You are the children of Hashem your God: you shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.
verse value 3391
Insights
Verse structure: 11 words, 50 letters. The shortest word is "not" (לֹ֣א, 2 letters) and the longest is "and·you·shall·not·place" (וְלֹֽא־תָשִׂ֧ימוּ, 8 letters). 3 words in this verse appear nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "gash·yourselves" (תִתְגֹּֽדְד֗וּ), "and·you·shall·not·place" (וְלֹֽא־תָשִׂ֧ימוּ), "baldness" (קׇרְחָ֛ה). 11 unique roots are used. Frequent roots: "to·Hashem" (root יהוה, 541x in Deuteronomy); "your·God" (root אלהים, 368x in Deuteronomy); "not" (root לא, 214x in Deuteronomy). The etnachta (major mid-verse pause) falls on 'your·God', dividing the verse into phrases of 4 and 7 words. Full calculation: בָּנִ֣ים [sons] (102) + אַתֶּ֔ם [you] (441) + לַיהֹוָ֖ה [to·Hashem] (56) + אֱלֹהֵיכֶ֑ם [your·God] (106) + לֹ֣א [not] (31) + תִתְגֹּֽדְד֗וּ [gash·yourselves] (817) + וְלֹֽא־תָשִׂ֧ימוּ [and·you·shall·not·place] (793) + קׇרְחָ֛ה [baldness] (313) + בֵּ֥ין [between] (62) + עֵינֵיכֶ֖ם [your·eyes] (200) + לָמֵֽת [to·die] (470) = 3391.
Onkelos
You are children before Hashem your God; you shall not lacerate yourselves, nor shall you make a bald spot between your eyes for the dead.
Rashi
לא תתגדדו YE SHALL NOT CUT YOURSELVES — i.e. you shall not make cuttings and incisions in your flesh for the dead in the way the Amorites do (Sifrei Devarim 96:11), because you are children of the Lord and it is therefore becoming for you to be comely and not cut about and with hair torn out. בין עיניכם [NOR MAKE ANY BALDNESS] BETWEEN YOUR EYES — i.e. adjoining the forehead. In another passage (Leviticus 21:5), however, it states, “They shall not make their head bald”! It, however, intends to make the entire head like between the eyes (בֵּין עֵינַיִם) [i.e., one must not make bald spots on any part of the head]. (Sifrei Devarim 96:13; cf. Rashi on Leviticus 21:5 and Note thereon).
Ramban
YE ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE ETERNAL YOUR G-D: YE SHALL NOT CUT YOURSELVES, NOR MAKE ANY BALDNESS BETWEEN YOUR EYES FOR THE DEAD. This also is an explanatory commandment of what He said in the Torah with reference to the priests, They shall not make baldness upon their head etc., nor make any cuttings in their flesh, and now he [Moses] will explain that it is not merely because of the distinction of the priests which He mentioned there, They shall be holy unto their G-d, that they were thus commanded. Rather, all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and all of you are the children of the Eternal your G-d like the priests; if so, you too, take heed to yourselves regarding this commandment like them. This explanation is in accordance with the opinion of our Rabbis that both verses [the one here and the one in Leviticus] relate only to the practice [of cutting and making baldness as signs of mourning] for the dead, [although “the dead” is not mentioned in the priestly injunction in Leviticus]. But it is possible that the first commandment [in Leviticus was stated] in relation to priests to state that if the priest had his hair torn out and his flesh cut, he was not fit for the Divine Service, just as He said, and they shall not profane the Name of their G-d, and their Service is thus profaned [i.e., invalidated]. Here he explained that the commandment applies also to the Israelites, both prohibitions being necessary. And Rashi wrote: “Because you are the children of the Eternal it is becoming for you to be comely and not be cut about and bald [due to the tearing out of hair].” But it is not correct, for if so this commandment should be binding even [if the deeds were done] not for the dead! And Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra commented: “Once you realize that you are the children of the Eternal and that He loves you more than a father loves his child, you should not cut yourselves [in bereavement] for anything that He does, because whatever He has done is for your good although you may not understand it, just as little children do not understand their father, yet rely on him. For thou art a holy people, and you are not like all the other nations; therefore you shall not do as they do.”In my opinion the purport of the expression for thou art a holy people [is to state] an assurance of the eternal existence of the souls before Him, blessed be He. The verse declares: “Since you are a holy people and the treasure of G-d — neither doth G-d respect any person, but He deviseth means that he that is banished be not an outcast from Him — therefore it is improper for you to make incisions in your flesh and tear your hair for the dead even if he perisheth in youth. Scripture, however, did not prohibit weeping for the dead since it is natural to cry when parting from beloved ones, and when they go on a journey even in life. From this verse, there is support for our Rabbis in prohibiting excessive mourning for the dead.
Ibn Ezra
"You shall not gash yourselves" — this is like "and a cutting for a soul" (Lev. 19:28), derived from the root meaning gashed hands. "And you shall not place a baldness" — as is the custom of the nations to this day. The reason for [the phrase] "sons": since you know that you are sons to Hashem and He loves you more than a father loves his son, do not gash yourselves over whatever He does — for all that He does is for good. And if you do not understand it, just as young children do not understand their father's actions but only trust him, so shall you do as well. For you are a holy people and are not like all the other nations; therefore you shall not act as they act. The reason for joining the passage "You shall not eat any abomination" is: for you are a holy people in heart and mouth, and you are set apart from the nations, and all who see you shall recognize you — that you do not gash yourselves over the dead and do not eat every living creature. And if you are a holy people, it is not fitting that you eat what is impure and defile the soul.
Sforno
בנים אתם לה' אלוקיכם, לא תתגודדו, it is bad manners to display excessive grief over the loss of a relative as long as a more relevant relative (G’d) is still alive. This is why G’d reminds us in this context that we are His children, i.e. that whatever relative we may mourn we have a father who is alive and well so that we are not really orphaned. ולא תשימו קרחה בין עיניכם על מת כי עם קדוש אתה, there is no reason to mourn excessively for the person who has passed as he, at least, has not experienced any loss, on the contrary, he has been promoted to the region of eternal life, something of which our sages in Avot 4,6-7 have said that a single hour of the serenity experienced in that life is worth all the combined delights ever experienced during one’s transient life on earth.
Or HaChaim
בנים אתם לה׳ אלוקיכם, "You are children to the Lord your G'd, etc." Why did the Torah write this statement next to the prohibition to make incisions on one's body? It appears that the reason is to teach us that if one loses a family member to death one should not look upon the deceased as having become lost. The true state of affairs can be understood by a parable. A father sent a son to a distant city to buy some merchandise. Seeing the son did not return, the father sends out someone after a while to try and locate him. The son's absence was felt only in his home town; this does not mean that he no longer exists. Moreover, the chances are that the reason he did not return is that he is better off in his new home as he is closer to the original father, i.e. G'd, who was the primary source of his having lived on earth in the first place. This is the reason we must not make incisions on our bodies, or to make bald spots on top of our heads in mourning for the deceased. This law would not apply to the Gentile nations as they are not in the category of being "children of G'd." The reason the Torah stresses the word אתם, "you," is to explain the difference between the death of a Gentile who does indeed cease to live in any world upon his physical death and the Jew who moves on to a higher world.
Chizkuni
בנים אתם, “you are the children, etc.;” this paragraph has been inserted here in order to warn you not to observe pagan methods of expressing mourning after the death of close relatives. Possibly, one of the inhabitants of the idolatrous city discussed in the previous paragraph was a close relative, and you might have had to observe mourning rites as he or she had been put to death as a result of that city’s destruction. בנים אתם לה' אלוקיכם, “you are children of the Lord your G-d;” it is just because you are children of Mine that you shall not cut yourself because of what happened (the death of a family member) even if you do not understand why this happened to you but you must accept that all of G-d’s actions are for the best. Just as small children do not always understand what their father does, but appreciate that it is for their benefit, the same is true in your relationship to Me. ולא תשימו קרחה בין עיניכם למת, “neither are you to make bald spots between your eyes for the dead.” Even if your father died, you are not as bereaved as would be one of the gentiles who lost his father, as you have a Father in heaven who will never die. Furthermore, you are a holy nation, and as such are not at liberty to desecrate your bodies.
Rabbeinu Bahya
בנים אתם לה' אלוקיך”You are children to the Lord your G’d.” The reason this paragraph follows immediately after the paragraph dealing with the עיר הנדחת is that it is forbidden to observe rites of mourning on behalf of any of the people of that city that have been executed, just as it is forbidden to observe mourning for anyone executed judicially by the court. The Torah continues to describe mourning rites which are forbidden to observe even for people for whom it is incumbent upon us to observe mourning under normal circumstances. The Torah forbids incisions in one’s flesh, לא תתגודדו, as a pagan rite of mourning practiced by the Emorites. They did this because they considered life on earth as the principal life of a person; therefore, they had no reason to consider his departure from earth as a promotion to a higher form of life in the celestial regions. Emorites were therefore correct to mourn their family members as losses never to be restored. The Torah tells us here that our whole outlook on life is so radically different that we have nothing in common with them seeing that “you are children of the Lord your G’d.” It is customary for a father to leave his son as a bequest something which was very dear to him. Seeing that we are G’d’s children and He is our father, He leaves us the bequest of the world to come as His portion for us. Seeing Jews who die have such a bright future to look forward to in the hereafter it would be most inappropriate to overreact to our loss and ignore their promotion by making painful incisions on our flesh. Pulling out one’s hair and other such symbols of our grief are equally out of the question. The Torah adds: “for you are a holy nation;” the meaning of קדוש is “separate, apart,” i.e. of all the nations of the world you have been set apart in that we receive the reward for good deeds performed in this life in another life, a life which commences with the death of our bodies.
Kli Yakar
“You shall not cut yourselves, etc.” Since the nations [idolaters?] grieve appropriately over something lost that goes and does not return, but it is not so with you. For God has chosen you to be His treasured people, and all treasures of kings are things that are placed in storehouses. Similarly, the Holy One, blessed be He, places the pure souls of the righteous in His storehouse, and they are not lost. So why should one grieve over something that still exists and shines there? It has only set in this world, but it consumes its offerings in the eternal world. Our Sages (Shabbat 105b) said that for one who sheds tears over a worthy person, the Holy One, blessed be He, counts them and places them in His treasury, as it is said (Psalms 56:9), You have counted my wanderings; put my tears in Your flask; are they not in Your accounting? The reason is that since the souls are also treasures stored away, therefore the tears will also be in His treasury. Regarding the phrase are they not in Your accounting, which is not readily understood, I say the interpretation is as follows: That the Holy One, blessed be He, brings them out and brings them in by number like the stars, which indicates their importance, because everything important has a number. Therefore, He gives a reason for counting his wanderings and placing the tears in a flask, saying, are they not in Your accounting? Meaning, are they not themselves counted by You, as You bring them out and bring them in by number? And like them, the tears are also stored and counted. Since one is not “bald” from here and from there [i.e., one does not lose completely], therefore it is not proper to make a bald spot between your eyes for the dead. For the baldness between the eyes indicates as if one’s tears were gone and lost, but this is not the case; rather, the tears are also placed in a flask as mentioned. And there is still another explanation for “one who sheds tears over a worthy person, etc.” Presumably, one who grieves over the absence of proper conduct is God-fearing, and it is written The fear of the Lord is His treasure (Isaiah 33:6). That is, it is the treasure of the Holy One, blessed be He, for one only makes a treasury for something that is not readily found, because everything is in the hands of Heaven except for the fear of Heaven (Berachot 33b). Therefore, the Holy One, blessed be He, also places these tears in His treasuries. And the phrase as a treasured people also refers to between your eyes, which indicates the place of tears.
Tur HaArokh
בנים אתם לה' אלוקיכם, “You are children to Hashem your G’d;” Seeing that in Leviticus 21,5 the Torah had forbidden the priests to make bald spots on their heads and their flesh as signs of mourning because even in mourning they are not truly orphans, being holy unto G’d, Moses wants to assure the people at large that they are no less beloved by Hashem than are the priests. All the Israelites are holy, and all are Hashem’s children. As proof of this, they are to observe the same restriction spelled out for the priests already in Leviticus. According to the tradition cited by our sages (Sifri 89), the prohibition mentioned here applies only to such incisions when they are made as signs of mourning for a dead relative, both in the case of ordinary Israelites and in the case of the priests. (Although the prohibition in Leviticus did not mention the word למת.) Ibn Ezra writes that seeing that you have been told that Hashem considers you as His children and He loves you more than a mortal father loves his children, you must not register your dismay at what you perceive as something that Hashem has done to you by disfiguring the body He has lovingly given to you. Just as you know that a mortal father’s actions are always motivated by his love for his son, so G’d’s actions are even more definitely motivated by what He knows as being good for His children, even if at the time we, His children, are unable to understand this. We must always subscribe to the cliché of “Father knows best.” It is possible that the reason that this prohibition first appeared as if it applied only to the priests was that when a priest engages in such disfiguration he thereby disqualifies himself from performing his duties in the Temple until such a blemish has healed. Now the time had come to extend this prohibition also to the ordinary Israelites. Rashi explains that seeing that you are Hashem’s children it is incumbent upon you not to disfigure “His” property. Ultimately, your body belongs to Him. Nachmanides disagrees with Rashi, saying that if he were correct this prohibition would apply also if it did not involve mourning for a dead person.
Rashbam
לא תתגודדו, as described in Kings I 18,28 ויתגודדו כמשפטם בחרבות וברמחים, “they gashed themselves with swords and daggers.” The word is also used for cutting down trees (Sanhedrin 110)
Daat Zkenim
בנים אתם לה' אלוקיכם, “You are (as) children for the Lord your G–d.” [This is an introduction to what follows. Ed.] If we are perceived as children of G–d when any Jew dies, the surviving children are not really orphans as G–d never dies, and therefore mourning rites have to take that into consideration. This is why certain mourning rites spelled out in this paragraph as being practiced by the gentiles are not appropriate for Jews. The prophet Jeremiah 2,27, refers to the gentiles as people who because they worship idols made of wood are in fact mourning the loss of their father, and are calling it as such, just as they treat a carved stone idol as if it had given birth to them.
For you are a holy people to Hashem your God, and Hashem has chosen you to be His own treasure out of all peoples that are upon the face of the earth.
verse value 3118 — יְהֹוָ֗ה = 26 (Hashem)
Insights
Verse structure: 18 words, 66 letters. Notable word values: "Hashem" (יְהֹוָ֗ה) = 26, the value of the divine name Hashem. The shortest word is "for" (כִּ֣י, 2 letters) and the longest is "to·Hashem" (לַיהֹוָ֖ה, 5 letters). The root עם appears 3 times in this verse. 15 unique roots are used. Frequent roots: "to·Hashem" (root יהוה, 541x in Deuteronomy); "that" (root אשר, 466x in Deuteronomy); "your·God" (root אלהים, 368x in Deuteronomy). The etnachta (major mid-verse pause) falls on 'your·God', dividing the verse into phrases of 6 and 12 words.
Onkelos
For you are a holy people before Hashem your God, and Hashem has desired you to be to Him a beloved people from among all the peoples that are upon the face of the earth.
Rashi
כי עם קדוש אתה FOR THOU ART AN HOLY PEOPLE — You are holy — your actual holiness comes to you from your fathers, but, in addition, ובך בחר ה׳ THE LORD HAS CHOSEN YOU [so that you are for two reasons bound to keep away from these pagan customs] (cf. Sifrei Devarim 97:1).
Sforno
סגולה מכל העמים, this is why G’d prohibits your disfiguring yourself. He did not prohibit this to the Gentiles, as they are not as special as you are.
Tur HaArokh
כי עם קדוש אתה, “for you are a holy nation.” Moses reminds the people that we, the Jewish nation, are not like other nations; therefore you must not conduct yourselves as they do. Some commentators phrase it thus: Moses, by reminding the people that they are all G’d’s children, explains that there would not be any point in disfiguring oneself even if one loses father or mother, as we always retain our immortal Father, Hashem. Personally, (Nachmanides writing) I believe that the principal meaning of the words כי עם קדוש אתה is an assurance that every Israelite basically is entitled to a life after the death of his body, i.e seeing that you are a holy nation, and that you are children of Hashem, you are not even the kind of creature that could die in the accepted sense of the word, i.e. that the death of your body would mean the end of your existence. Seeing that this is so, your parents when no longer “clothed” in a physical shell known as “body,” are not really dead, and therefore you did not suffer the kind of loss that gentiles suffered when they lose their parents. If, nonetheless, weeping, and other forms of mourning, were not outlawed for you by Hashem, this is a concession to the nature of human beings who upon being irrevocably being separated from their near and dear ones, express their grief in this fashion. Our sages, keeping in mind our verse, have decreed that such mourning must not exceed the limits prescribed by our sages.
Verse structure: 3 words, 13 letters. The shortest word is "not" (לֹ֥א, 2 letters) and the longest is "all·abomination" (כׇּל־תּוֹעֵבָֽה, 7 letters). 1 word in this verse appears nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "all·abomination" (כׇּל־תּוֹעֵבָֽה). 3 unique roots are used. Frequent roots: "not" (root לא, 214x in Deuteronomy); "you·shall·eat" (root אכל, 82x in Deuteronomy). Full calculation: לֹ֥א [not] (31) + תֹאכַ֖ל [you·shall·eat] (451) + כׇּל־תּוֹעֵבָֽה [all·abomination] (533) = 1015.
Onkelos
You shall not eat anything that is abhorrent.
Rashi
כל תועבה [THOU SHALT NOT EAT] ANY ABOMINATION — i.e. anything that I have declared to be an abomination to you (which in itself may not be an abominable thing) — as for instance if one deliberately makes a slit in the ear of a firstborn animal (thus making it unfit for sacrifice) so that one may slaughter it in the country (i.e. outside Jerusalem) and eat it there. Here you have a thing I declared to be an abomination to you, in that I commanded you (Leviticus 22:21) “one shall cause no blemish to be therein”. Scripture now comes and teaches you here that one should not slaughter such an animal and eat it, on account of that blemish. Another example: If one boils meat in milk — here you have a thing that I have declared to be an abomination to you (cf. Exodus 23:19; Exodus 34:26; Deuteronomy 14:21), and here it lays down the prohibition about eating it (Chullin 114b).
Ramban
THOU SHALT NOT EAT ANY ABOMINABLE THING. He wanted now to add an explanation [to the laws] pertaining to forbidden foods, and therefore he said, Thou shalt not eat an abominable thing, thus declaring that all things that are forbidden are abhorrent to the pure soul, for the meaning of every expression of “abomination” is “hatefulness and repugnance,” similar to, for the king’s word was abominable to Joab; their soul abhorred all manner of food. For forbidden foods that are coarse generate a thickness and obstruction in the soul, as I have explained in its place. Therefore he said further, Of all clean winged things ye may eat in order to declare that [only] those [foods] which He prohibited are “abominable,” and the rest are clean and fit for the pure soul. And in the Sifre the Rabbis have said: “Rabbi Shimon says: Of all clean winged things ye may eat — these are the clean locusts; and all winged swarming things are unclean unto you these are the unclean locusts.” He has said well. Now this is the sense of these verses. He mentioned the prohibition of all winged swarming things, those that go upon all fours, and then he said Of all clean winged things ye may eat to permit those of them which have joined legs above their feet: the locust, the bald locust, the cricket, and the grasshopper. It was not necessary to explain this because it has already been stated. But he mentioned in general, briefly, Of all clean winged things ye may eat that is to say, all those that have been mentioned are abominable foods, and the rest of the fowls, according their species and multitudes, you may eat of them all clean things which I have not prohibited. Thus he included all things that are forbidden to us, for they are all abominable. It was not necessary afterwards to detail [here] the swarming things and all that creep upon the earth, for it is known that any pure-minded person abhors them completely. But he mentioned the signs of beasts and wild animals, fish, fowl, and carcass [of an animal that died without being properly slaughtered] in order to inform you that they, too, are abominable to the soul. He did not mention treifah since it is not “abominable;” nevertheless, in order to prevent harm to those who would eat it, it is forbidden, because of its poison or mortal sickness. Our Rabbis have yet more interpretations on this section: “Why were [these laws of forbidden foods] repeated here? In the case of beasts [the laws were restated] on account of hashesuah (the cleft one) [which we are forbidden to eat, and is not mentioned in Leviticus], and in the case of birds the laws were restated because of the glede” [which is not mentioned in Leviticus and is forbidden]. And there is yet another interpretation: “Of all clean birds ye may eat — this is intended to permit [as food] the bird that is set free [at the purification rite of] the leper; But these are they of which ye shall not eat — this is intended to prohibit the bird that is slaughtered” [at the p...
Ibn Ezra
"Every abomination" — every matter that is repugnant to the pure soul, such as the creeping things of the ground.
Sforno
לא תאכל כל תועבה; before the Torah had been revealed, given, the Israelites as well as mankind generally were aware of the concepts “pure, טהור,” and “טמא, impure.” This is clear already from G’d’s command to Noach to take into the ark with him one pair each of the “impure” species,” and seven pairs each of the “pure” species of animals and birds. (Genesis 7,2) When G’d, after the deluge, permitted man to eat meat, He did not distinguish between meat from “pure” animals and meat from “impure animals.” However, now, after the giving of the Torah, when the Jewish people had become so special, it was no longer appropriate for them to ingest the remains of impure animals or birds (or even fish). Our sustenance should not be dependent on such inferior living beings. We should remain constantly aware of the gulf between man and beast, especially beasts which had never been suitable as sacrifices.
Chizkuni
לא תאכל כל תועבה, “you must not eat anything that is abominable.” This subject is linked here to that of forbidden rites of mourning, as it too is part of your being a holy nation, as repeated in the last verse. Holiness, i.e. apartness, means, among other things, that your food is different from that of the pagans, who eat all kinds of abominations. You are to eat only what is ritually pure.
Rabbeinu Bahya
לא תאכל כל תועבה, “Do not eat anything which is an abomination.” The reason the prohibition to eat certain creatures follows here is that this is part of the definition of maintaining a level of holiness. When the Torah spoke about the Jewish people being a holy nation (verse 2) this meant that this holiness has to be manifest both in deed and in the way one uses one’s mouth (Ibn Ezra). Our sages in Chulin 114 explain the above words to mean that G’d is saying: “anything which I described as abominable you must not eat.” This includes even matters which though permitted for consumption individually, separately, are forbidden as a mixture such as meat and milk. [This is an expansion of the meaning “abomination,” i.e. anything forbidden automatically comes under the heading “abominable.” Ed.]
Tur HaArokh
לא תאכל כל תועבה, “You must not eat anything that is an abomination.” Nachmanides writes that this wording [the additional word כל, all, Ed.] expands the prohibition we have been taught in Leviticus chapter 11 in the sense that it teaches that the reason why eating the foodstuffs mentioned is forbidden, is because their consumption would leave a spiritually negative effect on our pure, G’d-given souls. The meaning of the term תועבה whenever it appears, is “something hateful and despicable,” the common denominator of the forbidden foods being that if absorbed by our tissue they are apt to leave behind an effect of deadening our spiritual impulses. The reason why the Torah actively promotes the eating of the fowl labeled טהור, is to contrast them with the vast majority of birds that are טמא, ritually impure, the flesh not being suitable to feed a pure soul. It is therefore a general rule to be remembered that everything the Torah has forbidden us, -although it had expressly permitted it for the rest of mankind in Genesis 9,3- is an abomination. The Torah does not need to repeat this again and again when referring to low life such as creeping reptiles large and small, -as most civilized persons, even gentiles refrain from eating these creeping creatures;-but by giving us the details of how to recognize animals that are “pure”, as well as forbidding consumption of the flesh of even such animals when they have died from natural causes, as opposed to ritual slaughter, it delineates clearly the creatures and their respective condition before death, that do not fall under the heading of תועבה, abomination. The consumption of animals that are suffering from a terminal disease or injury is not specifically mentioned as forbidden under the same heading, as the reason is not that they confer negative spiritual influences when eaten, but that they infect the person eating them with something physically poisonous but not spiritually poisonous. Our sages (Kiddushin 57) derive from the wording כל צפור טהורה תאכלו, “you may to eat every ritually pure bird,” (verse 11) [and the apparent repetition, slightly amended in verse 20 of כל עוף טהור תאכל, Ed.] that the live bird which served as part of the offering of the person healed from the dreaded tzoraat skin disease (compare Leviticus 14,8) has not been infected and is therefore potentially fit for consumption by Jews (if caught without injury after having been released) The emphasis by the Torah on the word טהורה in verse 11 is to tell us that the ritual impurity from which the person afflicted with tzoraat is infected does not transfer to the bird, as no living creatures other than man is susceptible to that kind of disease. None of G’ds creatures other than man, is susceptible to transmittable ritual impurity before it dies.
These are the beasts which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat,
verse value 3044
Insights
Verse structure: 9 words, 33 letters. The shortest word is "sheep" (שֵׂ֥ה, 2 letters) and the longest is "cattle" (הַבְּהֵמָ֖ה, 5 letters). 3 words in this verse appear nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "sheep" (שֵׂ֥ה), "lambs" (כְשָׂבִ֖ים), "goats" (עִזִּֽים). The root שה appears 2 times in this verse. 8 unique roots are used. Frequent roots: "that" (root אשר, 466x in Deuteronomy); "you·shall·eat" (root אכל, 82x in Deuteronomy); "this" (root זאת, 49x in Deuteronomy). First appearance of the root שה ("sheep") in Deuteronomy. The etnachta (major mid-verse pause) falls on 'you·shall·eat', dividing the verse into phrases of 4 and 5 words. Full calculation: זֹ֥את [this] (408) + הַבְּהֵמָ֖ה [cattle] (57) + אֲשֶׁ֣ר [that] (501) + תֹּאכֵ֑לוּ [you·shall·eat] (457) + שׁ֕וֹר [ox] (506) + שֵׂ֥ה [sheep] (305) + כְשָׂבִ֖ים [lambs] (372) + וְשֵׂ֥ה [and·sheep] (311) + עִזִּֽים [goats] (127) = 3044.
Onkelos
These are the animals that you may eat: oxen, lambs of the flock, and kids of the goats.
Rashi
זאת הבהמה … איל וצבי ויחמור THESE ARE THE BEASTS [WHICH YOU MAY EAT] THE HART AND THE GAZELLE AND THE FALLOW DEER — This (the fact that Scripture begins with זאת הבהמה and goes on to enumerate חיות) teaches us that חיה is included in the term בהמה (Sifrei Devarim 100:1; Chullin 71a; cf. Rashi on Leviticus 11:2, last sentence, and Note thereon). It further teaches us that there are more unclean beasts and wild animals than clean ones, for where two contrasted classes are spoken of it always enumerates by name the individuals of the smaller class (Sifrei Devarim 100:3; Chullin 63a.) (Since it enumerates here the clean animals these must be the minority.)
Ibn Ezra
"Ox, one of the flock of lambs" — the word "one" [שֶׂה] is missing a vav before it; the term שֶׂה applies to a member of either the sheep (כֶּבֶשׂ) species or the goat (עֵז) species.
Rabbeinu Bahya
שור שה כשבים ושה עזים, “an ox, sheep, and goat.” The three mentioned so far are צאן, domesticated animals kept in flocks or herds. By adding איל, צבי, יחמור,אקו דישון, תאו and זמר we get an additional 7 species making a total of ten categories of animals fit for consumption by Jews. The last-named seven, while permitted for private consumption, are not permitted as offerings on the altar. (Zevachim 34) Any free-roaming animal, חיה, is by definition not permitted as a sacrifice. [How could it serve in lieu of man who has not tamed it and exercised his authority over it? Ed.] The names of the seven last named animals reveal that they are “pure” i.e. possess the physical features described by the Torah as making them fit to eat. In Song of Songs 2,7 the first word השבעתי if read with the dot on the left side of the letter ש means that G’d provided as food ample supplies of איל and צבי, proving these animals chew the cud and have split hooves. The יחמור is alluded to in Chabakuk 3,15 where it is compared to many waters, something which is ritually pure. [I confess I do not follow this since in that same verse horses are compared to the ocean which is equally pure, whereas horses do not have split hooves. I will leave untranslated the balance of this paragraph as I do not understand it. Ed.]
the hart, and the gazelle, and the roebuck, and the wild goat, and the ibex, and the antelope, and the mountain-sheep.
verse value 1568
Insights
Verse structure: 7 words, 30 letters. The shortest word is "deer" (אַיָּ֥ל, 3 letters) and the longest is "roebuck" (וְיַחְמ֑וּר, 6 letters). 7 words in this verse appear nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "deer" (אַיָּ֥ל), "gazelle" (וּצְבִ֖י), "roebuck" (וְיַחְמ֑וּר). 7 unique roots are used. The etnachta (major mid-verse pause) falls on 'roebuck', dividing the verse into phrases of 3 and 4 words. 6 of the verse's 7 words begin with the letter ו. Full calculation: אַיָּ֥ל [deer] (41) + וּצְבִ֖י [gazelle] (108) + וְיַחְמ֑וּר [roebuck] (270) + וְאַקּ֥וֹ [wild·goat] (113) + וְדִישֹׁ֖ן [ibex] (370) + וּתְא֥וֹ [antelope] (413) + וָזָֽמֶר [mountain·sheep] (253) = 1568.
Onkelos
The deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the oryx, the bison, and the antelope.
Rashi
ואקו AND THE אקו — This is rendered in the Targum by יעלא, the same term as the Hebrew יעל in the expression יעלי סלע (Job 39:1). This is what is called in German 'Steinbock'. ותאו — This is rendered in the Targum by תורבלא which is the same as תור יער, the ox of the forest (wild ox), for בלא means “forest״ in the Aramaic language.
Ibn Ezra
"The ayyal and the tzvi" — these are well known. The other five [animals listed] require an oral tradition [to identify them].
Chizkuni
איל, “the hart, etc;” [our author proceeds to translate the names of these seven species into medieval French, something of little use my readers. Ed.] In plain English, permitted species of mammals are: ox, sheep, goat; deer, gazelle, roebuck, wild goat, ibex, antelope and mountain sheep plus unnamed species (if there are such) displaying the identification marks listed by the Torah.
And every beast that parts the hoof, and has the hoof wholly cloven in two, and chews the cud, among the beasts, that you may eat.
verse value 5620
Insights
Verse structure: 12 words, 52 letters. The shortest word is "cleft" (שֶׁ֙סַע֙, 3 letters) and the longest is "all·beast" (וְכׇל־בְּהֵמָ֞ה, 7 letters). 7 words in this verse appear nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "all·beast" (וְכׇל־בְּהֵמָ֞ה), "dividing" (מַפְרֶ֣סֶת), "and·cleaving" (וְשֹׁסַ֤עַת). The root בהמה appears 2 times in this verse. 9 unique roots are used. Frequent roots: "eat" (root אכל, 82x in Deuteronomy); "bringing·up" (root עלה, 37x in Deuteronomy). First appearance of the root פרס ("dividing") in Deuteronomy. First appearance of the root פרסה ("hoof") in Deuteronomy. The etnachta (major mid-verse pause) falls on 'beast', dividing the verse into phrases of 10 and 2 words. Full calculation: וְכׇל־בְּהֵמָ֞ה [all·beast] (108) + מַפְרֶ֣סֶת [dividing] (780) + פַּרְסָ֗ה [hoof] (345) + וְשֹׁסַ֤עַת [and·cleaving] (836) + שֶׁ֙סַע֙ [cleft] (430) + שְׁתֵּ֣י [two] (710) + פְרָס֔וֹת [hoofs] (746) + מַעֲלַ֥ת [bringing·up] (540) + גֵּרָ֖ה [cud] (208) + בַּבְּהֵמָ֑ה [beast] (54) + אֹתָ֖הּ [her] (406) + תֹּאכֵֽלוּ [eat] (457) = 5620.
Onkelos
And every animal that has a split hoof and is divided into two hooves, that brings up its cud among the animals — that you may eat.
Rashi
מפרסת means split, as the Targum has it. פרסה - plante in O. F. (English = hoof). ושסעת AND HATH CLOVEN [HOOFS] — i.e. hoofs divided into two nails, for there are animals with hoofs split but not entirely divided into two nails (cf. Rashi on Leviticus 9:3), and such are unclean. בבהמה [AND EVERY BEAST THAT PARTETH THE HOOF …] AMONG THE BEASTS [YE MAY EAT] — if one takes בבהמה to signify “within the animal”, it suggests: that which is found in the beast you may eat. From here, therefore, they (the Rabbis) derived the law that a שליל (a fully developed embryo) becomes permitted to be eaten through the slaughter of its mother without requiring ritual slaughtering itself (Chullin 69a; Chullin 74a).
Chizkuni
מפרסת פרסה ושסעת שסע שתי פרסות מעלת גרה “And every beast that parteth the hoof, and hath the hoof wholly cloven in two, and cheweth the cud.” Any mammal that displays some of these identifying marks but not others are forbidden. [The Torah proceeds to name the most popular mammals kept as domestic beats, such as pigs, dogs, camels, hares and rabbits must not be eaten. The latter, including cats, must not be eaten because they have no hooves at all.]
Targum Yonatan
and every animal that hath the divided hoof, and horns, and that cleaveth the cleft, bringing up the cud among animals, that you may eat.
Nevertheless these you shall not eat of them that only chew the cud, or of them that only have the hoof cloven: the camel, and the hare, and the rock-badger, because they chew the cud but part not the hoof, they are unclean to you;
verse value 6364
Insights
Verse structure: 21 words, 98 letters. Verse gematria: 6364 is divisible by 86, the value of Elohim. The shortest word is "but" (אַ֣ךְ, 2 letters) and the longest is "and·the·hare" (וְאֶת־הָאַרְנֶ֨בֶת, 9 letters). Words sharing gematria 446: and·dividing, cleft. 12 words in this verse appear nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "bringing·up" (מִמַּֽעֲלֵ֣י), "cud" (הַגֵּרָ֔ה), "and·dividing" (וּמִמַּפְרִיסֵ֥י). The root לא appears 2 times in this verse. 15 unique roots are used. Frequent roots: "not" (root לא, 214x in Deuteronomy); "eat" (root אכל, 82x in Deuteronomy); "this" (root זה, 75x in Deuteronomy). The etnachta (major mid-verse pause) falls on 'cleft', dividing the verse into phrases of 9 and 12 words.
Onkelos
However, these you shall not eat, of those that bring up the cud or of those that have the split hoof divided into two hooves: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger, for they bring up the cud, but their hooves are not split — they are unclean to you.
Rashi
השסועה — (lit., a cleft one) is a certain animal which has two backs and two spinal columns (Chullin 60b). — Our Rabbis asked, “Why are these (the clean and unclean beasts and fowls) here repeated” since the names have already been mentioned in Leviticus XI? They replied: the repetition was necessary so far as quadrupeds are concerned because of the שסועה, and so far as fowls are concerned because of the ראה, both of which are not mentioned in Torath Cohanim (i.e. Leviticus) (Chullin 63b).
Rabbeinu Bahya
השסועה, “which is split.” Our sages in Chulin 60 understand this word to refer to a species of animal having two spines and two backs. [I suppose the clue to this is the tone sign tipcha under the word הפרסה which precedes it and which separates it from the word השסועה. Ed.] This species chews the cud. Seeing that the list of animals permitted to eat, etc., has already been provided by the Torah in Leviticus chapter 11, why is it repeated here once more? The sages in Chulin 60 suggest it is because of the addition of the השסועה amongst the mammals and the ראה amongst the birds (Bechorot 6). On the other hand, the list of birds mentioned in Leviticus has a bird called דאה which is absent here. (Leviticus 11,14) The reason this bird is called ראה is supposedly because it has exceptionally good eyesight. According to Chulin 63 this bird can locate a carcass in the land of Israel while flying in the skies of Babylon. The Talmud also considers the names איה and דיה as two names for he same species of bird. Seeing this species is known by two names, the Torah repeated the entire list of birds here once more. Had it not done so, some people might consider the species not listed in Leviticus as permitted to eat, whereas others would reason that the species not mentioned in Deuteronomy is permitted to eat. The reason that the list of birds are the ones forbidden to eat, whereas the Torah listed the mammals which are permitted to eat is that there are far more species of “pure” birds, i.e. the ones we may eat than forbidden ones, whereas with mammals the situation is the reverse. Our sages base themselves on the model of the Torah when they say that when teaching people one should always endeavor to be concise, brief (Chulin 63). The species of bird known as שלך is called thus as it catches fish in the water with its beak while they are swimming (שלה, “to extricate, to draw out”). The דוכיפת is a form of wild turkey, apparently it has sort of a double “chin” (from the Hebrew כפות, “twin, double,” like כפות תמרים, the palm leaves which fold over).
and the swine, because he parts the hoof but chews not the cud, he is unclean to you; of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch.
verse value 3921
Insights
Verse structure: 15 words, 62 letters. The shortest word is "not" (לֹ֣א, 2 letters) and the longest is "and·the·swine" (וְאֶת־הַ֠חֲזִ֠יר, 8 letters). Words sharing gematria 31: not, not. 5 words in this verse appear nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "and·the·swine" (וְאֶת־הַ֠חֲזִ֠יר), "for·it·divides" (כִּֽי־מַפְרִ֨יס), "their·flesh" (מִבְּשָׂרָם֙). The root לא appears 3 times in this verse. 12 unique roots are used. Frequent roots: "not" (root לא, 214x in Deuteronomy); "it" (root הוא, 113x in Deuteronomy); "eat" (root אכל, 82x in Deuteronomy). First appearance of the root נבלה ("carcass") in Deuteronomy. First appearance of the root נגע ("you·shall·touch") in Deuteronomy. The etnachta (major mid-verse pause) falls on 'for·you', dividing the verse into phrases of 9 and 6 words.
Onkelos
And the pig, for it has a split hoof but does not bring up the cud — it is unclean to you. From their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch.
Rashi
ובנבלתם לא תגעו YE SHALL NOT TOUCH THEIR CARRION — Our Rabbis explained that this refers only to the festive seasons when every male Israelite was obliged to appear in the Sanctuary and should therefore be in a state of cleanness. One might think that they (the Israelites, i.e. non-priests) are prohibited from touching a carcass during the whole year! It, however, states, (Leviticus 21:1) in reference to the uncleanness of a corpse: “Say unto the priests … [there shall none be defiled by the dead] etc.”. Now you may draw a conclusion a fortiori: How is it in the case of uncleanness caused by a corpse which is a stringent kind of uncleanness? Priests only are prohibited regarding it but ordinary Israelites are not prohibited! Surely in the case of uncleanness caused by a carcass which is less stringent this is all the more so! (Sifra, Shemini, Chapter 4 8-9; cf. Rashi on Leviticus 11:8 and Note thereon).
Ibn Ezra
"And does not chew the cud" — the word "chews" [יִגָּר] is omitted, by way of brevity, or else the word "for it" [לוֹ] is omitted.
Chizkuni
ובנבלתם לא תגעו "you are not to touch their carcasses" with a view to preparing them as food, just as the Torah forbade touching holy things in Leviticus 12,4 for people in a state of bodily ritual impurity. Touching such carcasses and eating them is considered part of the same prohibition. If touching these carcasses by itself were the prohibition, why would the Torah have to bother forbidding eating them?
Daat Zkenim
ובנבלתם לא תגעו, “and do not touch their carcasses.” If they had died of natural causes you must not touch their carcasses. According to the Talmud in tractate Makkot folio 14, the words לא תגעו must be understood as a prohibition to touch them in order to eat their flesh. The reason why the Torah uses this unusual way of making this point was to treat its status as equivalent to Leviticus 12,4 where we read a prohibition for the recent mother בכל קודש לא תגע, not to touch anything that is holy. If you were to ask why the Torah had to repeat something that had already been forbidden in the same verse? It is to teach us that the measurements for culpability are the same for eating as for touching. If one touched less than the size of an olive or egg, while it is forbidden, it is not punishable by a court. It still leaves the question that if even touching a carcass is forbidden it follows logically that eating of it must certainly be forbidden! This may be the reason why there is an opinion in the Talmud, tractate Z’vachim folio 32 that our verse has to be understood literally as not touching. It would be a warning to the ordinary Israelite when making the pilgrimage to Jerusalem on the festivals when he, like the priest, must not be in a state of ritual impurity so that he can offer the sacrifices that are mandatory for him to offer while there.
These you may eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever has fins and scales may you eat;
verse value 4203
Insights
Verse structure: 10 words, 42 letters. The shortest word is "all" (כֹּ֧ל, 2 letters) and the longest is "and·scale" (וְקַשְׂקֶ֖שֶׂת, 6 letters). Words sharing gematria 457: eat, eat. The root אכל appears 2 times in this verse. 7 unique roots are used. Frequent roots: "that" (root אשר, 466x in Deuteronomy); "all" (root כל, 121x in Deuteronomy); "eat" (root אכל, 82x in Deuteronomy). The etnachta (major mid-verse pause) falls on 'water', dividing the verse into phrases of 5 and 5 words. Full calculation: אֶת־זֶה֙ [this] (413) + תֹּֽאכְל֔וּ [eat] (457) + מִכֹּ֖ל [all] (90) + אֲשֶׁ֣ר [that] (501) + בַּמָּ֑יִם [water] (92) + כֹּ֧ל [all] (50) + אֲשֶׁר־ל֛וֹ [that·to] (537) + סְנַפִּ֥יר [fin] (400) + וְקַשְׂקֶ֖שֶׂת [and·scale] (1206) + תֹּאכֵֽלוּ [eat] (457) = 4203.
Onkelos
This you may eat of all that is in the waters: whatever has fins and scales you may eat.
Ibn Ezra
"Fins and scales" — I have already explained this.
Daat Zkenim
כל אשר יש לו סנפיר וקשקשת, “any maritime creature that possesses fins and scales;” our author asks why the details about fish had to be repeated here? [they had been given in Leviticus chapter 11. Ed.] Our author sees a reason for the repetition of the rules pertaining to which domesticated mammals and which birds could or could not be eaten, seeing that according to the Talmud tractate Chulin folio 61, that certain birds have a different name in Leviticus from the name given here by Moses, and in the case of the mammals the parted hooves are described slightly differently, so that we should know both categories are forbidden if the hoof is not split from front to rear.
Targum Yonatan
But this you may eat, of all that are in the waters, whatever hath fins to move, as by flying, and scales upon its skin; and though (some of which) may fall away, yet if there remain on under its jaw, another under its fin, and another under its tail, that you may eat.
and whatsoever has not fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean to you.
verse value 2900
Insights
Verse structure: 10 words, 38 letters. Verse gematria: 2900 is divisible by 50, the years to the Jubilee (yovel). The shortest word is "not" (לֹ֣א, 2 letters) and the longest is "and·scale" (וְקַשְׂקֶ֖שֶׂת, 6 letters). 10 unique roots are used. Frequent roots: "that" (root אשר, 466x in Deuteronomy); "not" (root לא, 214x in Deuteronomy); "all" (root כל, 121x in Deuteronomy). The etnachta (major mid-verse pause) falls on 'eat', dividing the verse into phrases of 7 and 3 words. Full calculation: וְכֹ֨ל [all] (56) + אֲשֶׁ֧ר [that] (501) + אֵֽין־ל֛וֹ [not·to] (97) + סְנַפִּ֥יר [fin] (400) + וְקַשְׂקֶ֖שֶׂת [and·scale] (1206) + לֹ֣א [not] (31) + תֹאכֵ֑לוּ [eat] (457) + טָמֵ֥א [unclean] (50) + ה֖וּא [it] (12) + לָכֶֽם [for·you] (90) = 2900.
Onkelos
And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean to you.
Chizkuni
טמא הוא לכם, “it is ritually impure for you.” The word טמא here is not to be understood in the ritual sense of impurity, the person having contacted such animals requiring to perform purification rites before handling matters that are holy, but is an expression for something detestable. The concept of ritual impurity does not exist concerning fish. The expression טמא as clearly meaning something detestable is found in Ezekiel 4,13: “shall the Israelites eat their bread unclean in a disgusting unappetizing manner (among the nations that banish them?)”
Verse structure: 3 words, 15 letters. The shortest word is "pure" (טְהֹרָ֖ה, 4 letters) and the longest is "all·bird" (כׇּל־צִפּ֥וֹר, 6 letters). 1 word in this verse appears nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "pure" (טְהֹרָ֖ה). 3 unique roots are used. Frequent roots: "eat" (root אכל, 82x in Deuteronomy). Full calculation: כׇּל־צִפּ֥וֹר [all·bird] (426) + טְהֹרָ֖ה [pure] (219) + תֹּאכֵֽלוּ [eat] (457) = 1102.
Onkelos
Every clean bird you may eat.
Rashi
כל צפור טהרה תאכלו ALL CLEAN BIRDS YOU MAY EAT — 'All' — this is intended to permit as food also the bird that is set free in the case of a leper (i.e. at his purification rite; Leviticus 14:7) (Sifrei Devarim 103:1; Kiddushin 57a).
Ibn Ezra
"Every pure bird you may eat" — behold, "bird" [צִפּוֹר] is a general term, and "turtledove" and "young pigeon" refer to the two species that fall under the category of "bird"; similarly "daya" and "ayah" fall under "da'ah" — for now [in this passage] he has added further specification.
Chizkuni
כל צפור טהורה, “any ritually pure bird;” whenever the Torah uses the term צפור instead of עוף for “bird,” it is automatically referring to a ritually pure species of birds. The latter term, however, is used on different occasions for either category of birds. Ritually impure birds are always described as עוף. (Sifri)
Targum Yonatan
Every bird which hath a vesicle or crop which may be picked away, and which (bird) is longer than a finger, and not of the rapacious kind, you may eat.
But these are they of which you shall not eat: the eagle, and the bearded vulture, and the ospray;
verse value 2151 — וְזֶ֕ה = 18 (chai)
Insights
Verse structure: 7 words, 32 letters. Notable word values: "this" (וְזֶ֕ה) = 18, chai, 'life'. The shortest word is "this" (וְזֶ֕ה, 3 letters) and the longest is "not·eat" (לֹֽא־תֹאכְל֖וּ, 7 letters). 3 words in this verse appear nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "not·eat" (לֹֽא־תֹאכְל֖וּ), "and·the·vulture" (וְהַפֶּ֖רֶס), "and·the·black·vulture" (וְהָֽעׇזְנִיָּֽה). 7 unique roots are used. Frequent roots: "that" (root אשר, 466x in Deuteronomy); "not·eat" (root לא, 214x in Deuteronomy); "this" (root זה, 75x in Deuteronomy). First appearance of the root נשר ("eagle") in Deuteronomy. The etnachta (major mid-verse pause) falls on 'from·them', dividing the verse into phrases of 4 and 3 words. Full calculation: וְזֶ֕ה [this] (18) + אֲשֶׁ֥ר [that] (501) + לֹֽא־תֹאכְל֖וּ [not·eat] (488) + מֵהֶ֑ם [from·them] (85) + הַנֶּ֥שֶׁר [eagle] (555) + וְהַפֶּ֖רֶס [and·the·vulture] (351) + וְהָֽעׇזְנִיָּֽה [and·the·black·vulture] (153) = 2151.
Onkelos
And these are those that you shall not eat from them: the eagle, the ossifrage, and the osprey.
Rashi
וזה אשר לא תאכלו מהם BUT THESE ARE THEY WHICH YOU MAY NOT EAT — This again is intended to forbid as food the bird that is slaughtered in the case of a leper (Sifrei Devarim 103:1-2; Kiddushin 57a).
Chizkuni
וזה אשר לא תאכלו, “and these are the ones of which you may not eat;” Rashi explains that the word זה is meant to include that the prohibition includes if these birds had been of the permitted kind, but were used in the procedure prescribed for the sin offering of a leper. They must not be eaten even though slaughtered in the appropriate manner. (Compare Leviticus 14,4)
Tur HaArokh
וזה אשר לא תאכלו, “this is the type of bird you may not eat;” this includes birds which have undergone ritual slaughter. The following had to be stated explicitly, as once no longer alive, such birds are susceptible to ritual impurity. One might have thought since the ritual impurity that had left the person stricken with tzoraat had been transferred to his offering, that offering had become contaminated. The Torah therefore indicates that this is not the case.
Daat Zkenim
הנשר, contrary to common perception, this bird is not the one known to us as “eagle,” as it does not have a claw at the rear of its leg, one of the marks of identification for birds of prey. Forbidden birds listed are not supposed to possess any marks that the pure birds have in common. This is why the Talmud in tractate Chulin, folio 61.defines ythis bid as not possessing any of the marks that would suggest that it is a pure bird. There us a bird with by a similar name in Arabic [According to Mendelsohn, eagles in his time did not possess this extra claw at the rear of its leg. [Compare D. Hoffman in his discussion on the Book of Leviticus. Ed.]
and the glede, and the falcon, and the kite after its kinds;
verse value 810
Insights
Verse structure: 4 words, 22 letters. Verse gematria: 810 is divisible by 18, the value of chai ('life'). The shortest word is "and·the·kite" (וְהָרָאָה֙, 5 letters) and the longest is "and·the·falcon" (וְאֶת־הָ֣אַיָּ֔ה, 7 letters). 3 words in this verse appear nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "and·the·kite" (וְהָרָאָה֙), "and·the·falcon" (וְאֶת־הָ֣אַיָּ֔ה), "and·the·buzzard" (וְהַדַּיָּ֖ה). 4 unique roots are used. Frequent roots: "and·the·kite" (root ראה, 69x in Deuteronomy). First appearance of the root מין ("kind") in Deuteronomy. Full calculation: וְהָרָאָה֙ [and·the·kite] (217) + וְאֶת־הָ֣אַיָּ֔ה [and·the·falcon] (428) + וְהַדַּיָּ֖ה [and·the·buzzard] (30) + לְמִינָֽהּ [kind] (135) = 810.
Onkelos
And the glede, the falcon, and the kite according to its kind.
Rashi
ראה — הראה וראיה and איה and דיה are names for the same bird. Why is it called ראה? Because it sees keenly. And why does Scripture prohibit it under each of its names? In order not to give an opponent occasion to argue, i.e. in order that he who regards it as forbidden may not say, “This is the ראה and is therefore forbidden”, and he who wishes to declare it as permitted will then reply, “But this is named דיה", or “this is named איה and this Scripture has not forbidden”. — In the case of birds, Scripture enumerates by name the unclean species, thus telling you that the clean birds are more numerous than the unclean (in contradistinction to quadrupeds; see vv. 4—5), for which reason Scripture mentions those by name which form the minority (Chullin 63b).
Or HaChaim
והראה ואת האיה, and the aforementioned birds, etc. It appears that every one of the 24 categories of unclean birds listed here has numerous sub-categories. This is the reason the Torah does not write למינה, "according to its kind," but למינהו, "according to their kind" (Chulin 63). When the bird mentioned is the only one of its kind or there are only a few variants of that category, the Torah speaks of למינו, "its kind." The proof for this theory is that the Torah does not write למינו in connection with the נשר (often translated as eagle), and the Talmud in Chulin 61 when not certain about a particular bird suggests that it may belong to the family of the נשר. Clearly, the sages of the Talmud considered the word נשר as a collective term for quite a variety of birds of its category.
Chizkuni
.ראה, איה דיה, דאה “glede, falcon, buzzard and kite;” [none of these species can be indentified with certainty. This is why different translations use some of the names interchangeably. Ed.] According to our author, the four names mentioned here are really one. How is this to be understood? Seeing that we find the expression למינה, “according to its kind (species)”in the singular mode instead of in the plural mode at the end of this verse, they must have something important in common with each other. We find a similar verse in Leviticus 11,14, in connection with the bird called איה, this proves that איה and דיה are two names for the same species. Similarly, ראה and דיה are also the same species. [I have omitted the author’s somewhat convoluted method of proving this point. Ed.]
Verse structure: 2 words, 13 letters. The shortest word is "kind" (לְמִינֽוֹ, 5 letters) and the longest is "and·all·raven" (וְאֵ֥ת כׇּל־עֹרֵ֖ב, 8 letters). 2 words in this verse appear nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "and·all·raven" (וְאֵ֥ת כׇּל־עֹרֵ֖ב), "kind" (לְמִינֽוֹ). 2 unique roots are used. First appearance of the root ערב ("and·all·raven") in Deuteronomy. Full calculation: וְאֵ֥ת כׇּל־עֹרֵ֖ב [and·all·raven] (729) + לְמִינֽוֹ [kind] (136) = 865.
Onkelos
And every raven according to its kind.
Daat Zkenim
ואת כל עורב, “and any species or sub-species of raven.” This bird too is not what is generally known as corbeau. (French) Upon examination, that bird has only two of the marks that would make it a pure bird. The subject is discussed in the Talmud, tractate Sanhedrin folio 108.
and the ostrich, and the night-hawk, and the sea-mew, and the hawk after its kinds;
verse value 3362
Insights
Verse structure: 6 words, 37 letters. The shortest word is "and·daughter·of" (וְאֵת֙ בַּ֣ת, 5 letters) and the longest is "and·the·nighthawk" (וְאֶת־הַתַּחְמָ֖ס, 8 letters). 6 words in this verse appear nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "and·daughter·of" (וְאֵת֙ בַּ֣ת), "ostrich" (הַֽיַּעֲנָ֔ה), "and·the·nighthawk" (וְאֶת־הַתַּחְמָ֖ס). 6 unique roots are used. Frequent roots: "and·daughter·of" (root בת, 20x in Deuteronomy). The etnachta (major mid-verse pause) falls on 'and·the·sea·gull', dividing the verse into phrases of 4 and 2 words. Full calculation: וְאֵת֙ בַּ֣ת [and·daughter·of] (809) + הַֽיַּעֲנָ֔ה [ostrich] (140) + וְאֶת־הַתַּחְמָ֖ס [and·the·nighthawk] (920) + וְאֶת־הַשָּׁ֑חַף [and·the·sea·gull] (800) + וְאֶת־הַנֵּ֖ץ [and·the·hawk] (552) + לְמִינֵֽהוּ [kind] (141) = 3362.
Onkelos
And the ostrich, the owl, the seagull, and the hawk according to its kinds.
Chizkuni
ואת בת היענה, “and the little owl;” the same is true of the יענה, the great owl. The Torah mentions the little owl as it is not fit to be eaten except as long as it is very young. Its flesh is hard as wood when it matures. (b’chor shor)
Daat Zkenim
בת היענה, “the ostrich;” the reason the word בת preceded the name of this bird is that it is edible only when very young. Afterwards its flesh becomes hard like wood. ואת הנץ, “and the hawk;” here too the reader is referred to the Talmud in tractate Chulin folio 63, where we are told how to identify this species. Tossaphot on that folio goes into greater detail.
the little owl, and the great owl, and the horned owl;
verse value 2551
Insights
Verse structure: 3 words, 22 letters. The shortest word is "the·owlet" (אֶת־הַכּ֥וֹס, 6 letters) and the longest is "and·the·owl" (וְאֶת־הַיַּנְשׁ֖וּף, 9 letters). 3 words in this verse appear nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "the·owlet" (אֶת־הַכּ֥וֹס), "and·the·owl" (וְאֶת־הַיַּנְשׁ֖וּף), "the·white·owl" (וְהַתִּנְשָֽׁמֶת). 3 unique roots are used. Full calculation: אֶת־הַכּ֥וֹס [the·owlet] (492) + וְאֶת־הַיַּנְשׁ֖וּף [and·the·owl] (858) + וְהַתִּנְשָֽׁמֶת [the·white·owl] (1201) = 2551.
Onkelos
The little owl, the great owl, and the white owl.
Rashi
התנשמת — This is the chauve-souris in old French; (English = bat).
and the pelican, and the carrion-vulture, and the cormorant;
verse value 1939
Insights
Verse structure: 3 words, 20 letters. The shortest word is "the·pelican" (וְהַקָּאָ֥ת, 5 letters) and the longest is "and·the·vulture" (וְאֶֽת־הָרָחָ֖מָה, 8 letters). 3 words in this verse appear nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "the·pelican" (וְהַקָּאָ֥ת), "and·the·vulture" (וְאֶֽת־הָרָחָ֖מָה), "and·the·cormorant" (וְאֶת־הַשָּׁלָֽךְ). 3 unique roots are used. Full calculation: וְהַקָּאָ֥ת [the·pelican] (512) + וְאֶֽת־הָרָחָ֖מָה [and·the·vulture] (665) + וְאֶת־הַשָּׁלָֽךְ [and·the·cormorant] (762) = 1939.
Onkelos
And the pelican, the cormorant, and the fish owl.
Rashi
שלך is a bird that draws out (שלה = שלך) fish from out the sea (see Rashi on Leviticus 11:17).
and the stork, and the heron after its kinds, and the hoopoe, and the bat.
verse value 1111
Insights
Verse structure: 5 words, 32 letters. The shortest word is "after·its·kind" (לְמִינָ֑הּ, 5 letters) and the longest is "the·hoopoe" (וְהַדּוּכִיפַ֖ת, 8 letters). 4 words in this verse appear nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "the·stork" (וְהַ֣חֲסִידָ֔ה), "the·heron" (וְהָאֲנָפָ֖ה), "the·hoopoe" (וְהַדּוּכִיפַ֖ת). 5 unique roots are used. The etnachta (major mid-verse pause) falls on 'after·its·kind', dividing the verse into phrases of 3 and 2 words. Full calculation: וְהַ֣חֲסִידָ֔ה [the·stork] (98) + וְהָאֲנָפָ֖ה [the·heron] (147) + לְמִינָ֑הּ [after·its·kind] (135) + וְהַדּוּכִיפַ֖ת [the·hoopoe] (531) + וְהָעֲטַלֵּֽף [the·bat] (200) = 1111.
Onkelos
And the stork, the heron according to its kind, the mountain woodpecker, and the bat.
Rashi
דוכיפת is the wild cock, which is called in old French herupe, and which has a double comb (Chullin 63a; cf. Rashi on Leviticus 11:19).
And all winged swarming things are unclean to you; they shall not be eaten.
verse value 1057
Insights
Verse structure: 8 words, 26 letters. The shortest word is "not" (לֹ֖א, 2 letters) and the longest is "shall·be·eaten" (יֵאָכֵֽלוּ, 5 letters). 2 words in this verse appear nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "swarming·things" (שֶׁ֣רֶץ), "flying·creatures" (הָע֔וֹף). 8 unique roots are used. Frequent roots: "not" (root לא, 214x in Deuteronomy); "all" (root כל, 121x in Deuteronomy); "it" (root הוא, 113x in Deuteronomy). The etnachta (major mid-verse pause) falls on 'for·you', dividing the verse into phrases of 6 and 2 words. Full calculation: וְכֹל֙ [all] (56) + שֶׁ֣רֶץ [swarming·things] (590) + הָע֔וֹף [flying·creatures] (161) + טָמֵ֥א [unclean] (50) + ה֖וּא [it] (12) + לָכֶ֑ם [for·you] (90) + לֹ֖א [not] (31) + יֵאָכֵֽלוּ [shall·be·eaten] (67) = 1057.
Onkelos
And every swarming winged creature is unclean to you; they shall not be eaten.
Rashi
שרץ העוף — These are the lowly creatures which move upon the ground: flies, hornets and the unclean species of grass-hoppers (cf. Rashi on Leviticus 11:20), come under the term of שרץ.
Targum Yonatan
and all flies (bees) and wasps, and all worms of vegetables and pulse, which come away from (materials of) food and fly as birds, are unclean to you, they may not be eaten;.
Verse structure: 3 words, 14 letters. The shortest word is "pure" (טָה֖וֹר, 4 letters) and the longest is "all·flying·creatures" (כׇּל־ע֥וֹף, 5 letters). 1 word in this verse appears nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "all·flying·creatures" (כׇּל־ע֥וֹף). 3 unique roots are used. Frequent roots: "eat" (root אכל, 82x in Deuteronomy). Full calculation: כׇּל־ע֥וֹף [all·flying·creatures] (206) + טָה֖וֹר [pure] (220) + תֹּאכֵֽלוּ [eat] (457) = 883.
Onkelos
Every clean bird you may eat.
Rashi
כל עוף תאכלו ALL CLEAN FOWLS, YOU MAY EAT — but not (as is implied by these words) the unclean. Scripture intends, by this statement, to attach to the negative command which forbids unclean fowls (v. 12), a positive one which implicitly contains a prohibition. And similarly, when in the case of clean cattle it states, (v. 6) “that you may eat”, it implies: not, however, the unclean ones. Now a prohibition which is not plainly expressed but can only be drawn by inference from a positive command, is itself regarded only as a positive command, so that one who eats such food transgresses thereby not two negative commands, but a positive and a negative command (Sifrei Devarim 101:10; and cf. Rashi on Leviticus 11:3).
Ibn Ezra
"Every pure flying creature" — such as the locust.
Chizkuni
כל עוף טהור תאכלו, “you may eat every ritually pure bird.” According to the plain meaning of the text this includes certain species of locusts and grasshoppers not listed here by name.
You shall not eat of any thing that dies of itself; you may give it to the stranger that is within your gates, that he may eat it; or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a holy people to Hashem your God. You shall not seethe a kid in its mother's milk.
verse value 5452
Insights
Verse structure: 20 words, 82 letters. The shortest word is "not" (לֹ֣א, 2 letters) and the longest is "that·in·your·gates" (אֲשֶׁר־בִּשְׁעָרֶ֜יךָ, 9 letters). 7 words in this verse appear nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "all·carcass" (כׇל־נְ֠בֵלָ֠ה), "you·shall·give·it" (תִּתְּנֶ֣נָּה), "and·he·shall·eat·it" (וַאֲכָלָ֗הּ). The root אכל appears 2 times in this verse. 19 unique roots are used. Frequent roots: "to·Hashem" (root יהוה, 541x in Deuteronomy); "your·God" (root אלהים, 368x in Deuteronomy); "not" (root לא, 214x in Deuteronomy). First appearance of the root מכר ("sell") in Deuteronomy. First appearance of the root נכרי ("foreign") in Deuteronomy. The etnachta (major mid-verse pause) falls on 'your·God', dividing the verse into phrases of 16 and 4 words.
Onkelos
You shall not eat any carcass; to the uncircumcised sojourner who is in your towns you may give it that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner, for you are a holy people before Hashem your God. You shall not eat flesh in milk.
Rashi
לגר אשר בשעריך [YE SHALL NOT EAT ANY CARRION: THOU SHALT GIVE IT] UNTO THE STRANGER THAT IS IN THY GATES — i.e. unto a stranger that is a sojourner (גר תושב) — one who has undertaken not to worship idols (i.e. one who has been converted to the fundamental tenet of Judaism) but who eats carrion (does not obey the other teachings of the Torah) (Sifrei Devarim 104:2; cf. Rashi on Leviticus 25:35). כי עם קדוש אתה לה׳ FOR THOU ART AN HOLY PEOPLE UNTO THE LORD — This implies: show yourself holy (abstinent) in respect to things which are permitted to you — i.e. things that are actually permitted but which some treat as forbidden you should not treat as permissible in their presence (Sifrei Devarim 104:7). לא תבשל גדי THOU SHALT NOT SEETHE A KID [IN ITS MOTHER’S MILK] — Three times the prohibition of seething meat in milk is mentioned in the Torah (here, and in Exodus 23:19 and Exodus 34:26) and each time in the form: “thou shalt not seethe a kid” thus excluding three species: a wild beast, fowls and unclean beasts from the prohibition (Sifrei Devarim 104:8; Chullin 113a).
Ramban
FOR THOU ART A HOLY PEOPLE UNTO THE ETERNAL THY G-D. The purport thereof is connected with [the following prohibition], Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother’s milk. Although it is not an abhorrent food [for both meat and milk are permitted separately] He prohibited it because we are to be holy in [choice of] foods — or because we [ourselves] are holy — that we not become a cruel people that is not compassionate by milking the mother and extracting its milk to seethe therein its kid. And although any meat [cooked] in milk is included in this prohibition [even though it is not its own mother’s milk, a situation without apparent cruelty, nevertheless it is forbidden] because any nursing animal is called “mother” and any suckling offspring is called “kid,” and if they are together in the process of cooking there is [an element of] cruelty in all [cases whether a kid in its own mother’s milk or not].Now, Rashi wrote: “Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother’s milk. This is stated three times in order to exclude a wild beast, fowls, and unclean animals” [from this prohibition]. This interpretation is derived from the Scriptural use of the term kid [an expression that does not apply to any of the excluded categories]. However, the thrice repeated] prohibition itself [teaches the following:] one forbids eating [meat cooked with milk], one forbids deriving benefit from it, and one forbids cooking it. And so did the Rabbi [Rashi] write in the section of And these are the ordinances.
Ibn Ezra
"You shall not eat any carcass" — whether of fowl or of beast. "To the stranger who is within your gates" — one who has not converted to Judaism, as I have explained. "Or sell it to a foreigner" — one who does not dwell in your land. The reason for joining [the passage] "You shall not boil a kid" is that it is flesh, and I have already explained it.
Sforno
לא תאכלו כל נבלה, even of the pure species which you may eat after they have been slaughtered ritually. כי עם קדוש אתה לה' אלוקיך, even though the dead carcass is in a state of being fit for human consumption, such as by strangers in your midst or residents who have not yet converted to embrace all of Judaism’s laws. עם קדוש, ready to achieve the perfection intended for it by its Creator. (this would be slowed down or impeded by eating lower forms of living creatures, not that eating them would be harmful, objectively speaking.) לא תבשל גדי, as is the custom among the Gentiles who believe that by doing so they will increase the numbers of their livestock (compare Moreh Nevuchim, section three 3,48)
Or HaChaim
לא תאכלו כל נבלה, "You shall not eat any carcass, etc." The reason that the Torah adds the word כל, "any" or "all kinds of," is justified according to the sages who hold that two types of prohibitions do apply to the same animal simultaneously (compare Chulin 113). [supposing you were to eat the carcass of an animal which even if ritually slaughtered would have been forbidden because it was already forbidden as an unclean animal during its lifetime. According to that view you would be culpable for two sins. Ed.] According to the sages who hold that one is not culpable for an additional prohibition, i.e. for the prohibition of eating the carcass of say a pig, the word כל, "all or every," is needed to forbid the carcass of either domestic animal, free-roaming animal, or birds. However, carcasses of unclean animals would not be included in this prohibition. An additional meaning of the word כל may be related to what we have learned in Me-ilah 4,3 and which has been confirmed by a ruling of Maimonides in chapter four of his treatise Ma-achalot assurot. He writes: "all carcasses may be combined with one another. How does this work in practice? If someone takes a minute amount of the carcass of an ox plus a minute amount of the carcass of a deer, plus a minute amount of the carcass of a hen, if the three amounts combined are equal to the size of an olive then he who eats this combination is liable to thirty nine lashes." Thus far Maimonides. The statement: "you must not eat any carcass" therefore refers to the minimum quantity which is considered a violation, i.e. even if three separate animals were needed to make up the quantity of the size equal to an olive. לגר אשר בשעריך, "to the stranger who is in your gates, etc." When the Torah speaks of the stranger it mentions giving it to him, whereas when speaking about the Gentile [who does not even observe the 7 Noachide laws. Ed.] the Torah mentions selling the carcass to him. In Chulin 114 we find a dispute between Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehudah concerning the meaning of our verse. The former holds that our verse indicates a preference for giving the carcass to the stranger rather than selling it to him although both is permitted; however at the same time the Torah prefers you to sell the carcass to the Gentile rather than to give it to him as a gift. Rabbi Yehudah understands the wording to mean that to the Gentiles the carcass may only be sold, whereas to the stranger it may only be given as a gift. Rabbi Yehudah bases himself on the word או meaning "or." Had the Torah wanted to permit selling the carcass to the stranger it should have written ומכור, "and sell it," instead of או מכור, "or sell it." Rabbi Meir understands the sequence of "giving or selling" as an indication of which method the Torah prefers in each respective situation. In order to understand the approach of Rabbi Yehudah of why the Torah does not state unequivocally that the Gentile may not be given the carcass, etc., we have to refer...
Chizkuni
לא תאכלו כל נבלה, “you must not eat the carcass of any animal that died of natural causes.” This includes carcasses of normally ritually pure mammals, free roaming beasts birds and ritually not pure fish. Ritually pure fish are permitted to be eaten whether they died from natural causes or were killed by man. The reason why this appears to have been repeated is so that no one would have an excuse to say that only the carcasses of mammals, free roaming beasts and pure birds are forbidden if they died from natural causes. כל נבלה, “any type of carcass that died of natural causes.” The use of the word כל to mean “any,” and not “all,” we have seen already in verse 3 in our chapter “כל תועבה,” anything abominable, as well as in Exodus 20,10: לא תעשה כל מלאכה,”you must not perform any work.” או מכור לנכרי, or to be sold to a gentile.” The letter ל in the word לנכרי has the semi vowel sh’va. לא תבשל גדי, “do not boil a kid;” This was repeated here to teach that (its youth notwithstanding?) it is considered as meat. (Ibn Ezra)
Rabbeinu Bahya
לא תבשל גדי בחלב אמו, “Do not boil a kid in the milk of its mother.” I have explained the meaning of this verse in detail in Exodus 23,19. The reason it is written three times is that once it refers to the prohibition to eat such a mixture, once to the prohibition to merely boil it together, and once to the prohibition to derive indirect benefit from the result of boiling milk and meat together (Chulin 115). On folio 113 of Chulin the Talmud sees in the word גדי a restrictive clause, i.e. the prohibition does not apply to free-roaming beasts or to birds or to mammals of the kind which are forbidden for consumption by Jews. None of these are subject to this prohibition as a Biblical law though the Rabbis included the prohibition to cover all these cases (Maimonides Hilchot Maachalot assurot 9,4).
Tur HaArokh
כי עם קדוש אתה, “for you are a holy nation.” Nachmanides writes that Moses deliberately wrote the prohibition of mixing milk and meat right next to the reminder that we are a holy nation, to remind us that although milk and meat cannot be considered abominable foods, else how could each by itself be perfectly acceptable, but in order to remind us that we are not merely not abominable, not despicable, but on a much higher spiritual level, one that needs to concern itself also with more refinement in matters physical and material. A holy nation does not display signs of inhumanity, ruthlessness, and insensitivity, even when relating to its domestic animals. Milking a mother animal in order to boil its young in that milk is considered an act of extreme insensitivity towards both of the animals involved. Even though mixing any kind of milk with any kind of meat is included in the prohibition listed here, so that in the vast majority of situations the element of insensitivity vis a vis specific animals is not involved, seeing that basically any nursing woman or animal is considered as a “mother,” first and foremost, and every suckling is considered as a גדי, “kid,” observing this law brings home the underlying motive contained in it to each one of us.
You shall surely tithe all the increase of your seed, that which is brought forth in the field year by year.
verse value 4227
Insights
Verse structure: 8 words, 34 letters. The shortest word is "you·shall·surely·tithe" (עַשֵּׂ֣ר, 3 letters) and the longest is "all·produce" (אֵ֖ת כׇּל־תְּבוּאַ֣ת, 9 letters). Words sharing gematria 355: year, year. 3 words in this verse appear nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "you·shall·tithe" (תְּעַשֵּׂ֔ר), "all·produce" (אֵ֖ת כׇּל־תְּבוּאַ֣ת), "the·going·out" (הַיֹּצֵ֥א). The root עשר appears 2 times in this verse. 6 unique roots are used. Frequent roots: "the·going·out" (root יצא, 67x in Deuteronomy); "year" (root שנה, 28x in Deuteronomy); "seed" (root זרע, 20x in Deuteronomy). First appearance of the root תבואה ("all·produce") in Deuteronomy. The etnachta (major mid-verse pause) falls on 'seed', dividing the verse into phrases of 4 and 4 words. Full calculation: עַשֵּׂ֣ר [you·shall·surely·tithe] (570) + תְּעַשֵּׂ֔ר [you·shall·tithe] (970) + אֵ֖ת כׇּל־תְּבוּאַ֣ת [all·produce] (1260) + זַרְעֶ֑ךָ [seed] (297) + הַיֹּצֵ֥א [the·going·out] (106) + הַשָּׂדֶ֖ה [field] (314) + שָׁנָ֥ה [year] (355) + שָׁנָֽה [year] (355) = 4227.
Onkelos
You shall tithe all the yield of your sowing that comes forth from the field, year by year.
Rashi
THOU SHALT TRULY TITHE [ALL THE INCREASE OF THY SEED] — What has this matter to do with that? (Why are they placed in juxtaposition)? But the Holy One, blessed be He, says in effect to Israel: “Do not compel Me to blast by heat the tender kernels of the grain, whilst they are yet in their mother’s womb (i.e. in the husks), for if you do not tithe your products as is proper, when they are near ripening I shall bring forth the east wind and it will blast them”, as it is said, (2 Kings 19:26) “[Therefore … they were] as the corn blasted before it be grown up” (Midrash Tanchuma, Re'eh 17). A similar reason may be given for בכורים (for its juxtaposition to לא תבשל גדי (Exodus 34:26). שנה שנה [THOU SHALT TRULY GIVE TITHE] YEAR BY YEAR — From here we may derive that one must not give tithe from the new grain for the old (Sifrei Devarim 105:1).
Ramban
THOU SHALT SURELY TITHE ALL THE INCREASE OF THY SEED. This also is a [previously stated] commandment that he [Moses] now explains. For He stated, And all the tithe of the Land, whether of the seed of the Land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the Eternal’s; it is holy unto the Eternal, and He further said, And if a man will redeem aught of his tithe, he shall add unto it the fifth part thereof Now these verses do not refer to the tithe of the Levites [i.e., the First Tithe], for of that it is said, And ye may eat it in every place, and it is unconsecrated food, and what reason is there for its redemption? And now he explained that He obligated [them] to tithe all the increase of thy seed [i.e., to set aside the Second Tithe] in order that he himself and his children eat it before G-d, that thou mayest learn to fear the Eternal. For the priests and judges who stand there before the Eternal, the teachers of the Torah, will instruct him in the fear [of G-d] and teach him the Torah and the Commandments. And he explained [here] the meaning of the redemption He mentioned there: it is because sometimes the [Second] Tithe will be abundant because the Eternal will have blessed you and the way will be too long for you, and [therefore] it is better to redeem it with money and to bring the redemption-money [to Jerusalem for use in buying food]. He did not mention [here] the fifth [that is added to the value of the Second Tithe when redeeming it] because it has already been mentioned [there in Leviticus].The purport of the expression, that which is brought forth in the field is “‘and all’ that which is brought forth in the field,” [so that the phrase does modify ‘the increase of thy seed,’ and adds additional categories of produce to the requirement of the Second Tithe], just as He has said, whether of the seed of the Land, or of the fruit of the tree, and the sense thereof is “that which comes forth ‘from’ the field.” Now the intent of the expression all the increase of thy seed is not that he is to tithe all produce from whatever he seeded, nor everything that is brought forth in the field year by year. The sense of the verse is that one is to tithe, of those species which are liable to the tithe, all of his produce [these being grain, wine, and oil, as will be explained] and all that was brought forth of them in the field. He is warning that he is not to tithe only a small part of that which cometh to his hand and thus exempt only a small quantity of the produce, but instead he is to tithe both the measures of seed that he planted and the increase upon them [in the process of growing], all of it faithfully. Then he mentions the species which are obligated to be tithed: the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and so he mentions in all places, as it is said, Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of thy wine, or of thine oil etc. And so He said in the section on the gifts to the priesthood, All the best of the oil, and...
Ibn Ezra
"You shall surely tithe" — this passage is joined [to the preceding] because it is forbidden to eat any impure bird, impure beast, or carcass; and thus, with meat and with grain, it is forbidden to eat what is consecrated except in the chosen place. "The produce of the field, year by year" — Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi, the Spaniard, may his rest be in Eden, said that ["produce"] is in construct with "your seed," the meaning being: the seed that you brought out to the field. But in my view it follows its plain meaning, referring to the produce that comes forth from the field. And if someone objects that Scripture says "that which comes out" [הַיּוֹצֵא] — using a verb that does not take an external object — I point him to [the phrase] "the city that goes out a thousand" (Amos 5:3), where the proof is "shall leave a hundred." The Sages said that this refers to the second tithe. Know that if you begin counting from above, the one is the head; if from below, the tenth is the head. This is the secret of the firstborn and of the tithe. Know also that the one is not itself a number, and similarly the ten — for it corresponds to the one, being the head of the second series and the end of the first. Every root of a number is adjacent to it, both before and after. And because one and ten are the foundational [numbers], and the middle ones are five and six — which are called "round numbers" — therefore the quiescent letters are these four, and from them come the letters of the glorious and awesome Name.
Sforno
עשר תעשר, for by tithing the crops of the fields and orchards as well as that of your livestock, you will actually increase their numbers (G’d will see to this) instead of decreasing the amount at your disposal. This is what our sages meant when they said in Shabbat 119 עשר בשביל שתתעשר, “give the tithes so that you will be enriched” (with the dot in the letter ש of the word תתעשר on the right hand side.).
Chizkuni
עשר תעשר, “you must surely tithe, etc.;” the reason why this paragraph was added at this point is that earlier we had read about not eating anything that is ritually impure. Here we are told that it is forbidden to eat any sanctified meat or agricultural products except in certain holy locations. עשר תעשר, “the command is repeated in order to also forbid trading in tithes, not only eating in the wrong location.” (Tanchuma, Reay section 18) An alternate interpretation: The words עשר תעשר, by themselves, could be understood as applying to anything that grows being subject to tithing. The fact that the Torah added the word: ואכלת, “and that you eat,” restricts the need to tithe to crops grown with the intent to serve as food. I might now have thought that such foods as honey and milk could be included also in the legislation to tithe; in order to tell us that this is not so, the Torah added the words: היוצא השדה, “which is the product of the field.” This excludes among other items plants that are grown in closed flower pots because they do not derive their nutrients from the moisture in the soil. Actually, the command about tithing has been written in three separate parts of the Torah, and each time it has been repeated a new element has been added to this commandment as Rashi has explained. At this stage the new element is that of not desecrating the second tithe, as indicated by the need to convert (redeem) it if it is not capable of being transported to Jerusalem.
Rabbeinu Bahya
עשר תעשר, “pay both tithes.” According to the plain meaning of the text: “after you set aside and gave to the Levite the first tithe, set aside the second tithe for yourself and take it to Jerusalem to consume it there.
Kli Yakar
“You shall surely tithe all the produce of your seed [etc.].” Since it is stated (Malachi 3:10): Bring the tithes to the storehouse [etc.] and I will pour out for you a blessing until there is no limit [bli dai]. [This means] that your lips will become worn out from saying enough [dai] (Shabbat 32b). The explanation of this matter is that they will receive an abundance of produce, much more than they need, and if so, they certainly will not be able to say “enough,” because the term “enough” is appropriate to say when they have enough for their needs. But when they have enough and more, they will not be able to say “enough,” and this is the meaning of without enough [bli dai]. “Bli” is a term of negation, meaning they will not say enough about it. And this is why their lips will become worn out from saying enough“, because the mouth cannot speak ”enough“ when there is enough and more. And regarding that extraordinary abundance, it says the doubled phrase ”aser te’aser“ [you shall surely tithe], meaning: if you tithe [”aser“] by giving a tenth in this year, ten out of a hundred, then you will merit that in the following year you will tithe [”te’aser“] all the produce of your seed from this year, and it will produce a thousand measures in the following year, and you will give a hundred as a tithe. And so it will be from year to year, which is what is meant by that which goes forth from the field year by year. However, since we find that all matters of charity are doubled, You shall surely tithe [Hebrew: aser te’aser], You shall surely give [Hebrew: naton titen], You shall surely open [Hebrew: patoach tiftach], You shall surely lend [Hebrew: ha’avet ta’avitenu], and likewise the reward is doubled as it says He will surely bless you [Hebrew: barech yevarechecha]. Therefore, it appears that all matters of charity are doubled: the giving with the hand, and the appeasement with the mouth, through not letting one’s heart be grieved and giving with a pleasant countenance and a whole heart, and “the poor man does not hear rebuke.” As our Sages said (Berakhot 8a), “One who prays should wait the time it takes to enter through two doorways, etc.” This is to fulfill what is said (Psalms 17:15), I, through righteousness, shall see Your face. From here they learned that before one prays, one should give a coin to charity (Bava Batra 10a). And this is the measure of “two doorways,” as it is written, You shall surely open your hand. That is, the opening of the hand and the opening of the heart, which is mentioned in the preceding verse: You shall not harden your heart nor close your hand. Therefore, all matters of charity are doubled, one with the hand and one with the heart, and for each of these, the Holy One, blessed be He, establishes a separate reward. Thus it says, “He will surely bless you.” And regarding this, our Sages said in the Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni, Isaiah 445), “They sinned doubly, etc.” For they sinned regarding charity, which is a doubled matter, as it is written (Ezekiel 16:49), Behold, this was the sin of Sodom, your sister: the hand of the poor and needy she did not strengthen. And they also sinned regarding Sabbaths, as it is written (Ezekiel 22:26), And from My Sabbaths they averted their eyes, for all matters of Sabbath are doubled (Midrash Tehillim 92:1). And they also sinned in the releasing of servants to freedom in the days of Jeremiah (34:11), and it is written about them (Deuteronomy 15:18), For double the wages of a hired servant has your servant worked for you. And this is [the meaning of] “they sinned doubly, etc.” Another explanation: all the duplications [in the verse] come to say that if you give once, you will merit to give also a second time, because giving leads to [more] giving, and so on [with all acts of giving].
Tur HaArokh
היוצא השדה, “that emerges from the field, etc.” The Torah took it for granted that the reader mentally adds the word מן, “from,” after the word היוצא. Some commentators understand the words היוצא השדה as referring back to the word תבואת “yield of, harvest of,” in the earlier part of our verse. The message- i.e. what additional information does the expression היוצא השדה yield for us, would be that even the seed used in planting is also subject to the laws of tithing. Even though we read in the text the words כל תבואת זרעך “all the produce of your seeds,” this is not meant literally, as there are crops that do not require tithing, except for the categories of crop spelled out by the Torah in verse 23, i.e. grain, wine, and oil. The word דגנך, loosely translated as “your grain,” comprises five species of grain, the kinds subject to becoming fermented, i.e. wheat, barley, oats, spelt and rye. The meaning of the word תירוש is new wine that has not yet fermented. The word יצהר refers to the oil from olives. The meaning of the line עשר תעשר את כל תבואת זרעך therefore is: “make certain that you properly tithe all the types of harvests that are subject to the laws of tithing.” The words היוצא השדה are a warning not to be overly eager and give tithes of grain still in the ground or fruit still on the tree, seeing that the tithe is subject to being measured and even a generous “over”-tithing (giving by estimate but definitely more than the required 10%) would invalidate the whole procedure and leave the crop as טבל, untithed, and therefore forbidden food. The plain meaning of the text is designed to teach us that even grapes and olives do not become subject to the laws of tithing (from a Biblical perspective) until after the olives have been converted into oil, and the grapes into wine. The expression שנה, שנה, usually translated as “annually,” means [halachically speaking, Ed.] that the duty to tithe in the manner described applies during two successive years at the beginning of the shemittah cycle. At the end of the third year of that cycle any remaining tithes from the previous two crops plus the new crop’s tithes have to be distributed to the poor, the second tithe during the third and sixth year of the cycle is not consumed by the owner in Jerusalem, but instead is shared out among the poor, as distinct from the first tithe which is given to a Levite.
Daat Zkenim
היוצא השדה שנה שנה, “which is brought forth from the field year after year. The apparently superfluous words ”year after year,” are interpreted by Sifri as meaning that tithes must be given from the current harvest year not two tithes from a single harvest. An alternate interpretation: the farmer is assured by the Torah that if he tithes this year’s harvest properly he will be assured of a bountiful harvest in the year following.
And you shall eat before Hashem your God, in the place which He shall choose to cause His name to dwell there, the tithe of your corn, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstlings of your herd and of your flock; that you may learn to fear Hashem your God always.
verse value 7337 — יְהֹוָ֣ה = 26 (Hashem)
Insights
Verse structure: 22 words, 103 letters. Notable word values: "Hashem" (יְהֹוָ֣ה) = 26, the value of the divine name Hashem. The shortest word is "there" (שָׁם֒, 2 letters) and the longest is "that·he·shall·choose" (אֲשֶׁר־יִבְחַר֮, 7 letters). Words sharing gematria 66: your·God, your·God. 1 word in this verse appears nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "you·shall·learn" (תִּלְמַ֗ד). The root יהוה appears 2 times in this verse. 19 unique roots are used. Frequent roots: "Hashem" (root יהוה, 541x in Deuteronomy); "your·God" (root אלהים, 368x in Deuteronomy); "all·the·days" (root יום, 168x in Deuteronomy). The etnachta (major mid-verse pause) falls on 'your·flock', dividing the verse into phrases of 16 and 6 words.
Onkelos
And you shall eat before Hashem your God, in the place that He will choose to cause His Shechinah to dwell there, the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, and the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, so that you may learn to fear before Hashem your God all your days.
Rashi
'ואכלת וגו AND THOU SHALT EAT [BEFORE THE LORD THY GOD, IN THE PLACE WHICH HE SHALL CHOOSE … THE TITHE OF THY CORN etc.] — This is the “Second Tithe”, for it (Scripture) has already taught us to give the “First Tithe” to the Levites — as it is said, (Numbers 18:26) “[And unto the Levite shalt thou speak …], when ye take of the children of Israel the tithes”, etc., — and besides it gave them permission to eat it in any place, as it is said, (Numbers 18:31) “and ye shall eat it in any place” — thus you must admit that this tithe mentioned here, (which is to be eaten by an ordinary Israelite in Jerusalem) must be another one, — the “Second Tithe”.
Ibn Ezra
"And the firstborn of your herd" — these are to be eaten by whoever is qualified to eat them, as I have explained. "So that you will learn" — the meaning is that when you go to the place of glory, they will teach you there. The second sense of "so that you will learn" is like [the phrase] "a trained heifer" (Hos. 10:11) — meaning accustomedness, habituation. This is the correct interpretation in my view.
Sforno
למען תלמד ליראה, for the site chosen by G’d for the Temple also houses the Supreme Court, Sanhedrin, from where knowledge and understanding is dispensed.
Chizkuni
למען תלמד ליראה, “in order that you may learn to revere, etc.” This expression is meant to refer to reverence for the Lord becoming something natural, a daily occurrence, part of your everyday life, not something restricted to when one visits the synagogue and prays intently. When people observe the laws of the second tithe that apply to the average farmer being observed by huge crowds coming to Jerusalem and being exposed to priests in great numbers, this will make a deep impression upon them and be an unforgettable experience. Seeing the Supreme Court in session in Jerusalem will also be an experience that will increase the degree of reverence for the Lord your G-d.
Rabbeinu Bahya
למען תלמד ליראה, “so that you will learn to revere, etc.” When you will meet priests and Levites in Jerusalem, scholars who teach you Torah you will learn to revere the Lord. The Talmud Taanit 9 quotes Rabbi Yochanan as saying about the words עשר תעשר that the Torah implies you should give your tithe עשר, in order that as an eventual result תתעשר, you will become wealthy (i.e. read as if the dot is on the right side of the letter ש.) Actually the wording does not contain an allusion to עושר, wealth, seeing both the letters ש have their dot on the left side, imply passivity. What Rabbi Yochanan had in mind was not עשר בשביל שתתעשר, but עשר בשביל שתעשר, “give your (first time) tithe so that you will enjoy many years when you have what to tithe.” [When understanding it thus the dots on the letter ש remain on the left side. Ed.]. This then is the “wealth” Rabbi Yochanan was speaking about. (Based on Raav’ad, but never printed separately in this form.) This is certainly something in the category of an experiment, i.e. appears to violate the commandment not to “test the Lord” (Deut. 6,16). Our sages in Taanit 9 were quite aware of this and this is why they quoted Malachi 3,10 where the prophet apparently allows this one exception to the rule not to test the Lord. A Midrashic approach: The repetition of the words עשר תעשר are a veiled warning; if you do not give your tithes you will become impoverished rather than remain more wealthy by withholding the amount in question. The wording also contains a hint that people who travel overseas should donate 10% of their profits to the people who toil studying Torah (Tanchuma Re'ey 18). Another meaning of these words (Yalkut Shimoni 892): it is customary that when a person rents a field he has to give the owner at least a third or even half of the harvest. Seeing that we are “renting” the land from G’d and He provides rain clouds, dew, manure, etc., and demands only 10% of the harvest as His due we really have nothing to complain about. Considering all these facts Moses warned the people to be careful to observe this commandment meticulously. There was a farmer once who fulfilled his duty and tithed his harvest properly. As a result he was left with a net amount of 1000 measures of grain. When he was about to die he told his son to be careful to observe this commandment meticulously. He told him how much a particular field yielded annually and to be sure to give 10% of that amount to a Levite. He also told him that he himself had been able to subsist comfortably on the harvest of that field after he had set aside the tithe. The son, a miser by nature, sowed the field and in the first year it yielded the amount his father had told him about. After the first year’s harvest came in the son dutifully set aside the 10%. In the second year, he was too miserly to do this and set aside only 9% instead of 10%. He found that in the third year this field yielded only 90% of the regular harvest. Becoming upset about this he again decrease the amount he set aside for the tithe until after a number of years of such miserly conduct the field yielded only the amount which his father had given away to the Levite as a tithe. When his relatives and neighbors became aware of this they all dressed in white garments and approached this farmer. When he saw them, the son of that original owner was upset that these people apparently celebrated his misfortune [wearing white is a symbol for celebrating. Ed.] The neighbors said that they certainly did not come to gloat but seeing that in the past he had been the owner and G’d the priest (the recipient of the tithe), now the tables had been turned and this farmer had become the priest (requiring the handout) and G’d had become the owner. This is what Moses meant when he warned: עשר תעשר את כל תבואת שדך, “if you do not give the tithe you will eventually have to be the recipient of a tithe (handout).” היוצא השדה, “which the field produces.” Tanchuma Re'ey 18 comments that “if you merit it you will go out and sow your field. If not היוצא השדה, the one known as “going out into the field,” (the Torah’s description of Esau) will harass you (compare Genesis 25,29). תבואת זרעך, “the produce of your sowing.” if you merit it the reason you go out to your field will be to examine if it needs rain and if so you will pray and G’d will respond. If you do not merit it the reason you will go out to the field will be to bury your dead. [The whole line is based on the words היוצא השדה really meaning “he who goes out to the field,” not “what comes out of the field.” Ed.]. מעשר דגנך תירושך, “the tithe of your grain harvest, your grape harvest, etc.” It is only “your” grain harvest, if you tithe it; if not it is “My” grain harvest. The same applies to the grape harvest and the “oil” harvest. This interpretation is based on Hoseah 2,11: “Assuredly I will take back My new grain in its time and My new wine in its season, etc.” שנה שנה, “year after year.” This means that one may not tithe from one year’s harvest for the following or the previous year’s harvest. Each harvest has to be tithed separately. ובכורות בקרך, “and the firstborn males of your cattle.” This does not mean that the (ordinary) Israelite is allowed to consume its flesh, seeing that first born male animals may be consumed only by the priests. It means that the people designated to eat these animals are encouraged to do so. We have to remember that such firstborn animals are perpetually sacred, i.e. even nowadays when there is no Temple and even in the Diaspora. Such animals may not be shorn, used as working beasts, and may be eaten only if they developed the kind of blemish which disqualifies them as a potential offering for the altar. This view does not correspond to that of Maimonides who wrote in Hilchot Bechorot 1,5 that the law of the sanctity of a firstborn male animal is not applicable nowadays except in the land of Israel. Raav’ad already attacked this comment of Maimonides stating that even according to the view of Rabbi Akiva who did hold this way he meant only that the firstborn male animal nowadays cannot be offered as a sacrifice. This does not mean, however, that the firstborn male animal does not have a sacred body even nowadays and even in the Diaspora and it is out of the question to permit it to be eaten unless it developed the blemish we mentioned. The proof for this view is cited from Sanhedrin 5,1 where Rabbi Chiyah said to Rav, the son of his sister that seeing his nephew decided to emigrate to Babylon whether Rav would ordain him to make rulings there? He was told that whereas he was authorized to make rulings in matters of foods which are forbidden or permitted and in judicial matters, his authority would not extend to make rulings concerning the status of such firstborn male animals. Clearly, Babylon is considered part of the Diaspora. The reason Rabbi Chiya’s nephew was denied such authority was that these laws of sanctity did apply there. If not, why did the question arise? There is yet another proof that this sanctity applies even in the Diaspora from Bechorot 31.
Rashbam
למען תלמד ליראה, when you are an eyewitness to the priests performing their service in the Temple, etc., the site at which G’d’s presence manifests itself.
Daat Zkenim
מעשר דגנך תירושך ויצהרך, “the tithe from your corn harvest, your grape harvest and the harvest from your olive trees.” The personal pronoun “your,” at the end of these three words are to indicate that if you tithe each harvest properly, then you will be entitled to call the remainder as truly yours. If not, the Lord will consider these harvests as belonging to Him, as we know from the verse in Hoseah 2,11: לכן אשוב ולקחתי דגני בעתו ותירושי במועדו וגו', “assuredly I will take back My new grain in its time and My new wine at its season, etc. etc.” (Compare Tanchuma section 18 on our portion) If you wish to appreciate the power of tithing your produce meticulously, consider the following: concerning all other commandments the Torah wrote that you must not put the Lord to a test, to see if He keeps what He has promised; (Deuteronomy 6,16) there is only one exception to this rule which has been spelled out by the last of our prophets Malachi, 3,10: “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse; and let there be food in My House, and thus put Me to the test –said the Lord of Hosts. I will surely open the floodgates of the sky for you and pour down blessings on you. And I will banish the locusts from you so that they will not destroy the yield of your soil; and the vines in the field shall no longer miscarry-said the Lord of Hosts. And all the nations shall account you as happy for you shall be the most desired of lands, -said the Lord of Hosts. Our sages in the Talmud tractate Taanit, folio 9 ask about the meaning of the words: עד בלי די, in verse 10 of the quote from Malachi; they said that it means “until your lips will get tired of saying “enough.”
And if the way be too long for you, so that you are not able to carry it, because the place is too far from you, which Hashem your God shall choose to set His name there, when Hashem your God shall bless you;
verse value 4694 — יְהֹוָ֣ה = 26 (Hashem)
Insights
Verse structure: 21 words, 81 letters. Notable word values: "Hashem" (יְהֹוָ֣ה) = 26, the value of the divine name Hashem. The shortest word is "because" (כִּ֣י, 2 letters) and the longest is "and·if·it·is·too·great" (וְכִֽי־יִרְבֶּ֨ה, 7 letters). Words sharing gematria 100: from, from. 2 words in this verse appear nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "and·if·it·is·too·great" (וְכִֽי־יִרְבֶּ֨ה), "to·lift" (שְׂאֵתוֹ֒). The root מן appears 2 times in this verse. 16 unique roots are used. Frequent roots: "Hashem" (root יהוה, 541x in Deuteronomy); "that" (root אשר, 466x in Deuteronomy); "your·God" (root אלהים, 368x in Deuteronomy). The etnachta (major mid-verse pause) falls on 'there', dividing the verse into phrases of 17 and 4 words.
Onkelos
And if the way is too great for you, because you are not able to carry it, because the place that Hashem your God will choose to cause His Shechinah to dwell there is too far from you, because Hashem your God will have blessed you —
Rashi
כי יברכך WHEN [THE LORD THY GOD] HATH BLESSED THEE — so that your produce will be too much to carry [as far as Jerusalem].
And you shall bestow the money for whatsoever your soul desires, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever your soul asks of you; and you shall eat there before Hashem your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.
verse value 7917 — יְהֹוָ֣ה = 26 (Hashem)
Insights
Verse structure: 21 words, 91 letters. Notable word values: "Hashem" (יְהֹוָ֣ה) = 26, the value of the divine name Hashem. Verse gematria: 7917 is divisible by 13, the value of echad ('one') and ahavah ('love'). The shortest word is "there" (שָּׁ֗ם, 2 letters) and the longest is "that·wish" (אֲשֶׁר־תְּאַוֶּ֨ה, 7 letters). Words sharing gematria 450: soul, soul. 5 words in this verse appear nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "that·wish" (אֲשֶׁר־תְּאַוֶּ֨ה), "small·cattle" (וּבַצֹּ֗אן), "wine" (וּבַיַּ֙יִן֙). The root כל appears 2 times in this verse. 19 unique roots are used. Frequent roots: "Hashem" (root יהוה, 541x in Deuteronomy); "that" (root אשר, 466x in Deuteronomy); "your·God" (root אלהים, 368x in Deuteronomy). First appearance of the root יין ("wine") in Deuteronomy. First appearance of the root שכר ("strong·drink") in Deuteronomy. The etnachta (major mid-verse pause) falls on 'soul', dividing the verse into phrases of 13 and 8 words.
Onkelos
And you shall give the silver for whatever your soul desires — for cattle, for sheep, for new wine and aged wine, or for whatever your soul asks of you — and you shall eat there before Hashem your God, and rejoice, you and the members of your household.
Rashi
בכל אשר תאוה נפשך [AND THOU SHALT GIVE THAT MONEY] FOR WHATSOEVER THY SOUL LONGETH AFTER — this is a general statement, בבקר ובצאן וביין ובשכר FOR ANY OF THE HERD, OR ANY OF THE FLOCK, OR FOR WINE, OR FOR STRONG DRINK — this is a particularisation, ובכל אשר תאוה נפשך OR FOR WHATEVER THY SOUL DESIRES — Scripture again includes them in a general statement. [The rule is that when a verse expresses a כְּלָל, a פְּרָט, and then a כְּלָל again, as in this case, we apply the characteristics of the פְּרָט to the whole matter. Therefore,] just as the particulars mentioned have the characteristic of being products (ולד) of things themselves produced by the earth during the week of Creation, and are fitted to be food for man, etc. [So, too, the money must be expended only on things of this character] (Eruvin 27b).
Ibn Ezra
"And for strong drink" — [that] made from honey, dates, wheat, or barley. "Whatever your soul desires" — meaning produce [i.e., fruits]. "You and your household" — "you and your sons" is an obligation; "your household" is optional, for the commandment of the three pilgrimage festivals applies to males; but women who go to the chosen place, like the wives of Elkanah, receive [their] reward.
And the Levite that is within your gates, you shall not forsake him; for he has no portion nor inheritance with you.
verse value 2220 — ל֛וֹ = 36 (double-Chai)
Insights
Verse structure: 10 words, 40 letters. Notable word values: "to·him" (ל֛וֹ) = 36, double chai. The shortest word is "not" (לֹ֣א, 2 letters) and the longest is "that·in·your·gates" (אֲשֶׁר־בִּשְׁעָרֶ֖יךָ, 9 letters). 1 word in this verse appears nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "forsake·him" (תַֽעַזְבֶ֑נּוּ). 10 unique roots are used. Frequent roots: "not" (root לא, 214x in Deuteronomy); "for" (root כי, 164x in Deuteronomy); "with" (root עם, 123x in Deuteronomy). The etnachta (major mid-verse pause) falls on 'forsake·him', dividing the verse into phrases of 4 and 6 words. Full calculation: וְהַלֵּוִ֥י [and·the·Levite] (57) + אֲשֶׁר־בִּשְׁעָרֶ֖יךָ [that·in·your·gates] (1103) + לֹ֣א [not] (31) + תַֽעַזְבֶ֑נּוּ [forsake·him] (535) + כִּ֣י [for] (30) + אֵ֥ין [nothing] (61) + ל֛וֹ [to·him] (36) + חֵ֥לֶק [share] (138) + וְנַחֲלָ֖ה [possession] (99) + עִמָּֽךְ [with] (130) = 2220.
Onkelos
And the Levite who is in your towns, you shall not forsake him, for he has no portion or inheritance with you.
Rashi
והלוי … לא תעזבנו AND THE LEVITE [THAT IS WITHIN THY GATES;] THOU SHALT NOT FORSAKE HIM by not giving him the “First Tithe” (מעשר ראשון). כי אין לו חלק ונחלה עמך OR HE HATH NO PORTION NOR INHERITANCE WITH THEE — This excludes “Gleanings” (לקט), “the forgotten sheaf” (שכחה), the “corner of the field” (פאה), and ownerless things (הפקר) from the things that must be tithed — for he (the Levite) has a portion in them (is entitled to take of them) with you, just the same as you, and they are therefore exempt from tithes (Mishnah Challah 1:3; Bava Kamma 94a).
Ibn Ezra
"And the Levite who is within your gates" — the meaning concerns the Levite's household: you receive merit for not forsaking him but giving him according to the gift of your hand. The likely interpretation is that it speaks of the first tithe — since [the passage] mentioned the second tithe, it now says: do not think that you fulfill your obligation with the second tithe alone. The reason for "who is within your gates" is: give the first tithe to the one who is at your own gate; do not say, "let him come to me and I will bring it to another Levite," or "I have already given it."
Chizkuni
והלוי אשר בשעריך, “and the Levite who is within your gates;” you are not to seek out Levites that do not live within your cities to give these tithes to. (Ibn Ezra) לא תעזבנו, “do not abandon him.” The Torah had already stated the same instruction in a positive formulation, i.e. to look after the Levites. (Deut. 12,12) Now it adds the negative aspect, forbidding us to abandon the Levite. Do not think that you have fulfilled the tithing obligation merely by giving your First Tithe to the local Levi. The new angle here is that in the event that the tithes that the Levite in your town receives are not adequate, you must dig into your pocket to offer him additional support.
Rashbam
והלוי אשר בשעריך לא תעזבנו, but let him share in your joy so that G’d in turn will have reason to be good to you.
At the end of three years, you shall bring forth all the tithe of your increase in that year, and shall lay it up within your gates.
verse value 5107
Insights
Verse structure: 10 words, 49 letters. The shortest word is "three" (שָׁלֹ֣שׁ, 3 letters) and the longest is "whole·tenth" (אֶת־כׇּל־מַעְשַׂר֙, 8 letters). 1 word in this verse appears nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "and·you·shall·deposit·it" (וְהִנַּחְתָּ֖). The root שנה appears 2 times in this verse. 9 unique roots are used. Frequent roots: "that" (root הוא, 113x in Deuteronomy); "you·shall·bring·out" (root יצא, 67x in Deuteronomy); "your·gates" (root שער, 35x in Deuteronomy). The etnachta (major mid-verse pause) falls on 'that', dividing the verse into phrases of 8 and 2 words. Full calculation: מִקְצֵ֣ה [end] (235) + שָׁלֹ֣שׁ [three] (630) + שָׁנִ֗ים [years] (400) + תּוֹצִיא֙ [you·shall·bring·out] (507) + אֶת־כׇּל־מַעְשַׂר֙ [whole·tenth] (1061) + תְּבוּאָ֣תְךָ֔ [produce] (829) + בַּשָּׁנָ֖ה [year] (357) + הַהִ֑וא [that] (17) + וְהִנַּחְתָּ֖ [and·you·shall·deposit·it] (469) + בִּשְׁעָרֶֽיךָ [your·gates] (602) = 5107.
Onkelos
At the end of three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year, and store it in your towns.
Rashi
מקצה שלש שנים AT THE END OF THREE YEARS [THOU SHALT BRING FORTH ALL THE TITHE OF THY INCREASE THE SAME YEAR] — Scripture hereby intends to teach you that if one has delayed to give his tithes of the first and the second year of the Sabbatical period, he has to remove them from his house in the third year.
Ibn Ezra
"At the end of three years" — this is the third tithe; in that year one does not set aside the second tithe. Some say that one sets aside all three. Those who deny [the Rabbinic tradition] said that the commandment "you shall surely tithe" refers to the first tithe, and that "and you shall store the silver in your hand" speaks to the Levite, and that similarly "and the firstborn of your herd" speaks to the priest — meaning there is no second tithe at all other than this triennial one. "At the end" — meaning at the beginning [i.e., from the start of that year]. This triennial tithe is called the poor man's tithe, and we rely upon the tradition of our fathers.
Chizkuni
תוציא את כל מעשר, “you shall bring forth all the tithes;” there are three years in the seven year sh’mittah cycle that the tithe instead of being deposited in your towns (your homes) awaiting Levites to ask for it must be brought out and not kept anymore. How does all this work? In the first year of the cycle the first tithe goes to a Levite, whereas the second tithe is taken to Jerusalem by the owner to be eaten there with his family. The same is true of the second year of the cycle. In the third year of the cycle the first tithe goes to the Levite, whereas the second “tithe” is to be distributed locally or as near as possible to the poor. The verse that is relevant to this is chapter Deut. 26,12. The Torah calls that year: “the year of the tithe,” as only the first tithe is given to the Levite in that year. The gifts given to the poor amounting to the same amount as the second tithe, is not called tithe, as it is designated for the poor at the full discretion of the grower of that produce. The second three years of the cycle are a repeat of the first three years. והנחת בשערך, “and deposit it in your gates.” Whereas the second tithe is to be taken to Jerusalem, the tithe for the poor is to he kept locally, so as to be available conveniently for the local poor.
Rabbeinu Bahya
מקצה שלש שנים, “at the end of three years, etc.” If a farmer had not allocated the tithes of the first and second year of the Shemittah cycle but had let them accumulate in his house, he has to remove them from there to Jerusalem in the third year, the year when the tithes for the poor are due (Rashi). Concerning the tithe of the first year he must recite the confession found in Deut. 26,28: “I have removed all sacred matters from my house.” The Levite may then help himself to the tithe from the first year, whereas the poor, etc., help themselves to the tithes which accumulated during the year of מעשר עני, the tithe for the poor was due (the third year). The owner is not permitted to eat the second tithe in Jerusalem as he had been allowed to do had he brought it there during the first or second year of the cycle. [The wording of our author in this paragraph is inaccurate, but I do not take it upon myself to correct it. Ed.]
Rashbam
מקצה שלש שנים, the year in which the tithe for the poor is due.
And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within your gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that Hashem your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.
verse value 5233 — יְהֹוָ֣ה = 26 (Hashem)
Insights
Verse structure: 22 words, 96 letters. Notable word values: "Hashem" (יְהֹוָ֣ה) = 26, the value of the divine name Hashem. The shortest word is "for" (כִּ֣י, 2 letters) and the longest is "widow" (וְהָֽאַלְמָנָה֙, 7 letters). Words sharing gematria 501: that, that. 1 word in this verse appears nowhere else in Deuteronomy. Unique to this verse in Deuteronomy (hapax): "all·deed" (בְּכׇל־מַעֲשֵׂ֥ה). The root אשר appears 2 times in this verse. 21 unique roots are used. Frequent roots: "Hashem" (root יהוה, 541x in Deuteronomy); "that" (root אשר, 466x in Deuteronomy); "your·God" (root אלהים, 368x in Deuteronomy). The etnachta (major mid-verse pause) falls on 'and·they·shall·be·satisfied', dividing the verse into phrases of 14 and 8 words.
Onkelos
And the Levite shall come, for he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the proselyte, the orphan, and the widow who are in your towns, and they shall eat and be satisfied, so that Hashem your God will bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.
Rashi
ובא הלוי AND THE LEVITE SHALL COME and take the “First Tithe” which you have failed to give him, והגר והיתום AND THE STRANGER AND THE FATHERLESS [SHALL COME] and take the “Second Tithe”, which belongs to the poor in that year, and you shall not eat it yourself in Jerusalem, as you were bound to eat the “Second Tithe” of the first two years, ואכלו ושבעו AND THEY SHALL EAT AND BE SATISFIED — Give them sufficient to satisfy them. From here they (the Rabbis) derived the law: one must give the poor in the barn no less than half a kab of wheat or a kab of barley (Sifrei Devarim 110:3). As for you, go up to Jerusalem with the tithe (i.e. מעשר שני) of the first and the second years which thou hast delayed, and make the confession there: “I have removed the hallowed things from the house” — as it is stated in the section beginning with the words כי תכלה לעשר (Deuteronomy 26:12).
Onkelos
Rashi
Ramban
Ibn Ezra
Sforno
Or HaChaim
Chizkuni
Rabbeinu Bahya
Kli Yakar
Tur HaArokh
Rashbam
Daat Zkenim