly did not take the fragments of the first set of Tablets back up the Mountain with him. [This is true as long as we stay within the parameters of the peshat, without speculating on what happened to the letters of the Tablets, etc., etc., as the Midrash does. Ed.] We must not ask that according to what Moses relates in verse 3 and 5 respectively, that he must have placed the Tablets in an ark at hand as soon as he descended with these Tablets and that they remained in that same ark. We must not understand all of these steps as having occurred exactly in the sequence Moses portrays them. He was only interested in concluding the subject of the Tablets and the Holy Ark within which they reposed after the Tabernacle had been built. The principal part of Moses’ message was verse 4, in which he testifies that what Hashem wrote on the second set of Tablets was exactly what He had written on the first set. This being so, this set of Tablets also qualified for being housed in the original Holy Ark that G’d had told Moses about in Exodus chapter 25. Hashem’s holy name was honoured by His writing reposing in a Holy Ark on earth. With the words

בעת ההיא, “at that time;” after G–d had pardoned the people’s sin and instructed him to hew new Tablets out of material found on earth. He did so to make sure the people could not accuse Moses at a later stage to have smashed the Tablets G–d had given him for the people. After all, they had been the most precious gift the people had ever been meant to receive. This is also what Kohelet had in mind when he said in Kohelet 3,1: there is a time for everything, a time for every imaginable “thing.” There was a time when the Tablets had to be smashed, and there was another time when new Tablets had to be made. Moses refers to the second such time. A different interpretation of the words: פסל לך ההיא. The word: פסל, which is part of the word פסולת, rubbish, chips, is what will be Moses’ after he had hewn out the new tablets from stone. It would be his reward for performing that work. It would enrich Moses as the “stone” from which he hewed these tablets were sapphires. There is a disagreement between the sages about where Moses had been able to find those sapphires. According to Rabbi Levi, Moses found this under the throne of G–d; according to the opinion of Rabbi Chanan, he found it beneath his tent. The source of this discussion is found in Song of Songs 5,14: ידיו גלילי זהב, “his arms are rods of gold, are studded with sapphires overlaid with ivory.” i.e. the tablets, i.e. the commandments were arranged five on each tablet. (Compare Talmud tractate Shekalim chapter 6, halachah 1) Yet another interpretation of the words: פסל לך: I appoint you as king and you may disqualify anyone and anything that you desire. (Tanchuma section 9 on our portion) ועלה אלי ההרה, “and ascend the Mountain to Me;” ועשית לך ארון עץ, “and make for yourself a wooden ark” (after ascending). According to Tanchuma, Moses did not make this ark afterwards but before ascending [as where was he to put the Tablets in the interval after returning from the Mountain? Ed.].

And I will write upon the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you shattered, and you shall place them in the ark.

ושמתם בארון, “you shall put them inside the ark.” You shall not carry them in your hands so that you will not have an opportunity to smash them in a fit of anger, as you did with the last ones. (B’chor shor)

ושמתם בארון, “and place the Tablets in the ark.” The broken Tablets had been lying in that ark all the time, as we know from Sifrey on Behaalotcha, paragraph 82. This was the ark that the Israelites took with them when they went out to war as we know from Numbers 10,33. and which travelled three days march in front of them during the journeys in the desert. It was the ark made by Moses before he ascended Mount Sinai, not the Ark that Bezalel made for a furnishing of the Tabernacle. Originally, he had placed the broken Tablets in that ark as well as the second set of Tablets, as the commandment to construct a Tabernacle, etc. had not yet been given. We have read this in verse five of our chapter. Construction of the Tabernacle had begun only after Moses had descended from the Mountain for the third time and it was not completed or consecrated until the beginning of Nissan of the second year in the desert. At that time the Tablets were transferred to the golden ark covered by the golden lid with the cherubs that we read about in Exodus 25,16. This Ark was not taken out of the Tabernacle even during wars as we know from Samuel I 4,7 and 8: during the war around Shiloh, against the Philistines, when the two sons of Eli the High Priest took the golden ark with them to help them in the war and the Philistines captured it, [though it brought only harm to them wherever the placed it so that they sent it back after six months. Ed.] Our sages are on record as ruling that at any time when this ark and G–d’s Presence which it symbolised was not in the place assigned to it, the Israelites were not allowed to indulge in marital relations with their wives. During the incident between David and Uriah hachitti, in Samuel II 11,11, when David sent him home on furlough to his wife to engage in marital intercourse, the latter’s refusal to do so was considered an unjustifiable hardship he imposed upon himself, while ordinary soldiers when on leave did have marital relations. [The soldiers in David’s army had given their wives pro forma divorce decrees before going into battle so that their wives would be able to remarry if they died and their remains had not been identified. Ed.] When the Ark accompanied Joshua during the war of conquest of the Holy Land, this was at the direct command of the Lord. In both instances the reference was to the ark Moses had constructed and which contained the broken Tablets. When the Talmud in Baba Batra folio 14 speaks of the broken Tablets and the second set of Tablets that were kept in the Ark, the reference is clearly to the Ark made by Betzalel. But this refers to the Ark in Solomon’s Temple, after it had found a permanent resting place. In the Jerusalem Talmud we do find that there is a disagreement about whether during that period there were still two arks.

So I made an ark of acacia wood, and I carved two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up to the mountain with the two tablets in my hands.

"And I made an ark" — by command. The meaning is like "and Moses assembled" — and yet Moses had already assembled [the people before this point]. I have already shown you many [instances] like this. And all of this is because he said "and they were there, as Hashem commanded me" — this being [the fulfillment of] "and you shall place the testimony in the ark." It is also possible to interpret ["and I made an ark"] as referring to [the earlier command] "make yourself an ark of wood." But the received tradition prevails.

ואעל ההרה, “I ascended the Mountain.” This was at dawn on Thursday the twenty ninth day of Av. This ascent has been referred to in Exodus 34,4, where the Torah reported Moses ascending early in the morning.

ואעש ארון, “I constructed an ark,” Moses concludes this interlude and returns to his main theme.

And He wrote upon the tablets according to the first writing — the Ten Words that Hashem had spoken with you on the mountain from within the fire on the day of the assembly — and Hashem gave them to me.

ויתנם ה׳ אלי, “the Lord handed them to me.” This was on the Tuesday, the tenth day of the month of Tishrey.

Then I turned and came down from the mountain, and I placed the tablets in the ark that I had made, and there they remained, just as Hashem had commanded me.

AND I TURNED AND CAME DOWN FROM THE MOUNT, AND PUT THE TABLETS IN THE ARK WHICH I MADE. The meaning thereof is “which I made at the time I came down from the mountain.” And there they were forever, as the Eternal commanded me, that His Glory dwell among the children of Israel.

כאשר צוני השם, "as G'd commanded me." Moses meant that all the time it took for him to bring the Tablets to the people and to place them in the ark constructed by Bezalel, the Tablets remained in the ark which he had constructed and taken up to Mount Sinai with him.

ואפן וארד מן ההר, “I turned around and descended from the Mountain;” on the same day, on Tuesday, the tenth day of Tishrey. This is what is written in Exodus 34,29: ויהי ברדת משה מן ההר, “it happened while Moses was on his descent from the Mountain, etc.;” even though Moses had delayed briefly on the Mountain, he descended on that day and brought the second set of Tablets with him. This day is not included in the third 40 days that Moses had spent on the Mountain. Those forty days had already been completed at dawn of the day that Moses descended. Moses’ absences from the people, and his fasting, therefore commenced on Monday, the first day of Sivan, prior to the revelation on the sixth day of the month, as he had to completely discharge any remnants of food and drink consumed before he ascended the Mountain where he had to be comparable to angels who do not eat or drink. He therefore could remain in a constant state of ritual purity. He completed his fasting on Monday the ninth day of Tishrey. This is why it became a custom among some of our people to observe Mondays and Thursdays commencing with the first day of Sivan and concluding on the tenth day of Tishrey.

ואפן וארד מן ההר ואשים את הלוחות בארון אשר עשיתי, “I turned around and descended from the Mountain and placed the Tablets in the ark that I had constructed.” I did this immediately after descending from the Mountain . ויהיו שם, “they remained there.” Permanently. [This is a part of Moses’ admonition. The emphasis is not on the fact that these Tablets were received, but on the quasi secrecy with which they were received, and the fact that other than Moses no one had ever seen what was written on these Tablets. Had the first set of Tablets survived intact their presence after having been displayed by Moses would have been an ongoing reminder of the revelation at Mount Sinai. Partly based on Rabbi Avraham Sabba in his Tzror hamor. Ed.] כאשר צוני ה'. “As Hashem had commanded me.” G’d had commanded that some of His glory be present on earth in the camp of the Children of Israel.

And the children of Israel journeyed from Beeroth-bene-yaakan to Moserah; there Aaron died and was buried there, and Eleazar his son served in his place.

ובני ישראל נסעו מבארת בני יעקן מוסרה AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL JOURNEYED FROM BEEROTH OF THE CHILDREN OF JAAKAN TO MOSERA — What has this matter to do with what has been related here? Further: Did they indeed journey from Beeroth of the children of Jaakan to Mosera; did they not come from Mosera to Beeroth of the children of Jaakan, as it is said, (Numbers 33:31) “And they journeyed from Moseroth, [and they encamped in Bene Jaakan]”? And further: it states here, “There (at Mosera) did Aaron die”. But did he not die at Mount Hor? Go and count and you will find that there are eight stations from Mosera to Mount Hor! — But really this also is part of the reproof offered by Moses. In effect he said, “This, also, ye did: when Aaron died on Mount Hor at the end of forty years and the clouds of Divine Glory departed, ye feared war with the king of Arad and you appointed a leader that ye might return to Egypt, and ye turned backwards eight stages unto Bene Jaakan and hence to Mosera. There the sons of Levi fought with you, and they slew some of you, and you some of them, until they forced you back on the road along which you had retreated. From there (Mosera) ye returned to Gudgodah, — that is identical with Hor Hagidgod (Numbers 33:32).

AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL JOURNEYED FROM BEEROTH-BENE-YAAKAN TO MOSERAH. “Why does this matter belong here? Furthermore, did they indeed journey from Beeroth-bene-yaakan to Moserah; did they not come from Moserah to Bene-yaakan, as it is said, And they journeyed from Moseroth, and pitched in Bene-yaakan? And further, here it is said, there [in Moserah] Aaron died; but did he not die in Mount Hor? Go and count and you will find that there are eight journeys from Moseroth to Mount Hor! But really this is also part of the reproof [spoken by Moses, saying in effect]: ‘This also you did; When Aaron died in Mount Hor at the end of forty years [after the exodus] and the clouds of Divine Glory departed, you feared war with the king of Arad and you appointed a leader to return to Egypt and you turned backwards eight journeys until Bene-yaakan and from there [you continued] to Moserah [as stated here]. There the children of Levi fought you and slew some of you, and you [slew] some of them, until they forced you back the road [along which you had retreated]. From there [Moserah] you returned to Gudgod which is identical with Hor-hagidgad, and from Gudgod to Moserah. And at Moserah you made a great lamentation on account of the death of Aaron which brought this [retreat and subsequent battle with the Levites] upon you, and it [the sadness] was as if Aaron had died there [thus accounting for the verse which states: there — at Moserah — Aaron died]!’ Now Moses placed this reproof next to the [narrative about the] breaking of the Tablets in order to intimate that the death of the righteous is as grievous before the Holy One, blessed be He, as was the day on which the Tablets were broken, and to inform you that it was displeasing to Him what they said Let us make a captain [and return to Egypt] in order to break away from Him, as was the day when they made the calf. At that time the Eternal separated the tribe of Levi — this refers back to the first subject [of this chapter]. At that time, in the first year of your departure from Egypt when you sinned by worshipping the calf, but the sons of Levi did not sin, G-d separated them from you. This event is placed next to the retreat to Bene-yaakan [where, as explained earlier, the Levites showed faith and heroism] in order to intimate that in this matter, also, the sons of Levi did not sin but stood steadfast in their faith.” All this is the language of our Rabbi Shlomo [Rashi] from the words of Agadah. Now, Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra, [in order not to deviate from the literal meaning of the text by saying that they retreated backwards eight stages] found it necessary to say by way of the plain meaning of Scripture that “Beeroth-bene-yaakan [mentioned in the verse before us: and the children of Israel journeyed from Beeroth-bene-yaakan to Moserah] is not identical with Bene-yaakan [mentioned in Numbers 33:31] and Moserah [mentioned here] is not Moseroth [mentioned in Numbers 33:30], but Kadesh is called Beeroth-bene-...

"And the children of Israel journeyed from Beeroth-bene-jaakan to Moserah" — this verse is inserted here because [Moses] had said "and I prayed also for Aaron at that time," and [now he] states that Aaron did not die until the fortieth year. The proof that this is the meaning is that he said "at that time Hashem set apart the tribe of Levi" — and this occurred at Mount Sinai, as I explained in the portion of Vayedaber. Our early sages said that they [later] journeyed backward — but then what do we do with "there Aaron died and was buried there"? R. Isaac ibn Ghayat of blessed memory, the Spaniard, explained "there" as meaning "then," as in "from there He is the shepherd" — but there is no need for this. Rather, in my view, "Beeroth-bene-jaakan" is not [the same place as] Bene-jaakan, and "Moserah" is not [the same as] Moseroth; rather, Kadesh is called Beeroth-bene-jaakan, and the wilderness of Hor is called Moserah. Many [place names] are like this — do you not see that Scripture says "the wilderness of Shur" and in another verse "the wilderness of Etham"?

ובני ישראל נסעו , even though they had seen that the prayer of a righteous person may prove a protection for the members of his generation so that it is most appropriate to mourn his death, in this instance we find that the Israelites in their search for water journeyed on without delay, not a word being said about their taking time out to mourn the passing of Aaron. This is the meaning of the construction: “there Aaron died, was buried…and Eleazar became High Priest in his stead.” They neither took time out to mourn Aaron nor did they celebrate the appointment of a new High Priest, a position which made that person the interlocutor on their behalf. Rather, משם נסעו הגדגודה, to graze their sheep; ומן הגדגודה יטבת, ארץ נחלי מים, for all the locations mentioned had water which was adequate for the needs of their livestock. Still, they paid no heed to the damage they had incurred by the death of a righteous man such as Aaron, neither to his honour, nor to the dishonour they had caused themselves by allowing the passing of a man of such caliber to go by unnoticed. [Numbers 20,28-29 reports Aaron’s death as well as the fact that the entire community of Israel bewailed his death for thirty days. Ed.]

The Children of Israel journeyed from Beeroth-bene-jaakan, meaning do not say Aaron died at the Golden Calf affair at the beginning of the forty years and my[Moses] prayer didn't help him, because ultimately [as the pasuk shows us] Aaron died at the end of the forty years at Mount Hor at the same time as The Children of Israel journeyed from Beeroth-bene-jaakan after arriving there from Moserah.

ובני ישראל נסעו מבארות בני יעקן מוסרה, “and the Children of Israel journeyed from the wells of Beney Yakon to Mosserah.” Our sages in Jerusalem Talmud Sotah query this as the order of the journeys indicated that the people traveled in the reverse order, i.e. from Mosserah to Beney Yakon (Numbers 33,31). Another difficulty in this verse is the reference to Aaron having died there when we know that Aaron had died at Har Hahor. We find that there are 8 stations between Har Hahor and Mosserah. The correct interpretation of our verse is that although Aaron had died at Har Hahor and had been buried there, the eulogy and mourning for Aaron occurred at Mosserah, so that anyone watching this would have concluded that this was the place where Aaron died and was buried. This is also one of the rebukes of Moses versus the people. He reminded the people that at the end of 40 years when Aaron had died and as a result the protective cloud-cover they had enjoyed during all these years disappeared, they became afraid of the Canaanites, so much so that they had actually retraced their steps through the desert as far back as Mosserah. They had wanted to appoint for themselves a new leader who would lead them back to Egypt. Our sages in the Jerusalem Talmud Sotah explain that the Levites fought against the people who wanted to return to Egypt at that time and killed many of them. The reason that this paragraph appears next to that of the smashing of the Tablets is to teach us that the loss of Torah scholars is as great a loss for the Jewish people as the smashing of the Tablets was at the time. Our sages in Eychah Rabbati 1,39 interpreted Isaiah 29,14: “truly, I shall further baffle this people with bafflement upon bafflement; and the wisdom of its wise shall fail, and the prudence of its prudent shall vanish,” as describing the loss of its Torah scholars as twice as painful for the Jewish people as the destruction of The Temple. The word הפלאה (bafflement) occurs in the curses of Deuteronomy only in a single form. Only in Isaiah, when referring to the Torah scholars is the word repeated, i.e. is the absence of such Torah scholars described as the greatest possible affliction for the people.

And the Children of Israel traveled from Beeroth Benei-Yaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died. Rashi explains: Didn’t Aaron die at Mount Hor, etc.? There are several questions regarding this matter: First, if the intention is to inform us that they returned backwards from Mount Hor to Moserah, it should have said that they traveled from Mount Hor to Kadesh, etc., until Moserah. Why does it omit all the journeys and mention only that they traveled from Beeroth Benei-Yaakan to Moserah?Second, why is the term “Beeroth” [wells of] Benei-Yaakan mentioned here, while in Parashat Masei this language of “Beeroth” is not mentioned?Third, here [Rashi] concludes that they returned backwards eight journeys, while in Parashat Chukat, Rashi explains they returned seven journeys. Fourth, There Aaron died — Rashi explains that they conducted a eulogy there. Why specifically there in Moserah and not earlier?Fifth, what is the purpose of stating and Eleazar his son served as priest in his place, as this is not related to the rebuke. Sixth, From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Yotvata, a land of flowing water. Why is this encampment at Yotvata detailed more than all other encampments, and why are flowing waters mentioned here but not in Parashat Masei?Seventh, regarding the statement At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi — this separation occurred at the beginning of the 40 [years], so what is its relevance here?Eighth, regarding the statement and to bless in His name, to this day. To which day is He pointing to say to this day? And were they not set apart from then onwards?Ninth, Rashi’s explanation that the sons of Levi brought them back — from where did Rashi derive this interpretation? If it is a tradition, we will accept it. Tenth, Rashi’s explanation that “this teaches you that the death of the righteous is as difficult as the breaking of the Tablets” — but this entire section speaks of the second Tablets, and the phrase which you broke, that verse is not adjacent to Aaron’s death. Eleventh, Rashi’s explanation that “this day which they said let us appoint a head and return [to Egypt] was as difficult as the day they made the golden calf.” The calf was not mentioned at all, as it does not appear anywhere in this section. And now, incline your ear and listen, and I will explain all this with a small suggestion which we have already mentioned in the portion of Chukat (22) that when Miriam died, the water ceased, because every righteous person is comparable to a flowing spring as it says in Pirkei Avot (6:1), and one who does not eulogize them properly does not feel the absence of the source of living waters. Therefore, it is appropriate that their waters should fail. And so it happened to them upon Miriam’s death, as it is said And she died there and was buried there (Numbers 20:1). For there would be her burial immediately, and she was immediately forgotten like a dead person from the heart, and it is not said about her and they wept for her, which is evidence that they did not eulogize her, therefore the waters ceased. Similarly now, with Aaron’s passing, they were afraid of a lack of water, lest what happened after Miriam’s death would happen to them again. Additionally, the fear of the King of Arad came upon them, and out of fear they needed to turn back, and during this retreat there was also fear about water upon them, lest the well be lacking from them. Therefore, they made encampments in every place where they found water, even though during their forward journey they did not make encampments at water places because the journey was short. Nevertheless, during the return they made encampments there because the return was after Aaron’s death. And behold, between Moseroth and Bene Jaakan, there was a place called Beeroth [Wells] because there were many wells there, and it was not far from Bene Jaakan, such that the people of Bene Jaakan would drink from those wells. Therefore, the place was called “Beeroth Bene Jaakan,” meaning “the wells of Bene Jaakan,” which is evidence that Beeroth was close to Bene Jaakan. The journey was too short to make an encampment there. Therefore, when they traveled forward and not backward, they went in one journey from Moseroth to Bene Jaakan without making an encampment at Beeroth because the journey was too short to make an encampment there, and at that time they did not have a fear of lack of water before their eyes. But when they returned backward after Aaron’s death, out of fear of the king of Arad, they also made an encampment at Beeroth because they were afraid that perhaps the well would suddenly stop, as had happened at Miriam’s death. Therefore, there were eight journeys on the return, but on the forward journey, there were only seven. This is why he only mentioned in their return journey, They journeyed from Beeroth Bene Jaakan to Moseroth, because he intended to inform us only of this new development that they made an encampment at Beeroth, which they had not done on the forward journey. And when they came to Moseroth, a place that did not have enough water for their needs, and they were afraid of the well drying up, they went and eulogized Aaron as if he had died there, because they said that in the merit of the eulogy, they would be saved from the lack of the well. In this they sinned, as they did not take it to heart to eulogize him earlier because they relied on the place of Beeroth and Jotbathah, a land of water brooks, which was before them. The verse says, and Eleazar his son served as priest in his place, implying that they should not have feared the lack of water due to the righteous one’s passing, because whoever establishes a righteous son is as if he has not died (Bava Batra 116a). Even though Aaron died, the merit of his son remained to save them from the lack of water. Among his rebukes was that they still persisted in their rebellion and lacked faith, and they also made an encampment at Jotbathah afterward because it was a land of water brooks, implying that without this, they would not have made an encampment there. And what it says that the Levites returned them, etc., His proof is from what it says At that time God set apart the tribe of Levi. This certainly refers to the time of the making of the Golden Calf. But what does it mean when it says until this day? Rather, this is its interpretation: Although the Levites were chosen at the time of the Golden Calf incident and their merit is preserved for all generations, nevertheless, there was no need for that merit except until this day, but not including this day. Because on this day they did a good deed such that even if they had not been chosen for the service of God from the beginning, it would have been appropriate for them to be chosen from this day forward. And this is what is meant by they returned them backward from that crooked path that they had been walking on. And from the fact that we see that the reward of the Levites for what they did now is equated to what they did at the time of the Golden Calf, we can learn that this day on which they said Let us appoint a leader and return [to Egypt] was as severe as the day on which they made the Golden Calf. And similarly, what was explained that the death of the righteous is as difficult as the breaking of the Tablets, is clarified in this manner: Since it says and Eleazar his son served as priest in his place, and this is placed adjacent to the passage discussing the second Tablets, it implies that Eleazar his son stood in his place just as the second Tablets stood in place of the first ones that were broken. From this, we can understand that Aaron’s passing is comparable to the breaking of the Tablets, for knowledge of opposites is one. This comes to rebuke them in his reproofs for retreating due to fear of the king of Arad, when they should have trusted that Aaron’s merit would fight for them even after his death, just as we find that the Ark containing the broken Tablets would go out with them to battle. So too, the merit of the departed righteous person, who is compared to the broken Tablets, will stand for them even after his death, as Moses was not answered until he said, Remember Your servants Abraham, etc. According to this suggestion, this entire narrative serves as a rebuke for sin, and the entire matter is connected from beginning to end.

ובני ישראל נסעו מבארות בני יעקן, “The Children of Israel journeyed from Be-eroth-bney Yaakon.” Rashi, feeling the need to explain how this apparently unrelated verse fits in here, and posing the rhetorical question if these wells came to the place called Mosserah, explains the verse by following aggadic interpretations, saying that seeing this is where Aaron was mourned in style, it appeared to the people as if this was where he had died. Ibn Ezra, forever attempting to find a straightforward interpretation clearly suggested by the text, [author’s words, not mine. Ed.] is hard pressed saying the words בארות בני יעקן (of the descendants of Se-ir, Edom) were not places by the same name mentioned in Numbers [The name of this individual appears in the Bible three more times, in Chronicles I 1,42, in Numbers 33,31, and 32. Ed.] He claims that the place is the one we know as Kadesh. Similarly, according to Ibn Ezra, מוסרה mentioned here is not identical with the מוסרות mentioned in Numbers Only the “Kadesh” mentioned in Numbers 33,37 is identical with בארות בני יעקן. The name of the desert surrounding הר ההר is מוסרה. From that location the Israelites moved on to Gudgoda. Gudgoda is not the name of a mountain. It is a term for a region comprising Tzalmona, Punon, and Ovot. (Numbers 33, 31-42) Yotvata, is the place referred to as באר, as we know from Numbers This is also why it is described as ארץ נחלי מים, a land with brooks and rivulets providing water. The region responded favourably to water diviners. The verse (7) משם נסעו הגוגודה belongs with ויכהן אלעזר תחתחו “and Eleazar, his son, performed the priestly duties in his stead.” (6) I have already explained that after departing from Mount Sinai the (individual) Israelites no longer offered offerings on the Altar. [Ibn Ezra on Exodus ] It is possible that when arriving at Tzalmona they began to offer these sacrifices again and that is when Eleazar began his duties in practice. Perhaps on New Year’s Day, as well as on the Day of Atonement, these rites were performed. [In his commentary on Exodus 29,42 Ibn Ezra justifies the non-performance on most days with the non-availability of the requisite amounts of wine and olive oil, etc. Ed.] The justification for referring to Eleazar as performing his duties as his father’s successor at this point is that as a result of the golden calf episode the firstborn who up until that time had performed the priestly duties were exchanged for the Levites who had remained loyal, and among their various duties was the one to carry the Holy Ark on their shoulders during the journeys of the Israelites. Already in Numbers 6,23 Eleazar had blessed the people together with his father, i.e. had performed some priestly functions. Nachmanides refuses to accept any part of Ibn Ezra’s commentary on this subject (locations) declaring that the sudden emergence of locations that had not been mentioned in Parshat Massey is totally inadmissible. Furthermore, he sees nothing strange in locations appearing as having slightly different names on different occasions. He quotes numerous examples of this being the case. The Torah does so not only when referring to place names, but also when referring to the same people by different names. In this case where there is hardly any different between מוסרה and מוסרות, there is even less reason to “make a federal case” out of such nuances. He also sees nothing special about the variation from חור הגדגוד in Numbers 33,32, and הגדגודה in our verse here to justify looking for Ibn Ezra’s far-fetched stretching of the meaning of the text on these two occasions. He feels that the various locations mentioned here are so close to one another that they did not warrant separate mention in Numbers chapter 33. By allowing for the fact that the camp of the Israelites was about 12-15 kilometers in length, the front section had reached another location before the rearguard had even left it. He assumes that the people hardly moved more than 3 or 4 kilometers in an average day’s journey. When the Israelites journeyed sometimes for only a single day, they could easily have straddled both locations while encamped. He also argues that quite possibly, seeing mountains are named, the top of the mountain was named by a different name from the base of the same mountain, although both names fitted the same location. In a location known as חשמונה (Numbers 33,29) there were numerous wells in the field, collectively known as the wells of the sons of Yaakon, בארות בני יעקן, in order to water their flocks. The Israelites passed that region in their journeys and moved on to a place known as מוסרה. They encamped around the wells known as בארות בני יעקן, and remained there for some time. Moses singled out two places, Gudgoda and Yotvata as areas that were also well watered, skipping others which did not have much to commend them, seeing they had all been mentioned already in Parshat Massey. It is also possible that when Aaron ascended the mountain הר ההר to die there, a mountain that was facing the place known as מוסרה, that the people then moved back to Mosserah to mourn and eulogise Aaron in a manner befitting such a beloved leader. This is what is reported here when Moses writes that they journeyed from בארות יעקן to מוסרה, and that the notables of the people used these 30 days to each pay their respects to Aaron at his grave, ascending the mountain where he had died in order to do so. The Torah had not actually written that the people made camp in בארות בני יעקן. Once the thirty days of mourning were over, they moved on at greater speed all the way to Gudgodah. From there they moved to Yatvata The location was known as Yatvata on account of the abundant supply of drinking water in that region. This was by way of contrast with the desert of Tzin, which qualified for the description ציה וצמאון, completely devoid of water, a region in which one could only perish from thirst. The reason why Moses inserted reference to the death of Aaron at this juncture, may have been that he had already mentioned praying on behalf of Aaron who might have died many years earlier if not for Moses’ prayer. He wanted the people to know and to remember that if Aaron did not die until the fortieth year this was proof that that he had not been guilty of sin but died of old age. He did not die until his son Eleazar was sufficiently mature to become his successor. As to the formulation (verse 6) ובני ישראל נסעו, “the Children of Israel journeyed” (in the third person), as opposed to Moses speaking in these portions in direct speech i.e. “you have done,” “I have done, etc.,” Moses spoke to them in direct speech when he admonished them. Here he was merely relating some historical facts, without implying criticism of the people.

'ובני ישראל נסעו מבארות בני יעקן וגו, if you were to say to me that I told you that you prayed also on behalf of Aaron (Deut. 9.20) concerning what had happened in the first year of our wanderings, and in the meantime Aaron has died, so what good are your prayers? To such an argument Moses answered that Aaron did not die in the first year when, due to his participation in the golden calf, G’d had meant to kill him, but he only died at the end of these long years at Hor Hahar, at the time when we journeyed from Beerot Bney Yaakon. We had arrived there coming from Mosserot as mentioned in Numbers 33,31 from which we proceeded to Hor Hahar. שם מת אהרן, and not in connection with the people whom G’d killed as an aftermath of the sin of the golden calf. ויכהן אלעזר בנו תחתיו, by donning his father’s decorative priestly garments; he died in a manner which is dignified and even inspiring, at the command of G’d. This is the plain meaning of our verse, seeing that the Torah did not write “ובני ישראל נסעו מבארות בני יעקן ויחנו במוסרה. I explained these nuances in my commentary on Numbers 11,35 where the expression ויחנו is also absent after the line נסעו העם חצרות. Beerot Beney Yaakon is very close to Chatzerot. [in other words we have been given two points of reference for בני יעקן. Ed.].

ובני ישראל נסעו מבארות בני יעקן, and the Children of Israel had journeyed from Beer Yaakon;” according to the plain meaning of the text Mossera is not the same place as Mosserot in Numbers 33,3, and bney yaakon is not the same as yaakon in that chapter. Between these two locations was hor hahar where Aaron had died. The correct meaning of the text here is: the Children of Israel journeyed from beerot bney yaakon on the way to Mossera, and they encountered hor hahar on their journey, the place where Aaron died.

From there they journeyed to Gudgod, and from Gudgod to Jotbath, a land of streams flowing with water.

ומן הגדגדה וגו׳ AND FROM GUDGODAH [TO JOTBATH etc.] — And at Mosera you made a great mourning on account of the death of Aaron which was the cause of this your retreat, and it seemed to you as though he had died there” (Yerushalmi Sotah 1:10 at end; Mekhilta; cf. Midrash Tanchuma חקת and Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 17; see Rashi on Numbers 21:4). — Moses placed this reproof immediately after the mention of the breaking of the tablets to indicate that the death of the righteous is as grievous before the Holy One, blessed be He, as the day on which the tablets were broken, and to tell you that is was displeasing to Him when they said, (Numbers 14:4) “Let us set up a head (another god; see Rashi on that verse) in order to part from Him, as was the day on which they made the golden calf (Leviticus Rabbah 20:12).

"From there they journeyed to Gudgodah" — this is not the same as Hor-haggidgad; rather it is a general name [encompassing] Zalmonah, Punon, and Oboth. "And to Jotbathah" — this is the place called Beer, for it is written "and from there to Beer" — and this explains the phrase "a land of streams of water," for "the nobles dug it with their staffs and water came forth." This verse — "and from there they journeyed to Gudgodah" — is connected with "and Eleazar ministered as priest." I have already explained to you that Israel did not bring sacrifices after they departed from Mount Sinai; it is possible that they brought them when they came to Zalmonah and Punon, and that the beginning of Eleazar's service as High Priest was in those places, on Rosh Hashanah, and that he served at the place called Beer on Yom Kippur. The interpretation is thus: "And Eleazar ministered as priest" when they journeyed to such-and-such place. And why did Eleazar minister? Because Hashem set apart the tribe of Levi at the time of the worship of the calf to carry the ark, to stand before Hashem.

At that time Hashem set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem, to stand before Hashem to minister to Him, and to bless in His Name, to this day.

בעת ההוא הבדיל ה׳ וגו׳ AT THAT TIME THE LORD SEPARATED [THE TRIBE OF LEVI] — This is to be connected with the former narrative (that which speaks of the tablets of stone, ending at v. 5; vv. 6—8 which contain reference to Aaron’s death being interpolated for the reason given by Rashi); בעת ההוא AT THAT TIME accordingly means: In the first year of the Exodus from Egypt, when ye sinned by worshipping the golden calf, but the sons of Levi did not thus sin. — at that time God separated them from you. It places this verse in juxtaposition with the retreat to Bene Jaakon to tell you that in this matter also, the sons of Levi did not sin, but stood steadfast in their faith. לשאת את ארון TO BEAR THE ARK — [This was the function of] the Levites (such as were not כהנים). לעמד לפני ה׳ לשרתו ולברך בשמו TO STAND BEFORE THE LORD, TO MINISTER UNTO HIM AND TO BLESS IN HIS NAME — This (to bless in His Name) was the function of the priests and refers to the “raising of the hands” (a technical term for reciting the priestly benediction which is done with uplifted hands) (Arakhin 11a).

AT THAT TIME THE ETERNAL SEPARATED THE TRIBE OF LEVI. “This refers back to the first subject. At that time, in the first year of your departure from Egypt when you sinned by worshipping the calf and the sons of Levi did not sin, G-d separated them from you.” This is Rashi’s language. And if so, he is stating that from that time the sons of Levi were separated before Him, blessed be He [but only in thought], for He did not separate them in fact until the second year in the second month [after the first census which took place on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt]! Or it may be that he is alluding to what he said to them [at the affair of the calf], Consecrate yourselves today to the Eternal, for thereby you dedicate yourselves to the service of priests and Levites. The correct interpretation, it appears to me, is that the expression at that time means that the second [giving of the Tablets] was like the first. For, from the time He said to Moses Hew thee two Tablets of stone, He was reconciled with Israel, and Moses was instructed regarding the construction of the Tabernacle. Then He was reconciled also with Aaron, and Moses was commanded, and they shall make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, and his sons — to sanctify him — that he may minister unto Me in the priest’s office, and He further commanded him concerning the initiation [of the priests]. Therefore he said [here in Verse 6] that Eleazar ministered in the priest’s office in his father’s stead, since their anointing was to them for an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations. Moses regarded the separation of the entire tribe [of Levi — priests and Levites] as one matter [therefore he said here, At that time — when the second Tablets were given, even though only the priests were formally separated, it was equivalent to a designation of the entire tribe, with the formal designation of the Levites to come after the first census], for, from that day on it was [resolved] before Him that His tribe be wholly given unto Him to perform the service of the Tabernacle. Or perhaps he is saying that the tribe of Levi was separated at that time for the priests to be [chosen] from them, for they [i.e., the priests] also carried the ark. And so it is said, and he [Moses] delivered it [the Torah] unto the priests the sons of Levi; that bore the ark of the covenant of the Eternal, and they [the priests] are the ones who minister to G-d and bless in His Name [as the verse before us concludes]. And the meaning of the expression unto this day [at the end of this verse] is that it refers [back] to Eleazar’s ministering in the priest’s office [in Aaron’s stead — mentioned in Verse 6], as if saying: “then He separated them [the priests] to minister to Him, and it [so] was to this day” [i.e., the time when Moses spoke these words, that Eleazar served as High Priest].

"To serve Him" — the Levites together with the sons of Aaron. "And to bless in His name" — for Eleazar would lift his hands [in the priestly blessing].

בעת ההיא הבדיל, after G’d had already set aside the tribe of Levi as the tribe to perform the holy service in the Temple so that you are not deemed worthy for this task, my prayer was not effective enough except to prevent G’d from destroying you, so that He said to me: “arise and make them journey, and be in front of the people!” (verse 11) The expression is used in the same sense as in Numbers 10,2)

בעת ההיא הבדיל ה' את שבט הלוי, “at that time the Lord set the tribe of Levi apart;” this decree was issued while the people were still encamped around Mount Sinai. Moses acted upon that decree only after the Tabernacle had been erected, and it had assumed practical meaning. This would have been a number of months after he had received these instructions.

בעת ההיא הבדיל ה' את שבט הלוי, “At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi.” The time frame described by Moses is when the Israelites worshipped the golden calf. At that time G’d separated the Levites who had not taken part in that sin from the rest of the people. The reason that all this is mentioned in connection with Mosserah is that on that occasion, 40 years later, the tribe of Levi again distinguished itself by not participating in the plan to return to Egypt and by opposing it actively. לשאת את ארון ברית ה', “to carry the Ark of the Covenant with Hashem.” This refers to the Levites. לעמוד לפני ה' לשרתו, “to stand in front of the Lord to serve Him;” this refers to the Priests. ולברך בשמו, “and to bestow blessing in His name.” The priests were to bless the Israelites in Hashem’s name, as is written in Numbers 6,27 ושמו את שמי. עד היום הזה, “until this day.” Eleazar was pronouncing the blessing in lieu of his father Aaron who had died already at the time when Moses addressed the people. Eleazar had taken over all of his father Aaron’s functions as High Priest as is clear from verse 6 in our chapter.

בעת ההיא הבדיל ה' את שבט הלוי, “At that time Hashem set apart the tribe of Levi, etc.” According to Rashi, the “time” referred to by Moses was the episode of the golden calf. Nachmanides adds that if we accept Rashi’s comment it refers not to the actual setting apart of the tribe of Levi by Hashem, but to the time when Hashem made up His mind to do so. In fact, no action was taken until the second year in the second month. Alternately, what Rashi had in mind was Exodus 32,26-29, when Moses asked for volunteers to execute the people who had actively worshipped the golden calf as a deity. At that time only members of the tribe of Levi had responded to that call. Personally, (Nachmanides writing) I believe that the correct interpretation is that the words בעת ההיא which appear here a second time, refer to the same time as the first time Moses used this expression, (10,1) the time when Moses had been invited to carve out the Tablets for G’d to inscribe the second set of Ten Commandments upon. At the time when G’d became reconciled with His people, He did make some changers in the hierarchy of that people by appointing the Levites en masse to take over the functions previously reserved for the first born in each family. At that time G’d had also become reconciled to Aaron’s role in that tragic episode, and He commanded to make the special vestments for the High Priest which proclaimed to all the people that Aaron as well as his sons were held in high esteem by Hashem. At that time Moses had also been commanded to arrange for the seven days of consecration of the Tabernacle and the inauguration of the priests into their positions. This also enabled Moses to say that Eleazar became High Priest in place of his (deceased) father, as there was no need for him to be anointed first, seeing that the anointment to the priesthood, by the oil of anointment was for the members of that family something hereditary, and did not need to be renewed every time a new High Priest was appointed. The setting apart of the priests from the ordinary Levites, and the Levites from the other tribes of the Israelites, occurred simultaneously. Hashem had decided at the time of the episode of the golden calf that these changes were imperative for the development of the people as His people, and that is implied in the lineנתונים נתונים , that the Levites were, so to speak, placed at the disposal of the priests to assist them in their holy tasks. (Numbers 8,16-19) Another possible approach to the words בעת ההיא on this occasion, is that at that time Hashem decided to set apart the priests from the remainder of the tribe of Levi, in that they too were allowed to carry the Holy Ark. [only the descendants of Kehat, one of the families of the tribe of Levi, had qualified for that privilege, anyways. Ed.] We have proof that the priests did carry the Holy Ark from Deut. 31,9 ויכתוב משה את התורה הזאת ויתנה אל הכהנים בני לוי הנושאים את ארון ברית ה', “Moses wrote down this Torah and gave it to the priests, the members of the tribe of Levi, who carried the Ark of the covenant of Hashem.” They are the ones who would perform the sacrificial service and bless the people in the name of Hashem. עד היום הזה, “until this day.” Moses added this on account of Eleazar the new High Priest, and it is as if he had written “then Hashem set apart the tribe of Levi, etc., etc., a condition which remains in force till his day.”

בעת ההיא הבדיל ה' את שבט הלוי, the time Moses refers to is that of the sin of the golden calf when the latter had found grace in the eyes of the Lord. (compare Exodus 32,26) ולברך בשמו this refers only to the priests who are to bless the rest of the Israelites.

בעת ההיא, at that time, i.e. when the golden calf had been made, as I explained earlier. הבדיל ה' את שבט הלוי, “the Lord separated the tribe of the Levites,” in order for it to serve the Lord specifically. The reason was that that entire tribe had not participated in the sin of the golden calf. This is what the prophet Ezekiel referred to in Ezekiel 44,15: והכנים הלויים בני צדוק אשר שמרו את משמרת מקדשי בתעות בני ישראל מעלי, המה יקרבו אלי לשרתני, “but the Levite-kohanim- descendants of Tzadok, who safeguarded the charge of My Sanctuary when the Children of Israel strayed from Me, etc., they will draw near to Me to serve Me.” As a result of the Levites having been appointed to become G–d’s share and inheritance on earth, they did not receive ancestral land in the Holy Land, [they would not have had time to work it, anyway Ed.] If you will therefore ask how they would support themselves economically, the answer is that G–d commanded the landowners to give 10% of their crops to the Levites and they were allocated a number of cities in the land of Israel for their exclusive use, houses with gardens attached for growing vegetable. (48 such cities)

Therefore Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers; the gifts that Hashem gave him — they are his inheritance, just as Hashem your God spoke to him.

על כן לא היה ללוי חלק WHEREFORE LEVI HATH NO PORTION — because they have been singled out for the service of the altar (v. 8), and therefore were not free to plough and sow. ה' הוא נחלתו THE LORD IS HIS INHERITANCE — he receives his daily fare ready for him from the King’s house (from the Temple; the dues from the sacrifices, etc.).

WHEREFORE LEVI HATH NO PORTION. The purport thereof is that because they all [i.e., the Levites] minister to and assist the priests in their [Divine] Service, since every part of the Sanctuary pertained to the offerings, [therefore, the whole tribe of Levi was not free to devote itself to the cultivation and development of the Land; therefore they received no portion therein]. And so He said [to Aaron], And thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou near with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee.

"Hashem is his inheritance" — as in the sense of "Hashem is my allotted portion and my cup." And this is the service of Hashem: learning His ways.

And I stood on the mountain as in the first days — forty days and forty nights — and Hashem accepted my prayer; even at that time Hashem was not willing to destroy you.

ואנכי עמדתי בהר AND I REMAINED ON THE MOUNT to receive the last (second) tablets. — Since it does not state above (v. 2) how long he remained on the mount at this last ascent, he begins again with it (with that incident). כימים הראשנים AS THE FORMER DAYS — those of the first tablets. How was it with those? They were passed in God’s goodwill! So these, too, were passed in God’s goodwill. But the intervening forty days when I remained there to pray for you were passed in God’s anger (Seder Olam 10; cf. Rashi on Deuteronomy 9:18).

AND I STAYED IN THE MOUNT. In the opinion of our Rabbis Moses is stating that he remained on the mountain when he ascended there with the [second] two Tablets in his hand, according to the first days of the first Tablets, forty days and forty nights, and the Eternal hearkened unto me that third time also [as] when the Eternal passed by before him, and proclaimed: ‘The Eternal, the Eternal, G-d, merciful, etc.,’ and Moses requested of G-d, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Thine inheritance, and He submitted and said [in Verse 11], Arise, go before the people, causing them to set forward, that they may go in and possess the Land. It is this which is stated, and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the Eternal that I am about to do with thee, that it is tremendous. THE ETERNAL WOULD NOT ‘DESTROY’ THEE. The meaning thereof is that He did not want to prevent you from entering and possessing the Land, similar in meaning to the verse, He will yet again leave them in the wilderness, and so ye will ‘destroy’ all this people. And by way of the Truth, [the mystic teachings of the Cabala], he is stating that He [the Eternal] did not want the destruction to be from Him, so that His Great Name no [longer] be with you. I have already alluded to this subject in the section of Ki Thisa.

"And I stood on the mountain" — I have already explained this.

גם בפעם ההוא, “also on that occasion.” He did so with a friendly mien. He did so in order that the Holy name should not become desecrated, as I had said in my prayer. (Deut. 9.28) However, once you will have defeated the thirty one Canaanite kings and you have taken over their land, if you would commence to sin again, even prayers would not help, as in the meantime G-d had demonstrated that He had kept His part of the bargain, i.e. that He had not been too weak to overcome those nations. The people then would ask why disaster had overtaken the Jews (Compare Deut. 29,23) and they would conclude that it had been their fault, not that of their G-d. כימים הראשונים, “as on the first occasion;” forty days and nights on each occasion, from dawn on the twenty ninth of Av until dawn on the tenth of Tishrey.

ואנכי עמדתי בהר כימים הראשונים ארבעים יום, “and I stood on the mountain just as during the earlier days, for forty days.” The Torah compared the last forty days to the first forty days; just as the people enjoyed G’d’s grace during Moses’ first sojourn on the mountain so they enjoyed His goodwill during these last 40 days that Moses spent on the mountain. This teaches that the second time Moses spent forty days on the mountain G’d was angry at the people. Moses had to keep praying for 40 days to overcome G’d’s anger on account of the sin of the golden calf.

ואנכי עמדתי בהר, “and I had stayed on the Mountain;” in preparation of receiving the second set of Tablets after G–d had inscribed them; all the time pleading further for G–d to forgive His people’s sin completely. וישמע ה' אלי גם בפעם ההיא, “the Lord listened to me also on that occasion;” he completed the process of completely pardoning the people. On the Day of Atonement He uttered the words: סלחתי כדבריך, “I have forgiven in accordance with your words.” This is why this day has been designated annually as Yom Kippur, the anniversary of the original forgiveness, and the completion of the process of forgiving our sins which commences on New Year’s day. Moses had to wait on the Mountain for forty days, and by Yom Kippur it had been one hundred and twenty days since the day that the people had danced around the golden calf. The first time Moses ascended Mount Sinai was on the seventh day of Sivan, the day after G–d had revealed the Ten Commandments. He ascended in order to receive the Ten Commandments in Tablet form, and he was taught the whole Torah during the forty days that he spent on the mountain. He descended on the seventeenth day of Tammuz, on the day he smashed the Tablets. On the following day he ascended again in order to plead for forgiveness for the people. (Compare Deut. 9,18) These 40 days were completed on the twenty eighth day of the month of Av. G–d then instructed him to hew out the stones for the second set of Tablets, and he ascended again on the twenty ninth day of that month. At that time Moses told the people that the following day would be the 30th day of Av, and that it would already be considered as the Rosh Chodesh for the month of Ellul, combined with the day following, officially known as the first of Ellul. On that day the people were to start blowing the shofar daily so that they would not miscalculate the day on which he would return from the mountain as they had done the first time which resulted in the catastrophe of the golden calf. The Jewish people, in commemoration of this, still blow the shofar starting on the first day of Ellul, i.e. actually the thirtieth day of the month of Av, for a total of forty days. The forty days are made up as follows: 1 day in the month of Av, 29 days in the month of Elull and 10 days in the month of Tishrey, concluding on Yom Kippur, the tenth day of that month. It became the norm ever since that the Rosh Chodesh of the month of Ellul is observed for two days. It was on the tenth day of Tishrey that G–d said to Moses that He had forgiven the sin of the golden calf, so that Moses descended from the mountain on the following day. The seventeenth day of the month of Tammuz during that year had occurred on a Thursday. Passover and the seventeenth day of Tammuz always occur on the same day of week. In the Talmud, tractate Shabbat folio 87, Rabbi Akiva is on record as having said that that the original Passover on which the Jewish people left Egypt also occurred on a Thursday. In light of this, the first set of Tablets had been given to Moses on a Thursday and New Year’s day was on the Sabbath, which means that Yom Kippur was on a Monday. In other words the first set of Tablets was given on a Thursday and the second set on a Monday, so that both these days of the week share the same distinction. This may have been the reason why Ezra decreed that there be a public reading of the Torah on both of these days of the week. This may also have been hinted at in Isaiah 55,6 in the first two letters of the word בהיותו, i.e. בה, these letters symbolising the second and fifth day of the week, respectively The prophet in that verse speaks about when it is especially appropriate to offer prayers, i.e. when G–d is closer to us than usual. On these days the court is also in session. Rabbi B’chor Shor sees in Leviticus 19,15: בצדק תשפוט עמיתך, “but in righteousness shall You judge your fellowmen,” an allusion to the planet Jupiter, tzedek, which is prominent in both the mazzalot during the night from Sunday to Monday and during the first hour of Thursday according to an explanation in the Talmud tractate Shabbat, folio 119. [My almost total ignorance of astrology and how it dominates the fates of the gentile nations, cautions me not to go into greater detail about this. Suffice it to say that the fate of Jews is not dependent on such constellations at any time. Ed.]

And Hashem said to me: Arise, go, to lead before the people, and they shall enter and possess the land that I swore to their fathers to give to them.

ויאמר ה' אלי וגו׳ AND THE LORD SPAKE TO ME, [ARISE, GO ON THE JOURNEY BEFORE THE PEOPLE] — Although you had turned away from Him and had sinned by worshipping the golden calf, yet He said to me, (Exodus 32:34) “Go, lead the people”.

"To journey" [lāset] — a verbal noun [infinitive].

ויבואו ויירשו את הארץ אשר נשבעתי, if not for G’d’s oath you would not have merited to inherit it due to your excessive rebelliousness.

קום, לך למסע, “arise go to make the people go;” this is a reminder of Exodus 32,34: נחה את העם, “lead the nation!”

And now, Israel, what does Hashem your God require of you? Only to fear before Hashem your God, to walk in all the ways that are upright before Him, to love Him, and to serve before Hashem your God with all your heart and with all your soul —

ועתה ישראל AND NOW, O ISRAEL, [WHAT DOTH THE LORD THY GOD ASK OF THEE] — Although you did all this, yet His mercy and His love are extended over you, and in spite of all that you sinned against Him, He asks nothing of you EXCEPT TO FEAR [THE LORD YOUR GOD, etc.]. כי אם ליראה וגו׳ EXCEPT TO FEAR [THE LORD YOUR GOD, etc.]. — Our Rabbis derived from this (“and now, what does God ask from you”) that everything is in the hands of God except the fear of God (Berakhot 33b).

WHAT DOTH THE ETERNAL THY G-D REQUIRE OF THEE. This is connected with the expression [in the following verse] for thy good. He is stating: “He does not require anything of you for His sake, only for your sake,” similar in meaning to the verse, If thou be righteous, what givest thou Him? Rather, it is all for your good. And he stated the reason for it, because unto the Eternal thy G-d belongeth the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, the earth, with all that therein is, all giving glory to His Name and He is not in need of you. Only the Eternal delighted in thy fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you, above all peoples, for you are the chosen of their seed, not Ishmael nor Esau.

ועתה ישראל, seeing that this is the situation as of now, it is up to you to try and repair the damage caused by your iniquities from here on in. First and foremost, try and be clear about what it is that the Lord asks of you, expects of you: מה ה' אלוקיך שואל מעמך, He does not ask these things because He is in need of them, seeing the whole earth and all of the celestial regions are all His. כי אם ליראה, you can do this by simply realising His greatness; ולאהבה אותו, this will also be a natural result if only you reflect on all the goodness you have experienced at His hand. לטוב לך, all of this G’d asks only for your own good, so that you will qualify for eternal life in the hereafter.

ועתה ישראל…כי אם ליראה, And now, Israel, …except to revere the Lord, etc." The thrust of this verse has to be understood along the following lines. We know that there are two different levels of serving G'd, 1) to serve Him out of fear, 2) to serve Him out of love. Moses tells the people that what G'd asks is only that they serve Him out of fear. The reason that G'd is satisfied with this level of service is because fear is an all-embracing emotion. When a person is afraid of the consequences of doing wrong he will make certain that he does not do anything wrong. Moreover, fear, i.e. reverence for G'd is a forerunner of love for G'd. Moses hints at this when he prefaces the verse with the word ועתה, "and now." He means that whereas for now, initially, all that G'd asks for is for you to fear Him, there will come a time when you will do more than that, i.e. to love Him. Once we approach this verse from this angle we can also understand the rhetorical "what is it that G'd asks…only that you fear Him." To the question that fearing the Lord is surely not such an easy thing, Moses implies that once you will have advanced to serving the Lord out of love you will realise that serving Him out of fear was really something minor by comparison. In absolute terms, serving the Lord out of fear is something very great indeed; in relative terms, i.e. after graduating to serving Him out of love, it is only a minor accomplishment. This is the best way to understand what we have been taught in this connection in Megillah 25: "is then serving G'd out of fear something so minor? This verse may also be understood as an opening for תשובה, penitence, by the person who transgresses one of G'd's commandments claiming that he simply does not understand why G'd wants him to keep such a commandment. Moses answers such a person by telling him "and now." According to Bereshit Rabbah 21,6 the word עתה always is an opening for man to repent a sin. [The verse under discussion in that Midrash is Genesis 3,22 when G'd justifies expelling Adam from the garden of Eden. Ed.] According to that approach the words ועתה מה ה׳ אלוקיך שואל מעמך mean that G'd makes it very easy for us to become penitent. All we have to do is to demonstrate fear of the Lord. When we demonstrate such an attitude towards G'd He will be pleased with us already. Moses continues ללכת בכל דרכיו "to walk in all His paths;" this can be understood in accordance with Vayikra Rabbah 21,5 that if you have committed a string of violations try and compensate for this by performing a string of commandments. Maimonides writes in his commentary on the Mishnah at the end of tractate Makkot that a person who has not angered G'd [by transgressing any negative commandment Ed.] will acquire merit both in this world and in the Hereafter as long as he performs a single commandment. Thus far Maimonides. I have compared the matter to two servants of a king, one of whom has never caused his monarch to be angry at him, and who now v...

ועתה ישראל מה ה' אלו-היך שואל מעמך כי אם ליראה את ה’ אלו-היך, ללכת בכל דרכיו, ולאהבה אותו, ולעבוד את ה' אלו-היך בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך, “and now, what does the Lord your G’d ask of you except to revere the Lord your G’d, and to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul.” Moses sums up that in spite of the fact that you have annoyed G’d so many times both at Chorev and in the desert, He is prepared to forgive you on the understanding that from now on you will display reverence for Him. Nachmanides writes that this verse is a long verse continuing until the end of verse 13 in our text, i.e. including the words לטוב לך, “for your benefit.” The message is that G’d does not require obeisance, service, love, reverence for His sake, but all of these requests are for your benefit. We have repeatedly explained the concept that seeing G’d owns the universe and all there is in it there is nothing that a creature can do to enhance His well being. Our sages in Menachot 43 use the words 'מה ה' to derive from here the requirement for each person to recite 100 benedictions daily. They read the words מה ה' שואל as מאה ה' שואל, “the Lord asks for one hundred (benedictions)”. The verse contains 99 letters. If you add the missing letter א to make up the word מאה, you will have 100 letters. We have another verse in Psalms 128,4 הנה כי כן יבורך גבר ירא ה', “this is the way a G’d-fearing man is to bless the Lord.” The numerical value of the combined words כי כן is 100. David introduced the rule to recite 100 blessings a day. It had been forgotten in the course of centuries until the Men of the Great Assembly reintroduced the practice

“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear [Him].” The Sages said (Berakhot 33b), “Is fear a small matter? Yes, for Moses it is a small matter.” They question here: And is it for that reason that he said to all of Israel what does the Lord ask of you, [as if it were a small thing for them]? Some explain that “for Moses” means when Israel was with Moses, who was guiding them in the attribute of fear, then it was a small matter. But I say that this is the intention of the verse when it says, And now, Israel. What is [the significance of] “now”? It is because it is said afterward, And you shall know today that it is not your children who have not known and have not seen the discipline of the Lord your God, etc., and the entire narrative until your eyes have seen all the acts of the Lord, etc. This is the explanation: If I had asked for fear from your children who will rise after you, who have not seen all the awesome things that the Lord did so that His fear would be upon their faces, then certainly I would be asking for a great thing, because it is certainly difficult to bring a person under the yoke of fear, for it is great. However, and now, meaning this generation — you have seen (Jeremiah 2:31), for with your eyes you have seen all the awesome things that God did so that they would fear before Him, and you are already accustomed to the attribute of fear. Therefore, and now, in this context, it is a small request that the Lord asks of you. And this is what they meant by “for Moses” — this refers to the generation of the wilderness who were in Moses’ time; for them, fear was certainly a small matter. And from fear, one will come to the level of love, as it says, and to love Him. And it concludes for your good, meaning the receiving of reward, as Rashi explained. And it mentions this at the end to say that the reward will ultimately come by itself, and that the initial intention of your actions should not be for the sake of receiving a reward.

ועתה ישראל מה ה' אלוקיך שואל מעמך כי אם ליראה, “And now, what is it that the Lord tour G’d asks of you, except to be reverent?” Nachmanides writes that the word ועתה, “and now,” is a continuation of what is written at the end of verse 13 לטוב לך “for your benefit.” In other words, Moses wants the people to understand that any demands made by Hashem on His people are never motivated by what is “good for Him,” but by what is good for His people. The route may be a little circuitous, i.e. when the Jew, by obedience to G’d, demonstrates a degree of reverence for Him, then all the commandments he performs will turn out to be for his benefit. As proof that performance by the Jewish people of these commandments cannot be designed to benefit the Creator, Moses reminds the people

ועתה ישראל, מה ה' אלוקיך שאל ממך, “and now, Israel, what is it the Lord your G–d asks of you, etc.;” the list that follows comprises all aspects of life, so that it is hard to understand Moses as portraying G–d’s demands upon us as something trivial. According to one view, this question refers only to the last item in the list, i.e. “G–d asks us to do only what is clearly of benefit for us and is good for us and the observance of which will result in our earning a great reward.” However, our sages in the Talmud tractate B’rachot, folio 33 are clearly disturbed by such an interpretation. This is why they distinguish between ordinary folks like ourselves, and Moses, and state that what appeared as relatively easy in Moses’ eyes concerning himself, is a great deal more difficult for the ordinary Jew. Different sages dealing with the same problem arrive at a different conclusion by saying that the opportunity that G–d gave us by our earning merits through the recital of 100 benedictions on each day is what makes it so easy to accumulate all those merits. They arrive at this by not understanding the word מה in our verse as meaning: “what,” but as מאה, “one hundred,” the Torah alluding to how easy it is to accumulate one hundred merit points daily. (Compare Talmud, tractate Menachot, folio 43.) Our author tries to reinforce this daring interpretation by reminding us that whereas the numerical value of the word מה when we read the aleph bet from right to left, adds up to 45, when we read it from left to right these two letters appear as יץ in the matching (corresponding) sequence, and then add up to 100. Some, much later commentaries, such as Tur, Or Hachayim, chapter 46, state that King David, 500 years earlier than Ezra, who had introduced public Torah reading on Mondays and Thursdays, decreed the need to recite one hundred benedictions daily; he bases himself on Samuel II chapter 23,1 according to which 100 men in David’s army died daily and he did not know why, so that he introduced the rule to recite these benedictions to ward off the cause for these mysterious deaths. The numerical value of the word על which follows the word הוקם in that word is 100. and it is reported that the plague that killed one hundred people every day ceased forthwith, i.e. as soon as the people started reciting 100 benedictions daily. There is another interesting source for the benefit of the recital of 100 benedictions daily, which is derived from a verse in Psalms 128,4: הנה כי כן יבורך גבר, “so shall the man who fears the Lord be blessed,” the last four words of this line, seeing that the word has been spelled defectively, i.e. יברך, have a numerical value of 100, were the reason for the inclusion of the benediction מודים אנחנו לך, “we give thanks to You,” in the daily amidah prayer which we recite three times daily at least. We bow down while reciting this benediction. The source of bowing down when reciting these words is found in Samuel I 15,30 where King Sha-ul, after having been rebuked by the prophet Samuel for failing to have killed Agag, the King of the Amalekites, confesses to having sinned and bows down, והשתחויתי לה' אלוקיך, “I prostrated myself bowed down to the Lord your G–d; .Targum Yonathan translates the word והשתחויתי there as meaning: “I have given thanks.” The fact is that we do not prostrate ourselves during the daily amidah prayer when reciting the prayer beginning with the word מודים. The reason may be because the numerical value of the letters in that word is 100. This is another allusion to the fact that reciting 100 benedictions daily is appropriate or mandatory for each one of us. Or, the sages teach us that if one thanks the Lord daily in a proper fashion this is equivalent to having recited one hundred benedictions daily. In other words, it is equivalent to prostrating oneself. This has been attested to by a Rabbi Boon, in the Jerusalem Talmud [I have not found the quote, perhaps it is inaccurately quoted. Ed.]

to observe the commandments of Hashem and His statutes that I command you today, so that it may be well with you.

'לשמר את מצות ה TO KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE LORD — and this, too, not unrequited, but לטוב לך FOR THY GOOD — that you should receive a reward for doing so.

Behold, to Hashem your God belong the heavens and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it.

הן לה׳ אלהיך BEHOLD, UNTO THE LORD THY GOD BELONGS the whole Universe (“the heavens … and the earth and all that therein is”), and yet רק באבתיך חשק ה׳ ONLY IN THY FATHERS DID THE LORD TAKE PLEASURE.

הן לה' אלוקיך השמים...והארץ, the fact that He owns the entire universe is convincing proof that whatever He asks of you is only for your own good, not for His, seeing that He has everything. The phenomena in the heavens and on earth are indestructible, permanent, and if you observed that at times they performed out of character to their nature, this was only because I, G’d, made them perform so in your interest. However, G’d was fond of your forefathers

הן לה' אלו-היך השמים ושמי השמים הארץ וכל אשר בה, “Behold! the heaven and the heaven of the heavens belong to the Lord your G’d, the earth and all that is thereon.” I believe that if all the verse was supposed to tell us was the superiority of the people of Israel over all the other nations, it would have been enough to simply write: “the earth and all that is thereon belongs to the Lord your G’d; however He took special liking to your forefathers, etc.“ There would have been no need to mention “the heaven and the heaven of the heavens.” It is more likely that this verse wanted to drive home the point that although G’d owns all the three regions mentioned in our verse, He considers the earth as the most important region. We have clear evidence of this already in the story of creation in Genesis when the functions of the luminaries in the heaven are defined as providing light for the earth (Genesis 1,14). The verse means that although the planetary systems are very powerful creations, the reason they were created was only to enhance earth and life on earth. Even though the scientists of our day do not accept this opinion, we are bound by our Torah and tradition. Our sages are on record that “the righteous on earth are greater than the ministering angels” (Sanhedrin 93). We find similarly that David writes: הודו על ארץ ושמים וירם קרן לעמו, “His splendor covers earth and heaven; He has exalted the horn of His people for the glory of His faithful ones, Israel.” The psalmist means that G’d has elevated the people of Israel above all creatures in the universe both in heaven and on earth. We have another verse in Psalms 103, 20-22 in which the psalmist urges the following order: “bless the Lord, His angels, the mighty creatures, the ones who carry out His bidding; bless the Lord all of His hosts, His servants, the ones who perform His will. Bless the Lord, all of His (works) through the length and breadth of His realm.” David lists the worlds in descending order reserving the title “His works” for the terrestrial part of the universe. In other words: “terrestrial earth comprises all His works.” Tanchuma Vayikra 1, in commenting on Yoel 2,11 says that the words כי רב מאד מחנהו, “that His camp is indeed very great,” refer to the ministering angels, whereas the words וכי עצום עושי דברו, “and powerful are those who do His bidding,” are a reference to the people of Israel. We have further proof from discussions of the philosophers who ask why a planet constantly describes the same repetitive orbit? If it has achieved its purpose, why does it keep repeating the same motion? Its motion, its orbit has then become a wasted effort. If it has still not achieved its mission after endless orbits, what good are its orbits? If it had really achieved something visible, how come we do not notice that our lives are constantly becoming more pleasant due to these efforts? The philosophers answer this seemingly unanswerable question by saying that these orbits of the planets are required in order to ensure the continued existence the “lower” world, i.e. man on this terrestrial earth. This proves that even the scientists admit that man is the focal and pivotal creature in the universe. Once you admit it, it is a small step to understanding that all the seven fixed stars have as their purpose to guide our globe in such a way that it does not come to harm, that the laws of nature operate satisfactorily. However if you were to argue that the eighth and ninth star (planet) perform an independent function and have not been created for the sake of our globe there is no merit to such an argument. The fact is that all the planets are much like the skins around the onion, earth being the kernel, the innermost and most precious part, requiring the protection of all these outer layers. The orbital motions of each one of these layers is determined by the orbit of the planet closest to it. [The author continues in this vein citing allusions from Scripture, etc. Seeing all of this is pre-Corpernicus astronomy there is little point in pursuing these “philosophical” musings further. The same applies to the interpretation of “heaven” and “heaven” of heavens” respectively. Ed.] ... [...] A kabbalistic approach understands the words רק באבותיך חשק ה' as an allusion to the souls of the patriarchs as having been derived from higher emanations such as חסד גבורה, and תפארת respectively This is why upon their deaths the patriarchs became part of the מרכבה, the carriers of G’d’s Shechinah as if they and the emanations from which their souls had evolved were one and the same thing. This, of course, would account for the extraordinary degree of fondness of G’d for these patriarchs as described in our verse. This would also account for G’d’s close relationship with the descendants of these patriarchs.

“Behold, to the Lord your God belong the heavens, etc., only in your forefathers did the Lord delight.” The word only comes to exclude the heavens and the heaven of heavens, that in all of them the Lord did not delight, but rather in your forefathers, according to the view of the Sages of Truth who said that the righteous are greater than the works of heaven and earth, and they agreed to say that all were created for the sake of man. This is not like the view of Rambam who wrote that man is the primary creation in the lower realms but has no comparison with the higher realms. And according to Rambam’s reasoning, there is room to interpret this verse that the entire narrative continues from what was written and you shall love the stranger, etc. because God desires that you cling to converts even though they are lowly, nevertheless from Him, blessed be He, you shall see and so shall you do. For behold, to the Lord your God belong the heavens, etc., and despite His great exaltedness, nevertheless, only in your forefathers did the Lord delight even though they were lowly in comparison to the heavenly beings who are close to God. And furthermore, He gave a second proof that the Lord your God is the God of gods, etc. and even so, He executes justice for the orphan and widow and loves the stranger. And from this verse Rabbi Yochanan said: Wherever you find the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be He, there you find His humility, etc. (see Megillah 31a). And from these two premises, he derived the conclusion that says and you shall love the stranger. However, there is still a need to examine closely, what is meant by only with your forefathers did God desire and choose their offspring after them, why did it make two divisions, and furthermore that desire is not the same as selection as explained above at the end of Parashat Va’etchanan (7:7). This implies that the word only refers to what follows, and comes to say that only with your forefathers alone did God desire with complete desire and love, but not with you; rather, He chose their offspring from all the peoples. That is to say, in comparison to the other nations, you appear good, because the term “choosing” can apply even to something that is not good in itself, except that it is better than others. Therefore it says, And He chose their offspring after them, you. For this deficiency depends on you, therefore circumcise the foreskin of your hearts, etc. so that you may reach the level of your forefathers.

הן לה' אלוקיך השמים, ושמי השמים, הארץ וכל אשר בה “Here the heaven, the most remote regions of heaven even, the earth and all that is therein, etc.” Seeing that He owns it all, and that ownership confers tremendous glory upon Him, how could He be in need of your contributions for His sake rather than for yours?

Yet only in your fathers did Hashem delight, to love them, and He chose their children after them — you — from among all the peoples, as it is this day.

בכם [AND HE CHOSE …] YOU, even as you see yourselves the object of His pleasure מכל העמים, כיום הזה MORE THAN ALL OTHER PEOPLES THIS DAY.

AS IT IS THIS DAY. The meaning thereof is that thus it will be with their seed forever [that they will be His chosen ones]. I have already explained the terms “delight” and “choosing.” And the expression the heaven of heavens refers to the spherical bodies of the four elements [fire, water, earth and air] which are in the potential of the heavens below them, similar to what is said, the earth, with all that therein is. And so it is said in the psalm: Praise ye the Eternal from the heavens; praise Him in the heights, and continues to mention His angels, His host, and the stars of light, and afterwards, Praise Him, ye heaven of heavens.

"And He chose their seed" — and they are you; this is the sense of "in you."

רק באבותיך חשק, and this is why He performed miracles which interfered with natural law; these miracles were for your benefit, but were orchestrated only because of His fondness for them. Clearly, G’d’s purpose must have been that there should arise on earth someone even more perfect than any other creature, i.e. a perfect human being, one that realises his full potential, will resemble Me to the maximum extent that a creature can resemble its Creator, i.e. בצלמנו כדמותנו (Genesis 1,26).

כיום הזה, as of this day. Moses means that the Jewish people are a worthy community as he had already testified in Deut. 4,4 that "you all cleaved to G'd and stayed alive." The message is that were it not for that merit, the mere fact that they were the descendants of the patriarchs whom G'd had liked would not have helped them if they had been wicked. The best proof for the truth of this statement is the fact that Ishmael, also a son of Abraham, or Esau, a son of Isaac and a grandson of Abraham were not chosen and only some of the descendants of Isaac developed into the Jewish people. (compare Nedarim 31).

ויבחר בזרעם אחריהם, בכם, He chose their seeds after them, i.e. “whom did He choose” “you;” this is the meaning of the verse, as Rashi explains, based on the prefix ב in the word בכם. You, i.e. your generation, are the generation of the patriarchs’ seed that He has chosen. Rashi focuses on the words: כיום הזה, “as of now,” at the end of our verse.

רק באבותיך חשק ...ויבחר בזרעם, “Only your forefathers did Hashem cherish, to love them, so that He chose their offspring, etc.” Moses means that the Jewish people are the choicest of their forefathers’ offspring, as opposed to Ishmael, Avraham’s sons from Ketura, and Esau. ביום הזה, “as of this day.” This is a formula meaning that what is true and applicable on this day concerning this subject, will continue to remain true and applicable.

Remove then the dullness of your heart, and stiffen your neck no more.

ערלת לבבכם [YE SHALL CIRCUMCISE] THE FORESKIN OF YOUR HEART — This means: ye shall remove the closure and cover that is on your hearts, [which prevent My words gaining entrance to them] (cf. Rashi on Exodus 6:12 and Leviticus 19:23).

CIRCUMCISE THEREFORE THE FORESKIN OF YOUR HEART — that your heart be open to know the truth, not as you have done to this day, for the Eternal hath not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear [unto this day]. AND BE NO MORE STIFFNECKED — that you be not as your fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, because they dwelled with the Egyptians and learned their works, and were obdurate about discarding their ways as [shown by the fact] they made the [golden] calf, and He called them there it is a stiffnecked people, meaning that they will not disavow the mistake that had entered their hearts to think that there is some benefit in worshipping the angels or the host of heaven. But you are to know, to be wise and to believe For the Eternal your G-d, He is G-d of gods, and Lord of lords. G-d of ‘gods’ is a reference to the angels above, and the Lord of ‘lords’ is an allusion to all the host of heaven to whom dominion over the lower creatures belongs, for He is the Lord Who established their authority on earth, and His is the greatness and the power, and He is to be feared in the beauty of His strength, Who regarded not any one of the angels or the lords to protect their worshippers, nor taketh bribery from the hand of a person. Now on this matter of bribery [to G-d] they have explained its meaning to be that even if a perfectly pious person should commit a sin, He will not accept from him any of his meritious deeds, as a bribe in atonement for him. And Onkelos translated: “[He is the great G-d] before Whom there is no regard for persons, nor the acceptance of a bribe.” Onkelos thus meant to explain that the verse is in praise of negative attributes of the Creator, blessed be He. The verse is thus stating that G-d is not of the category [of beings] that regards persons, for men shall not see Him and live, and everything is as nothing before Him; they are accounted by Him as things of nought, and vanity; nor is He of the category of beings that take a bribe or reward from man like kings and judges of a land. The correct interpretation in my opinion is that he is stating that G-d is not partial to powerful persons in their quarrel with their inferiors, nor does He take a bribe from the rich when they strive with the poor, for He doth execute justice for the fatherless and widow from the powerful, and despoileth life of those that despoil them. And He loveth the stranger in giving him food and raiment, these being all the essential needs of man. Thus He supports the poor who have no friend and companion.

"Circumcise the foreskin of your heart" — to distance oneself from gross and burdensome desires, as [one removes] a foreskin. It may also be interpreted as: to purify the heart until it comprehends the truth. "And your neck" — I have already explained this, and [it is mentioned here] further because he said "for you are a stiff-necked people."

ומלתם את ערלת לבבכם, therefore, it is appropriate that you remove the “foreskin,” prejudices with which your intelligence is afflicted, so that you will realise the errors you have made in your world outlook based on false premises. וערפכם לא תקשו עוד, so that you will no longer be stiff-necked, a condition which prevents you from truly recognising your Creator and how evil it is to turn your back on Him.

ומלתם את ערלת לבבכם, “You shall ‘circumcise’ the foreskin surrounding your heart.“ The term ערלה is applied when the Torah or the prophet wants to describe a negative character trait, a trait which inhibits development of a personality to its full potential. Anyone who is burdened with such an impediment to his personality development cannot truly embrace the commandments we know as the מצות המושכלות and to understand their true value. וערפכם לא תקשו עוד, “and you will not continue with your stiff-neckedness.” Moses implies that up until now the people had been characterised by such a stiff-necked attitude. G’d Himself had accused them of this outright in Exodus 33,3.

ומלתם את ערלת לבבכם, “Circumcise, (remove hindrances) the foreskin of your hearts!” This is required in order for your hearts to become receptive to Hashem’s words. וערפכם לא תקשו, “and do not stiffen your necks.” A subtle reminder of the fathers of the present generation of Israelites who had been characterized as קשי עורף, “stiff-necked.” Obstinacy was a characteristic of the Egyptians, one that the Israelites due to their lengthy stay in Egypt had adopted also, believing it to be a virtue. It manifested itself by the Israelites still believing that there were positive aspects, advantages, to certain forms of idolatry. Moses, in addressing the new generation, a generation that had not been raised in Egypt, tells the people not to allow themselves to become victims of the same errors their fathers had become victims of, and not to be brainwashed by concepts that had proven utterly false. Surely, someone as close as they were to the Lord of lords, the Creator Himself, did not need to have recourse to one of His ministers, or even only deputy ministers!

For Hashem your God — He is the God of judges and the Master of kings, the great, mighty, and awesome God, before whom there is no showing of favor and no accepting of a bribe.

ואדני האדנים [FOR THE LORD YOUR GOD IS …] LORD OF LORDS (i.e. He is Lord over those who are lords, kings, governors, etc.) — so that no lord is able to deliver you from His hand. לא ישא פנים HE WILL NOT REGARD PERSONS, if you cast off His yoke, ולא יקח שֹחד NOR WILL HE TAKE A BRIBE, that one should appease Him by money.

"God of gods" — I have already explained this. "And Lord of lords" — for there are exalted ranks above them, as in the sense of "and [yet higher ones] are above them." And one who recognizes these attributes is circumcised of heart.

Once you removed this “foreskin,” you will recognize that כי ה' אלוקיכם הוא אלוקי האלוקים, the eternal One Who will outlast anything as He is not made of any physical raw material so that He can outlast even materials that are not composites of other elements. [It is an axiom among philosophers of the author’s time that amalgams, phenomena which combine within them several elements, are by definition not durable, as just as these elements had to be fused to bring the final product into existence, this process will reverse itself in due cause, something we know as “dying.” Ed.] ואדוני האדונים, the supreme leader; the “leaders” referred to are the celestial bodies, especially those that even to the naked eye appear as performing a recognisable orbit. The “leaders” are the ones perceived as guiding and dictating the respective orbits of these celestial bodies. They are performing like different parts of a clockwork, so that when each performs its assigned function, the whole, i.e. the clock, becomes a reliable instrument telling time. [my metaphor. Ed.] הא-ל הגדול, the like of whom in greatness is not found among any creatures claiming greatness. הגבור, the One Who, single-handedly, ensures the continued existence of everything, as per Nechemyah 9,6 ואתה מחיה את כולם, “and You keep all of them alive.” והנורא, supervising His creatures’ activities in order to mete out reward and punishment. Seeing that this is so, it behooves us to be in constant awe of Him. אשר לא ישא פנים, does not treat a deviant with leniency just because his father was righteous. This is so in spite of the fact that He confers benefits on the descendants of a righteous father for many generations to his descendants. ולא יקח שוחד, He does not offset a merit against a demerit, a sin; or in the words of our sages: “a good deed performed does not extinguish the sin committed.” (Nachmanides Moses tells the people all this so that they should not reassure themselves that they can wipe the slate clean by performing good deeds after having committed sins and thus escape the retribution they deserve for the sins committed. The only way the slate can be wiped clean is by genuine repentance.

אלוקי האלוקים ואדוני האדנים, "The G'd of gods and the Lord of lords, etc." The first statement means that He is the G'd of the angels who are often described as אלהים, such as in Job 1,6 ויבאו בני האלוהים. The expression אדני האדנים refers to terrestrial rulers. Compare Genesis 42,30 דבר האיש אדני הארק אתנו קשות, "the man who is the ruler of the land spoke harshly to us." The reason Moses also had to mention terrestrial rulers is so that we should not think that these rulers are free to do as they please; Moses reminds us that G'd exerts some pressure on those rulers. This is what Solomon meant in Proverbs 21,1: "the heart of the king is in G'd's hand, He directs it to whatever direction He desires."

כי ה' אלו-היכם הוא אלו-הי האלו-הים, “for Hashem your G’d He is the supreme G’d;” superior to the angels; (Nachmanides) ואדוני האדנים, “and the Master of masters;” a reference to the planets which have been appointed to run nature. ה-אל, “the Creator,” הגדול, "Who is great in the attribute חסד” הגבור “and in the attribute גבורה, Justice” והנורא “and awe-inspiring,” in the way He practices the attribute רחמים, Mercy. The three attributes Moses referred to here are perceived as the אבות, the “patriarchs” of the attributes, the others being relatively junior to them seeing they are derivatives, תולדות. It is these three principal attributes which are meant when the sages speak about the מרכבה, the carriers of G’d’s glory. I have already explained on Exodus 33,6 that Moses meant to include all the thirteen attributes G’d had acquainted him with at the time when he now summarizes them as גדול, גבור, נורא. אשר לא ישא פנים, “Who does not show favour,” to the perfectly righteous, by overlooking a minor infraction. ולא יקח שוחד, “and Who will nor accept a bribe, “i.e. offsetting one sin against 1000 merits so that the person concerned is left with 999 net merits and does not get punished for the one sin he committed. G’d will punish the individual for his one sin and leave the reward for the 1000 mitzvot fully intact.

אשר לא ישא פנים, “Who does not show favour,” to any of the other deities and their followers to protect them more than others. ולא יקח שוחד, “and Who will not accept a bribe.” Even when He is confronted by a totally righteous person, who did commit a single sin, and who wishes to atone for it by foregoing his claim to a reward for a merit he has to his credit, (trading off performance of a commandment against violation of a commandment) He will not overlook the sin committed by not exacting retribution where it is deserved. The proper manner to explain the words אשר לא ישא פנים, is that Hashem is not going to show favoritism to the powerful people on earth in their litigation against the less powerful. Neither will He accept bribes by the wealthy in their quarrels with the poor. But, He will punish the guilty according to their deserts. Verse 18 spells out that G’d will especially see to it that the underprivileged will not become victims of perverted justice. 10.18. לתת להם לחם ושמלה, “to give them bread and clothing.” G’d will provide the basic necessities of life for those who have no one else to look after them.

He renders justice for the orphan and the widow, and loves the convert, giving him food and clothing.

עשה משפט יתום ואלמנה HE EXECUTETH JUDGMENT OF THE FATHERLESS AND THE WIDOW — You have mention of His power (in the preceding verse) and together with His power you find mention of His humility here (“He executeth judgment of the fatherless and the widow”) (Megillah 31a). ואהב גר לתת לו לחם ושמלה AND HE LOVETH THE STRANGER IN GIVING HIM BREAD AND RAIMENT — and this (bread and raiment) is a matter of importance, for the very self of (all the energies of) Jacob, our ancestor, was to pray for this, (Genesis 28:20) “Let Him give me bread to eat and raiment to put on” (Genesis Rabbah 70:5).

"Who renders justice" — even though He is exalted, He renders justice for the orphan and the widow who have no helper, as in the sense of "a father of orphans." And likewise the stranger — He sustains him when he leans upon Him. And since Hashem loves the stranger, you are obligated to love him.

עושה משפט יתום ואלמנה, “He carries out judgment of orphan and widow.” Even though G’d is so high, exalted, He nevertheless concerns Himself personally with the most lowly one of His creatures. Our sages in Megillah 31 drew our attention to the fact that whenever G’d’s greatness is referred to in either the Torah, the Books of Prophets, or the Scriptures, you find side by side a reference to His “humility,” to the fact that He associates and takes a personal interest in the fates of the most humble. Our verse is one such example. Another example is found in Psalms 68,5 where David exalts G’d’s greatness, following with the words: “He acts as father for the orphans and as judge for the widows. A similar sequence of verses is found in Isaiah 57,15: “For thus said He Who high aloft forever dwells, whose name is holy: ‘I dwell on high in holiness; yet with the contrite and lowly in spirit reviving the spirits of the lowly.’” ואוהב גר, “and Who loves the proselyte;” seeing that G’d loves the convert, we are to love the convert also. We have another verse on the same subject in Leviticus 19,34 where G’d says: “love him as yourself.”

לתת להם לחם ושמלה, “to give them bread and clothing.” G’d will provide the basic necessities of life for those who have no one else to look after them.

You shall love the convert, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

כי גרים הייתם [LOVE THE STRANGER] FOR YE WERE STRANGERS — Do not reproach thy fellow man for a fault which is also thine (cf. Rashi on Exodus 22:20; Bava Metzia 59b).

FOR YE WERE STRANGERS IN THE LAND OF EGYPT. “Do not reproach your fellow man with a fault which is also in you.” This is Rashi’s language. I have already explained it in the section And these are the ordinances.

Hashem your God you shall fear, and before Him you shall serve, and to His fear you shall draw near, and by His Name you shall swear.

את ה׳ אלוהיך תירא THOU SHALT FEAR THE LORD THY GOD, and serve Him and cleave to Him; and after you possess all these qualities, then you may swear by His Name (cf. Rashi on 6:13 and Note thereon).

"Hashem your God you shall fear" — so that you do not transgress the negative commandments. "And Him you shall serve" — through the positive commandments. "And to Him you shall cleave" — in the heart. "And by His name you shall swear" — with the mouth, as it is explained.

את ה' אלוקיך תירא, “You shall fear the Lord your G-d;” This is a warning not to transgress negative commandments. אותו תעבוד, “Him you shall serve!” This refers to observance of the positive commandments. ובו תדבק, “and to Him you shall cleave!” With your heart;Another interpretation of this phrase: seeing that Moses had earlier told the people about some of G-d’s ways of doing things, he adds now that we should emulate what we have learned about how G-d does things. In the portion of Vaetchanan he had not said anything about specific ways in which G-d operates, (Deut. 6,13) this is why he elaborates here. ובשמו תשבע, “and by His name you shall swear.” This refers to your mouth, as opposed to your heart. If you were to ask that the third commandment of the Ten Commandments had indicated that oaths should be used very sparingly, that is quite true; however, if the need to swear an oath arises you must make sure to swear only by His name. Such situations are primarily when you are tempted to commit a transgression, and you use your oath to stop yourself from giving in to that temptation. (Compare Ruth 3,13 where Boaz did so according to the Talmud in tractate T’murah folio 3)

את ה' אלו-היך תירא, אותו תעבוד, ובו תדבק, ובשמו תשבע, “Revere the Lord your G’d; serve Him; cleave to Him and swear in His name.” The word תירא, means no to violate His negative commandments; the words “serve Him” refer to His positive commandments; “to cleave to Him,” means not to exclude Him from your thoughts . Nachmanides writes on this that it is possible that Moses speaks of people who have attained such high spiritual stature that they can claim this level of 'דבקות בה', “cleaving to G’d” even in their life on earth. They would be considered as already צרור בצרור החיים, the wish expressed by Avigail for David. These people are a domicile for the Shechinah even while on earth. Rabbi Yehudah Halevi alluded to this in his Kuzari 3,1. Our sages in Pesachim 22 commented that the word את which precedes the words ה' אלו-היך תירא is a reference to the Torah scholars, the religious authorities who are to be treated with a measure of reverence similar to that reserved for the Lord Himself. This statement is attributed to Rabbi Akiva, who was eminently entitled to make such a statement seeing that he alone amongst the four sages who ventured into the Pardess, i.e. the realms of exploring the deepest mysteries of the Torah emerged from there whole in both body and spirit (Chagigah 14). Concerning Rabbi Akiva, Solomon said in Song of Songs 1,4 according to Chagigah 15 משכני אחריך נרוצה, “Draw me, we will run after You.” A kabbalistic approach: With these words in Song of Songs Solomon the wise Rabbi Akiva alluded to wisdom, seeing that we have a statement in Job 28,28 הן יראת אד-ני היא חכמה, “behold the reverence for G’d is wisdom.” Rabbi Akiva referred to the hidden wisdom possessed only by the select few on earth. In fact, when Rabbi Akiva said that every time the word את appears in the Torah [when it is not grammatically necessary, Ed.] we must search for profound mystical meanings that the Torah alludes to by this word, he taught us a great lesson. To quote but one example: the Torah writes in Numbers 7,1 להקים את המשכן, “to erect the Tabernacle.” On the face of it the Torah only had to write להקים המשכן. The sages explain that the extra word את alludes to another (celestial) Tabernacle which was erected at the same time as Moses erected the Tabernacle in the desert. Another example of the significance of the word את is found in Genesis 21,1 וה' פקד את שרה, “and G’d had remembered Sarah” (by making her pregnant). The word את in that verse is understood by the sages in Bereshit Rabbah 53,12 as including all the other women who had suffered from being barren at that time. There are numerous other instances where the otherwise extraneous word את affords us many insights which would have been denied us without that word. ובשמו תשבע, “and in His name you are to swear.” Moses means that anyone who has first acquired the attributes listed is entitled to mention the Lord’s name when swearing an oath. Under certain circumstances it becomes a positive commandment to swear an oath, especially when it involves glorifying the name of the Lord. Examples of such circumstances are Elijah who decreed on oath that no rain would fall (Kings I 17,1) in accordance with G’d’s threat (in Deut. 11,17), and the sage Choni Hamagal who swore not to leave the spot he was standing on until G’d would provide rain (Taanit 19). A kabbalistic approach: the words: “you shall fear the Lord your G’d” refer to a reverence for those aspects of G’d which are beyond human intelligence to unravel (the emanation כתר), on the other hand “Him you shall serve” refers to the next lower emanation חכמה, also described as Torah, according to the Jerusalem Talmud, the Torah (wisdom) which preceded creation of the universe by 2,000 years. The word ובו תדבק, “and to Him you shall cleave,” refers to the next lower emanation בינה, the domain to which the souls (of the righteous) will return after death of their bodies. The words ובשמו תשבע are an allusion to the number seven, i.e. the lower seven emanations conclude the reference to all 10 emanations in this verse. [The author proceeds to list several additional verses from the Bible in all of which all of the ten emanations are alluded to, such as Chronicles I 29,11; Song of Songs 5,15; Proverbs 8,22. Ed.].

He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and mighty deeds that your eyes have seen.

HE IS THY PRAISE, AND HE IS THY G-D. The meaning thereof is that He should be your [sole object of] praise, that you are to devote all your praise to Him, praising Him always and not to give His glory to another, neither His praise to graven images, nor to the gods and lords mentioned. Or he may be stating: “He is thy praise, for through Him you are praised above all peoples,” similar in expression to the verses, For Thou art the glory of their strength; O Eternal, my strength, and my stronghold. And He is thy G-d, for He has especially addressed His Name to you, that you be unto Himself for a people, and that He may be unto thee a G-d, unlike the rest of the peoples to whom He is the G-d of [the various] gods [i.e., angels, etc.] that He allotted to them, as I have explained, because he has done for you the great and tremendous things from which you can recognize that you are His portion and His inheritance, and His eyes are always upon you for good.

"He is your praise" — the meaning is that you have cause to boast in Him, for He has done awesome things for you.

היא תהלתך, your glory consists in the privilege of being a servant of a Being Who rules the entire cosmos.

הוא תהלתך, “He is your glory;” you are to boast about having Him as your G-d, as will be explained forthwith.

הוא תהלתך, “He is your praise;” according to the plain meaning of the text Moses means that it would be appropriate for you to consider Him as your praise, i.e. not to praise anybody or anything except G’d. It is also possible that what Moses meant was that the words הוא תהלתך והוא אלו-היך refer to the attributes Hashem and Elohecha respectively. The verse would then make clear that these two attributes are the ones with which G’d relates to the people of Israel. A kabbalistic approach focuses on the meaning of Deut. 26,19 ולתתך עליו לתהלה ולשם ולתפארת, where the word לתהלה would refer to the attribute Hashem and the word לתפארת to אלו-היך. [Basically, when applied to Israel, the message is that either the attribute of Justice, diluted by the attribute of Mercy, or the attribute of Mercy, diluted by the attribute of Justice is applied to the Jewish people.] [The author cites a number of apparently contradictory verses to prove that because of G’d’s eternal relationship with Israel He has to temper Justice with Mercy and vice versa or that premise of the reciprocal relationship of G’d and Israel would disintegrate. Ed.]

הוא תהלתך, “He is your praise.” Nachmanides explains this to mean that whenever you feel that you want to praise someone you will praise Him. He is the only One worthy of praise. Another possible explanation is that when any other nation praises you, the Jewish people, it will always be in connection with and on account of your special relationship to Him. והוא אלוקיך, “and He is your G’d.” You are the only nation upon whom G’d “bestowed” His name. All the other nations have been assigned by G’d to the supervision of their fates by one of His deputies. Your superiority is visible through all the miracles G’d performed on your behalf.

With seventy souls your fathers went down to Egypt, and now Hashem your God has made you as numerous as the stars of the heavens.

"With seventy souls" — I have already explained this.

בשבעים נפש ירדו אבותיך מצרימה, “Your forefathers comprised only 70 people when they descended to Egypt.” Moses enumerates some of the great and wonderful acts performed by G’d for this nation. It is these which entitle G’d to be loved by this people. Although only 70 people emigrated to Egypt, their number by now had increased to be like the stars in heaven. This is why in the next verse Moses demands that the people love “the Lord your G’d and observe His commandments. Here Moses mentions the number of Israelites descending to Egypt as being 70 whereas if you will check the number given in Genesis 46,27 you will find that actually only 69 are listed as leaving. Our sages in Bereshit Rabbah 94,9 have already pointed out that the discrepancy is accounted for by Yocheved, who was conceived by her mother on the way but was not born until Yaakov and family arrived in Egypt. Some sources claim that the discrepancy is accounted for by Serach, daughter of Asher. They base this on Samuel II 20,19: “I am one of those who seek the welfare of the faithful in Israel.” The words שלומי אמוני in that verse are understood as “completed their number.” I have seen in Pessikta D'Rav Kahane that it was the Lord Himself Who made complete the number 70 as He said (Genesis 46,4) “I am going down with you (Yaakov) to Egypt.” [In other words 69 members of Yaakov’s family as listed in chapter 46 in Genesis plus the Shechinah went down to Egypt. Ed.]. The author of that Midrash cites our verse: “for He is your praise and your G’d,” in the same verse as Moses making reference to this number as proof that it was the fact that G’d personally accompanied the Israelites on their descent to Egypt as the reason that they can use Him as “their praise.” A similar approach is taken by the Midrash in Pirke d'Rabbi Eliezer chapter 39 where the words כשש מאות אלף, “about 600,000 foot soldiers” instead of “600,000 foot soldiers (Exodus 12,37) are also interpreted as the Israelites being 1 shy of that number with G’d Himself making up the number 600,000. If we accept this interpretation G’d made up the requisite number both when the Israelites descended to Egypt and when they ascended from Egypt. This would correspond to precisely what G’d said to Yaakov in Genesis 46,4: “I will go down with you and I will also surely bring you up.”