Deuteronomy · Chapter 29

And Moses called to all Israel and said to them: You have seen all that Hashem did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land —

AND MOSES CALLED ALL ISRAEL. The purport thereof is that after he finished telling them the words of the covenant he called them again, saying, “Hear, O Israel, Ye have seen etc.,” for they had not left him, since these sections are all connected.

"And Moses called all of Israel" — to make the covenant; therefore after it [follows] "you are standing today." The meaning of "you have seen" [and then] afterward "I led you," and afterward "and Og went out" — for there were among them those who had witnessed the signs that Hashem performed in Egypt, and they and those who came after them saw the wonder of the manna, that they ate no bread other than it; and these, the children, saw that Hashem helped them and that they struck down the two kings.

ויקרא משה אל כל ישראל, Moses called out to the entire Jewish people, etc. Even though Moses had been addressing the whole Jewish people up until now also, he gathered the women and the children as well as the proselytes to prepare them for renewed acceptance of the covenant which is the subject of Parshat Nitzavim.

According to Nachmanides, after Moses had completed with the spelling out of the covenant between Israel and Hashem, he proclaimed the קריאת שמע, the declaration of the Jewish faith, once more. He reminded them of their visual experience of Hashem in action. They had not yet departed from that assembly. [We might have thought that the words ויקרא משה אל כל ישראל introduce a new assembly. Ed.]

the great miracles that your eyes beheld, those great signs and portents.

Yet Hashem did not give you a heart to know, or eyes to see, or ears to hear, until this day.

ולא נתן ה' לכם לב לדעת YET THE LORD HATH NOT GIVEN YOU A HEART TO KNOW — i.e. to understand the loving-kindnesses of the Omnipresent and to cleave unto Him. עד היום הזה UNTO THIS DAY — I have heard that on the day when Moses gave the Book of the Law to the sons of Levi, as it is written, (Deuteronomy 31:9) “And he gave it to the priests the sons of Levi”, all Israel came before Moses and said to him: Teacher Moses, we, too, stood at Sinai and accepted the Torah, and it was given to us; why, then, do you give the people of your tribe control over it, that they may tomorrow say to us, “Not to you was it given, but to us was it given”? Moses rejoiced at this matter and in reference to this he said to them, (Deuteronomy 27:9) “This day have you become the people [of the Lord thy God]”, meaning, Only this day have I come to understand that you are attached to and have a desire for the Omnipresent.

The meaning of "a heart to know" — because they tested Hashem ten times and did not recall the signs they had seen. The meaning of "He gave" — that from Him came the first occasion; and further, because they saw that they had no need of bread or wine.

ולא נתן ה' לכם לב לדעת, even though He had tried by means of His teachings and His miracles to give the people a knowing heart, as we know from Exodus 10,20ולמען תספר.....וידעתם כי אני ה', “and in order that you will tell…and be aware that I am the Lord,” the lesson had not taken hold due to your overwhelming quarrelsomeness.

ואזנים לשמוע עד היום הזה, “and ears with which to hear until this day.” This day is included in that statement.

ואזנים לשמוע עד היום הזה, “and ears to listen, until this day.” The message is that a student does not truly appreciate the opinions and knowledge of his teacher until he reaches the age of 40. This is why the sages in Avot 5,27 characterize the attainment of the fortieth birthday as a time when one is granted בינה, a measure of insight.

עד היום הזה, even though you have witnessed all His great deeds.

I led you forty years in the wilderness; your garments did not wear out upon you, and your sandal did not wear off your foot.

The meaning of "did not wear out" — I have already explained it. And [the account of] the defeat of Sihon and Og was recent; therefore you are obligated to keep the covenant.

ואולך אתכם, however, now that you have seen the vastness of His love for you and He has brought you to take possession of the lands of Sichon and Og, so that you are able to sustain yourselves by your own efforts, the time has come that you will finally possess the necessary sagacity, a heart which is knowledgeable.

Bread you did not eat, and new wine and aged wine you did not drink — so that you would know that I am Hashem your God.

YE HAVE NOT EATEN BREAD, NEITHER HAVE YE DRUNK WINE OR STRONG DRINK. The meaning thereof is “You have not eaten [sufficiently] thereof that you should be able to live by it,” for their principal sustenance was the manna. THAT YE MIGHT KNOW THAT I AM THE ETERNAL YOUR G-D Who keeps you alive miraculously. Now, it could not mean that they did not eat bread at all, as Scripture [says of Moses], I did neither eat bread nor drink water for on some occasions Israel did have bread in the wilderness, as it is written, Thou shalt sell me food for money, that I may eat; and give me water for money, that I may drink; as the children of Esau that dwell in Seir, and the Moabites that dwell in Ar, did unto me. And our Rabbis mentioned that the merchants of the peoples of the world brought them [various foods] in the desert. It is further possible that from the time the manna descended until they came to Seir they did not eat bread at all, for they travelled through the great and dreadful wilderness. But in the fortieth year they approached inhabited land, and it was said to them, Ye are to pass through the border of your brethren the children of Esau; Ye shall purchase food of them. There it is written, these forty years the Eternal thy G-d hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing. And from that time on, the Edomites and the Moabites met them with food and drink and prominent Israelites would buy from them for pleasure, not for necessity, nor for satiety, because their principal sustenance was [still] the manna. Nitzavim

למען תדעו כי אני ה' אלוקיכם, in order that you will know that I am the Lord your G-d.” Moses had not spoken these words (i.e. at his own initiative), but from the words: ואלך אתכם at the beginning of verse 4, until the end of this Parshah, we are reading G-d’s word, as our sages have already explained on Exodus 32,13, in respect of the words: וכל הארץ הזאת אשר אמרתי, “and this whole land of which I have spoken;” we would actually have expected there the word: אמרת, “which You spoke of,” as Moses had been the speaker at the beginning of that verse.” The truth is that as far as there we read the words of the student, from there on we read the words of the Teacher.

לחם לא אכלתם ויין ושכר לא שתיתם, “you ate neither bread nor drank wine or other alcoholic drink;” Nachmanides writes that Moses meant that the people, during the last forty years, had not subsisted on the food relied on by ordinary human beings, but they had subsisted exclusively on the manna, the “bread” that came down from heaven. למען תדעו כי אני ה' אלוקיכם, “in order to convince you beyond any doubt that I am the Lord your G’d.” Moses means that Hashem had kept them alive by miraculous means during all these years. The word לחם in this paragraph is not to be understood in the same way as when Moses told the people that during the forty days he spent on Mount Sinai he had neither eaten לחם nor drunk מים. Moses meant that he had not eaten or drunk anything during his stay on the Mountain, had led an “angel-like” existence. The people of Israel, even while in the desert, had tasted bread on occasion, such as when they had bought flour from some surrounding nation, but they had not needed it for their survival. Moses himself is on record as reminding the people that the Edomites had sold them food and drink. (Deut. 2,28-29) Our sages (Yuma 75) have said that the merchants of the whole region were offering to sell food and drink to the Israelites in the desert. It is also possible that the period when the Israelites subsisted exclusively on a diet of manna began 30 days after the Exodus when the manna fell for the first time, and it continued into the fortieth year when the Edomites sold them food and drink, around the time when they made war against Sichon, after which they possessed normal lands, land on which crops were growing and on which cattle were grazing. At that time G’d had said to Moses: (Deut. 2,4) “command the people you are passing through the territory of your brethren the children of Esau you may buy food from them and you may dig for water in their soil, etc.” In that context the Torah had also written that G’d had blessed them during the forty years they traversed a fearsome desert, etc. From that point onwards the people had enjoyed access to normal food and drink, but presumably in very limited quantities. Whatever normal food they consumed, or the wealthy ones among them consumed, was in the nature of indulging themselves, not something they relied on for survival. Their basic food continued to be the manna until they crossed the river Jordan.

And you came to this place, and Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out to meet us for battle, and we struck them down.

ותבאו אל המקום הזה AND YOU CAME TO THIS PLACE — Now you see yourselves in greatness and glory (you have defeated Sihon and Og); do not rebel against the Omnipresent nor let your hearts be proud, ושמרתם את דברי הברית הזאת BUT KEEP THE WORDS OF THIS COVENANT. — Another explanation of AND THE LORD HAS NOT GIVEN YOU A HEART TO UNDERSTAND [UNTO THIS DAY] — for no-one can fathom the depths of his teacher’s mind nor the wisdom of his teaching until after forty years of study under him. Therefore the Omnipresent has not dealt with you so strictly until this day (after forty years’ instruction of the Torah), but from now and onward He will deal strictly with you — therefore ושמרתם את דברי הברית הזאת וגו׳ KEEP THE WORDS OF THIS COVENANT etc. (Avodah Zarah 5b).

ותבואו אל המקום הזה, “and you arrived at this place.” Moses inserted these two verses in the middle of his lecture as he wanted to reinforce the people’s faith in the fact that they would conquer and inherit the land of Israel, just as they had conquered and inherited the lands formerly belonging to Sichon and Og who also belonged to the seven Canaanite tribes whose land had been promised to the Jewish people (Avraham and the other patriarchs). The two and a half tribes Reuven, Gad, and half the tribe of Menashe had already taken possession of these lands at the time Moses was speaking, leaving the land on the West Bank of the Jordan for the other 9 1/2 tribes. You should appreciate that the warnings of doom enumerated in this whole portion are Moses’ own wording as distinct from similar warnings of disaster in Leviticus chapter 26. This does not mean that Moses “made up the תוכחה by himself.” Rather, it means that the syntax used by the Torah reflects that G’d approved of the choice of words Moses had used so that effectively everything recorded in the written text of the Torah is equivalent to something dictated by G’d Himself. If our sages (Megillah 31) stated that the “curses contained in the Torah and which were uttered by the priests were words put in their mouths by G’d Himself,” whereas those contained in the Book of Deuteronomy reflect Moses’ words, they meant that Moses succeeded in voicing thoughts which reflected exactly what G’d would have told him to say. The reason that the Torah chose to write two versions of these exhortations and warnings, one being G’d’s initiative and words, the other at the initiative of Moses who had divined what G’d wanted him to say, is that the version we read at the end of the Book of Leviticus is that which became true at the time the first Temple was destroyed, whereas the longer version we read here in the Book of Deuteronomy was not fulfilled until the second Temple was being destroyed. One proof that this is so is furnished by the words (Leviticus 26,30) והשמדתי את במותיכם והכרתי את חמניכם, “I will destroy your private altars and demolish your sun-idols.” These are phenomena which existed only during the period of the first Temple when idolatry was widespread among the people during the reigns of many kings. The curses listed in Deuteronomy were all fulfilled during the collapse of the second commonwealth and its Temple. Seeing that the Shechinah resided in Jerusalem during the period of the first Temple David wrote (Psalms 24,7) “lift up your heads o gate! Up high, you everlasting doors, so the King of glory may come in!” The words מלך הכבוד used by David there mean מלך של הכבוד, a reference to the Shechinah resident in Jerusalem, i.e. the Temple during that epoch. During the period of the second Temple the Shechinah did not reside permanently in Jerusalem, but merely straddled the Temple from time to time as described by Chagai 1,8: ”I will look upon it (the second Temple) with favor and will be glorified, said the Lord.” The letter ה at the end of the word ואכבדה in that verse is a hint that the Shechinah will be there as a loose cover, חופף. In the future, when the third Temple will be built, the Shechinah will return in full force as it had been manifest during the first Temple. In fact, its manifestation will be even more pronounced than it had been during the period of the first Temple. This is what Isaiah meant when he said (Isaiah 60, 1-2) “Arise, shine, for your light has dawned; the Presence of the Lord has shone upon you! Behold! Darkness shall cover the earth, and thick clouds the peoples, but upon you the Lord will shine, and His Presence will be over you; nations shall walk by your light, kings by your shining radiance.”

And we took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the tribe of Reuben, to the tribe of Gad, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh.

Therefore observe the words of this covenant and perform them, so that you may prosper in all that you do.

"That you may act wisely" — like "that you may succeed"; it is a transitive verb taking two objects, as the proof text "you shall do" — similar to "and David prospered in all his ways" (1 Sam. 18:14).

ושמרתם את דברי הברית הזאת, the one you will accept at Mount Gerizim and Mount Eyval. למען תשכילו את כל אשר תעשון, so that you will be successful both in your life on earth in all your undertakings, as well as achieving your goal to live on eternally in the world beyond physical death.

ושמרתם את דברי הברית הזאת, “observe therefore the words of this covenant;” you are obligated to do so in light of all the favours the Lord has done for you as recorded earlier.

“And you shall observe, etc., and perform them, so that you may prosper in all that you do.” Since one mitzvah leads to another mitzvah (Avot 4:2), therefore he says that one mitzvah causes you to prosper in all that you do, because each one leads to its companion. And this is what is meant (ibid.) when it says that the reward of a mitzvah is [another] mitzvah. And this is what is meant by you shall observe and perform them, because the observance will lead to the performance, and the reward for the performance is so that you may prosper further in the future in all that you do.

You are standing this day, all of you, before Hashem your God — your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, every man of Israel;

אתם נצבים YE ARE STANDING THIS DAY [ALL OF YOU BEFORE THE LORD] — This teaches that Moses assembled them in the presence of the Omnipresent on the day of his death, in order to initiate them into a covenant with Him. ראשיכם שבטיכם means as much as ראשיכם לשבטיכם YOUR HEADS OF YOUR TRIBES. זקניכם ושטריכם YOUR ELDERS AND YOUR OFFICERS — The more prominent were in front (i.e. they stood before the Lord in the order of their rank), and afterwards: “all the men of Israel”.

YE ARE STANDING THIS DAY ALL OF YOU BEFORE THE ETERNAL YOUR G-D. The meaning thereof is that you are standing and ready before G-d to be initiated into His covenant. For, in order to accept the Torah with its interpretation, they had gathered before him [Moses], or they may have stood before the ark of G-d. The covenant was the oath and imprecation which he mentioned — that thou shouldest enter into the covenant of the Eternal thy G-d, and into His oath. It is possible that he made another covenant with them like the first covenant which he made with them at Mount Sinai, namely, that he offered a burnt-offering on their behalf, and took half of the blood to sprinkle upon the altar and he sprinkled half of the blood upon the people, but it was unnecessary for him to mention this. And by way of the Truth, [the mystic teachings of the Cabala], I have already informed you of [the secret of] this covenant. RASHEICHEM SHIVTEICHEM.’ In the opinion of Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra this means rasheichem rashei shivteichem (“your heads, the heads of your tribes”), like and the prophecy of Oded the prophet [which means “and the prophecy, the prophecy of Oded the prophet”].In my opinion the verse generalizes and then specifies. The generalization is: “your heads and all your tribes,” and then it specifies your elders, and your officers who are your heads, for the elder and the man of rank, he is the head. Similarly, he stated Assemble unto me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, for any person who has authority and appointive power over the public is called rosh (head). Thus it is said of the princes [of the tribes], they were ‘the heads of’ the thousands of Israel, for they were the highest rank of all the thousands of Israel. And it is stated of the spies, [all of them were] ‘heads of’ the children of Israel, meaning they were “among” the heads of the children of Israel, not the heads of all the children of Israel — and they were all included in the term your heads. He then stated again even all the men of Israel who comprise your tribes. Then he mentioned further the little children, the women, the strangers, the hewers of wood and drawers of water whom they had from among the mixed multitude. He had made them bring the little ones, in order to include them in the covenant, for he made the covenant even with the future generations, or [the children may have been brought] to make them [i.e., the parents] deserving of Divine reward for bringing them, like the reason the Rabbis gave regarding [the commandment of] the Assembly. And our Rabbis have said that some Canaanites [posing as proselytes] came in Moses’ days just as they came in Joshua’s days and Moses made them hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the Tabernacle of G-d. Now, the intent of the Rabbis is not to state that these Canaanites deceived Moses [as they misled Joshua]; instead, they came to him to make peace with him, for such is the law as we have explaine...

"You are standing before Hashem your God" — around the Ark. "Your heads" — as [in the elliptical usage of] "the tent of Sarah his mother," and "Oded the prophet"; and so here "your heads" means your tribal leaders, as [in the elliptical form] "and we shall plow them." The sense is that the princes stand closest, after them the elders, after them the officers, after them all the men of Israel — the males — after them the young children — males — after them the women, and after them the resident aliens.

אתם נצבים...לפני ה' אלוקיכם , so that anyone who is capable of misleading me cannot mislead Him. You will accept this covenant in His presence, on His authority, not merely on mine. ראשיכם שבטיכם זקניכם ושוטריכם, the people Moses describes as ראשיכם, are those who are heads of their tribes, elsewhere referred to as נשיאים, “princes. The term ראשalways includes the people who wield authority. זקניכם, your judges. ושוטריכם, the law enforcers empowered by the judges to enforce their judgments. Each one of these categories of people have the duty to teach the people (within the parameters of their special competence) how much better it is for them to accept Torah law than to defy it or neglect it. (3) YOUR ELDERS. They are the judges. (4) YOUR OFFICIALS. Who have the power to compel litigants. And the responsibility rests on all of these chiefs to instruct the multitudes as to what is good for them to accept on themselves or to eschew.

אתם נצבים היום, "You are standing today, etc." We have to analyse what these words are meant to tell us. Besides, why did Moses have to single out ראשיכם, טפכם, "your heads and your children," and did not simply say כלכם, "all of you?" Moreover, what was the reason for this covenant? Just a few lines ago (28,69) Moses had written: "these are the words of the covenant, etc." If Moses was anxious to include what is written in this portion in the covenant, he should have written this chapter sooner and everything would have been included in what are described as "the words of the covenant in 28,69." It appears that what Moses wanted with this new covenant was to make the Israelites responsible for one another in their מצוה-performance. Each Jew has to see to it that his fellow Jew does not stumble and commit sins. The proof that this is what Moses had in mind here is to be found in verse 28 of our chapter where the Israelites are relieved of their responsibility when the nature of the sin committed is one that is secret. The Torah emphasises הנגלות, "publicly committed sins," must be dealt with by ourselves. It is clear that that verse speaks of the mutual responsibility of one Jew for the conduct of another. Naturally, the degree to which we have to carry out this responsibility varies with our position in the community. Let us now understand the meaning of the words: "you are standing here today." We may best understand this by referring to Ruth,2,5 נצב על הקוצרים, "the one standing over the reapers." The word in Ruth means "the one appointed over the reapers." Moses added the word כלכם, "all of you," to make plain that the mutual responsibility with which he charged each member of the people applied to one and all. We have been taught in Shabbat 54 that anyone who is in a position to protest a sin being committed by a fellow Jew, and who does not exercise his power of protest will be considered as an accessory to that sin. Some people's authority extends to their entire city whereas others may have authority to do this only within the walls of their own houses. Every Jew is responsible in the parameter where he can enforce his will. ראשיכם refers to the highly placed individuals in society. Such people share in the responsibility of the conduct of the whole nation. שבטיכם refers to heads of tribes, whereas זקניכם ושוטריכם, refers to heads of households, "your elders and law enforcement officers." Finally, כל איש ישראל, every man of this people possesses some influence over other members of his household. At this point the Torah interrupts before continuing with its reference to children, women, and proselytes. They are listed separately as they are the ones who will not become accessories when they do not admonish fellow Jews about their duties to perform the commandments. Children are not culpable as they do not understand the meaning of sin. How could they be expected to call their elders to order? The same applies to the women. Proselytes ...

אתם נצבים היום כולכם, “you are standing this day all of you;” all of you regardless of your social standing in the community are equally standing facing the Lord, in order to enter into the new covenant. (see verse 11). This had already been announced by Moses in the verses of our chapter leading up to this point. ראשיכם, זקניכם, the leaders of your tribes; who are these leaders? זקניכם ושוטריכם, “your elders and your appointed officials;”

טובה תוכחת מגולה מאהבה מסוטרת, “Better an open rebuke than love which is concealed.” (Prov.27,5) In his Book of Proverbs Solomon taught us important principles about the nature of rebukes and how to administer them. He taught the people that life itself is closely linked to rebukes and the ability to accept same, whereas death is inextricably involved with people who resent being rebuked and are unwilling to accept rebukes. We know that life is closely linked to rebukes from Proverbs 6,23: “instructive rebukes are a way to life.” We also have a verse expressing similar sentiments in Proverbs 10,17: “he who accepts rebukes is on the way to the path of life.” Yet another verse from Scripture dwelling on the same subject is found in Proverbs 15,4: ”a healing tongue is a tree of life,” i.e. the way to heal a tongue (which has wagged) is to rebuke the owner. On the other hand, death attaches itself to people who hate being rebuked as we know from Proverbs 15,10: “Harsh discipline is needed for those who abandon the right path; he who hates rebuke will die.” He who departs from the right path (of Torah) only temporarily but does not hate being rebuked will be judged by harsh discipline in order to make him abandon the path of evil; the one who hates rebukes, however, cannot be brought back to the right path by afflictions. There is no hope for him. As a result, such a person will be sentenced to death (by the celestial court) A love to accept rebukes is a strong indication that the person in question possesses fine qualities, generally. A negative attitude to rebukes indicates that such a person also suffers from other negative traits. This is the reason Solomon says (Proverbs 9,8) “do not rebuke a scoffer lest he will hate you, rather rebuke a wise man and he will love you.” When rebuking a fellow human being one must reveal sincerity and not engage in flattery. One should give him credit for whatever good points he has, and at the same time restrict oneself to point out such a person’s shortcomings, for the righteous and the wicked are two total opposites. When someone has escaped the path of wickedness he does not automatically qualify for the appellation of צדיק, a righteous person, until he has embraced the path of righteousness in his lifestyle. This is because the character of a wicked person is so totally different from that of a righteous person. When such a wicked person has abandoned his former path in life he has only reached the half-way mark separating him from the truly righteous person. This is why the rebuker has to be candid and explain to him the whole truth and not indulge in flattery, praising him for abandoning the path of evil, thereby lulling him into the belief that he has already completely rehabilitated himself. This is what prompted Solomon to say: “better open rebuke than concealed love.” He may appear to reveal hatred by rebuking so candidly; however, better to appear in that guise than to appear as loving the subject of the rebuke by suppressing further guidance and congratulating the subject as if he already had completed the path of rehabilitation. R' David Kimchi, (Radak) quoting his father, takes a different view of the meaning of our introductory verse. He understands Solomon as saying that an open rebuke is good; however it is so only if the rebuker reveals underlying love for the rebuked by speaking to him privately, not exposing him to embarrassment. A Midrashic approach mentioned in Devarim Rabbah (Lieberman edition item 8) states that the “open” rebukes are the ones addressed by Moses to his people, whereas the ones described as “from hidden love,” refer to the rebukes of Bileam who flattered Israel by pronouncing blessings, whereas in his heart he hated the very people upon whom he showered all his blessings. For instance, when he complimented the people on preserving each other’s privacy by saying: “how goodly are your tents O Yaakov,” etc., (Numbers 24,5) what he really wanted to say was: “how goodly are your tents O Moav, your dwellings, children of Ammon.” Had G’d not twisted his mouth this is what would have come out of it. There is yet another way to understand this saying by Solomon. The words: “open rebuke,” refer to the rebukes we read in Leviticus chapter 26, whereas the ones in Deuteronomy, all of whom originate with the Lord Himself, though the wording may have been Moses’, were approved by G’d as we explained already. The words מאהבה מסוטרת, may mean: “from the One whose love is not manifest, i.e. G’d, the attribute Shechinah.”This attribute is often referred to as אהבה, “love,” such as in Proverbs 15,17: “better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened ox where there is hate.” The “love” referred to in that verse is a reference to the Presence of the Shechinah. The basis for such exegesis is found in Song of Songs 2,7: אם תעירו ואם תעוררו את האהבה, “do not dare to arouse the love,” [a reference to premature attempts to secure the redemption, return to Israel of the Shechinah. Ed.] The word באהבה in Song of Songs 8,7 “that vast floods cannot quench love,” also refers to the Shechinah. Similarly, the word אהבה, love, is used in our liturgy when we say להודות לך וליחדך באהבה, “to give thanks to You and to declare Your unity in the form of the Shechinah,” (prior to reciting the Kriyat Shema). [The reason the word באהבה in that paragraph is not taken at face value, is presumably that the same word occurred immediately before the word להודות already, thus making it redundant unless it meant something different than usual. Ed.] Therefore, Solomon describes open rebuke as emanating from G’d’s attribute Shechinah. Wherein then is the goodness of which Solomon speaks manifest? Even though the Israelites had violated so many of the commandments that G’d had been forced to bring upon them all the various afflictions mentioned both in Leviticus chapter 26 and in Deuteronomy chapter 28 so that the people were progressively deprived of the first Temple and the second Temple, all this was for their own good. Moses explained this to the people already in Deut. 8,21 when he said that G’d starved the Jewish people “in order to afflict you, to subject you to trials in order to treat you well in your distant future.” All afflictions serve an educational purpose, to ensure that in the end you will become worthy of your lofty destiny. Although all the curses have been exhausted (fulfilled) i.e. Israel deserved the afflictions, the Jewish people have not ceased to exist. This is the meaning of Maleachi 3,7: “I the Lord have not changed, and you the Children of Yaakov have not perished.” Our sages in Tanchuma Nitzavim 1 comment on this verse that when the Gentile nations experience a single series of afflictions this results in their demise from history, whereas the Jewish people, in spite of having experienced one holocaust after another, are still around and flourishing. They cite Micah 7,8 as proof of this. We read there: “Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy! though I have fallen, I rise again, though I sit in darkness the Lord is my light.” Deut. 32,23 proclaims the same message when the Torah writes: “My arrows I have used up against them, yet they have not perished.” The matter can be compared to a warrior who erects a beam shooting all his arrows at the beam. In the end, the warrior finds that he has exhausted his supply of arrows but that the beam is still standing. Although Israel has collapsed frequently under the afflictions G’d has disciplined it with, it always emerged from these afflictions and was rehabilitated. This is also the meaning of Jeremiah in Lamentations 3,12: “He has bent His bow and made me the target of His arrows.” This is also what Moses said in his admonitions here in the following verse: אתם נצבים היום כלכם, ראשיכם, שבטיכם וזקניכם ושוטריכם כל איש ישראל, “You are all standing upright here his day, your chiefs, your tribes, all the men of your elders, your law-enforcers, all the men of Israel.” All of the Israelites were assembled there in one place in anticipation of the renewal of the covenant just as they had all been assembled on the occasion of the first covenant at Mount Sinai. Seeing the people had been unfaithful to the first covenant when they had said (about the golden calf) “these are your gods O Israel” (Exodus 32,4), there had arisen the need to conclude a second covenant with this generation in the wilderness of Moav which the people had to confirm with an oath and a curse in the event that they would again dishonour their commitment. This is the reason Moses used the preamble: “you are standing here upright, all of you in the presence of the Lord your G’d.” Moses meant to compare the present assembly to the one 40 years earlier at Mount Sinai. Whereas on that occasion Israel’s word, unsupported by an explicit oath, had been deemed sufficient, this time they were required to confirm their undertaking by an oath. It is possible to understand that our verse contains 2 promises: 1) that the Jewish people would endure and would never become extinct but would survive (as a people) all future catastrophes befalling mankind. 2) that the people would merit life in the hereafter if they would observe the commandments of the Torah. The need to give the people this assurance arose out of the fact that if they were to experience the full brunt of the curses mentioned in the previous portion, they would surely think that this spelled their doom. Moses therefore reminded them that just as they were all standing before him upright and well now, so they would emerge from even the worst aspects of the afflictions listed in the Torah and would be rehabilitated. The effect of the afflictions suffered in this life would be to erase the impact of their sins so that their claim to a life in the world to come would remain intact. This is what was meant when the Torah wrote in Deut. 6,25: “it will be a merit for us if we are careful to perform this entire commandment before Hashem.” This is the assurance of life in the hereafter. This is also a meaning of the word כלכם which is an allusion to the statement of the sages in Sanhedrin 90 that כל ישראל יש להם חלק בעולם הבא, that “the entire Jewish nation has a share in the hereafter.” A Midrashic view (Tanchuma Nitzavim 1) of the words: “you are all standing here upright this day;” just as this day commences in darkness, the darkness later giving way to light, so the darkness that you find yourself in as a result of enduring the afflictions listed previously will be replaced by bright light,” as described by Isaiah 60,19: “the Lord will become for you an eternal light and your G’d will be your source of splendour.” ראשיכם שבטיכם, “your heads (leaders), your tribes, etc.” The meaning is: “your heads, who are the leaders of your respective tribes.” Moses listed the more distinguished people first, afterwards the adult males, followed by the male children who were under age, followed by the women, concluding with the proselytes. כל איש ישראל, “every man in Israel.” The sages in Tanchuma Nitzavim 1 use this expression to teach us that every man in Israel is co-responsible for the sin of every other Israelite. They bring practical proof for this from Joshua 7,11 where G’d told Joshua that the sin of one man, Achan ben Karmi, was the reason that the entire people had suffered a military setback at the hands of a small town, Ai. The words describing Achan’s sin are: “Israel has sinned.” This spells out the extent to which every Israelite shares in the sin of another Israelite. [Obviously, there are degrees in such sharing of another Israelite’s sin. Ed.] This is also why we read in Leviticus 26,37: וכשלו איש באחיו, “they shall stumble one over the other.” Our sages in Sanhedrin 27 interpret these words as meaning “they shall stumble over the sins of one another.” This teaches the principle of reciprocal responsibility of one Israelite for the conduct of (all) other Israelites. If such reciprocal responsibility extends to all Israelites sharing misfortune on account of the sins committed by a few, how much more so will it apply to the reciprocal entitlement to enjoyment by all Israelites of good fortune (life in the hereafter), the entitlement to which was merited by the few! This is the meaning of the words of Eliphaz to Job ימלט אי נקי, “he will deliver the guilty; He will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.” (Job 22,30) In other words, a single individual with “clean” hands can be the instrument through which all the inhabitants of an island are saved. One single individual whose lifestyle is beyond reproach may save [for a period of time, Ed.] all his peers from impending doom. It follows that seeing while a righteous person is alive he saves his compatriots from doom, the death of such a man is a signal for all his compatriots to repent their sins, as they have been deprived of the protective merit of this righteous person. We have a principle that מדה טובה מרובה על מדת פורענות, that the range of the application of measures of good exceeds the range of the application of measures of evil. Hence if the righteous shares in the guilt of the sinner, the sinner benefits even more strongly from the merits accumulated by the righteous (Sotah 11).

“You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God.” Rashi explains: The important ones [are mentioned] first, and then all of Israel; your heads, your tribes is like [saying] “to your tribes,” but the letter lamed [ל] is missing, and not without reason. Also, why did Moses arrange them in this particular order and position more than in any other gathering when he assembled them? And the correct interpretation is that he now wanted to make a new covenant with them, in place of the first covenant which was corrupted through the [golden] calf, which happened because they were not yet guarantors for one another. Therefore, each person did what was right in his own eyes and no one said “Stop.” Therefore, he saw fit to bring them into a covenant of mutual responsibility through the oath at Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, because mutual responsibility is a great cause for turning many away from sin lest one be held accountable for it. Just as any guarantor who sees a borrower squandering their money will rebuke them out of fear that they might have to pay on their behalf, so too when Israel are guarantors for one another, anyone who has the ability to rebuke, upon seeing an individual or many deviating from the path of reason, will return them to proper behavior. And if they deliberately turn a blind eye to them, then they take their place and join them in their compartment [in the afterlife], and the sin of the many is dependent on them. However, one who does not have the ability to rebuke — reason does not dictate that they should be held accountable for the sin of another, for if so, no creature would be left alive, and with this understanding they did not enter into the covenant of mutual responsibility. And if we sometimes find that the great ones are seized even for the hidden sins of the generation, as happened with the sin of Achan, this is because beforehand they did not impose their fear upon the community and turned a blind eye to the rebellious ones, and they walked after things that do not profit (Jeremiah 2:8), saying that rebuke would not help them. As a result of this, every sinner and rebellious person gives themselves a blessing of peace, thinking that the strap of discipline has been loosened, and therefore they commit bundles upon bundles of transgressions, sometimes openly and sometimes in secret. But if the great ones were always disciplining the sinful people, then they would be afraid to act even in private lest the matter become known. And if so, it is just that in every sin and guilt, the hand of the officials is first in the crime, for every cause precedes its effect. Therefore it says Begin from My sanctuary (Ezekiel 9:6). Our Sages interpreted (Shabbat 55a) “from those sanctified to Me,” and similarly they interpreted (Bava Kamma 60a) the verse When a fire breaks out and finds thorns — that calamity only comes to the world because of the wicked, but it always begins with the righteous, etc. The reason for this is because in their hands is the “rod of rulers” to turn many away from sin, yet they weaken their hands from strengthening feeble hands in Torah and faltering knees in faith. Therefore, our Sages said (Rosh Hashanah 8b), “A king enters into judgment prior to the public, etc.” For who can and who would care except for him to instill the fear of Heaven upon people, as in his hand is the rod and scepter to establish his authority in the land. Similarly, our Sages said (Tanchuma Emor 22), on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the great ones go out to meet Him first, and afterward the intermediate ones go out, etc., and after that all Israel on Yom Kippur. This is because whoever is more important than others enters into judgment first and is the first to be held accountable, since the guilt of the people depends on their leaders. Therefore, Moses arranged them in the giving over of the covenant in this manner, because from the aspect of entering into mutual responsibility, the greater ones will always come first to be held accountable for those beneath them. He placed first the leaders [your heads, your tribes] because leaders always precede elders in every place, as people are always more obedient to one who compels them to act with a strong hand and rod of discipline, more than one who admonishes with words alone, as it says A servant will not be corrected by words (Proverbs 29:19), and it says a rod is for the back of fools (Proverbs 26:3). Although a rebuke to the understanding person is more effective than a hundred lashes to a fool (Proverbs 17:10), nonetheless, with fools this is not the measure. Similarly, there were always in Israel “the rod and the lawgiver,” as it says The rod shall not depart from Judah, nor the lawgiver from between his feet (Genesis 49:10). Rod refers to the heads of the exile in Babylon who ruled the people with a rod, and lawgiver refers to the princes of the Land of Israel who taught Torah to the masses, for this is the authority of kingship and the authority of the Sanhedrin — one with a rod and the others with the spirit of their lips. Since the sinner and particularly the rebellious one listens more to one who rules with a rod than to one who admonishes verbally [for he thinks “these are merely words of the lips”], therefore the king comes before everyone else to be held accountable for the guilt of the people. Therefore, it says here also that your heads are first among the guarantors, being responsible for all the people. And he gave a reason for the matter, because your heads, that is, your tribes [shivteichem, which also means your rods], are themselves the rod that presses you, as it is said Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger (Isaiah 10:5). Just as he called Assyria a rod, so he called the leaders a rod, to say that they themselves are your rods and they have the power to rebuke more than the elders; therefore, they are the first to enter into the covenant. And after them come all the upright of heart, the elders of Israel, lawmakers who with the breath of their lips slay the wicked, and they also have officers who subjugate the people. However, not like the leaders, for the leaders have more authority than the elders. And afterward, each individual man of Israel comes before the women and children, for the women and children obey the men, and likewise the stranger is also subjugated to each individual man of Israel.

אתם נצבים ....ראשיכם שבטיכם, “You are standing…. The heads of your tribes, etc.” Rashi understands this verse as referring to ”the heads of your tribes,” as if the Torah had written לשבטיכם. Nachmanides interprets the grammatical anomaly differently. The word כלכם, “all of you,” is to be understood as a headline, whereas with the words ראשיכם Moses begins to enumerate the different groups of people that are made up by the term כלכם, “all of you.” He understands the words: זקניכם ושוטריכם as meaning that the elders and the law-enforcers are the ones who constitute the people’s heads. Moses had first referred to as ראשיכם, “your heads.” An elderly, white-haired person is normally considered as the “head” of the community in which he resides, [when there was such a thing as a patriarchal society. Ed.] Moreover, anyone who has been endowed by the people with a degree of administrative power is considered part of the “heads of the people.” Moses adds that the entire people were present down to the youngest members, the טף, and even recent proselytes. The latter were the surviving members of the ערב רב, the mixed multitude that had climbed on the Jewish bandwagon at the Exodus. Moses also divides the people into social strata, that is why he points out that even the lowest social strata, the choppers of wood and the carriers of water, were present on the occasion mentioned. Everyone present was included in the covenant, and, as we shall hear shortly, even the as yet unborn. Quite possibly, Moses considered that the very presence of even the infants ensured that they too received credit for wanting to be included in this covenant, similar to the interpretation by our sages that the reason why the mothers brought their small children was in order to hear the king or the High Priest read the Torah publicly once in seven years on the second day of the Sukkot festival, the occasion known as Hakhel. Our sages, (Tanchuma among others) some of whom feel that there were isolated cases of Canaanites wanting to convert to Judaism even while the Israelites were still in the desert, say that these are the ones described here as hewers of wood and carriers of water. Although Moses did not make a treaty with them, he accepted them as slaves and they had undertaken to observe the seven commandments applicable to all of mankind. The difference between those and the Gibeonites in the days of Joshua, was that the latter deceived the Israelites by misrepresenting their origin. The former simply wanted to make peace with the Jews, as they would have had an opportunity to do prior to an attack on them.

אתם נצבים היום כולכם, as we know from verse 1:'ויקרא משה את כל ישראל וגו

אתם נצבים היום כולכם, “you are all standing at attention this day;” all at the same time; ordinary Israelites, judges, law enforcers. היום כולכם, “all of you as a unified congregation.” The different attributes used in this verse include: even women, children, converts; these latter are included under the sub-heading of כל איש ישראל.

your little ones, your wives, and your convert who is within your camp, from the hewer of your wood to the drawer of your water —

מחטב עציך FROM THE WOODCUTTER [UNTO THE DRAWER OF THE WATER] — This teaches that some of the Canaanites came in Moses' days to become proselytes just as the Gibeonites came in the days of Joshua, — and this is the meaning of what is stated of the Gibeonites, (Joshua 9:4) “And they also acted cunningly”; — and Moses made them woodcutters and drawers of water (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Nitzavim 2).

טפכם נשיכם, people who normally require the consent of their husbands or fathers to do what they do. מחוטב עציך עד שואב מימיך, from the leader of the wood choppers to the most lowly of the water carriers. The construction here parallels comparisons as מעולל ועד יונק, “infants as well as sucklings,” (Samuel I 15,3) i.e. the highest ranking within its category to the lowliest ranking. Similar expressions are used when the Torah speaks of משור ועד שה, oxen as well as lambs, meaning the most expensive animals of your livestock to the least expensive. Similarly,מגמל ועד חמור, “from the camels down to the donkeys.”

מחוטב עציך, “including the hewers of wood, i.e. male servants;” עד שואב מימיך, “including the drawers of your water, i.e. female servants.”

מחוטב עציך, “from the hewers of your wood for kindling,” i.e. male slaves; עד שואב מימיך, “to the ones drawing your water, i.e. the female slaves.” This is what is meant in Job 3,19: קטון וגדול שם הוא ועבד חפשי מאדוניו, “small and great alike are there, both slaves and free men.” The word קטון, there refers to David, whereas the word גדול there refers to Moses. (Compare these attributes being used for David in Samuel 1 17,14, and for Moses in Exodus 11,3.) An alternate interpretation for the line: ועבד חפשי מאדוניו, “the slave who is free from his master;” this line refers to Israel. As long as one is alive one is free to carry out the will of one’s Creator, but once dead it is too late to do so, i.e. one is free from the obligation to perform G–d’s commandments. (Talmud tractate Shabbat folio 30) Still another interpretation “You are all standing here alive,” in spite of all the curses that have befallen your enemies, you have been spared. Both the gentiles have been in the habit of erecting monuments of stone to serve them as deities, but you, i.e. Joshua and Samuel who have both been reported as erecting stone monuments –upon which the text of the Torah has been inscribed-have been successful in that endeavour. It is not the “monument,” that G–d hates but the use it has been put to by the gentiles. (Compare Samuel I 12,7) Still another explanation of this assembly by Moses: This is the last time that all the people could be assembled in one place. Once they would cross the Jordan be dispersed each to his tribe’s ancestral land plot, it would be impossible to address them all at the same time.

to enter into the covenant of Hashem your God, and into His oath that Hashem your God is making with you this day,

לעברך means THAT THOU SHOULDEST PASS [INTO THE COVENANT]. It would not, however, be correct to explain it as meaning “to make thee pass” (when the suffix would be objective), but it must be explained like (Deuteronomy 4:14) לעשתכם אתם, “that ye may do them”. לעברך בברית THAT THOU SHOULDEST PASS INTO THE COVENANT — The way of “passing” was as follows: those who made a covenant used to make a partition (i.e. used to place objects in a straight line) on one side and a partition on the other and passed between them, as it is said, (Jeremiah 34:18—20) “[And I will give the men which have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before Me] when they cut the calf in two, and passed between the parts thereof … [into the hands of their enemies]”.

"To pass" — an infinitive noun, in the sense of "and they passed between the parts" (Jer. 34:18). The word עָבַר ["pass"] here lacks the preposition בֵּין ["between"], used inversely.

לעברך בברית, you are all arranged in this order in order to signal your acceptance of the forthcoming covenant. It is clear from Moses’ addressing all the assembled, that they were of one mind at the time, all willing and eager to accept the covenant. 'אשר ה' אלוקיך כורת עמך היום, למען הקים אותך וגו, G’d’s objective in concluding this covenant with you this day is to reaffirm that you are His people and that He is your G’d. By entering into this covenant with Him you acquire eternal life, life beyond the death of your bodies. Seeing that the purpose of the covenant is of such importance, is of so elevated a nature, it is necessary that you embrace it wholeheartedly.

לעברך בברית…ובאלתו, "for you to enter (pass) into the covenant…and His curse" (if need be). The reason Moses added the word ובאלתו, "and His curse," will become clearer when we have explained the need for the covenant. Why was the Torah not satisfied with all the admonitions and curses which have already been recorded in the Torah? Some clever people who want to escape the cumulative curses and punishments recorded in chapter 28 may decide to commit a single transgression, such as violating the Sabbath or the laws of idolatry and to thereby become guilty of only a single one of all these penalties seeing that those laws are considered the cornerstones of Judaism. Such people prefer this to first accepting the authority of G'd and the Torah which would make them potentially liable to as many as 36 penalties of Karet. Moses acted astutely when he persuaded these people to accept upon themselves the covenant so that in the future they would be liable for each transgression separately. The oath (curse) would apply if any of these people deliberately flouted the laws he had undertaken to observe as a result of embracing this covenant. Once they had done this, even the intention of violating a fundamental law of Judaism would not safegaurd them against becoming culpable for each transgression separately.

לעברך, “so that you will participate,” (note the singular mode) i.e. all as if you were one single person. כורת עמך היום, “which He concludes with you this day.” No one can ever claim that he had not been present at that time and had confirmed accepting the covenant. This was the last time the entire nation would be present at the same spot simultaneously, as after the land had been distributed to the tribes, the elderly and the mothers who had just given birth, as well as any sick people could not be expected to come to Jerusalem on the festivals designated for the annual pilgrimages.

לעברך בברית ה’ אלוקיך, ”for you to pass into the covenant with the Lord your G’d.” This “passing” is equivalent to “entering into.“ This is evident from the fact that the Torah does not use the regular preposition used with the verb עבר, i.e. לעבור על, but the preposition ב. What occurred here is similar to what occurred when G’d concluded the covenant with Avraham in Genesis 15,17 when He passed between the pieces. This is why Onkelos translates לאעלות בקיימא. The word ובאלתו refers to the people of Israel; in other words: “by means of its oath which He made you swear and which you accepted upon yourselves.” It is possible to understand the word ובאלתו as referring to G’d, meaning “and by means of His oath which He swore to you.” The whole verse then would mean: “you are standing here today ready to enter the covenant and oath of the Lord by means of which He swore that You will be His people and that He will be your G’d.” The verse following would prove that this is the meaning, seeing the Torah writes there: “as He said to you and swore to your fathers.” Further reinforcement of this interpretation is provided by Samuel I 12,22: “seeing that the Lord had agreed (sworn) to make you His people.” Even though all the commentators there understand the word הואיל to be an expression of G’d’s goodwill, grace, I believe the word הואיל in that verse derives from the word אלה, and means “for G’d swore to make you His people.” This does not preclude that the oath itself was an expression of G’d’s goodwill towards the people so that there is no conflict between the two interpretations. Still further proof of the meaning of אלה in our verse is the comment in Tanchuma Nitzavim 3 on Song of Songs 7,6: מלך אסור ברהטים, usually translated as “a king held captive by tresses” (of hair). According to the Midrash the meaning is “a king who is bound by his oath.” The word אסר meaning oath, occurs in Numbers 30,7. G’d’s oath to the patriarchs that He would not exchange the Jewish people for any other nation is what ties Him to Israel. The word רהטים in the verse from Song of Songs which we quoted is a reference to the patriarchs; this word occurs in the record of their life stories both in Genesis 18,7 where the word הבקר is rendered by Onkelos as רהט; as well as in connection with Yaakov in Genesis 30,38. This is why G’d cannot violate His oath to the patriarchs .You will find that in Ezekiel 20 when the Jewish people challenged the continued validity of the Torah’s commandments by describing themselves as having been freed (sold) by their master (G’d) since they had become exiled, that the prophet did not accept that argument and vehemently pointed out that the basic relationship between G’d and the Jewish people is an eternal bond, that severing it would mean the total demise of the party who severed it. [I have merely summarized the dialogue in Ezekiel 20. Ed.] Basically, Ezekiel’s argument was that as long as the master had not received monetary compensation from the “buyer” of the slave no transaction had taken place at all; the Jewish people still belong to their erstwhile master, i.e. G’d. This is also reflected in the words of Isaiah 52,3: “you have been sold חנם, without price, therefore you will also be redeemed without monetary compensation having to be paid.”

“That you [singular] may enter the covenant of the Lord your God.” What is notable is that throughout this section, they [the Israelites] are addressed in the plural, except in the verse mentioning the entering of the covenant, where they are addressed in the singular. This is conclusive evidence that the main purpose of the covenant is for the sake of mutual responsibility [arvut], because through this mutual responsibility, all Israel becomes like one person. When someone has a pain in a particular limb, their entire body feels it and becomes ill. Similarly, when one person sins, everyone feels it, as it is written regarding Achan’s sin, Israel has sinned (Joshua 7:11). And so they said in the Midrash (Vayikra Rabbah 4:6): Israel is a scattered sheep (Jeremiah 50:17). Why are Israel compared to a sheep? Just as when a sheep is injured in one of its limbs, all of them feel it, so too with Israel — Achan alone sinned, yet it is written Israel has sinned. And it seems to me that this entire exposition is derived from the word scattered, for it says: since they are like a sheep, when one limb is afflicted, all feel it, and thus they are like one person where the pain of one limb affects the entire body. Therefore, logically, they should all be united as one person. Yet despite this, they are scattered and separated from one another — a person does not seek the welfare and good of his fellow all his days, and does not say in his heart, “Are not all the misfortunes of my fellow returning to me as well? Will not his cup of suffering pass to me too?”Therefore, it says here that you may enter the covenant of the Lord in the singular form, because through this covenant, you will necessarily be united as one person. And based on this mutual responsibility, all the verses of this section will be explained, as will be clarified shortly with God’s help. “You are standing today.” In the Midrash (Tanchuma 1), why is the portion of “You are standing” placed adjacent to the curses? Because when Israel heard 98 curses [literally, a hundred minus two], in addition to the 49 in Leviticus [Torat Kohanim], their faces turned pale, etc. See the full text in Rashi’s commentary. Here there is room to ask a big question regarding Israel perhaps accepting empty consolation. For what if the reason God has not destroyed them until now is merely because their measure of sin is not yet full enough to bring upon them all the curses of the rebuke? And if you say that they have already provoked the Holy One greatly and increased their guilt to the point that they deserved all those curses, yet the Holy One, blessed be He, in His mercy did not completely destroy them according to all their sins — if so, then Moses gave them a bill with its own receipt. He would have threatened them with all those rebukes in vain, for they would never fear them and dread would not come upon their heads from those curses. They would say, “We have already sinned in such and such ways, yet the curse has not affected us. Moreover, Moses himself assured us that even if we continue to sin, no harm will touch us.” Thus Moses would have done two things that contradict each other — first warning them of curses so they would fear them, and then comforting them by speaking to their hearts that even if they sin, they would not be destroyed by the curses. And if you say that the curses would take effect but not completely destroy them, they were already promised this directly from God, as it is said I will not reject them or spurn them to destroy them completely (Leviticus 26:44). Furthermore, why were they not terrified by the 49 curses in Torat Kohanim [Leviticus], for these too were sufficient to turn all faces pale? And there is more to analyze in the wording: Why does it say “a hundred minus two”? If two are missing, then there are not a hundred, and it should have said 98, just as it said “besides the 49,” etc. And what is meant by the statement, “Thus He has illuminated for you and will illuminate for you in the future”? Where was the future mentioned previously? And how do we know that Moses said all these things? It seems appropriate to say regarding this that in all the curses detailed in Torat Kohanim and in the portion of Ki Tavo, in all of them there is room for a stiff-necked person to remove the fear of God from before his eyes and to give himself a blessing of peace, seeking some salvation through some human stratagem. Just as it was said about the generation of the flood: Light is he upon the face of the water (Job 24:18) — [they said] “We have small, light boats that will float on the surface of the water.” Similarly with these curses, for example, it is written, And your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze — implying specifically what is over your head and not what is over the heads of other nations, for there it will rain. If so, one might stubbornly say, “I will go and buy grain from other nations because they have produce.” And likewise with pestilence and sword, one might say, “I will escape for my life,” as it is written Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse; he who guards his soul will stay far from them (Proverbs 22:5). Therefore, in all the curses, their faces did not turn pale because they said there is a way to be saved from them through human stratagem. However, if you threaten a person to do something to him without specifying his punishment, then he cannot guard himself from you because he does not know what to be careful of. Now, in those curses of the plains of Moab, they are certainly one hundred, for the author of the Midrash counted them and found one hundred, but included among them are two whose nature was not specified, as it says, Also every sickness and every plague that is not written in this Torah. Without doubt, the author of this Midrash did not count every sickness and every plague as part of the number 98, but counted 98 besides them, and with them there are one hundred. But of those hundred, two are missing — not actually missing, but missing in that their nature was not specified, and therefore it is impossible to guard against them. This is why “they were alarmed, they hurried, trembling seized them” because of these two that were missing and whose nature was concealed, and they feared them, that they would bring about their destruction. And Moses spoke to their hearts, “It is not as you thought,” that the reason He concealed the nature of these two [curses] was so that you would have no way to guard against them. For you have angered [God] many times, yet these two curses did not come upon you, even though you deserved for them to come upon you. And if you ask, “If so, why were they mentioned in the promised curses, and why were they not explained?” It is because they speak of punishment in the concealed World to Come. For because a person is entangled in the darkness of his physical nature, he cannot understand the nature of that punishment, just as the Torah concealed the nature of spiritual reward for this reason. The explanation of the matter is that Moses said, “Behold, I am warning you of 98 curses, all of them in this world, as well as every illness and plague that pertains to the sinner in the World to Come according to his wickedness, which is not written in this Torah book.” For the Torah did not speak of this punishment at all, yet it too will fall upon the heads of the wicked. This is what he meant by saying, You are standing today — like this day which darkens and brightens, so too you exist in eternal existence. And even after the sun and moon darken on the day of death, you will return to light in God’s eternal light in the World to Come. And once it is established that a person continues to exist even after death, you will understand the meaning of the verse every illness and every plague which is not written in this Torah book. This is what he meant by saying, “So He has illuminated for you and will illuminate in the future.” For just as there is light for you in this world, so it shines there for the future as well. And the curses and sufferings sustain you and set you before Me, as it is written (Berakhot 5a): “Three good gifts did the Holy One, blessed be He, give to Israel, and all of them were given through suffering.” And one of them is the World to Come, as it is said And the way of life is reproving discipline (Proverbs 6:23). And after Moses revealed to them the secret of the World to Come, which they had not known before, their minds were set at ease through the understanding of these two hidden plagues as mentioned.

לעברך בברית, “for you to enter the covenant;” Nachmanides writes that the word “covenant” here is another word for “oath.” It is possible, however, (author speaking) that the people now entered a new reciprocal covenant. Such a covenant would have paralleled the one the Jewish people entered into at Mt Sinai. At that time the covenant was sealed by a total offering, sprinkling of its blood on the people, etc. There was no need to spell out these details here.

לעברך בברית, “to enter into this covenant of the Lord your G–d;” now you are spiritually ready to embrace this covenant and none of you shall ever be able to claim that he had not been present when you agreed to accept this covenant as binding for you. Your blind, ailing, and aged would not be able to travel to such an assembly.

in order to establish you this day before Him as a people, and that He shall be your God, as He promised you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

למען הקים אתך היום לו לעם THAT HE MAY ESTABLISH THEE TO-DAY FOR A PEOPLE UNTO HIMSELF — He undertakes so much trouble (in making another covenant with you) in order that He may keep (הקים) you for a people in His presence, והוא יהיה לך לאלהים SINCE HE MUST BE UNTO THEE A GOD, because He has promised it unto you and has sworn unto your fathers not to exchange their descendants for another nation. For this reason He binds you by these oaths not to provoke Him to anger since He, on His part, cannot dissociate Himself from you. — Thus far I have given an exposition according to the literal sense of the chapter. An Agadic explanation, however, is: Why is the section beginning with the words, “Ye are standing this day” put in juxtaposition to the curses in the previous chapter? Because when Israel heard these ninety-eight curses besides the forty-nine that are contained in Torath-Cohanim (Leviticus 26:14 ff.), their faces turned pale (they were horrified), and they exclaimed, “Who can possibly stand against these?!” Therefore Moses began to calm them: “See, you are standing today before the Lord!” — many a time have you provoked the Omnipresent to anger and yet He has not made an end to you, but you still continue in His presence (Midrash Tanchuma, Nitzavim 1). היום THIS DAY — like the “day” which endures for ever, for though it becomes dark for a period it shines again, (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Nitzavim 1, Sanhedrin 110b); so has He made you shine (i.e. given you periods when you have had nought but happiness) and will again make you shine; and it is just the curses and the sufferings that give you permanence and stability (נצבים) before Him. — So, too, the section preceding this (1 ff. which follows immediately after the curses) consists of comforting words: “Ye have seen all the Lord did [before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, etc.]”. — Another explanation of אתם נצבים: Because the Israelites were now passing from one leader to another, from Moses to Joshua, therefore he (Moses) made them stand in ranks (מצבה) that he might address admonitions to them. Similarly did Joshua (cf. Joshua 24:1) and similarly did Samuel, who said, (I Samuel 12:7): “Now therefore take your stand (התיצבו) that I may reason with you before the Lord”, when they were leaving his hand (leadership) and were coming under the hand of Saul (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Nitzavim 1).

למען הקים אותך היום, "In order to establish you today," etc. The reason Moses makes the Israelites potentially liable for many penalties is to make certain they would be G'd's people and would be afraid of sinning due to the terrible curses of which the Torah warns potential sinners. Another meaning why Moses wrote down all this may be so that people would not complain why G'd makes them responsible for the conduct of their peers. It is difficult enough to keep all the commandments without having to worry about everybody else keeping them too. This is why Moses said that G'd's intention in all this is for the benefit of the Jewish people, enabling Him to establish the Jewish people as His people. If not for this new commitment, some Israelites would backslide starting with minor sins and eventually becoming guilty of the commission of serious sins. Ultimately, the Israelites would forfeit their status as G'd's people. G'd initiated this mutual responsibility to act as the guarantee that such backsliding would not occur.

And not with you alone am I making this covenant and this oath,

"And not with you alone" — but also with those who come after you, namely your children and your children's children.

ולא אתכם לבדכם…כי את אשר ישנו פה ואת אשר איננו פה, "Not only with you alone, but both with those who are present here today as well as with those who are not here today." Why did Moses have to spell out "and not with you alone?" Would it not have sufficed to write "the ones who are here today, as well as the ones who are not, etc.?" This would have made it clear that the covenant was not made exclusively with the people present at that time! However, the whole intention of these verses is to obligate the people present at this time to commit their offspring to observe the Torah, forever. In order to make this plain the Torah had to write: "not with you alone, etc." Had the Torah written only the second half of the verse I would have known that future generations are obligated to observe the Torah; I would not have known, however, that those present were charged with seeing to it that their offspring kept the Torah. By writing the words: ולא אתכם לבדכם, the Torah makes it unmistakably clear that not only the obligation to keep the Torah applied to the generation present, but even the obligation to see to it that their children would also do so.

ולא אתכם לבדכם, “And not only with you, etc.” Moses means that although G’d concludes this covenant with the present generation of Jews as well as the oath warning against non-performance, seeing that you are standing here this day, the fact is that even future generations of Jews unable to stand here today are included in this covenant. The reason that Moses is able to make such a statement is that the trunk of the tree is viewed as the father, i.e. “the root ” of all subsequent branches. All the branches are only the offshoots of the original roots. Concerning how it s possible to include unborn generations in this covenant, i.e. reciprocal undertaking, our sages in Tanchuma Yitro 11 comment that all souls ever created since the days of the creation of the earth were present at this assembly. They are not all described as “standing,” as souls without bodies cannot “stand.” The words אשר איננו פה, “who are not here,” refer to the bodies of such souls. The words עמנו היום, refer to their souls, which are present even today. The word עמנו, “with us,” refers back to the word עומד, “standing,” in verse 14. It is as if the Torah had written: “and all those not standing here with us this day.” The reason Moses uses the word “standing,” is because the angels in Zecharyah 3,7 have been described as בין העומדים האלה, “among these who are standing.”Our sages in Tanchuma Yitro 11 also claim that all the prophets who ever lived (after Moses) all received their prophetic powers when their souls were at the assembly at Sinai; however they were not allowed to make use of their prophetic powers until their respective generations when they were alive on earth. This is also the meaning of Malachi 1,1 משא דבר ה’ ביד מלאכי. It is significant that the wording is not על מלאכי, but ביד מלאכי. The present formulation means: ”A pronouncement: ‘the word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi,’” whereas the other formulation would have meant that the “message only now came to Malachi.” The present formulation describes only the point in time when this message, which the soul of the prophet had received at Mount Sinai, was released for publication. We find something similar in Isaiah 48,16 where the prophet writes: “from the beginning I did not speak in secret; from the time anything existed I was there. And now, the Lord G’d has sent me, endowed me with His spirit.” The meaning of the verse is that the soul of the prophet had received this communication from G’d already at Mount Sinai but it had only now been released for publication.

“And not with you alone am I making this covenant, etc.” Most commentators have greatly struggled with this oath that was upon them and upon their descendants who were not yet in the world, and how could they enter into the covenant of the oath. The root of this difficulty can be found in the Binding of Isaac, and the Abarbanel and other commentators have followed his opinion. The opinion of our Sages (Tanchuma Nitzavim 3) is that all the souls that were destined to be created were there. Some have deduced this from the change in language in the verse: For he who is here with us standing today before the Lord our God, and with him who is not here with us today (Deuteronomy 29:14). And it does not say “and with him who is not here with us standing today before the Lord,” which implies that it is speaking about souls, which although they are not here with us, they nevertheless are standing before the Lord constantly under the Throne of Glory like angels who are called “those who stand,” as it is written: And I will give you access among these who stand (Zechariah 3:7). It also seems possible to deduce this from the language with us, for it should have simply said “and with him who is not here today.” Rather, the precise meaning is that specifically with us they are not, but they are with the Lord and standing before Him. And regarding the objection of how can one administer an oath to a soul, we find a parallel to this where our Sages said in Tractate Niddah (30b) that on the day of birth they administer an oath to the person: “Be righteous and do not be wicked, etc.” It seems that the entire sequence of verses speaks of this matter. For one must question why it says For you know how we dwelt in the land of Egypt, etc., and also why do I need two instances of lest — lest there be among you a man, lest there be among you a root bearing poison — let them be combined and stated together. Rather, it comes to give a reason why it was necessary to make the children who were not yet born take an oath. Therefore it says by way of give and take: For you know how we dwelt in the land of Egypt. And there we were slaves to Pharaoh, and God redeemed us from there on the condition that we accept upon ourselves God’s commandments. But your children who did not dwell in the land of Egypt and were not redeemed will argue, “Why should we accept upon ourselves the yoke of His commandments? For God did not redeem us.” Therefore I need to bring your children into the covenant. And if you say, “If so, why do we need to take an oath? Doesn’t He, blessed be He, have a legal claim on us, for on this condition He redeemed us?” To this he responded, And [you saw] how we passed through the midst of the nations and you saw their abominations, etc. The receipt is right there with the bill: from the perspective that we dwelt in the land of Egypt, there was no need to make us take an oath, but from the perspective that you saw the abominations of the nations through whom we passed, there is concern lest there be among you a man or woman, etc. Therefore it is necessary to make them take an oath. And if you say, if so, the question returns to its place, because it is understandable why He needed to make us swear, since we saw the abominations of the nations and there is concern that we might follow after them. But our children who did not see those abominations, why would they be drawn after them? To this He answers, Lest there be among you a root bearing gall and wormwood. Because in truth, the children who are born, from their own perspective there is no concern that they would follow after idolatry, as they have never seen it. But there is concern that “from the root of a snake comes a viper” — for it is possible that one of you placed murkiness into his heart, and “children inherit the deeds of their fathers,” as the nature of the son follows after the father, like a branch that follows after its root. Therefore, I need to make the children swear about this as well. And with this, the two instances of lest are well explained, because the first lest refers to the fathers who saw the abominations of the nations, lest they follow after them. The second lest refers to the children who are born, because even though they did not see the abominations of the nations, nevertheless there is concern that they will receive the nature of the root, meaning the fathers who are a bitter root bearing gall. Or it can be said that the entire narrative, from For you know until Lest there be among you a root etc. is all giving a reason for the fathers, for it says that since you dwelled in the land of Egypt and you left from there, and the gods of Egypt did not have the ability to save Egypt, and afterwards you passed through the midst of nations that the Lord did not give you permission to inherit their land, behold in this you might come to the error of saying that this is why judgment was carried out on the gods of Egypt but not on the gods of the nations through which you passed, because your God is stronger than the gods of Egypt but not than the gods of the nations through which we passed. And you might say that for this reason you could not do anything to those nations because their gods are with them to save them. This is what it means when it says, And you saw their abominations, etc. silver and gold that is with them. With the word with them it sealed all their error, for they would say that their gods are with them to save them. And if we had not dwelled in the land of Egypt, the error would not have been so strong, for perhaps the Holy One, Blessed be He, is not jealous of the gods of the nations, those idols, and therefore He does not execute judgments upon them. But since He executed judgments on the gods of Egypt but not on the gods of the nations through which we passed, from this you are likely to come to the error of saying that the gods of the nations are with them to save them. And afterwards, it speaks against the children, Lest there be among you a root bearing gall and wormwood, as has been explained above.

but with whoever is here with us, standing this day before Hashem our God, and with whoever is not here with us this day.

ואת אשר איננו פה [NOT WITH YOU ALONE DO I MAKE THIS COVENANT … BUT WITH HIM THAT STANDETH HERE …] AND ALSO WITH HIM THAT IS NOT HERE — i.e. with the generations that will be in future (i.e. Moses is not referring to persons who happened to be absent from the assembly, for it states, v. 10, that all were present: “You are standing this day all of you before the Lord”) (Midrash Tanchuma, Nitzavim 3).

AND ALSO WITH HIM THAT IS NOT WITH US THIS DAY — “that is, also with the future generations.

The nun of יֶשְׁנוֹ is added [as a paragogic letter]. "And that which is not here" — those who will come after us; and this is not like the view of those who say that the souls of those yet to come were present there.

ואת אשר עמנו פה עמנו היום, a reference to future, as yet unborn generations. You will therefore have to explain to these unborn generations in due course that you yourselves only received this land on the understanding that subsequent generations of Jews would remain loyal to the terms of your acceptance. They will continue to inherit the land from you only on that basis.

ואת אשר איננו פה עמנו היום, “as well as those who are not here with us this day.” All these as yet unborn generations of the Jews participating in this assembly are included in this oath/covenant to be undertaken at this time.

For you know how we dwelt in the land of Egypt, and how we passed through the midst of the nations through which you passed.

כי אתם ידעתם וגו׳ FOR YE KNOW [HOW WE HAVE ABODE IN THE LAND OF EGYPT] etc. — The meaning of these verses is: Because you have seen the conduct of the other nations, and perhaps the heart of one of you might beguile him to follow them, — as it goes on to state, “Lest there should be among you a man, or a woman … [whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord]”, — on this account I must place you under an oath.

FOR YE KNOW HOW WE DWELT IN THE LAND OF EGYPT etc. AND YE HAVE SEEN THEIR ABOMINATIONS. Because you have seen the nations that worship idols, and perhaps the heart of one of you might beguile him to follow them.

"For you have known" — there are among you those who saw the abominations of Egypt, meaning their gods; and all of you have seen the abominations of the nations — "whom you passed through," referring to Edom, Ammon, Moab, and Midian.

כי אתם ידעתם את אשר ישבנו, and this is why you have to be concerned that there should not be among you איש או אשה, neither a man nor a woman who would seduce you to follow the vain pursuits of the nations with whom you will be living in close proximity, and who might be the cause that you would default on the undertakings in this covenant. This is the reason I have insisted that all of you be present at this ceremony, seeing that G’d examines hearts He will know who only pays lip service to this covenant and who is sincere about it. You will not be able to deceive Him.

כי אתם ידעתם, "For you know, etc." We need to analyse why the Torah suddenly provides this rationale for what it legislates in this paragraph. Nachmanides wrote that this is the introduction to what follows "so that there not be amongst you a root flourishing with wormwood, etc." I consider this explanation a little forced. It is not the custom of the Torah to write the reason for its legislation before writing the legislation itself. Perhaps the verse may be understood differently. Inasmuch as what is being legislated here is something unique, i.e. obligating unborn generations to observe a code of conduct over which they have never been allowed to make a decision, as had their ancestors at Mount Sinai, this requires an unusual approach. We have a rule in Ketuvot 11 that "one cannot hold a person responsible for committing a wrong which he had never been aware of." According to this principle the acceptance by the parents of the obligation to keep the Torah would not be binding on the children at all. This is why the Torah adds: "for you are aware what your life was like before you became G'd's people and received the Torah, etc." In other words, the Torah is reminding us that it is a privilege to be G'd's people, to keep the Torah, etc. This is not comparable to imposing duties and restrictions on your children. The purpose of a life filled with מצוה-observance is to avoid the pitfalls of the abominations and detestable idols the Egyptians were captive to. Moses tells the people present that inasmuch as they know all about this they also know that what is being asked of them is to confer benefits rather than restrictions on their children and children's children.

אשר ישבו בארץ מצרים, “who had dwelled in the land of Egypt;” together with the ones who had still dwelled in the land of Egypt (who had been minors at the time of the Exodus) and who had experienced all that you have witnessed during the last forty years in the desert, etc. The decree to die in the desert had applied only to males who had been twenty years of age at the time of the Exodus, and had not been older than 60 years at the time when it was issued.

כי אתם ידעתם, “for you have known;” a reference to the fact that among the people Moses addressed here there were some who remembered the abominations practiced by the Egyptians, whereas all of them had observed the abominations practiced by the peoples whose land they had crossed in the meantime, i.e. Edom, Moav, Ammon and Midian.

כי אתם וגו', “For you know, etc.” Moses reminds the people of the advantages of remaining true and loyal to Hashem, as in the event that some have a feeling of nostalgia for the abominations that they worshipped in Egypt, or the similar abominations that the Moabites and Ammonites worship, it would be appropriate that they recall how either of these attempts to backslide into idolatry ended, i.e. catastrophically for the participants.

כי אתם ידעתם את אשר ישבנו בארץ מצרים, “for you (only) know that we have once lived in the land of Egypt;” this verse proves that there were still survivors of the period of slavery that had come out 40 years ago, and had not died by the decree G–d issued after the sin of the spies. They had either been younger than twenty at the time of the Exodus or had been over 60 years of age already at that time.

And you saw their abominations and their idols — wood and stone, silver and gold — that were among them.

ותראו את שקוציהם AND YE HAVE SEEN THEIR ABOMINABLE THINGS — Idols are so termed because they are loathsome like unclean things that are held in abomination. גלליהם THEIR IDOLS — thus termed because they are detestable (lit., malodorous) and loathsome like dung (גלל). עץ ואבן [AND YE HAVE SEEN … THEIR IDOLS] WOOD AND STONE — Those of wood and stone you have seen exposed openly, because the heathen was not afraid lest they might be stolen; those of gold and silver, however, ARE WITH THEM (עמהם), in their “marbled halls” (cf. Rashi on Ezekel 8:12 whence he borrowed this expression), because they were afraid they might be stolen (Midrash Tanchuma, Nitzavim 3).

ותראו את שקוציהם...עץ ואבן, “you have seen their detestable idols, wood and stone, silver and gold.” The former were on display openly; the latter — due to their value and the owners being afraid of theft — were kept inside their homes (Tanchuma Nitzavim 3).

You have seen their abominations, and their idols of wood and stone which they have set forth in the streets, and the idols of silver and gold that they have placed with themselves in the houses, shutting the doors after them lest they should be stolen.

Lest there be among you a man or a woman, or a family or a tribe, whose heart turns away this day from the fear of Hashem our God, to go and serve the idols of those nations — lest there be among you a man who entertains thoughts of sins or willful transgression.

פן יש בכם means PERHAPS (שמא = פן) THERE IS AMONG YOU, אשר לבבו פנה היום [A MAN …] WHOSE HEART TURNETH AWAY THIS DAY from accepting the covenant upon himself, שרש פרה ראש ולענה [PERHAPS THERE IS AMONG YOU] A ROOT THAT IS FRUITFUL IN POISONOUS HERB AND WORMWOOD — i.e. a root that brings forth herbs bitter as wormwood-plants, which are very bitter. The meaning is: Lest there be a man or woman or family or tribe that fruitfully produces and increases wickedness in your midst.

LEST THERE SHOULD BE AMONG YOU etc. Therefore, I must place you under an oath.” Thus far is Rashi’s language. He has commented well. And the purport thereof is to state, “I must bring you now into this covenant with an imprecation and an oath on account of my fear that perhaps the hearts of some of you have been beguiled into following the abominations of Egypt as you did at the [affair of the golden] calf, or the abominations of Ammon and Moab that you saw on the road when you had the affair with Baal-peor,” for at the first covenant at the time of the Giving of the Torah there were no imprecations and curses. He stated [lest there should be among you] man or woman because a woman is frivolous [and can easily be led into idol-worship]. He stated a similar expression in [the chapter dealing with an individual] worshipping the idols. He mentioned individuals, family, and tribe [lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe] meaning a multitude, but he did not say it [lest they should worship the idols] concerning all of them, out of respect [to them]. Or it may be that it was impossible for the hearts of all of them to turn to the idols on that day, because, if so, they would not have come into the covenant of G-d and His oath, for who could have compelled them. A family or tribe, however, might have come into the covenant for fear of the majority. He stated lest there should be among you [man, or woman etc.] whose heart turneth away this day referring to him who has already been beguiled to idol-worship and who secretly believes in them that day. Or lest there should be among you an evil root that will blossom and grow and in the coming days will bring forth poisonous buds and grow bitter herbs. This refers back to him that is not here with us this day, for the father is the root and the son is the twig that shall grow forth out of his roots. He mentioned the root in order to state that he can bring the coming generations into this oath, for the root from which the coming generations will grow is before him this day, and it comes within this covenant and oath. He stated a root that beareth gall to suggest that from a sweet root no bitter plant will issue, and that all those whose hearts are perfect with the Glorious Name and gave no thought to the idols, will not give birth to a child, who will avow idolatry. Now, do not refute me in this matter on the basis of the verse If he [a man who is just, and does that which is lawful and right] beget a son that is a robber, for the matter is true, there being a great secret therein which I cannot explain. ‘Rosh v’la’anah’ (gall and wormwood) are bitter or poisonous herbs. These are their names in the Sacred Language. Or it may be that they are surnames, one called rosh (“the head”) because it is the head of the bitter herbs, the bitterest of all, and the second is called la’anah, from the expression ‘lei’anoth’ (to humble thyself) before Me, for he who eats it becomes oppressed and...

The meaning of "a root that bears gall and wormwood" — for the gall harms the wholesome, and it belongs to the category of spreading [contagious] diseases.

איש או אשה, neither a man nor a woman who would seduce you to follow the vain pursuits of the nations with whom you will be living in close proximity, and who might be the cause that you would default on the undertakings in this covenant. This is the reason I have insisted that all of you be present at this ceremony, seeing that G’d examines hearts He will know who only pays lip service to this covenant and who is sincere about it. You will not be able to deceive Him. פן יש בכם שורש פורה ראש ולענה, a simile for people planning to beguile the multitude to adopt their own idolatrous beliefs.

פן יש בכם…ללכת לעבוד, "lest there be amongst you ….to go and serve the gods, etc." In this verse the Torah warns against the mere intention to practice idolatry, making the person doing this culpable. The operative word is לבבו פונה, "his heart turns, etc. פן יש בכם, what precisely is this "root flourishing with gall and wormwood?" If these words refer to the previous statement where the Torah describes when this person's "heart turns to go and serve idols," the words פן יש בכם should not have been repeated. The Torah should have written something of this order: פן יש בכם איש או אשה אשר לבבו פונה…שרש פרה ראש ולענה. Furthermore, what is the meaning of the words "a root of wormwood?" Apparently the Torah does not speak about wormwood and gall but about a root. How does the Israelite who plans to engage in idolatry "bless himself in his heart?" Besides what is the point of the word לאמור in this verse? What does the Torah mean with the words: "for I will walk in the path my heart sees fit," in verse 18? The basic idea underlying this verse is to warn the Israelite that anyone who attempts to get away with none or only minor punishments by only thinking about sinning but not actually violating any of the Torah's commandments will be disappointed. The Torah tells such a person that at this particular stage of his thinking he is merely a root, Le. harmless in itself; however, the outgrowth of this root will be gall and wormwood. This is why, in the first instance, the Torah speaks of פן יש בכם שרש פורה ראש ולענה, "it is first and foremost a root from which unexpected plants will grow." The clever Israelite who looks for devious ways to escape the curses of which the Torah warns first blesses himself in "his heart." This means that he says to himself that merely contemplating sins is not so bad. This is why the Torah uses the words והיה בשמעו. We have explained repeatedly that the word והיה always has a joyful connotation. This Israelite says to himself that as long as he only contemplates sinning, he is not guilty of anything. This contributes to his joy. The Torah puts the record straight telling such an individual that if he thought he could cancel the oath Moses committed him to before accepting it even if he had answered "Amen", this would not help him. We have learned in Shavuot 26 that when it comes to oaths one's mouth and one's heart must act in unison, and that if someone makes up his mind to invalidate the words of an oath he will utter, only his intention commits him, not his words. When Moses speaks of שרירות לבו, he describes a person who uses the loophole we just quoted to escape culpability. Not only that, but למען ספות הרוה את הצמאה, "in order to add the watered to the thirsty," i.e. to benefit from the blessings G'd will shower upon the Torah-observant people. The word ספות is related to כריתה, an end. The word רוה is an alternative for רבה, "increase." The word צמאה describes something small, insignificant. The Israelite intends to...

פן יש בכם שרש פורה ראש ולענה, “lest there be amongst you a root that bears gall and wormwood. “

פן יש בכם שרש פורה ראש ולענה, “lest there be among you a root flourishing with gall and wormwood.” Venom is considered the ראש, ‘principal’ of all bitter roots or leafs, being more bitter than any other variant. Some commentators explain the meaning of the word ראש here as a reference to the venom of the viper in whose head it is found, i.e. animal-based. The word לענה, by contrast, refers to some bitter vegetable matter. We find the expression in Numbers 30,14: לענות נפש, “to cause bitterness in a person.” It describes the person making such a vow as causing herself the utmost anguish.

איש או אשה, “be it a man or a woman;” Moses does not wish to insult anyone; therefore he speaks of individuals possibly straying, something which might also result in peer-pressure by the other members of the family drawing in the ones who were not originally willing. He mentions the woman only after the man, precisely because women are more easily seduced by false philosophies. By suggesting that a man might be the first to fall into such a trap, Moses preserves the self-respect of the Jewish women. פן יש בכם...אשר לבבו פונה היום, “lest there be amongst you anyone whose heart will turn away this day, etc.;” this refers to someone whose faith and belief in Hashem has already been undermined, but who has not acted upon it; or, פן יש בכם שורש פורה ראש ולענה, “lest there be amongst you a root flourishing with gall and wormwood.” This refers to a development in the more distant future, the party concerned not being alive yet and not having been seduced mentally, but belonging to the ones whom Moses described as “not being with us here this day.” When, or if, this occurs, it reflects on the “root”, i.e. forefather of such a person having carried within his seed some of his own spiritual weakness that he involuntarily transmitted to his offspring. He will, however, be under the obligations of this covenant and this curse applicable to non-compliance. [It is important to understand that seeing that membership of the Jewish nation brings with it a multiplicity of advantages, the small price to pay for this, even though this unborn Jew had not given his consent to membership of the Jewish people, still renders being born a Jew a “good deal” on the whole.” Ed.]

פן יש בכם, “lest there be amongst you, etc.;” this is an additional reason for renewing the original covenants. אשר לבבו פונה היום, “whose heart is even now turning away, etc.;” he will entertain the thought of abandoning G–d and His Torah. Moses is frank, admitting that there is cause for worry. Furthermore, פן יש בכם שורש פורה ראש ולענה, “lest there is perchance amongst you a stock sprouting poison weed and wormwood.” In what follows, Moses goes into greater detail about what he is worried about.

And it shall be, when he hears the words of this oath, that he imagines in his heart, saying: Peace will be with me, for I walk in the imagination of my heart — thereby adding the sins of carelessness upon willful wrongdoing.

והתברך בלבבו AND HE BLESS HIMSELF IN HIS HEART — The word והתברך has the meaning of “blessing”. In his heart he will imagine for himself a blessing of peace, saying, “These curses will not come upon me, I shall have peace”. והתברך is benoir soi in old French, i.e. the verb is reflexive like והתגלח, “he shall shave himself”, והתפלל, he shall pray lit., he shall make himself the object of intercession. בשררות לבי אלך means IN THE VIEWS OF MY HEART WILL I WALK, שררות being of a root which means to look, to see, as (Numbers 25:17): “I shall see him (אשרנו), but not now”; it is as much as to say, I will follow what my heart sees good to do. למען ספות הרוה TO ADD DRUNKENNESS [TO THE THIRST] — In order that I may add punishment for him even for the sins he has committed until now inadvertently (for which the figurative expression in this sentence is הרוה, drunkenness: cf. the following passage in Rashi), and which I used to overlook; — but now he causes Me to combine them with those committed with premeditation and to exact punishment from him for everything. Onkelos, too, rendered it in a similar sense: “in order to add for him the sins of inadvertence to those of premeditation”, which can only mean. “In order that “I” may add sins of inadvertence to those of presumption”. הרוה DRUNKENNESS figuratively describes the condition of a שוגג, one who acts inadvertently. The expression is an apt one because he acts like a drunken man who does things unwittingly, הצמאה THE THIRST aptly describes the attitude of one who acts wittingly and out of desire.

AND HE BLESS HIMSELF IN HIS HEART, SAYING: [‘I SHALL HAVE PEACE’]. When he will hear others imprecating themselves with these oaths, he will in his imagination bless himself, saying in his heart, “I shall have peace from any curse when I follow the desire of my heart.” G-d will not pardon him; instead, His anger will then be kindled against him whenever he sins, in that generation or [when his descendants sin] in later generations. Or the sense of the verses may be as follows: “Because he says [publicly]: I shall have peace, since in my heart I do not accept the oath upon myself, for I shall walk in the stubborness of my heart all my days and carry out all my desires. And the Eternal will not be willing to pardon him because he did not accept His imprecation; instead, His anger will be kindled against him since he came into the covenant in My presence with all [the people of] Israel.” [Therefore the refusal of an individual to accept the covenant constitutes a punishable defiance.]A desire that grows stronger and more in one’s heart is termed [in Hebrew] shriruth [‘ki bishriruth libi eileich’ — for I shall walk in ‘the stubborness’ of my heart], similar to the expression of the Sages: “sharir (strong) and established.” So also, ‘bishrirei’ (in the muscles of) his body. L’MA’AN’ (THAT) THE WATERED BE SWEPT AWAY WITH THE THIRSTY. The meaning thereof is “‘to supplement’ the watered with the thirsty,” for the satisfied soul is called ravah (satiated), similar to, And I will ‘satiate the soul’ of the priests with fatness, and My people shall be satisfied with My goodness; and their soul shall be as a watered garden, while the desiring soul is called tz’meiah (thirsty): My ‘soul thirsteth’ for Thee. Therefore, the sense of the verse is: when into a person’s satisfied soul — one that does not desire harmful things — there comes a slight craving, and he satisfies his lust, then there will grow in his soul a craving even greater than the original one, for the thing that he ate or that he did, and it [the soul] will lust [even] after evil things for which he never craved at first. Thus, if someone craves for lewdness with beautiful women and becomes carried away in unchastity, his lust will ultimately bring him to sodomy and to bestiality and the like with other forms of lust. This is akin to what the Sages have mentioned [with respect to sexual craving]: “The more one satisfies it, the more it hungers, the more one starves it, the more it is satisfied.” Therefore Scripture states concerning him who follows the stubborness of his heart, that if he will satisfy his soul with those stubborn and overpowering desires for which it thirsts, his soul “will add the watered to the thirsty,” for then he will desire and thirst after things for which he had been satisfied, and with which his soul was satiated [meaning that, up to then, he felt no desire for them]. And, because he used the expression ‘shoresh poreh’ (a root that beareth), he follows this usage, sayi...

The meaning of "this oath" — cursed is the man who makes a graven or molten image. "And he will bless himself in his heart" — R. Judah ha-Levi, of blessed memory, said that "and he will bless himself" is to be taken literally: when he hears the curse he blesses himself in his heart and says "peace will be with me" — as if to say, upon hearing the ban, [he says] "except for me." "In order to add" — R. Judah ha-Levi, may his rest be in Eden, said this is a term of cutting off, as in "will You indeed destroy" (Gen. 18:23) — meaning that the one who blesses himself imagines he will nullify the words of the righteous man, who is alluded to by the word רָוֶה ["the well-watered"], with the matter of the thirsty. Thus the righteous is compared to the well-watered, as "a tree planted beside streams of water" (Ps. 1:3); and the wicked to the dry, as "like a tamarisk in the desert" (Jer. 17:6). He imagines that even his self-blessing in his heart will nullify [the words of] the righteous. This interpretation would be fine, were it not that רָוֶה is an attributive adjective and it should properly read "the well-watered with the thirsty." R. Jonah the grammarian says its meaning is: because the innocent will seemingly be destroyed along with the wicked, the [sinner] thinks in his heart that it will be well — but this is not correct, because [the verse says] "peace will be with me." In my own view, the word סְפוֹת is a term of addition, as in "to add sin." The meaning is: "peace will be with me" even though I walk in the willfulness of my heart, for I shall live by the merit of the righteous — for they are many and I am only one sinner. Therefore it is written after this, "Hashem will not consent to forgive him," for then — that is the meaning — he will immediately be cut off. This verse also testifies to my interpretation of the word וְנִסְלַח לוֹ ["and he shall be forgiven", elsewhere]. Thus סְפוֹת [means]: the well-watered adds to the thirsty — the righteous is compared to the well-watered, as "a tree planted beside streams of water"; and the wicked to the thirsty, as "like a tamarisk in the desert." The proof is that it is written at the beginning, "a root that bears gall and wormwood," which stands in place of the thirsty.

והתברך בלבבו, while accepting the covenant with his lips, he already resolves in his heart to honour it in the breach, comforting himself, thinking שלום יהיה לי כי בשרירות לבי אלך, “I will be alright even though I will do my own thing.” He considers that seeing that he already planned to breach the covenant at the very moment when he accepted it with his lips, the covenant is not binding upon him. The only reason he had mouthed acceptance of the covenant was to become at one and the same time a beneficiary of the overwhelming number of people for whose sake G’d was going to bestow so many blessings on His people. This is the meaning of the words שלום יהיה לי כי בשרירות לבי אלך למען ספות הרוה את הצמאה; he knows full well that the holy community of the Jewish people, his brethren, have attained that status by resisting the lures of the evil urge instead of succumbing to it. This is why they will benefit from G’d’s largesse in such abundant manner. He therefore decided to have the best of both worlds by at least paying lip service to a covenant he knows he will not live by.

את דברי האלה הזאת, “the words of this curse.” This is a reference to the curses pronounced at Mount Eyval, in chapter 27, 15-26. והתברך, “and he blesses himself, i.e. he reassures himself; he considers himself immune from these curses (by interpreting them as applicable only to the community, not to individuals.) כי בשרירות לבי אלך, “even though I do my own thing,” i.e. I ignore rules meant for others. למען ספות הרוה, “the irrigated plants will be swept away with the dried out ones.” He feels that if the community has sinned and G-d will punish them, it makes no difference that he adds a few extra sins which he as an individual indulges in. [He denied G-d’s supervision of individuals who are sinful, as otherwise the community would be made to pay for the sins of each individual. We can perhaps understand this logic as the deluge swept away everyone and they could not all have been equally guilty. He also distinguishes between sins that are due to the evil urge, such as indulging in forbidden but tasty food, and others such as not wearing garments with a mixture of wool and linen, which did not require him to resist temptation. Ed.] An alternate interpretation of the line: למען ספות הרוה את הצמאה; he cannot wait until violation of Torah laws becomes popular, so that he may indulge in it openly rather than secretly and make an outcast of himself. In the meantime he has to suffer like a plant suffers that is not irrigated. He may even have restrained himself from sinning although harbouring a fervent desire to do so as he is afraid of being caught and convicted. The Torah appears to compare the righteous to the well watered plant, and the sinner or potential sinner, to the plant that thirsts for water. (Compare Yehudah Halevi quoted by Ibn Ezra)

והיה בשמעו את דברי האלה הזאת, “it will be when he hears these words of a curse, etc.;” a reference to what we read above in Deut. 27,15: “cursed the man who makes a hewn image, etc.” The person concerned is under the mistaken impression that he will be a beneficiary of the merit accumulated by the many people who do observe the Torah and have forsworn any form of idolatry. והתברך בלבבו לאמר “and he will bless himself in his heart, saying;" He will think upon hearing the curses that they will not harm him and actually be turned into blessings.בשרירות לבי אלך, “I will walk as my heart sees fit.” He says to himself that in spite of the fact that he does not accept any part of the Torah which does not appeal to him he will not be punished, seeing that he is only an individual whose actions are not relevant when the vast majority of his fellow Jews are observant and therefore the whole people is deserving of G’d’s bountiful blessing as promised. Seeing that he reasons in such a way, the Torah adds immediately that he is totally wrong. G’d will not forgive him, i.e. turn a blind eye to his conduct; on the contrary, G’d’s wrath will be fuming, etc., against such an individual. The word אז in our verse is understood to mean “immediately,” by Ibn Ezra. It is also possible to understand the words בשרירות לבי as an expression of aggressive obstinacy. This individual deliberately disregards the opinion of the multitude, “doing his own thing” openly. The meaning of the expression is similar to what is known in the Talmud (Gittin 26) as אשרתא דדייני, “a document signed by judges testifying to the fulfillment of conditions in an accompanying document,” i.e. confirmation. The reason the Torah writes למען ספות הרוה את הצמאה, is that the wicked person prides himself with his evil deeds and determines to continue in his evil ways, thereby adding more “thirst” to his whole system which previously was adequately supplied with moisture. He had hoped to become satiated by indulging his cravings for sin. His punishment consists of the fact that instead of deriving satisfaction from his sins, he constantly feels the irrepressible urge to commit more and more sins. Instead of slaking his thirst for whatever it is he wishes to achieve, he will find that he gets ever thirstier. [A form of the principle described by our sages in Avot 4,2 עבירה גוררת עבירה, “one deliberately committed sin brings in its wake another.” Ed.] The desire to sin acts like a roller-coaster; once on that path it is almost impossible to stop and to reverse course. It is also a well known fact that man’s heart is the “root” of the body. His thoughts are like the branches, his deeds like the fruit of the tree. The Torah has already stated (Genesis 6,5) that “all the thoughts of (wicked people) are centered all day long on doing evil.” Such people will not cease producing bitter fruit (Jeremiah 17,8). Even if all the planning of the wicked people is not translated into deeds, such wicked people are punished for the wicked thoughts they entertain. This is what Solomon referred to when he said (Proverbs 15,13) “a happy heart makes for a cheerful face; a sad heart causes a despondent spirit.” The meaning of the entire verse is that one should not think that mere thoughts have no bearing on one’s personality. If a person has a positive attitude to life, is joyful, or has a negative attitude to life, is despondent, all depends on the kind of thoughts he entertains. In other words, the thoughts have their origin in the heart; when these thoughts are translated into action they have an impact on the body, i.e. the body reveals the nature of the thoughts a person entertains. It follows that the despondent person is in line for punishment even more so when he actually enjoys contemplating the performance of sins. This is also what the sages (Yuma 29) had in mind when they said that the contemplating of sins is a more serious offense than the actual carrying out of the sin. The sinful thoughts, when carried out, leave their mark on the body of a person, whereas spontaneously committed sins do not leave such marks on the body. This statement, i.e. psychological insight, of the sages is of very great importance. The statement has given rise to many and varied interpretations as I have already mentioned elsewhere where I said that it means that contemplating sins is more serious than committing the actual sin seeing that the contemplating of the sin is what brings about its execution. By contemplating sins on a regular basis, the heart becomes involved in one’s deeds. Seeing that the soul has its home in the heart, such evil thoughts tend to corrupt the soul. [The author clearly feels that the soul, something disembodied, abstract, must be housed in something physical in order to be able to function. One cannot think of the soul as being something detached from the body, independent. Therefore, the part of the body in which the soul is “at home” is of crucial significance. Ed.] Contaminating the soul by entertaining these sinful thoughts is therefore a more serious offense than the actual spontaneous commission of a sin which had not previously had such an impact on one’s soul. Another interpretation of the statement that הרהורי עבירה קשין מעבירה involves often “follow-up” sins. Let us say that a person entertains the thought of breaking into someone’s house. If he is contemplating this sin instead of spontaneously stealing, he most likely weighs what action to take if his plan encounters opposition. He will think of how to deal with the opposition, i.e. possibly decide to kill the person who would frustrate his plan. Thus he already adds further sinful thoughts before even committing the original sin. Should someone ask: “how can the Torah decree penalties for thoughts which have never been carried out? How can the Torah expect a person to be so perfect that the temptation and intention to commit a sin never occurs to him?” Let me explain the essence of the subject. We know that man is in charge (has the choice) of the actions he carries out. This is what the Torah alluded to in Deut. 30, 15-19: “see I have today given into your hand (control) over life and goodness, over death and evil;......you shall choose life.“ Just as man can control his actions, he can also control his thoughts. True, the latter require some preparation, education. We are commanded to entertain constructive thoughts and to avoid thinking potentially destructive, sinful thoughts. G’d gives credit for our entertaining positive constructive thoughts, whereas He punishes us for thinking sinful thoughts. If, on occasion, one does entertain unworthy thoughts, thoughts which creep up on a person uninvited, such thoughts reflect the fact that the individual in question has not trained himself sufficiently not to entertain unworthy, potentially sinful thoughts. The only cure for this is to concentrate on G’d and what He expects us to do and how He expects us to relate to His universe and our environment. One must relate to such unworthy thoughts with anger at oneself for such thoughts to have occurred to one at all. If one does so, one may rely on the saying of our sages that הבא לטהר מסיין אותו, “when a person makes a genuine effort to purify (himself or others) he receives a divine assist.” (Yuma 38) There are numerous verses in the Bible testifying to the principle that there are divine assists for people trying to do the right thing. One such verse is found In Chronicles I 28,9: ”for the Lord searches all minds and discerns the design of every thought, if you seek Him, He will be available to you.” Another verse in a similar vein is found in Proverbs 21,2: ”G’d probes the (content) of one’s hearts.” Solomon means that when man entertains positive thoughts, G’d will help translate them into reality. Other verses from Scripture which convey similar messages are found in Psalms 10,17, as well as in Chronicles I 29,18. Maimonides explains the statement that the contemplating of commission of sins is קשין, something more severe than the actual commission of the sin, by reference to the fact that the ability to entertain thoughts is one of the major factors elevating man above the beasts. Abusing such a faculty is more serious than committing sins with the body, something we have in common with the animals, i.e. the lower forms of life. Perverting the very distinctive feature given to us by the Almighty by contemplating actions aimed against our Creator, is indeed an unforgivable abuse of the powers granted to us. By turning the dominating element of his personality into a tool to commit sins, the subservient part of man, i.e. his body, will automatically tend to become corrupted thereby. When someone commits a sin using as his instrument a foolish slave, this is not nearly as serious as when one uses a free man to carry out one’s nefarious schemes. This is what Maimonides wrote at the beginning of the second part of his Moreh Nevuchim. [Actually it is found in section 3, chapter 8] Yet another reason why planning a sin is more serious than the actual commission of it (a thought attributed to Nachmanides by the author in his book Kad Hakemach), is that the author of the statement had in mind the satisfaction one derives from having carried out the sin. The fact that the perpetrator still thinks about the sin as an accomplishment results in his punishment becoming harsher. According to this interpretation no penalty accrues to the contemplation of a sin not carried out. The author, in his volume Kad Hakemach, reasons that seeing that we do not have control of our thoughts, we cannot be held culpable for them. [I am quoting from Rabbi Chavell’s notes, seeing I have neither seen the comment by Nachmanides nor the author’s book Kad Hakemach. Ed.] This is based on the statement of our sages in Kidushin 40 that G‘d does not combine the sinful thought with the actual performance of the evil deed. There is no penalty for the thought. This is also supported by a verse in Psalms 66,18: ”Had I an evil thought in my mind, the Lord would not have listened.” The only exception to this rule is contemplating idolatry. Such thoughts are punishable even if not carried out, as it states in Ezekiel 14,5: “Thus I will hold the House of Israel responsible for their thoughts, because they have all been estranged from Me through their fetishes.”

“And he will bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, etc.” This entire narrative speaks of one who sins in thought alone, as it is written whose heart turns away, etc., and he will bless himself in his heart, etc., for I will walk in the stubbornness of my heart. For idolatry’s essence is in thought, since faith exists only in the heart, and therefore it is said regarding idolatry in order to seize the house of Israel by their heart (Ezekiel 14:5). And in every mention of idolatry, only the action is mentioned, as it is written Cursed is the man who makes a carved or molten image, etc. (Deuteronomy 27:15). From this, two kinds of errors can occur. First, one might say who makes but not from what is already made, meaning the gods of those nations mentioned above. The second error is that one might say only the action is forbidden but not the thought. This is what is meant by And it shall be, when he hears the words of this curse. That is to say, that curse which alludes to idolatry specifically, where the context seems to refer only to action. Therefore, he finds a place to attach his error, and he will bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace. He gives himself a blessing of peace because the matter is only in his heart. And this is what is meant by For I will walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst. For he will rely on this to escape punishment, saying, “I dwell among my people,” and [just as] one who waters a field that thirsts for water also waters the saturated parts alongside it, so too through God sending blessing to the righteous who thirst for the word of God — as it is written My soul thirsts for You, etc. (Psalms 63:2) — the wicked, who are sated with God’s service to the point that they choose for themselves new foreign gods that have recently come, will also receive blessing alongside them, for their souls are sated with the service of God. He will also say that since the world is judged according to its majority, the merit of the righteous will also stand for him, and God will forgive him for their sake. Therefore it says “God will not be willing to forgive him,” because the contemplations of the sin of idolatry are worse than the sin itself, since the essence of the matter is in the heart. For regarding an idolater, it is written Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone (Hosea 4:17). This means that the Holy One, Blessed be He, extends His patience even with idolatry. However, when their heart is divided from God, it is written Their heart is divided; now they shall be found guilty (Hosea 10:2). Therefore it says Then the anger of God will smoke, where the word then indicates the time of “now,” meaning that immediately and at once God’s anger will smoke and His jealousy will be against that man. That is to say, against him alone, because since he sinned in secret, others are not seized for his sin. And there shall lie upon him all the curse that is written in this book. These are the curses mentioned in the section of Bechukotai. However, there all the curses are written in plural form, which might lead one to think that many will waste away because of his sin. Regarding this, it says And God will separate him for evil from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the Torah. These refer to the curses in the section of Ki Tavo, which are stated in singular form, indicating that he alone will die for his sin, and all of Israel will be innocent. And that which it calls Torat Kohanim [Leviticus] simply a “book,” and the curses in the portion of Ki Tavo called the book of the Torah, [can be explained as follows]: because all five books together are called “Torah,” while each book individually is called a “book.” Therefore, the book of Torat Kohanim is called a “book” because it does not encompass the entire Torah, but is just one book from the number of five books. However, this fifth book [Deuteronomy] is called “Torah” because it encompasses the entire Torah, and that is why it is called “Mishneh Torah” [Repetition of the Torah], as it is written Moses began to explain this Torah (Deuteronomy 1:5). And this is what it means regarding the separation: And God will separate him for evil, etc., according to all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the Torah. For all of these [curses] were stated in the singular form, indicating this separation, to negate his notion of “adding the watered to the thirsty” — that he should not say “I dwell among my people.” For this reason, the first [curses] are called “curse” [aleh] and the latter ones “curses” [alot], because the latter ones are doubled from the first ones. For in place of each single curse found there [in Leviticus], here [in Deuteronomy] there are two, for the reason we explained in the portion of Ki Tavo (28:15), either corresponding to the 49 gates of understanding, or corresponding to the Torah which is interpreted in 49 ways — corresponding to each one, one blow [in Leviticus], and here two [in Deuteronomy] because of the mutual responsibility. And that which it says, and all the curse will rest upon him — specifically that curse from Torat Kohanim — is because here it speaks about the sin of idolatry, and likewise the curse in Torat Kohanim also speaks about the sin of idolatry, as it is said And I will destroy your high places and cut down your sun-pillars, etc. (Leviticus 26:30). But those curses in the plains of Moab do not mention the sin of idolatry. Therefore, regarding the first curse it says and it will rest upon him, for it alone will rest with him. However, regarding the separation alone — that God will separate Him for evil from all the tribes of Israel — it says according to all the curses of the covenant, etc., because these curses were stated in the singular form. And that which is said afterward, and they will see the afflictions of the land, etc., which implies that it is speaking about the punishment of many — this refers to what was said above: or family or tribe, for this speaks about many sinners, and then they will see the affliction of the land, as will be explained shortly.

למען ספות הרוה את הצמאה, “thereby adding the watered to the thirsty.” Nachmanides explains this turn of phrase as “adding that which is already satisfied to the list of the ones still unsatisfied,” i.e thirsty. The word רוה describes someone sated as in Jeremiah 31,11 והיתה נפשם כגן רוה, “their soul will be like a watered garden.” When applied to the soul, i.e. essence of a human being, it means that the human being is not aware of his lacking anything, desirous of something that has not been granted to him, hence not in need of G’d as the One Who could supply his non-existing needs. On the other hand, Moses describes any person who feels that some of his needs have not been fulfilled, as צמאה, “thirsting after something.” [Nachmanides qualifies the thirst as including a desire for something that, if granted, would prove harmful to him. Ed.] The person who had felt completely fulfilled is at a disadvantage compared to those who have learned to do without on occasion, as when such a person does feel the need for something, he is so eager to satisfy that need that he feels it a great imposition if the laws of the Torah impose restrictions on the manner in which he can satisfy his “need.” If, as a result of this supposed “need,” he forthwith proceeds to satisfy it without due regard to the Torah’s laws, he will henceforth experience more desires more frequently, in line with the psychological axiom of our sages that when one trains oneself to resist improper impulses one will experience ever fewer of them, whereas when one gives in to them easily, one will progressively experience such impulses becoming more and more powerful and frequent. Eventually, one will even experience a burning desire for things from which one had already weaned oneself. Moses describes this process as בשרירות לבי אלך, “I will follow the dictates of my heart.” The word למען in our context does not introduce a reason or purpose of what the “free-spirited” person is thinking, but means something similar to: “as a result of which such and such will occur.” [In this case a gradual but steady spiritual decline. Ed.] Rabbi Yehudah the Spaniard explains the word ספות, as the cutting off of something as in האף תספה, when Avraham asked G’d if He would also cut off the righteous in the process of punishing the Sodomites for their wickedness. (Compare Genesis 18,23) The sinner reasons to himself that he can get away with ignoring, and even make irrelevant the words of the righteous. The righteous, in the scenario painted by Rabbi Yehudah, is the רוה, “watered one”, in our verse. He is compared to the proverbial עץ שתול על מים, “tree planted alongside a steadily flowing well of water”, who, according to our sages is the symbol of the righteous that is unperturbed by the turbulence and poverty surrounding him, as he has the מים חיים, the waters of the living Torah to sustain him come rain or shine. (Compare the simile in Jeremiah 17,8) The wicked person is likened by the prophet to a tree that does not have sound roots and will be dried out by the slightest natural disaster, such as the first month of drought. Moses explains that such people will not experience any help from G’d in withstanding even temporary setbacks, as they have not only given in to the slightest temptation, but considered themselves as smart in riding on the coattails of the righteous expecting to participate in the reward G’d metes out to the vast majority who are Torah-observant. The grammarian Rabbi Yonah, also sees in the word ספות a reference to כריתה, being cut off; he attributes the sinner’s attitude to Torah to the fact that he observes in “real” life that both the righteous and the wicked die the same death of the essential life force, the נפש. He reasons that just as the body dies the same death as the animals, so does the spirit.

למען ספות הרוה, the deliberate sinner, whose motivation is that seeing he is so well off, he does not worry about possible consequences for himself הצמאה, because of the urgings of his desire. He does not sin in order to make a statement against G’d asserting his freedom to do as he pleases and thereby rejecting G’d as the world’s Master. He is merely unable to resist his urges. כי בשרירות לבי, only because of assertion of self, of ego.

והיה בשמעו את דברי האלה הזאת וגו, “and when he hears the wording of this curse [which appeared to him as addressed to the community, as opposed to individuals in the community, Ed.] והתברך, “and he will personally feel immune in his heart;” שלום יהיה לי, “I, personally will be quite safe;” בשרירות לבי אלך, ”and therefore I will follow whatever my heart dictates to me;” למען ספות הרוה את הצמאה, “so that the irrigated will be swept away with the dry;” [the sinner’s logic is that on account of one single sinner G–d will not withhold blessings such as rain from a whole community. Ed.] Alternate meaning, the author’s: “he will commit sins that are not the result of the evil urge as well as sins that are the result of his evil urge.” לא יאבה ה' סלוח לו, כי אז יעשן אף ה' וקנאתו, “not only will the Lord not consider forgiving him his foolishness, but His anger and jealousy will be kindled against such an individual and He will single him out for especially harsh punishment. By doing this the remainder of you will be shielded against copying his conduct, and you will remain loyal to G–d’s covenant. For if you collectively would fail to remain loyal ורבצה בו כל האלה, “the Lord will blot out his name,” so that no descendants of such a sinner will remain alive under the sky. Neither an already an existing grandson or great-grandson will be allowed to live. והבדילו ה' לרעה, “and the Lord will single him out for misfortune; that sinner had thought that he alone of all the Israelites could get away with being disloyal to the covenant. I will show the Israelites that he alone will be singled out for such harsh treatment by Me. The punishment will fit the crime.

Hashem will not be willing to forgive him; rather, the wrath of Hashem and His fury will then burn against that man, and every curse written in this book will cleave to him, and Hashem will blot out his name from under the heavens.

יעשן אף ה׳ THE ANGER OF THE LORD SHALL SMOKE [AGAINST THAT MAN] — Through anger the body becomes heated and smoke, as it were, issues from the nostrils. And thus does it state, (Psalms 18:9) “Smoke rose up in his nostril”. Although this idea is not really applicable to God, Scripture makes the human ear hear the matter (i.e. it tells it to him) in the manner that it is accustomed and able to understand according to the ordinary course of the world (i.e. when speaking of God it uses language that properly is applicable only to human beings because this the only language we have at our command). וקנאתו — This is a term denoting wrath, emportment in old French; it means: retaining one’s hold on the 'garment of vengeance', and not forgoing one’s right to punish.

THE ANGER OF THE ETERNAL AND HIS JEALOUSY SHALL BE KINDLED AGAINST THAT MAN — this refers to the curse against the individual sinner, man or woman. AND THE ETERNAL SHALL BLOT OUT HIS NAME — this is the curse against a whole family [if they all be sinners] for there is a common name to the head of their father’s house [and that name will be erased].

"His anger will smolder" — the fire of anger will burn him until smoke is visible. Now if it is an individual, he will die immediately; and if it is a family, "all the curse will lie upon it" — meaning the curse will rest on the family until its name is blotted out; and if it is a tribe, "Hashem will set him apart for evil" — and similarly "and it shall be for Hashem, and I will offer it as a burnt offering" (Judg. 11:31), as I have explained it.

לא יאבה ה' סלוח לו, when he will violate the covenant which he accepted as a sacred oath with his lips, although he had mentally had his reservations at the very time when he confirmed the covenant with his mouth.

יעשן אף ה', “Hashem’s anger will smoke, etc.” Ibn Ezra interprets this metaphor as meaning that G’d’s anger will become so hot that smoke will be observed. באיש ההוא, “against that man;” the word איש does not literally mean “man,” but “person;” the Torah tells us that G’d will deliberately single out that sinner for His personal attention, regardless of whether he is male or female. ומחה ה' את שמו, “and Hashem will erase his name, etc.” This is a reference to the sinner’s family, seeing that all family members bear the same name.

כי אז יעשן, G’d is not willing to forgive such a person, but considering his attitude, His anger will “smoke.”

And Hashem will single him out for evil from among all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the Torah.

הכתובה בספר התורה הזה — Above, however, (Deuteronomy 28:61) it says: And every sickness and every plague … [which is not written] הזאת) בספר התורה הזאת the feminine form, whilst here we have הזה, the masculine)?! But the explanation is: הזאת, the feminine form, refers to the feminine word התורה, whilst הזה, the masculine form, refers to the masculine word הספר in our text. Through the division into clauses by means of the tonic accents (which serve also as marks of interpunctuation) they (the two phrases) are shown to be two different expressions: in the chapter containing the curses (ch. Deuteronomy 28:61) the Tipcha (a disjunctive accent) is placed beneath the word בספר, and the words התורה הזאת are connected one with the other, therefore it says הזאת, the feminine form, (since it has to be connected with a feminine noun), whilst here the Tipcha is placed beneath the word התורה, and consequently the words ספר התורה are connected one with the other (i.e. they form one phrase), — therefore it is a masculine word that is applicable after it, because the term (the pronoun) refers to הספר (which is masculine).

AND THE ETERNAL SHALL MARK HIM OFF FOR EVIL. This refers to a tribe from among the remaining tribes of Israel.

ומחה ה׳ את שמו מתחת השמים, "and G'd will blot out his name from under the heaven." Remember that the root of the souls of all the Israelites originates in a sacred part of heaven, immediately below the throne of G'd. In this instance, a unique instance, the Torah threatens that in spite of the sacred origin of his soul, it will be utterly blotted out in retribution for the devious plan to be parasites and to benefit from the blessings granted to the Torah-observant majority while at the same time violating all the commandments. והבדילו ה׳ לרעה, "And G'd will single him out for misfortune, etc," This seems a paradox. After the soul of the person has already been blotted out, how can G'd separate it from other souls? We may have to understand this in connection with Isaiah 60 that all the Jewish souls originate in the same place as we have been told by Vayikra Rabbah 4,6 on Genesis 46,26 where all the 70 souls of the family of Jacob are described as כל הנפש, "the whole soul" (singular), as opposed to the souls of Esau which are described in the plural (Genesis 36). When the Torah writes that "G'd will blot out his name from under the heaven, this means that G'd will not take action against this man and consign him to the forces of the קליפה which is here called רעה, "evil," until He has separated his soul. This "separation" implies certain restrictions G'd imposes on the forces of the קליפה concerning the soul of this person. G'd makes it a point to always set some limits on the forces of destruction though He Himself allocated to these forces the parameters within which they may operate. We have quoted an example of such restrictions placed on the forces of destruction when Rava's father warned his son not to sleep in his bed in order not to be killed by these forces ( Taanit 24). מכל שבטי ישראל, from all the tribes of Israel. Seeing that a Jewish soul has an affinity to all the tribes, G'd has to separate this person's soul from all the tribes lest the evil which befalls it will have negative repercussions on those tribes. Alternatively, the word והבדילו may mean that after G'd has wiped out the name of this person, i.e. his soul, from under the heaven, He will transfer it to a spiritual region reserved for destroying such souls. ככל האלות, "like all the curses, etc." this means that the רעה, "evil" in store for this soul will include all the curses mentioned in the Torah thus far.

והבדילו, “and the Lord shall separate him, etc;” his punishment will correspond to the principle of the punishment matching the sin. He used his individualism as a way to escape punishment; as a retribution he will be singled out for punishment while G-d is not (yet) dealing with communally committed sins. לרעה, “for evil;” this had to be spelled out as G-d also singles out people “for good,” when the occasion justifies this. A well known example is the tribe of Levi, who, as the only tribe not to worship the golden calf, was rewarded by being singled out to become a special tribe.

והבדילו ה' לרעה, “Hashem will single him out for evil;” a reference to the whole tribe. מכל שבטי ישראל, “from among all the tribes of Israel.” The remaining ones.

And the later generation will say — your children who will rise up after you, and the foreigner who will come from a distant land — when they see the plague of that land and the afflictions with which Hashem has afflicted it:

AND THE REMOTE GENERATION, YOUR CHILDREN THAT SHALL RISE UP AFTER YOU, SHALL SAY. For the tribes of Israel in the first generation already knew [the cause of the disaster] for they heard the imprecations of the covenant [and therefore he states that the future generation will inquire into the cause of the disaster]. It is possible that this verse refers back to the root that beareth gall and wormwood, that when this occurs in future generations, they will inquire into its cause.

"And the later generation will say" — these are your children, as well as the foreigners who see the affliction of the land.

ואמר הדור האחרון..וראו את מכת הארץ, "The later generation will say,…when they see the destruction and the conflagration, etc." Clearly, the Torah envisages that such punishment will not be something isolated. Why does the Torah mention the reaction by a later generation viewing the destruction of the Holy Land before mentioning the fact that they have seen it? The Torah should have written: "the later generation will see what destruction happened to this country and they will ask what caused it." Besides, the word ואמר is totally superfluous here seeing the Torah repeats in verse 23 that "they will say" i.e. all the other nations who came face to face with the destruction in the Holy Land. Furthermore, why did the Torah begin the verse in the singular, i.e. ואמר, only to switch to the plural, i.e. ואמרו כל הגוים, "and all the nations will say?" I believe the best approach to understanding the sequence in our verse is as follows: "the later generation will say, etc." who is this later generation? Your children. The Torah had to spell this out seeing that other nations also have later generations. The Torah adds that not only your own children will raise this question, but even the Gentile who lives nearby and the nations who come from afar. וראו When all these nations from near and far will observe how this land has been devastated, they (too) will say: "what has caused this destruction?" It is taken for granted that your children who live in the land did not have to come and see the destruction. This is why the Torah could commence with describing only their reaction. The reason the Torah speaks of כל הגוים, "all the nations," is that those who have seen the desolation in the Holy Land will tell all those who have not seen it with their own eyes. The desolation described in this verse refers to the people of whom the Torah spoke in verse 17, the ones who decided to become idolators. The curses which had been mentioned immediately prior to this verse referred to the individual who tried to outsmart the Torah by hedging his acceptance of the oath of the covenant prior to affirming it with his mouth. The warning that G'd would erase that man's name applied only to the individual described in verse 18. Exile and desolation of the land of Israel are the result of idolatry.

ואמר הדור הארון, “and the next generation will say, etc.” Moses refers to a generation that had not yet been born at the time when this covenant was entered into by the Jewish people. והנכרי אשר מארץ רחוקה, “as well as a stranger who had come from a distant land;” and had not heard about the solemn covenant; he will be astounded at the desolation in the land of Israel between the Jewish people and their G-d; the people around who knew about this covenant and its having breached by the Jewish people will not be surprised at all at what happened to this nation and its land.

“And the future generations will say, etc.” There are uncertainties in this matter, because Scripture does not specify what the future generation and the foreigner who comes from a distant land will say. For one cannot suggest that they will say Why has God done this to this land? since regarding this it already states And all the nations will say, “Why has God done this?” If so, what will your children say? And what is meant by first mentioning the foreigner and afterward saying and all the nations will say? Furthermore, logically, before they see the afflictions of the land they will not say anything, so why does it say And the future generations will say before and they will see the afflictions of the land? And Rabbi Yitzchak Abarbanel explained, that the first verse does not yet specify what they will say, but rather states generally And the future generation, your children who will arise after you, and the foreigner because both of them will speak about this matter. And afterward it explains what all the nations will say about Israel: Why has the Lord done thus? And your children will respond Because they forsook, etc. But his explanation is not sufficient to address all the difficulties we mentioned, because initially it calls [the speaker] a foreigner and afterward it says all the nations. In the final analysis, his explanation is not at all sufficient to reconcile the verses in their proper context. And I say that these verses are discussing separate matters, for at first he said Lest there be among you a man or woman or family or tribe and in this verse he speaks both of the individual sinner and of multiple sinners, and afterward he returns and explains each in order from first to last. For from And it will be when he hears the words of this curse until and they see the afflictions of the land — all of this speaks about the punishment of the individual sinner. And from and they see the afflictions of the land until the end of the passage — all of this speaks about the sin of the many. And you need to know that this is the way of the Holy One, blessed be He, for when an individual sins, then he is afflicted in his body according to his wickedness. But when many sin, it is impossible to fulfill what is written regarding the individual, and the Lord will blot out His name from under heaven, because it is impossible to destroy the name of Israel, both because the Lord has already sworn to the forefathers not to exchange them for another nation, and because the 12 tribes of Israel correspond to the 12 constellations in the firmament, and with the elimination of even a single tribe, the constellation in the firmament that depends on it would fall. Therefore, the Holy One, blessed be He, vents His wrath on trees and stones, and that land will be sulfur and salt, a burning throughout its land. And justice dictates that the land should be afflicted because it was the cause of the first sin of Adam through the material it gave him, as we have proven with clear evidence above in the portion of Acharei Mot (18:25) on the verse and the land became defiled, and I visited its iniquity upon it, etc. Therefore, in every sin of the many, the land is afflicted, as it is written regarding the generation of the flood, and the earth was corrupted. And similarly, and the land vomited out its inhabitants, for it is like a sick person who vomits and cannot tolerate food appropriate for him. So too the land is afflicted because it was the cause of all sins and iniquities found in every generation. But in the sin of an individual, if the land were to be afflicted, the harm would reach even those who did not sin. And this is what he first said regarding the punishment of a man or woman whose heart turns away from [being] with God, for then God’s anger will smoke against that person, etc., and God will separate him for evil, etc. And he said, The last generation, your children, etc., and the foreigner who comes from a distant land, for both of them will speak and tell of the wondrous matter of the plagues that God sent upon that individual. And even though it is not explicitly stated in scripture what they will say, nevertheless, this is exactly similar to what is stated in the admonition (Deuteronomy 28:37): And you will become a parable and a byword. Rashi explains and a byword as an expression of speech, “they will speak about you,” as its translation [in Aramaic]: “and for conversation,” even though there too it is not explained what they will say, but implicitly they will speak about what they see in you regarding the greatness of the wondrous plagues. So too, what is stated here, And the last generation will say, etc., and the foreigner, etc. — both of them will speak with surprise about what happened to that person. Specifically, the later generation or the foreigner who comes from a distant land will speak to each other with astonishment about what happened to this person. But that [contemporary] generation, as well as the nearby nations who saw those plagues with their own eyes and know the person and his speech, will certainly judge him unfavorably and justify the judgment against him. However, the later generation and the foreigner who did not know him will speak to each other about what happened to him, and he will be for them a parable and a topic of conversation. And afterwards, he returned to explain the latter part, which is regarding what was said above about a family or tribe, and they will undoubtedly worship idols openly because if an individual “blesses himself in his heart,” then when many gather for evil, it is not applicable to say they will worship in secret. And if the entire congregation of Israel does not protest against them, it is right that all should be held accountable for the sin of that family or tribe. Regarding this, it says, and they will see the afflictions of that land because when many have turned from the path, it is impossible to destroy them all, therefore God will vent His wrath partially on that land and partially on them, for they will be exiled from it. And all the nations will see the afflictions of that land, etc., sulfur and salt, the burning of its entire land, etc. About this, all the nations, both near and distant, will wonder: Why has God done this to this land? That is to say, why was the land destroyed when it did not transgress or sin? They raise the question and they answer it: Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, God of their fathers. This is similar to the sin of Adam, about whom our Sages said (Sanhedrin 38b, and see there in the commentary of Rabbeinu Chananel) that he denied the fundamental principle [of faith], and the earth caused this through the coarse and turbid matter it placed in him, more than what God commanded it. Because of this, when man was cursed for his sin, the earth was also visited for its iniquity and was cursed, as it says Cursed is the ground because of you (Genesis 3:17). Therefore, these people who denied the fundamental principle [of faith] should rightly be punished — both the land and those who worship idols. This is what it means when it says, Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against that land, etc., and the Lord uprooted them from their land. The punishment is divided between them because in this way, He will not destroy the seed of Israel completely, as the punishment is divided in two, and He cast them into another land — so they would not be in the same land from which their physical matter grew, which caused them to sin. And concerning the large lamed in the word “vayashlikhem” [and He cast them out], it hints that after 30 generations they would be exiled from their land, because from Abraham to Solomon there were 15 generations, and from Solomon to Zedekiah there were also 15 generations, as is found in Rabbati (Exodus 15:26) on the verse This month shall be for you. For the kingdom of Israel is compared to the moon, which lasted only 30 days, like the days of the lunar month. Therefore, there is a large lamed in vayashlikhem el eretz acheret [and He cast them to another land]. And regarding what is written as it is this day, it tells you that because they endure like this day, therefore it is impossible to completely destroy them. That is why the punishment was divided between them and the land. “And the hidden things are for the Lord our God, etc.” This resolves the difference mentioned above regarding the sin of an individual man or woman, where God will separate them for evil while all Israel remains innocent, versus the sin of a family or tribe, where it says and they will see the plagues of the land, etc. implying that all of Israel is included in the punishment. Regarding this, it says the hidden things are for the Lord our God. For the individual who blesses himself in his heart saying I will have peace, who knows what is in his heart except God alone? Therefore, God will separate him for evil. But the sin of a family or tribe cannot possibly remain hidden, therefore the obligation to remove idols from the land falls upon all of Israel, as the revealed things are for us and our children forever. If they do not remove them from the land, then it is just that all would be held accountable for the sin of that tribe. This is what is meant by and the revealed things are for us and our children, etc. This appears to be straightforward and correct in explaining all the verses in their proper context.

ואמר הדור האחרון וגו', “and the later generation will say, etc.” these words already refer to what follows, i.e. “why has Hashem dealt in such a fashion, etc.?”

sulfur and salt, burning over all its land — it shall not be sown, nor shall it sprout, nor shall any grass grow upon it — like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Hashem overturned in His wrath and in His fury.

"Sulfur" — a prayer to Hashem that all its land should be burned with sulfur and salt, like the overthrow of the places mentioned. Some commentators say that "and all the nations will say" is a [textual] variation because the discourse was lengthy, in keeping with the pattern of the language, as the ancients said. The meaning of "the God of their fathers" — because they and their fathers knew Him and abandoned Him — "and they worshipped what they did not know."

'גפרית ומלח....במהפכת סדום אשר הפך ה, the people seeing this know full well that this was not something accidental but that it is a finger of G’d. The comparison is based on Sodom seeing that its destruction had both been predicted to Avraham and confirmed by Lot and his daughters who were survivors of that event.

גפרית ומלח שרפה כל ארצה, “all of its land having become salt and brimstone;” what is the connection between salt and brimstone? Nothing can withstand fire better than salt, and nothing can be destroyed more totally that when it is treated with brimstone. The Torah means to tell you that if the Israelites had remained loyal to their covenant, they could have withstood any attempt at destruction as salt can withstand it; seeing that they had not, they were destroyed utterly as if they had been rubbed out with brimstone. Brimstone destroys even what the fire had not been able to destroy. ומלח, “and salt;” the Torah had reported that the wife of Lot who had failed to obey the instruction of the angel not to look back, was turned in a pillar of salt. (Genesis 19,26( שרפה כל ארצה, “its whole land is as if burned.” Is it conceivable that G-d would become so angry on account of a sin committed by a single individual? The fact is that the destruction of the area occupied by the Ten tribes and the population being sent into exile, had nothing to do with an individual’s sins, but with erection of public idols, two golden calves built to block the route to Jerusalem during the lifetime of Solomon’s son Rechavam, hundreds of years before theKingdom of the Ten Tribes went into exile and the idol erected by Michah, and the appointment as Levites by people not born to members of that tribe. (Judges chapter 8,33) The latter phenomena happened already prior to the time of the prophet Samuel and the dynasty of David/Solomon, long before the Kingdom of Solomon was divided.

שרפה כל ארצה, “a burning up of its entire land;” according to the plain meaning of the text the word ארצה refers back to what the Torah described in verse 21 as “the plagues which afflicted that land.” In that verse the land had been described generally, whereas in our verse the Torah gives some details of what precisely happened to the land, i.e. that it was “burned” by sulphur and salt. The Torah now makes clear that this affliction struck the entire land. Alternatively, the words כל ארצה, can mean that the choicest part of Israel’s land was turned into something similar to Sodom and Gomorrah which had been destroyed by sulphur and brimstone. It is also possible that the word כל in the expression כל ארצה refers to the land which had formerly contained everything, i.e. כל; the land which epitomized every thing good under the sun. When G’d related to that land (and its people) with goodwill, benevolently, the land of Israel was לא תחסר כל בה, “did not lack for anything,” (Deut. 5,9) whereas now when the Divine Presence had withdrawn in anger, it once more came to resemble a land which had been burned.

And all the nations will say: Why did Hashem do thus to this land? What is this great fierce wrath?

ואמרו כל הגויים, when they are faced with these incontrovertible facts.

ואמרו כל הגויים, “and all the nations will say, etc.” their attention is drawn to the extraordinarily long time that the blight of that land will continue.

על מה עשה ה' כה לארץ הזאת, “what has caused the Lord to do this to this land?” If there were murderers and adulterers among the Jews, this is a world wide phenomenon and G–d has not reacted similarly against them? Why has only their land been laid waste?

And they will say: Because they forsook the covenant of Hashem, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt.

על אשר עזבו, because, contrary to previous occasions, G’d’s anger could not be tempered by the consideration that the gentiles would consider G’d’s killing His people as proof that He was unable to keep His promise to the. I already explained on Deut. 9,28 that after the people had crossed the river Jordan such excuses could not longer be cited in their defense.

ואמרו, “then they will say, etc.” even the gentiles will come to the conclusion that the G–d of the Jews had done to them was justified; they had entered into a covenant with their G–d voluntarily, and had abandoned their part of the bargain without reason. It is therefore no more than just that they had to pay the price for their treachery. The prophet Ezekiel has spelled this out clearly in Ezekiel 20, 32-37: “that which entered your thoughts- it shall not be! What you say: “let us be like the other nations, like the families of the lands, to serve wood and stone. As I live-the words of my Lord Hashem/Elohim,-with a strong had and an outstretched arm and with outpoured fury will I rule over you. And I shall take you out from among the nations, and gather you from the lands into which you were scattered, with a strong hand, and an outstretched arm and with outpoured fury. And I will bring you to the “Wilderness of the Nations” and I will wrangle with you face to face. As I wrangled with your fathers in the Wilderness of the Land of Egypt, so I will wrangle with you- the words of my Lord Hashem/Elohim- and I will make you pass under the rod, and bring you into the bond of the covenant, and separate those among you those who rebel and transgress against Me, from the land of their sojourning I will take them out, but to the soil of Israel none shall come.” The Talmud, in tractate Rosh Hashanah, folio 32, quotes a sage on verse 33 there as saying: “wish that the Lord redeem us from every place;” we would be willing to endure the punishments preceding this, knowing the result would be the redemption.” [The subject matter under discussion in the Talmud there is the reciting of scriptural verses depicting G–d’s fury and anger in our liturgy on a day such as new Year’s; it would be better to recite only verses depicting G–d’s attribute of mercy. Ed.]

And they went and served the idols of the nations, and bowed down to them — powers they had not known and that had done them no good.

לא ידעום [FOR THEY … SERVED OTHER GODS] WHOM THEY KNEW NOT — i.e. in whom they had never experienced any Divine power. ולא חלק להם means, He did not give them (the gods) to be their portion (cf. Rashi on Deuteronomy 4:19). Onkelos, however, renders it by לא אוטיבא להון, i.e. they did not bestow upon them any good. As for the expression לא חלק, Onkelos took it thus, explaining also the singular form of the verb: that god which they have chosen for themselves has never given them any חלק, any inheritance or portion.

GODS THAT THEY KNEW NOT — “gods in whom they had never experienced any Divine power. ‘V’LO CHALAK LAHEM’ (AND THAT HE HATH NOT ALLOTTED UNTO THEM) — He did not give these [gods] to them [Israel] to be their portion. And Onkelos rendered this expression: v’lo otiva l’hon, meaning, ‘they had not done them any good.’ [Onkelos thus explained] the term chalak as meaning, ‘that god which they have chosen for themselves has never chalak (apportioned) them any inheritance or portion.” This is Rashi’s language. The correct interpretation is: “gods that they knew not as gods, that is to say, [they worshipped gods] whom they knew not as having acted with any Divine power inherent to their essence. And the Eternal, the G-d of their fathers did not allot them [these gods] to them, meaning that He did not designate them as lords over Israel as He placed them over the nations.” I have already explained this.

"And He gave them no portion" — I have already explained it.

אלוהים אשר לא ידעום, they did not even know of such a deity’s existence. For such unproven and almost anonymous deities they abandoned their G’d, the One Who had been proven as true, powerful, through all the miracles He had performed for them. ולא חלק להם, a deity, be it a horoscope or whatever which He had not assigned to them. The reason G’d had never assigned such a horoscope to them had been to show them that they did not need it, as did the other nations. Moses had mentioned in Deut. 4,19-20 that G’d had assigned such intermediaries to the gentile nations.

וישתחוו להם, אלוהים אשר לא ידעום ולא חלק להם, and they served their gods; gods they did not know of and which He did not apportion to them.” Moses meant that the Jewish people had never known that these idols were supposed to possess independent divine powers. Not only this, but G’d had not assigned these powers to the Jewish people but only to the Canaanites (Nachmanides). This is based on Deut. 4,19 where we discussed it and pointed out that Israel had been assigned as its protective Power the Creator of the entire universe, and that the Lord Himself is described as מנת חלקי וכוסי, “the Lord is my allotted share and portion” (Psalms 16,5). We also have a verse in the Torah itself, Deut. 32,9 כי חלק ה’ עמו, “for He is the share of His people.”

אלוהים אשר לא ידעום, “a deity that had been unfamiliar to them.” Nachmanides explains that what is meant is that the people had not had any evidence that this so-called deity possessed and exercised powers that would be helpful for its worshippers. ולא חלק להם, “and that Hashem had not assigned to Israel as a protective power.” This is a reminder that whereas the fates of nations of the world are guided by angels, assigned by Hashem to each nation, the Jewish people are under His direct supervision so that there is no protective angel assigned to them.

ולא חלק להם, “and whom He had not allotted to them.” (Compare Deut.4,19-20) The fact that the Torah and the land of Israel is not part of the heritage of the gentile nations has been made in the Holy Scriptures on numerous occasions such as Lamentations 3,24, and Psalms 16,5.

And the wrath of Hashem burned against that land, to bring upon it all the curses written in this book.

And Hashem uprooted them from their land in wrath and in fury and with fierce anger, and He exiled them to another land, as it is this day.

ויתשם ה׳ — Understand this as the Targum has it: וטלטלינון, “and He cast them out”. Similar is, (Jeremiah 12:14) “Behold, I cast them out (נתשם) from their land”.

AND THE ETERNAL ROOTED THEM OUT OF THEIR LAND, for He will exile the tribe that will do evil in the sight of the Eternal, as it is stated, and he [the king of Assyria] carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Menasheh. The correct interpretation is that he is now alluding to the exile of all Israel, all of them being evil, and they will be banished in a complete exile. Similarly, the following chapter, And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee is a reference to the exile of all Israel, as he said, among all the nations whither the Eternal thy G-d hath driven thee, and so he concludes the entire chapter.

"And He uprooted them" — with the nun of נָתוֹשׁ ["to uproot"] missing, but it is embedded [in the root], as is the rule. The meaning of "as on this day" — these are the words of those who respond.

ויתשם ה’ מעל אדמתם, ”the Lord uprooted them from their soil.” This whole paragraph refers to the period of the first Temple, seeing that this was the period during which the people were guilty of idolatry. The expressions ויתשם and וישליכם refer to the fate of the ten tribes, exiled by Shalmanesser, who never returned to their homeland. Such people are considered נדחים, “outcast.” This is why the Torah uses the expression כיום הזה, i.e. their fate became similar to yours as of this day. Just as you are all together in one place, not spread out over the area comprising your homeland, so these exiles will be in a closely confined area. As long as you (the Jewish people) have not yet come to your homeland, i.e. אל המנוחה ואל הנחלה, (compare Deut. 12,9) you too can be considered as נדחים. Your descendants will once more face such crowded conditions, if and when they are exiled due to breaking the conditions of this covenant. Whenever a people are not on their own land where they have space to spread out they are considered as נדחים, outcast. וישליכם אל ארץ אחרת, “He expelled them to another land.” The letter ל is anyway the largest of the letters in the א-ב. Here it is written even larger. This may be an allusion to the exceptionally high spiritual level from which the people were flung down at the time they were exiled. The prophet Jeremiah (Lamentations 2,1) already speaks of this when he says: השליך משמים ארץ תפארת ישראל, “the Lord has cast down from heaven to earth the majesty of Israel.” Another verse referring to the same experience of the Jewish people is found in Psalms 78,61: “His majesty is in the hands of an oppressor.” This is similar to Daniel 8,12: ”it hurled truth to the ground.” This is a reference to the countenance of Yaakov engraved on the throne of G’d [he is known as personifying “truth” just as is G’d Himself, Ed.] This is also what we read in Midrash Eychah 2,2: “G’d said to Israel the reason you have the audacity to anger Me is that you rely on the fact that the picture of your patriarch Yaakov’s countenance is engraved in My throne, This is why I will fling it back at you right into your faces.” This (according to the author of this Midrash) is the meaning of the verse we quoted from Lamentations 2,1 that “He hurled the majesty of the people of Israel from the heaven.” This is also what David referred to when he wrote (Psalms 102,11) כי נשאתני ותשליכני, “for You had lifted me up high only to cast me down.” G’d flung down the Jewish people whom He had raised previously to such great heights (spiritual). It is as if the psalmist said that the very great height to which the Jewish people had risen previously was a reason why their fall became so phenomenal. Seeing that G’d had flung the Jewish people down from such great heights, “He no longer remembered the footstool of His feet on the day of His wrath* (Lamentations 2,1). [the thrust of this commentary, if I understand correctly, is that the upheaval caused to the Jewish people by its exile was matched by a similar upheaval in the celestial spheres. Ed.] The various portions of verses from Lamentations (5,16) or Amos (5,2), as well as from Ezekiel (19,12) cited by the author, all tend to describe the decline of Israel’s image in the celestial regions before this was followed by Israel’s physical decline and exile. It is part of the mystical aspect of what is referred to in our verse.

The hidden things belong before Hashem our God, but the revealed things belong to us and to our children forever, to do all the words of this Torah.

הנסתרת לה' אלהינו THE SECRET THINGS BELONG UNTO THE LORD OUR GOD — And if you say, “But what can we do? Thou threatenest the many (the whole community) with punishment because of the sinful thoughts of one individual, as it is said, (v. 17): “Lest there should be among you a man, [or a woman or a family … whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord …]”, and afterwards it states, (v. 21) “And they will see the plagues of that land”. But surely no man can know the secret thoughts of his fellow! Now, I reply: I do not threaten to punish you because of secret thoughts for these belong to the Lord our God and He will exact punishment from that individual; but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children that we may put away the evil from our midst; and if we do not execute judgment upon them, the whole community will be punished. — There are dots on the words לנו ולבננו to suggest that even for the revealed sins (those committed openly), He did not punish the community until they had crossed the Jordan — from the moment when they took upon themselves the oath on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal and had thus become responsible for one another (Sanhedrin 43b; cf. Sotah 37b).

THE SECRET THINGS BELONG UNTO THE ETERNAL OUR G-D. In the opinion of the commentators the verse states: “It is for the Eternal our G-d to execute judgment upon those who worship idols secretly, for all hidden matters are revealed before Him, but the things that are revealed are upon us and our children that we may do to them all the words of this Law — to smite the idol-worshippers in accordance with the law of the Torah. According to the interpretation of the Rabbis, too, it is so. By way of the simple meaning of Scripture it is my opinion that the secret things are the sins that are hidden from those who commit them, as it is stated, Who can discern errors? Cleanse Thou me from hidden faults. The verse states: “[Our] hidden sins belong to G-d alone; for them we bear no guilt for having transgressed [unknowingly]. But the things that are revealed, namely our conscious sins, belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this Law as an eternal statute. As such we accepted it, obligating the one who was present [when the covenant was made] and the one who was not present. And because he included in the imprecation [the obligation] to perform all the commandments, he excluded from the ban whoever commits a sin unintentionally, so that he should not be afflicted by this curse. The words of Onkelos indicate this, for he rendered it, “The secret things are before the Eternal our G-d,” [thus implying that we will not be punished for sins we have committed unknowingly], but if he agreed with the [aforementioned] interpretation of the commentators [that it is for G-d to punish conscious sins committed secretly] then Onkelos should have said, “The secret things are ‘to’ the Eternal our G-d” [to punish].

"The hidden things" — the meaning is: one who worships idolatry in secret [is left] to Hashem our God, for his judgment is in the hand of Hashem and He will exact punishment from him. But if it was done openly, there is an obligation upon us and our children to act as written in the Torah. Others say that both the hidden and the revealed things belong to Hashem, and our only [obligation] is to fulfill the words of the Torah — but this interpretation has neither head nor foot; what purpose is there in stating it here in this context? Now, because it said "and He will cast them to another land," it says: even if you return to Hashem, even though you are outside the Land, Hashem will restore your captivity. According to R. Judah the first grammarian, the meaning is that He will grant rest — that is, He will find rest for the captives and grant them mercy, and afterward return and gather them.

הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו, even though I have said that all of you are standing in the presence of the Lord whom it is impossible to mislead and deceive, so that He will collect His dues from everyone who owes him, G’d collects directly only from those whom it is not possible for His appointed representatives, i.e. a legally constituted judiciary to bring to justice. והנגלות לנו ולבננו עד עולם, however, any sins committed publicly must be dealt with by this judiciary, forever, [I suppose the words עד עולם mean that there is no statute of limitations as in gentile countries. Ed.] לעשות את כל דברי התורה הזאת, to avenge G’d‘s having been slighted by the public commission of violations of Torah law, especially those affecting other people directly.

הנסתרות לה׳ אלוקינו, והנגלות לנו, "The hidden sins are G'd's business, but the visible ones (are our business to deal with)." We have to understand this verse as the response by the Jewish people to Moses that he cannot hold them responsible for sins committed by fellow Jews in private. However, they accept the responsibility to try and stop sins being committed in public. לנו ולבנינו עד עולם, "for us and our children forever." This is the official acceptance by the Israelites of the oath Moses wanted them to swear.

הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו, “sins committed in the privacy of one’s home, (which could not be witnessed and brought to court) will be taken care of by the Lord our G-d;” this had to be stated specifically in light of what we read in verse 18 about individuals who feel safe from punishment for their personal sins in periods when the community at large is Torahobservant. לה׳ אלוקינו, “it is His duty to punish sins committed in places inaccessible to witnesses.” והנגלות, ”but the sins committed publicly, etc,” dealing with deliberate sins committed in full view of the public must be dealt with by the judiciary by both you and your children, as otherwise such phenomena cannot be eradicated from your midst. This law becomes effective from the moment the Jewish people will cross the river Jordan. From that moment on their acceptance of the covenant with G-d meant that each individual Jew shared in the responsibility for the conduct of each fellow Jew. From that moment on we also became responsible. In order that you should not say that this approach applies forever (under all circumstances), the words והנגלות לנו ולבנינו, “and the publicly committed sins are also the responsibility of us and our children,” have been dotted, i. e. as long as we observe that part of the law, by letting our judiciary punish sinners of sins committed in public, G-d will take care of those that were committed secretly.[The dots, wherever they appear, have been added by learned scribes long after the Torah had been given, i.e. have been added by human initiative. There are dots only on ten letters, whereas there are eleven sins that were listed in the list of curses as being typical of sins committed secretly in Deuteronomy chapter 27, commencing with verse 15. This is deliberate in order to avoid giving the impression that we are telling G-d how to administer His laws. This is also the reason why the dots which we would have expected over the words לה' אלוקינו, where they would have made more sense, appear instead over the words לנו ולבנינו, Ed.] הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו, when the prophet Isaiah, at the end of describing the idyllic state of mankind on earth after the arrival of the Messiah, states that G-d will also select priests and Levites from among the gentile nations,(Isaiah 66,13) this is also something reserved for G-d’s judgment, covered by the line הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו, “that there are hidden matters which only G-d is aware of,” not man.

הנסתרות לה’ אלוקינו והנגלות לנו ולבנינו, “The hidden (sins) are for Hashem, whereas the revealed (sins) are for us and our children forever to deal with.” Rashi comments that the reason why the eleven letters commencing with the letter ל in the word לנו have dots above them is to tell us that G’d did not punish the multitude for revealed sins committed prior to the crossing of the Jordan. Once they confirmed the blessings and curses at Mount Gerizim and Mount Eyval respectively, the period of reciprocal responsibility began. [The following is not found in our editions of Rashi’s commentary. Ed.] Rashi quotes the Jerusalem Talmud in Sotah 7,5 in support of his view. The Talmud quotes that Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai said that at these two mountains the people accepted the responsibility for hidden sins. Joshua had said to them: “if you do not accept reciprocal responsibility for the hidden sins you will all be swept away by a great flood.” Rabbi Shimon ben Sevidai added that we should know that the majority of the sages who were members of the Sanhedrin died during the battle of Ai (after the assembly at Mount Gerizim, proving that the elders are held responsible even for hidden sins, i.e. that of Achan ben Karmi). Joshua said to the people after that, that by the death of these 36 members of the Sanhedrin that בכם הותרה הרצועה “as of now you are held responsible also for hidden sins committed.” [This statement is not found in our editions of the Jerusalem Talmud; I am relying on the notes and research of Rabbi Chavell, Ed.] At that time, a heavenly echo was heard announcing that the Sanhedrin, and certainly lesser dignitaries, have no business investigating hidden sins. There are different interpretations of the meaning of the words בכם הותרה הרצועה. Some say that what is meant is that when Moses had warned the people (29,17) “lest there be amongst you a root flourishing with gall and wormwood,” that as of that time reciprocal responsibility for hidden sins already commenced. [seeing that the people at that time accepted the oath and the covenant. Ed.] This is Rashi’s view as it appears in Sanhedrin 43. The dots really should have appeared also over the letters in the words ל-י-ה-ו-ה אלוקינו in order to show that the hidden sins are not G’d’s exclusive domain to investigate, except that for reasons of etiquette it was deemed inappropriate to place those dots over the name of the Lord. According to Rashi there, although a penalty accrues to the people and/or their leaders for not bringing sinners who committed their sin in private to justice, the duty to investigate if such sins had been committed begins with the time when the people crossed the river Jordan. [If I understand Rashi correctly, investigation of such sins, rather than sentencing the sinner, is of the essence. We have to do what we can in order to become free from this reciprocal responsibility we described earlier. Ed] Seeing the dots could not be placed on the letters of the name of Hashem, they were moved sideways and had to include a dot over the letter ע of the word עד in order to total 11. Nachmanides, tackling the problem, writes as follows: “my opinion is that if we follow the plain meaning of the text the word הנסתרות refers to sins committed in private and not witnessed by credible witnesses. The word reflects David’s exclamation in Psalms 19,13: שגיאות מי יבין מנסתרות נקני, ‘who can be aware of errors? Clear me of unperceived guilt!’ David means that such hidden sins are exclusively G’d’s domain to investigate and to punish. No guilt attaches to the Jewish people or their representatives concerning such sins. However, the revealed sins, הנגלות, are forever our obligation to investigate and deal with as a חוקת עולם, an eternal statute, etc. This responsibility devolves upon us due to the wordsאשר איננו פה , (verse 17) for all future generations. Seeing that with these words all Israelites for all future times had been committed to observe the Torah, etc., the Torah saw fit in our verse to exempt us from sins committed without our knowledge so that we would not be held responsible from the curse devolving us for such sins.” Thus far Nachmanides. The sage Ibn Ezra writes as follows: “the word הנסתרות refers to acts of idolatry committed by individuals in the privacy of their homes. Bringing such people to justice is exclusively G’d’s business; He will take care of such individuals. No guilt attaches to us for the commission of those sins. I have heard it said in the name of Maimonides about this verse that that the words הנסתרות לה’ אלוקינו refer to the fact that mystical dimensions of the Torah, such as the true reason behind the various commandments, are the exclusive domain of the Lord; if man succeeds in revealing even a small portion of such reasons, this does not excuse him from fulfilling the respective commandment in accordance with what the Torah has revealed about it in the text. It is our duty to perform all the commandments as written, even if we are certain that seeing we know the true reason for them this would make performance redundant in our eyes. This is the meaning of והנגלות לנו ולבנינו עד עולם, i.e. “and what has been revealed we are duty bound to fulfill forever more.” While this is a wonderful and profound explanation, it has nothing to do with the text in our paragraph. We must understand the text as related to the previous verse in which the fact that the people have been exiled and apparently abandoned by Hashem has been described. One may explain the whole matter of reciprocal responsibility described here as follows: “the hidden ones (sins) are G’d’s problem, seeing that in the previous verse the syntax is exceedingly long, i.e. the words: ‘The Lord removed them from their soil in anger and wrath and with great fury and He expelled them to another land as of this day.’” The verse is a reference to this long and seemingly interminable exile we find ourselves in. The word הנסתרות is a warning not to try and figure out when this exile will end. This knowledge is reserved for Hashem alone. However, as soon as G’d reveals the advent of the redemption it will become clear that our future and that of our children will endure forever (in spite of the gloom and doom prevailing during the long years of exile). Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to carry out the commandments of the Torah seeing the Torah is valid forever. It will not become redundant even in the days of the Messiah. Its applicability is as basic during the years of exile as during the glorious era following our redemption. This is reflected in the exegesis by our sages of the words in Deut. 16,3 למען תזכור את יום צאתך מארץ מצרים כל ימי חייך, “in order that you may remember (by the performance of this legislation) the day you came out of Egypt for all the days of your life.” Had the Torah omitted the word כל, “all,” in that verse, I would have been entitled to conclude that when a greater redemption such as that of the Messiah will take place, the provisions to observe Passover will become redundant. Seeing that the Torah wrote the word כל ימי, it is clear that it meant to legislate the observance of Passover (and other laws) even for the period when it is overshadowed by a more recent and all-embracing redemption (Berachot 12). By adopting this explanation, the whole verse by itself as well as how it relates to the previous verse and to what follows becomes crystal clear. As to the missing letter ו in the word הנסתרת which appears as if it were singular, the word as it is should be viewed as an allusion to the שכינה, the hidden Presence of G’d. After all, G’d had warned us that in times of exile He would “hide” His face from us, אסתירה פני מהם in Deut. 32,20. The reason the Shechinah is described as something hidden is that the clouds of glory covered it both when it was inside the Tabernacle and elsewhere in the desert. The word הנסתרת in our verse may be understood as an appeal to the Lord our G’d by the Shechinah to reveal Himself, for His Presence to become manifest, and to reveal itself when this exile will come to an end. Our sages (Midrash Tehillim 9) follow a similar approach in the way they understand the words אגילה בישועתך, “I want to have a revelation of Your salvation” in Psalms 9,15. Significantly, the psalmist does not speak of ישועתנו, “our salvation,” but of “Your salvation.” This is not the only verse in which the Shechinah is perceived as asking mercy, salvation, for itself from the higher emanation of Hashem. Other verses in Scripture carrying a similar message are found in Isaiah 30,18, as well as in Psalms 60,7 where the words הושיעה ימינך וענני, “deliver Your right hand and I will have been answered,” are understood as an appeal by the Shechinah to Hashem to manifest Himself. Israel’s salvation and the Shechinah’s salvation are equated. A still clearer verse attesting to this phenomenon is found in Samuel II 7,23: “which You have redeemed for Yourself” [a reference to G’d’s personal self-interest (instead of Israel’s). Ed.]. We have already elaborated on the mystical aspect of this whole subject in our commentary on Deut. 5,26. You ought to realize also that our sages derive from our verse here that an expert may be able to interpret dreams by his knowledge of the deeper meaning of the letters in the holy names of G’d and the ability to rearrange same. [The author goes into greater detail, the meaning of which escapes me. Ed.]

הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו, “The hidden [sins] are for Hashem our G’d, etc.“ Nachmanides writes that all the commentators understand the verse to mean that sins committed in private, unobserved, will be taken care of by Hashem, instead of by a human tribunal, whereas sins committed in public and witnessed, must not be simply left to His discretion to deal with. He adds, that from the plain meaning of the text it would seem that the sins described as הנסתרות, are the ones concealed even from the sinner, i.e. he was not aware of having committed them. Our sages have composed prayers in which we constantly ask G’d to protect us against committing such sins inadvertently committed. (Compare Psalms 19,13) In appreciation of not being made responsible for such sins, Moses says that we will take care of knowingly committed sins, do penance, etc., and ask G’d’s forgiveness and undertake not to be negligent again. The curses Moses has called down on sinners do not apply to people who have sinned unintentionally.

הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו, I have already explained this on Deut. 27,15 in connection with the curses pronounced at Mount Gerizim and Mount Eyval. It is precisely because sins committed in secret cannot be dealt with by the courts, that the Torah has to go on record that the sinner will still not get away with his sin. לנו ולבנינו עד עולם, it is up to us to administer the penalties prescribed by the Torah subject to the offender being convicted on the basis of reliable witnesses.

הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו, “concealed acts concern the Lord our G–d;” seeing that the Torah had written in verse 20 of our chapter that G–d singles out individual sinners for retribution,” and verse 21 sounds as if the sins of a single individual could cause G–d to react angrily against the whole people, or at least against a whole family all on account of that single rebellious Jew, Moses now reassures the people that precisely because He is omniscient and knows what goes on in the hearts of each one of us, He will deal with the individual who is guilty and not engage in punishing the innocent as “collateral damage.” However, sins committed openly, and ignored by the judiciary, thereby constituting collective guilt by the people who had appointed corrupt judges, will become the subject of what for the uninitiated looks like collective punishment. In fact, the retribution for openly committed sins and tolerated by the courts, will result in the punishment extending beyond a single generation as long as we do not wipe out the phenomenon of open rebellion against the covenant that the whole people had voluntarily entered into with Hashem. The Talmud in tractate Sanhedrin, folio 43 points out that the dots above the letters לנו ולבנינו and above the letter ע of the word עד, are to inform us that as long as the Israelites had not crossed the river Jordan and been on sacred ground, G–d had not punished anyone for sins committed in private, not witnessed by even family members. The reason for this was that only after crossing the Jordan did the Jews accept the Torah [most of whose commandments did not apply outside the Holy land. Ed.] individually and collectively, so that each Israelite became responsible also for the sins committed by his fellow Jew. At that point what is written the words לנו ולבנינו, “for us and our children,” became applicable. If you were to query that if the above were correct, why is the last dot on the word על instead of on ה' אלוקינו, perhaps the reason is that it would be inappropriate to do this when it is subject to being erased. The words: lashem elokeynu in Hebrew including the tetragram that I cannot spell out here, comprise eleven letters, and that is why our sages place 11 dots to hint to us that this is where the dots really should have been. [Since no Israelite who had not yet crossed the river Jordan ever saw a Torah scroll with these eleven dots, I find the interpretation offered quite irrelevant. Ed.] According to a text known as massoret hag’dolah, the dots are attributed to when Ezra had to rewrite the Torah after the redemption when different scrolls had variations in the text, and the time would come when Moses would challenge him why he had not done it differently, he would explain that because of his doubts he had placed the dots on top. If Moses would be satisfied with the way Ezra had done it, it would be easy to erase the dots without harming the text of the Torah scroll. From this it is clear that Ezra had his doubts about G–d not holding us responsible for not interfering when becoming aware of sins committed prior to crossing the Jordan.