Deuteronomy · Chapter 32

Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

האזינו השמים HEAR YE HEAVENS that I warn Israel, and be ye witnesses to this matter; for so I have told them that ye will be witnesses (cf. Rashi on Deuteronomy 31:28). Similar is the meaning of ותשמע הארץ (i.e. the verb has the force of an imperative: AND LET THE EARTH HEAR). And why did He call heaven and earth as witnesses against them? Moses thought: “I am a being of flesh and blood (mortal); tomorrow I shall be dead. If the Israelites will once say, ‘We have never accepted the covenant’, who can come and refute them?” Therefore he called heaven and earth as witnesses against them — witnesses that endure forever (Sifrei Devarim 306:15). And a further reason was that if they should act worthily, the witnesses might come and give them their reward: the vine might yield its fruit, the ground give its increase, the heaven bestow its dew; while if they should act sinfully, the hand of the witnesses might first be against them (Rashi uses a phrase similar to that used of human witnesses; cf. e.g. Deuteronomy 13:10): “and He will restrain the heaven, that there be no rain, and the earth will not give its increase; and you shall perish quickly” (Deuteronomy 11:17) — through the attacks of other nations (Tanchuma 5:10:1).

GIVE EAR, YE HEAVENS. By way of the plain meaning of Scripture, the words of Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra are correct that the Scriptures designate as witnesses all things which exist and endure. Similarly, Hear O ye mountains, the Eternal’s controversy. So also with reference to the stone that Joshua set up [after he made the covenant with the people], for there it is written, for it hath heard [all the words of the Eternal which He spoke unto us]. And by way of the Truth, [the mystic teachings of the Cabala], the reference here is to the first [higher] heavens and earth mentioned in Genesis, for it is they that shall enter the covenant with Israel. Therefore, he states that the heavens should give ear and listen to the conditions, and how he will apply them.

"Give ear" (Ha'azinu). I have already explained in my books that the word ha'azinu derives from ozen (ear), as if to say, incline the ear. And I have already informed you that the Gaon said that the meaning of "the heavens" refers to the angels, and the meaning of "the earth" refers to the inhabitants of the earth — or that they are testimony through the rain that descends from the heavens and the earth that yields its produce. But what seems correct to me is that the primary reason is because they endure forever — and similarly, "Hear, O mountains" (Micah 6:2), and also the stone in Joshua, and there it is written that it heard. And I have already hinted to you concerning the human soul, that it is an intermediary between the higher and lower realms, and it compares everything according to the form of its abode. And even in order to comprehend what dwells within the abode — therefore it elevates the lower things and humbles the higher things.

האזינו השמים ואדברה, "Give ear, O, heavens, and I will speak, etc." First of all we must understand why Moses added the word: "and I will speak." Why did he not simply say האזינו השמים דברי, "give ear to my words, O heavens?" Secondly, why did Moses not lump heavens and earth together and write: האזינו השמים והארץ, or שמעו השמים והארץ? Thirdly, why did Moses use the word להאזין when he referred to the listening done by the heavens whereas he used the expression שמיעה when describing the kind of listening he wanted the earth to do? Fourthly, why did Moses use an imperative when ordering the heavens to listen, i.e. האזינו, whereas when speaking to the earth he simply said תשמע instead of שמעי? Fifthly, why did he say that what he had to say to the heavens was tough talk, ואדברה, whereas when speaking to the earth he used the term אמירה indicating soft talk? Sixthly, why did he speak about אמרי פי, "the words of my mouth," instead of simply "my words?" I have seen that our sages in the Sifri explain that seeing Moses was closer to heaven than to earth he said האזינו השמים, whereas Isaiah (Isaiah 1,2) who was more distant from heaven, addressed the heavens by saying שמעו שמים, "listen heavens!" This answers some of the questions we have posed but not all of them. If we do not accept the approach of Sifri we must first explore the meaning of the word להאזין. It seems to me that the word can have two meanings. One meaning is intransitive, one inclines one's ear in order to hear better. One strains to listen. The second meaning is: "listen with your ear," i.e. the meaning is transitive; one appeals to the listener to respond to what one has to say. The first meaning may imply that the one who does the listening is a long way from the source of the sound, and this is why he cannot hear without inclining his ear and paying extra special attention. According to the second meaning the ear of the listener may be quite close and this is why the person doing the talking says only האזין, "listen." This is the approach chosen by our sages. Seeing that the word can also have an alternate meaning as we have tried to explain, we have chosen to approach our verse assuming that Moses employed the alternate meaning. After all, there are 70 legitimate ways to explain the Torah. From an homiletical point of view we are at liberty to explain any verse differently from the way our sages have explained it as long as our explanation does not run counter to the halachah. This applies all the more when we are able to demonstrate that our explanation will utilise both possible meanings of the word להאזין. We propose to adopt the following approach which will answer all the questions we have raised. Inasmuch as the heavens are the symbol of the highest spiritual regions in the universe, Moses addressed them first asking them "incline your ears in order to hear my words." To the earth Moses said: "תשמע, "you will hear," i.e. you do not need to incline your ear seeing I am sta...

האזינו השמים, “hearken o heaven, etc.;” the word האזינו is derived from אזן, “ear.” Moses asks the heavens and the earth to lend their ears to what he is about to say. This is a direct continuation of the last verse in the previous portion, Vayelech, in which he had announced this poem/song to the people. He now calls on the eternal heaven and earth to act as witnesses to what he had to say, seeing that he, as a mortal, cannot do so anymore. האזינו השמים, “you have been witnesses when I gave the Torah to this people,” as Moses quoted G-d as saying in Exodus 20,20: כי מן השמים דברתי עמכם, “for I have spoken with you from the heaven”. ותשמע הארץ, “hear o earth,” singular mode, there being only one earth, seeing that the people were standing on it when they had said: נעשה ונשמע, “we will carry out the laws of the Torah as soon as we will hear them” (Exodus 24,7). האזינו, Moses addresses the heavens in the plural mode as the Sages suggested (in TB Hagiga 12b) there are seven different heavens. ותשמע הארץ, But the earth is only one, therefore he addresses the earth in the singular mode. האזינו השמים ותשמע הארץ, the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 1,2) took his cue from Moses, when he said: שמעו שמים והאזיני ארץ, “hear o heavens and give ear o earth;” when Moses recited this poem he was far from heaven, standing on earth; this is why the verb to describe hearing that he used was האזינו when addressing the heavens. One normally addresses first the people most distant and asks them to pay attention to what one has to say. Isaiah, who spoke at the instruction of the Lord, felt closer to heaven at that time, so that he reversed the use of the terms שמע and האזין respectively. When speaking to someone close by, the expression !האזין is not appropriate. Isaiah, at the time, considered himself as closer to heaven than to earth, seeing that he delivered a message from G-d in the heaven. Some commentators feel that exactly the opposite is true, and that the expression האזין, is the correct expression to be used when addressing someone close by, whereas the expression שמע is reserved for some further away. Moses who was so familiar with heaven and what goes on there, commenced with. האזינו therefore, and used the term שמע to call on the earth to listen, as by that time he was no longer at home on earth and had almost been completely absorbed by the heavenly regions. השמים, with the definitive prefix ה, makes it plain that he addresses the whole range of angels who have their homes in heavenly regions. והארץ, and similarly, all the forces active on earth as part of what we call: “nature.”

פי צדיק ינוב חכמה ולשון תהפוכות תכרת, “The mouth of the righteous produces wisdom; but the tongue of the perverted shall be cut off.” (Proverbs 10,31) Solomon informed us in this verse that a righteous person and a wicked person are absolute opposites of one another. Whereas words spoken by the righteous reflect his wisdom, the words spoken by the wicked person reflect the opposite. This is what is meant by Psalms 1,3: “he is like the tree planted beside streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose foliage never fades;” the tree produces leaf and fruit. This is a natural phenomenon, a law of nature which became part of trees alluded to already on the third day of creation when G’d gave the directive to earth: תדשא הארץ, “the earth is to produce vegetation, etc.” The leaf itself performs a useful function in that it protects the fruit against heat by the shade it provides. Nonetheless, the fruit is what counts. Similarly, the righteous is the person, the fruit who counts, he too has “leaves,” similar to the leaves on the tree. His everyday conversation dealing with mundane matters are described as his leaves, whereas his words of Torah are described as his fruit. Just as the leaves on a tree perform an important function, so does even the mundane conversation of the righteous. When our sages in Avodah Zarah 19 interpreted the words “and his leaves do not wither,” (Psalms 1,2) they said that it means that the casual conversations of the righteous are of similar value to the value of the leaves for the fruit of the tree, [for all the above reasons Solomon mentioned here that the mouth of the wise yields up wisdom]. The word ינוב is used in connection with agricultural produce such as in Isaiah 27,6 ומלאו פני תבל תנובה, “and the face of the world will be covered with fruit.” We also find that word in Lamentations 4,9 as referring to the produce of the field. This is also the subject under discussion in Isaiah 57,19 בורא ניב שפתים, “the One Who creates the fruit of the lips.” Speech may be perceived as the “fruit of the lips.” The righteous trains himself so carefully to utter only words of wisdom that wisdom becomes integral to his personality, he personifies it. It is similar to the fruit which represents the essence of the tree. The words: “the tongue of the perverted shall be cut off,” describe the wicked person who is the opposite of the righteous, something which is discernible first and foremost in the way he uses his tongue. Seeing that this wicked person indulges in so much slander, libel, etc., Solomon curses him saying that his tongue ought to be cut off. It is the way of the Torah to attach blessings to the righteous and curses to the wicked. This is why we have the famous saying זכר צדיק לברכה ושם רשעים רקב, “the memory of the righteous is a source of blessing, whereas the name of the wicked will rot.” (Proverbs 10,7) It is well known that the virtue of humility is associated with wisdom, whereas arrogance is a characteristic of the wicked. Just as wisdom is “the fruit” of the righteous, so arrogance is “the fruit“ of the wicked. This is why Solomon says (Proverbs 14,3) “in the mouth of the fools is a rod (branch) of pride, but the lips of the wise protect them.” The source of arrogance is in the heart of the fool and its branch becomes manifest in his mouth. The prophet Isaiah 11,10 illustrated this when he spoke of חוטר describing it as a “branch,” i.e. “a branch comes forth from the trunk of Yishai.” Branches cannot grow unless there is a trunk to support them. There is no point in describing the emergence of such a branch unless it is going to bear fruit. The fruit of such branches of the foolish, the wicked, are words of arrogance, scorn. David paraphrases the same sentiment in Psalms 123,4 הלעג השאננים, הבוז לגאיונים, “the scorn of the complacent, the contempt of the haughty.” In other words, the fool gets so used to being arrogant that arrogance becomes second nature to him. Seeing that he “branch” of arrogance is so often in his mouth, it is a foregone conclusion that it will bear fruit, i.e. that he cannot restrain himself from saying things which reveal his arrogance to all his listeners. On the other hand, the wise are protected by their very lips against their mouths saying things they should not say. Basically, the logic in all this is that the righteous is drawn to preoccupy himself with matters of the soul, matters which are of eternal value and meaning; the wicked, on the contrary, is preoccupied with transient values, matters which sooner or later cease to exist and have meaning. It is a well known fact that the very definition of the word “body” means that it is something “earthy,” will revert to dust, whereas the soul is something which came from heaven. As long as man is alive in this terrestrial life, he is drawn equally toward earth and heaven. He is drawn towards heaven due to his soul, and towards earthy matters due to his body. Therefore, when Moses cautioned the people to keep the Torah and its commandments, he used as witnesses heaven and earth, both of which are conceptually close to man. This is why he said: האזינו השמים ואדברה ותשמע הארץ אמרי פי, “Listen heaven when I speak, and may the earth pay attention to the words of my mouth.” Moses addressed the heaven in direct speech, whereas he spoke of the earth in indirect speech. He meant to emphasize the fact that we are meant to feel closer to heaven than to earth, or at least that he himself felt closer to heaven on this day, the day he was going to die. Already Parshat Nitzavim as well as Parshat Vayelech were all speeches which Moses made on the day he died. This is why he repeatedly referred to היום, “this day,” both in Nitzavim (29,9) and in Vayelech (30,2). In our Parshah the expression היום occurs also (32,49) as it does in Vezot haberachah (33,1). All of these four portions are linked to one another conceptually, and they deal with a number of important subjects which normally would require many days for the listeners to absorb. It was a miracle that they could all be dealt with on one single day. The overriding subject of these four portions is that Moses engages in an argument with the Jewish people reviewing what had been in the past and what would be in the future. He started speaking of matters which pertained to the creation, concluding with the messianic era. This is the reason Moses commenced his speech to the people with the words: “remember the days of yore,” (verse 7) including the period when G’d assigned pieces of earth to different nations. This is a reference to the Tower of Babel and the confusion of languages which followed (Genesis, chapter 11,1-9). He chose as His own people only the Children of Israel. This is what is meant by the words (verse 9): “for Hashem’s portion is His people.” The reason is that he found them on the way in a wilderness, in desolation. (verse 10). Having found them and adopted them, He lavished loving care upon them as described in verses 10-14. In spite of all the deeds of loving care G’d lavished on His people, they forgot Him and made Him angry. This is the meaning of verses 15-19. The people proved extremely ungrateful, substituting other deities, and becoming estranged to their G’d and Protector. Moses describes this process as due to the excess economic success granted to this people, as described in verse 14. This led them to reject and abandon service of Hashem. Seeing that the people turn to deities they had never known before they would be punished with exile more than any other nation before them and they would be forced to be slaves to these nations who hate them. The only reason G’d punished them by exile instead of wiping them out is that He, Hashem, does not want the Gentile nations to be able to boast that they had succeeded in destroying G’d’s people, claiming that their deities were superior in power to Hashem. (compare verse 27). All of this befalls the Jewish people because they are devoid of insight. If they would have reflected for a moment that their erstwhile successes when one of them successfully pursued one thousand and two of them put 10,000 to flight, surely they would have realized that this had only been possible because G’d had enabled them to do this, that it was not their own superiority to their adversaries. If, now (in the time Moses describes) they suffer such indignities, this again can only be due to the fact that their one-time protector, Hashem, had “sold them out.” (verse 30). In spite of all this, a time would come, Moses avers, when Hashem will avenge Himself for all the brutalities the Gentile nations have inflicted upon His people, as — even if He had reason to punish them —they certainly had not been given the green light to do so (compare verse 35). He, Hashem will preside over the judgment of these people. At that point in time, G’d will remind them of His attribute of Mercy; this is why Moses continues to speak of G’d as describing the Israelites as His people, and His servants. Up until that time they had been the servants of the Gentile nations. Moses adds that G’d uses this turn of events to convince the people that only He is their true G’d (verse 39) and that there is no G’d except He. This is the conclusion of Moses’ address. What follows are the words of G’d directly. He, personally, assures the people of the redemption in the future, and He swears an oath to them, i.e. “I raise My hand to the heaven that I will flash My sword, etc., etc.” G’d uses the future tense, as do the prophets, and assures us that eventually all these nations who have looked down upon us will sing the praises of His people (verse 43), and will clamour to be accepted to join our faith. The catalyst will be when they observe that we will be compensated for the erstwhile loss of our land and that we will return in triumph to that land (verse 43). A Midrashic approach to our verses, based on Sifri Haazinu (page 460 Malbim edition); the words האזינו השמים are an introduction to G’d saying to Israel: “take a look at the heaven and the earth which I created to be useful to you; did either heaven or earth change their ways? Did you sow seed and it did not grow, did you sow wheat and barley came up? Or, has a cow stopped ploughing or threshing? Has the donkey ceased being a beast of burden? If these planets, or animals which do not receive a reward for performing their duties and which do not even get punished for failing to do their duty have not refused to do them, how much more so could you people who are rewarded for doing your duty and who are being punished for failing to do your duty be expected to be smart enough not to deviate and rebel against Me?” The meaning of this Midrash is that all natural phenomena do not change their norms. If Moses singled out only heaven and earth as examples to illustrate this principle, it was because they, more than any other phenomena in our universe, are charged with preserving the laws of nature which ensure continued existence of the world as we know it. Just as if the oceans would break out of their assigned role and parameters would bring in the wake of such departure of the norm immediate calamity upon earth, so if heaven and earth were to disobey the rules laid down for them the result would be even more catastrophic. What is true of inert phenomena such as heaven and earth, is also true of living creatures such as cows and asses which are the mainstays of the farmer on earth. If all these creatures do not change their habits, man must certainly not change his habits and thereby endanger not only his surroundings but himself. A kabbalistic approach: The words שמים and ארץ of which Moses speaks here are references to the respective emanations כבוד and תפארת, which they represent in the very first verse of Genesis. In other words, Moses did not address the phenomena visible to the human eye such as sky and earth, but to the mystical elements they represent, and which are the elements with which the Jewish people entered into a covenant. This is why Moses demanded that they hear the conditions which exist between us. The term דבור refers to Moses speaking to שמים, whereas he used the term אמירה when addressing the mystical aspect of Earth. He wanted to emphasize that דבור represents something originating in a deeper source of the speaker than the thoughts uttered and described as merely אמירה, which do not necessarily originate in his innermost self. [The author writes about why, according to Kabbalah, heaven had to be addressed in direct speech as opposed to earth. I confess I have not followed this. Ed.]

(1-2) “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.” Rashi explains: Why did he [Moses] call upon heaven and earth as witnesses? So that if Israel were to say, “We did not accept the covenant,” who would come to dispute them? Therefore, he called upon heaven and earth as witnesses, which endure forever, as if they [Israel] merit, etc. According to the versions [of Rashi] that read “which endure forever, as if they merit, etc.,” this is all one reason. But according to the versions that read “and furthermore, if they merit,” then there are two reasons. And it is difficult to understand the first reason: Can heaven and earth have a mouth to testify? And one cannot say that certainly there are no words or speech from them, except that through the heavens giving dew and rain, and the earth yielding its produce when Israel does the will of God, and not giving when they do not do His will, this is a sign that Israel accepted the covenant. If so, what does it mean “and furthermore, if they merit, etc.”? This is the same as the first reason. And it seems to resolve this version, according to what our Sages said (Shabbat 88a) that the extra “hei” [the] in the sixth day [in Genesis] is to teach that everything was contingent and suspended until the sixth day of Sivan — if Israel would accept the Torah, good, and if not, the world would return to chaos and void. Therefore, since we see today that the heavens and earth still exist and have not returned to chaos and void, this is conclusive proof that Israel accepted the Torah. And this is what it means when it says that He called the heavens and earth as witnesses, and what is the testimony they give? That they exist forever, for their continued existence provides reliable testimony from God that Israel has already accepted the Torah, because if not, they would not still be standing but would have already returned to chaos and void. The reason for this matter, that the existence of heaven and earth depends on the Torah, is because the higher and lower realms are two opposites and require an intermediary to connect them. This intermediary is man, who is composed of matter and form, and this combination is by way of the Torah. For without the Torah, man would be compared to an animal and would have no part of the higher realms. Therefore, one who engages in Torah creates peace between the heavenly and earthly hosts so that they will not oppose each other, because the intermediary connects them. This is what is meant by My teaching shall drop as the rain (Deuteronomy 32:2), because every flow is a connection, like the rain that descends from heaven to earth, appearing as if it connects heaven and earth, for every flow resembles a connection. Similarly, My teaching, meaning the Torah that was taken from heaven to earth, is the place where earth and firmament kiss. Listen, O heavens, and I will speak. We have already written above in the portion of Vayeilech (31:7) that Moses said to Joshua, For you will come with the people. The elders of the generation are with you, all according to their opinion and counsel. But the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Joshua, For you will bring, meaning against their will, etc. These statements do not contradict each other because Moses speaks regarding the lesser ones whom he called the people who rebel against all difficult matters and do not accept authority and discipline. Therefore, one needs to speak to them gently and softly according to their opinion and counsel. But the Holy One, blessed be He, speaks regarding the good ones among them, as is implied by the language, For you will bring the children of Israel, and He did not call them by the name “people” because He is speaking about the great ones of Israel who accept authority and discipline. Therefore, He said, For you will bring, against their will, and with them one speaks every harsh word. There we proved all this with clear evidence; see there. Therefore it is said, “Give ear, O heavens,” referring to those who are higher in stature, as high as the heavens are above the earth. And I will speak, because all speech [dibur] is harsh, as it is written, The man, the Lord of the land, spoke harshly to us (Genesis 42:30). For those high in stature receive the discipline of harsh speech, but to those of lesser status, who are compared to the earth, it says, And let the earth hear the words of my mouth, for with them I need to speak with soft words. “May my teaching drop like rain.” These are the words that I took from the mouth of the Almighty, for the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Joshua, For you will bring the children of Israel, against their will take a staff, etc. These are harsh words, and from Him, blessed be He, I took and learned to speak harshly, but not with every person. For harsh words resemble in every way the rain that falls with might, but not everyone rejoices in it. Similarly, the harsh words which I took and learned from the mouth of the Almighty to speak with, not everyone rejoices in them, for only people of high stature rejoice in them, but not the majority of the common people. Therefore, the one who rebukes needs to minimize these harsh words out of respect for Israel, a little here, a little there, like rain that falls drop by drop. That is why it says “yaarof” [will drop], which is an expression of dripping. However, my speech shall distill as the dew — what I said of my own to Joshua, for you will bring the people, all according to their understanding and counsel, for this is something that everyone rejoices in, like dew that everyone rejoices in. Therefore, I do not need to minimize those words, which is why it says “tizal” [shall distill], indicating an abundance of flowing. And with this is resolved why he mentioned “will drop” regarding the rain, and “will flow” regarding the dew, whereas the way of the world is the opposite, as rain flows and dew drips. This is to indicate the matter we mentioned, that all of this is a metaphor for his manner of conduct with those who hear his words. And what he said my teaching refers to harsh speech that he mentioned, which is comparable to as if he took them forcefully with a strong hand and compelled them to accept his words. And what he said my speech refers to gentle speech as mentioned. “Like droplets upon the grass.” Rabbenu Bachya explained that “se’irim” [droplets] is like “tze’irim” [young ones], and it refers to the fine rain similar to dew, which is good for the grass, which represents the general covering of the earth with vegetation called “deshe” [grass]. This alludes to the general masses of people, with whom one needs to speak in gentle, barely perceptible words, like this fine rain that does not act forcefully. And like showers, meaning the abundant and heavy rain that shoots down like an arrow, is good for herb, because each individual plant is called “esev” [herb], alluding to the unique, treasured individuals of the generation who do not mingle in confusion with the masses, and they are companions who listen attentively to harsh words that shoot down like arrows. And close to this interpretation, Abarbanel wrote in Merkevet HaMishnah, that the heavens is a reference to males and the earth is a reference to females, as it is written For as the rain and snow come down from heaven, etc. and it makes it give birth and sprout (Isaiah 55:10). And it is written regarding the giving of the Torah (Exodus 19:3), Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob — these are the women, to whom you should speak gently; and tell the children of Israel — these are the males, to whom you should speak harsh words, hard as sinews. Therefore it says, Listen, O heavens, and I will speak — harsh speech for the males, and Let the earth hear the words of my mouth — gentle speech for the females. It [also] seems appropriate to interpret this in the opposite way: The heavens refers to the haughty individuals whose opinion of themselves is elevated, and to them Moses spoke harshly. However, the righteous humble themselves to the ground, and to them he spoke gently. This is in accordance with what is said: A rebuke enters more into a wise man than a hundred stripes into a fool (Proverbs 17:10). And there are those who say that he said “Listen, O heavens” [meaning] that they should stand and be silent from their movement, and if you will say, “During all that time, how will the world exist?” To this he said, Let my teaching drop like rain — that the world will exist by virtue of the Torah, which stands in place of rain and dew, for not by bread alone does man live, but by everything that proceeds from the mouth of God does man live (Deuteronomy 8:3). And perhaps this is why he said, For I will proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God. For when I call upon the name of the Lord to decree something against the natural order of the world, such as Sun, stand still upon Gibeon (Joshua 10:12), and like Let there be dew on the fleece alone, and let the ground be dry (Judges 6:37), and similar instances, then ascribe greatness to our God, and listen to my words decreeing upon you in the name of the Lord, just as you did now with the decree of Listen, O heavens, meaning to be silent from their movement. And when it says “Give ear, O heavens” in command form, and “let the earth hear” which is not in command form but implies that it will hear on its own, it seems that this is the explanation: Since he called upon heaven and earth as witnesses that if Israel does not listen, then the heavens will not give rain and the ground will not yield its produce. Therefore, he spoke to the heavens in command form, saying: “I command you that if Israel does not observe the Torah, then you shall not give them rain.” But regarding the earth, there is no need to command it, because if the heavens do not give rain, how can the earth yield its produce without rain? Therefore he said, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth, for it will certainly hear on its own without a decree that it should not yield its produce, as one thing follows from the other.

האזינו השמים ואדברה, ותשמע הארץ, “Give ear o heaven so that the earth will listen when I speak.” [You, the reader, will no doubt observe that the author inverted the headline, to already incorporate his interpretation of what is written here. Ed.] Some commentators feel that when Moses addressed “heaven,” he was in fact addressing the angels who reside in heaven. Similarly, when he called out to the “earth” to listen to his words, he meant the inhabitants of the earth. Other commentators feel that Moses addressed as witnesses the “rain” which comes from the sky, and the yield of the fields and vineyards that is provided by the earth’s input. He called upon both to be generous with their contributions when the people deserved it. I believe that the correct interpretation is that Moses addressed heaven and earth’s essence, as it is customary for verses in the Bible that describe someone as being called as witness to appoint enduring phenomena such as heaven and earth as witnesses, as one can be sure that when needed these witnesses will always be at hand. This is why we have שמעו הרים את ריב ה', the prophet Micah 6,2 calling as witness the mountains; when he relays G’d’s message to the people. Moses used the term האזנה when addressing the heavens, whereas he used the term שמע when addressing the earth. The prophet Isaiah, (Isaiah 1,2) in a similar appeal reversed what Moses did, using the term שמע when addressing the heavens, and the term האזנה when addressing the earth. The reason is that when the recipient of the sound of one’s voice is nearby, the term האזנה is appropriate, whereas for recipients further away the term שמע is appropriate. Moses was feeling closer to heaven than to earth at that time, hence he used the term appropriate for addressing someone nearby when speaking to heaven. Isaiah, not being on the same spiritual level as Moses reversed the procedure, as he was closer to earth than to heaven.

האזינו השמים, to repay Israel in the event they sin deliberately, as mentioned in Deuteronomy 11,17 where G’d had threatened to withhold the rain, i.e. the blessings that originate in heaven.

האזינו השמים ואדברה, “hearken o heavens and I will speak;” Moses, when addressing heaven and earth mentioned the word האזינו, addressing the ears of heavens first, whereas Isaiah when doing so in Isaiah 1,2 mentioned the word שמיעה, hearing first. The reason is that Moses’ primary field of activity was with heaven, he was close to it and did not need to worry about the ability of the heavens to hear him, but needed their attention to his words. Isaiah being closer to earth than to heaven had to proceed in the reverse order, first making sure that witnesses’ ears were open, before worrying about gaining their undivided attention. When someone is close to the one who addresses him, all he needs to do to get the message is turn his ears in the source of the sound’s direction. A person who is far from the speaker needs to insure first that he is heard, before worrying that what he says will be heard and understood. According to Rashi, (in his commentary on Isaiah) the reason for the opposite approaches taken between Moses and Isaiah is that both heaven and earth are witnesses, (compare Deut. 30,19) seeing they will be around as long as any Israelites exist, they had to be addressed as such in similar terms, i.e. both as hearing and hearkening, (paying attention to what they hear) otherwise each could claim that they were only witnesses to part of what had been demanded of them. Rav Hunna, quoting Rav Acha, claims that from the wording it is clear that there are more witnesses in heaven than on earth, seeing that Moses addresses heaven in the plural mode, האזינו, whereas he addresses earth in the singular mode, ותשמע. Isaiah followed the same pattern he had read about in the Torah, i.e. plural mode for heaven, and singular mode for earth.

May my teaching be as pleasing as the rain; may my word be received as the dew — like the winds of rain that blow upon the grass, and like the drops of the late rain upon the herbage.

יערף כמטר לקחי MY DOCTRINE DROPPETH AS RAIN — This is the evidence that ye will have to give: that in your presence I declare that the Torah which I gave to Israel (לקחי) is life to the world as the rain which is life to the world (cf. Sifrei Devarim 306:17) — even as the heavens drop down dew and rain. יערף means, IT DROPS. Similar is (Psalms 65:12) “[And thy paths] drop fatness” (ירעפון, where רעף = ערף); (Deuteronomy 33:28) “[also his heavens] shall drop down (יערפו) dew”. תזל כטל IT FLOWS AS THE DEW in which everybody rejoices. He adds this because rain involves annoyance to some people, as, for instance, to those on a journey, or a man whose pit (the pit into which the wine flows when the grapes are being pressed) is full of wine (which thus becomes spoiled) (Sifrei Devarim 306:17). כשעירים — This word has the same meaning as in (Psalms 148:8) “stormy (סערה) wind” (the ס and ש interchanging), as the Targum has it: כרוחי מטרא “like winds that bring rain”. How is it with the winds? They strengthen the herbage and promote their growth! So, too, the words of the Torah promote the moral growth of those who study them (Sifrei Devarim 306:18). וכרביבים — these are DROPS OF RAIN. It seems to me that it (the rain) is called רביב because it shoots down like an arrow, just as you say, (i.e. just as the text reads) (Genesis 21:20) “A shooter (רבה) with the bow”. דשא — herbaries in old French. English herbage — the vesture of the ground when it is covered with vegetation (greens). עשב HERB — a single stalk is called עשב and similarly each species of herbs by itself is called עשב (whilst דשא denotes vegetation in general). (Cf. Rashi on Genesis 1:11 and Note thereon).

He states My doctrine shall drop as the rain, for that which he took from the heavens [i.e., the Written Torah] and His commandment upon the earth [i.e., the Oral Torah] shall drop upon Israel and distill upon them like dew. When I shall call the name of the Eternal in the heavens ascribe ye greatness to our G-d on earth — and he is speaking to all Israel [for it is they who are on earth]. Similarly, the “stone” of Joshua alludes to this earth, for from thence is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel. I have already explained it. So also, The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner-stone. This is the Eternal’s doing etc. Therefore, Joshua said, Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us. And so also, For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone are seven facets etc. The student learned in the mysteries of the Cabala will understand.

"Shall drip" (ya'arof). From the same root as "he shall break down their altars" (ya'arof mizbehotam, Hos. 10:2), with the meaning of descending. "My teaching" (likhchi) — what one takes from it, with the sense of learning; and similarly, "for I give you good instruction" (ki lekach tov, Prov. 4:2). "Like the storm-winds" (ki-se'irim) — what seems correct to me is that these are fine droplets. "And like showers" (ve-chirvivim) — from the root rav (many/abundant). Both of these are adjectival forms, and the proof is that grass (esev) is hardier than herbage (deshe). Some say that se'irim derives from se'ar (hair), and others say it derives from sa'arat Hashem (Jer. 23:19); and even if it is written with shin, similarly "and he rushed at him" (va-yishta'er alav, 1 Sam. 16:14) is like "and it stormed at him." It is also possible that it has no parallel in Scripture. The meaning is doubled, as is the way of all prophecies, for reinforcement. The essential meaning is that Moses prayed that his words be like dew and rain, which do not return empty but rather water the earth — for so it is written — meaning that his words would penetrate the hearts of the listeners as rain acts upon the earth to make it bring forth and sprout.

יערוף כמטר לקחי, here my teachings will pour down and flow without interruption like rain for those who understand and are prepared to receive it from the fountain, the source of wisdom. תזל כטל אמרתי, and it too will contribute in accordance with the information which has been revealed to ordinary people. Even though these scraps of information are sparse, they are as useful to the recipients as is dew for the grass. The reason is that both in quantity and quality it is כשעירים עלי דשא, intelligent people can discern wonderful insights by listening to these words of mine; [וכרביבים עלי עשב, עשב being coarse, unrefined grass, it is a simile for coarse unrefined people. Ed.] even the most ordinary, uneducated people will acquire some knowledge by listening to what I have to say. It will help them to recognise and appreciate their Maker. (3) AND LIKE DROPLETS ON THE GRASS. For the common ones also will acquire some knowledge to recognize their Creator in some way. If so, you, Israel, who have accepted it [the Torah], [I now say:]--

יערף במטו לקחי, "May my teaching drop like the rain." We may understand these words of Moses as being similar to the statement in Avot 3,21: "if there is no flour there will be no Torah, etc." The message is that just as the Israelites require rainfall for their physical survival so they require words of Torah instruction for their spiritual survival. The meter of the verse is: "May my teaching drop like rain." G'd does not expect His people to study Torah until He has provided physical sustenance for them. Conversely, you may conclude from Moses' words that if words of Torah will not drop from the people's lips, G'd in turn is not anxious to provide rain for them. This is precisely what Rabbi Eleazar ben Azaryah meant in Avot when he said on the one hand: "if there is no flour there is no Torah; if there is no Torah there will be no flour." Accordingly, you can understand what Rabbi Eleazar ben Azaryah said in this vein: "if you observe that there is not enough flour, know that the reason is that there is not enough Torah study." The reason that Moses employs the simile of rain falling for describing Torah study is because just as rain falls in droplets so Torah is absorbed a little at a time. Another reason why Moses chose the simile of rainfall to describe Torah study may have been to alert his listeners that just as the absence of rainfall for a prolonged period would result in death for those deprived of it, so the absence of Torah for a prolonged period would also bring death in its wake. It is similar to what Isaiah said in Isaiah 1,19: "if you agree and give heed, you will eat the good things of the earth; but if you refuse and disobey, you will be devoured by the sword." לקחי, אמרתי, Moses repeats the message in different words in order to make them apply to the two Torot, i.e. the written Torah as well as the oral Torah. Moses aims the word לקחי at the written Torah whereas he refers to the oral Torah when he tells the people to listen to his אמרתי. Moses referred to the Torah G'd had handed him personally, written by G'd's own finger. Although G'd only gave him two tablets containing Ten Commandments, these Ten Commandments contained within them everything that is written in the entire Torah, compare (Bamidbar Rabbah 13). As to the oral Torah, Moses used the term אמרתי, seeing the oral Torah was received by Moses from G'd on a mouth to mouth basis. It was not recorded in writing. Moses labelled the written Torah מטר, rain, whereas he labelled the oral Torah טל, dew. The reason he did this is because the written Torah is the more important of the two. It is the foundation of everything. The oral Torah is a collection of details none of which were spelled out clearly enough in the written Torah. What appears in the oral Torah has only been hinted at in the written Torah. This is why the Torah (Moses) describes the written Torah as rain which is basic and fundamental to nature. Dew, on the other hand, is something which improves the ba...

יערוף כמטר לקחי, “may my discourse come down as rain;” the words that I am going to address to you are not meaningless, but just as the value of the rain when it comes down to earth is not immediately visible and felt as a benefit, nonetheless eventually it is responsible for the growing and ripening of the fruit on the trees, and its benefit becomes evident.” An alternate interpretation of Moses’ introductory comments: may it be the Lord’s will that my words will not return to me empty, but that they will grow like fruit in your hearts and in the hearts of all those who listen to them. May they act like the dew on the earth which promotes the growth of the grain crops. Moses mentions four different directions on earth here, as we will see, and just as he has called heaven and earth as witnesses, he appeals separately to all the four winds blowing from the four directions on the surfaces of the earth, north and south, east and west. He implies that if the Jewish people will conduct themselves as G-d wishes them to conduct themselves, the winds from each of these four directions will blow beneficially for them. Moses now addresses the four winds of Heaven. Just as he asked Heaven and Earth testify, so does he request the Winds to serve as witnesses. And if the Jewish people will observe the Torah, then these witnesses will direct benevolent winds toward them יערוף כמטר, this is a reference to west wind which originates in the neck of the world and usually brings rain in its wake. תזל כטל אמרתי, “may my speech distil just as the dew.” This is a reference to the northern wind, which is pleasant just like the dew. כשעירים עלי דשא, “as the small rain on the tender grass;” this is a reference to the wind blowing from the south which is stormy like its namesake, the billy goats. כרביבים, “and like the showers on the herbs.” This is a reference to the east wind, which is beneficial for seedlings and which blows most of the day. According to the opinion of our author, the east wind blows mostly in the morning, the south wind around noon, the west wind at the beginning of the night, and the northern wind around midnight. The northern wind is prevalent during the summer, when it is welcome, whereas when it blows in the winter it is difficult to bear; the opposite is the case with the wind originating in the south. The western wind is difficult to bear at any time. Eastern winds are always welcome [I presume the latter observations are meant to describe human reactions, as opposed to the reactions of the earth. Ed.].

יערוף כמטר לקחי, “may my instruction drip like rain;” the word יערוף is close in meaning to words such as הזלה and ירידה, the former being used in connection with the descent of dew, i.e. יערף כטל in 33,28. Moses prays that his words should be heard and firmly embedded in the hearts of his listeners, much as rain is embedded in the earth. The meaning of the word לקחי, “my teaching,” may be an allusion to what Moses himself had “taken,” לקח, from heaven when he received the Torah; this should now perform the same kind of work on his listeners as rain does on the earth upon which it falls. Just as such rain is useful in initiating growth of vegetation, his words should initiate fruitful under-standing of the Torah by the people who hear him. The words כשעירים עלי דשא, commonly translated as “like storm winds upon vegetation,” reflect the word רוח, in the sense of רוח סערה, a stormy wind. The word סערה has been changed slightly in that the letter ס has been replaced by the letter ש, not an unusual occurrence. Another example is Daniel 11,40 וישתער עליו, This is also the opinion of Onkelos who translates ברוחי מטרא דנשבין על דתאה, “like blowing rain-winds on the grass.” The rains strengthen the grass. Another way of understanding the word כשעירים is “like fine rain on the grass, enabling the grass to start growing.” The word רביבים (second half of our verse) would then refer to heavy rains which is good for a less sensitive kind of grass, i.e. עשב. If we follow this approach, the letter ש in כשעירים is really similar to the letter צ, such as in the word צעיר, young; the meaning then would be analogous to “young rain.” We find a similar construction in 33,19 ושפוני טמוני חול, where the word שפוני may be understood as צפוני, “something hidden (treasure)”. A Midrashic approach: the meaning of the simile (both) is that just as rain, either kind, promotes growth, life, so Moses wishes that his words will do the same for his listeners Just as dew is something everybody welcomes and rejoices in, so may words of Torah be pleasing to all those who hear them.

May my teaching drop like rain, may my utterance flow like dew. It seems to me, following an explanation I heard on the verse You save man and beast, O Lord (Psalms 36:7), based on the Jerusalem Talmud (Makkot 2:6): They asked Prophecy, “What should a sinner do to atone?” It replied, The soul that sins shall die. They asked the Torah, “What should a sinner do to atone?” It replied, “Let him bring a sacrifice and be atoned.” They asked the Holy One, blessed be He, “What should a sinner do to atone?” He replied, “Let him repent and be atoned,” as it is said (Psalms 25:8), Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He instructs sinners in the way. Consequently, according to Prophecy’s answer, there is no salvation for the sinning person; and according to the Torah’s answer, there is no salvation for the animal, which would inevitably be put to death to atone for the person’s sin. But according to the Holy One’s answer, who said, “Let him repent and be atoned,” both find salvation — the person and the animal. Therefore it says, You save man and beast, O Lord. And in this way these verses can be explained, according to the Midrash that concludes in Yalkut (Haazinu 32:942): “Look at the heavens, have they changed their ways, etc. And let the earth hear, look at the earth, has it changed its ways, etc.” The concept of changing one’s ways in a person is when one changes the will of his Creator and departs from the boundaries of Torah and commandments. Therefore, He said afterward that if you change your ways, then according to the understanding of prophecy and Torah, it’s impossible to be exempt from death — either for a person or for an animal. But the word of God is refined to exempt both person and animal from death, and the sinner shall return to God and be healed. This is what is meant by My teaching shall drop like rain. Our Sages said (Taanit 7a): “The term dropping [yaarof] means killing, as it is said and they shall break the heifer’s neck there (Deuteronomy 21:4).” And my teaching [likchi] refers to Torah and prophecy, because the Torah is called good teaching [lekach tov], and likewise prophecy is taken [lekuchah] from Him, blessed be He. And Moses said that my teaching — that is, what I received from God, both Torah and prophecy — will drop, because from both of them emerges death for one of them, either for person or animal. And they are like this rain, which not everyone rejoices in. Similarly, there is never complete joy here — either for person or for animal. However, my speech shall flow like dew — for the refined word of God brings joy to both person and animal, like this dew that everyone rejoices in. Similarly, God saves both person and animal, and everyone rejoices in God’s salvation, as it is written Return, O Israel… I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for My anger has turned away from him. I will be like dew to Israel; he shall grow like the lily, etc. (Hosea 14:2-5-6). And our Sages (Yoma 86b) learned from here that even if an individual repents, forgiveness is granted to him and to the entire world, as it is said, I will heal their backsliding in plural form, and it is written, for My anger has turned away from him. According to our explanation, “I will heal their backsliding” refers to both man and beast, as it states above (Hosea 14:3) and we will offer the prayers of our lips instead of bulls. For through the confession of our lips, we fulfill our obligations, and in this way, the bulls are also exempted from being sacrificed. The reason for sacrifices is that the animal-like nature within man is shared with other beasts and creatures of the earth. Therefore, the animal comes as a substitute for man. In God’s mercy upon all His creations, both man and beast, He taught the way of repentance to the wayward daughter. Although the term backsliding[meshuva] is only applicable to the sinning human and not to the animal, nevertheless, when a person brings a sacrifice and lays their hands upon it and confesses over it, it is as if all their sins are carried by that animal, as it is written (Leviticus 16:22) And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities. Therefore, it is appropriate to include the animal in the word their backsliding [meshuvatam].And He says, I will love them freely, because I do not love them out of obligation, but rather as a free gift. Just as I created them initially as a free gift, so too now I love all the work of My hands freely, for My anger has turned away from him — from man. Therefore, both are exempted — man and beast. For I will be as dew to Israel, like this dew that everyone rejoices in. He shall blossom like the lily, because every penitent is like someone born on that day, as it is written (Psalms 103:3-5) Who forgives all your iniquities, followed by your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

יערף כמטר לקחי, “May my teaching descend like the rain, etc.” Ibn Ezra explains the term לקחי as meaning “teaching,” comparing it to Proverbs 4,2כי לקח טוב נתתי לכם תורתי אל תעזובו, “for I have given you good instruction, do not abandon My Torah.” תזל כטל אמרתי, “may my words flow like dew.” Moses repeats what he says, though in poetic form, in order to reinforce his words. When the prophets prayed they usually employed this mode of speech, repeating the same or almost the same thought in different words. [This may be the reason why, when offering a תפלה של רשות, a prayer that is not part of the prescribed prayers, one is allowed to do so only if one can add words of one’s own, a slight variation of the prescribed prayer. Ed.] Moses feels that words thus reinforced will not be sent back by the addressee without at least a partial response, acceptance by the listeners. The choice of simile suggests that Moses hopes that his words will act in the hearts of his listeners as the rain does when it hits the earth.

יערוף כמטר, if you will be mindful of my words of admonition they will prove as useful for you as rain.

For in the name of Hashem I pray; ascribe greatness before our God.

כי שם ה' אקרא WHEN I SHALL CALL THE NAME OF THE LORD [ASCRIBE YE GREATNESS UNTO OUR GOD] — You see, כי is here used in the meaning of “when”, similar to (Leviticus 23:10) “When (כי) ye come into the land”. The meaning is: when I proclaim and mention the Name of the Lord, YE ASCRIBE GREATNESS TO OUR GOD and bless His name. From here they (the Rabbis) derived the law that people make the response, “Blessed be the Name of His glorious Kingdom for ever and ever", after the recital of a Benediction in the Temple (Sifrei Devarim 306:37; Berakhot 21a; Taanit 16b).

"Ascribe greatness" (havu godel). This turns back to the heavens and the earth, just as he said, "The heavens declare the glory of God" (Ps. 19:2) — as I explained there — and similarly, "Let the heavens and the earth praise him" (Ps. 69:35).

כי שם ה' אקרא, If this is as I said, then you Israel who have received these words of wisdom, will appreciate that the thrust of my address is a prayer, a prayer that all of us, including myself, will experience the ultimate redemption after the last exile. [Moses includes this in his preamble in order to make sure that his listeners will not fail to see the forest by concentrating too much on the individual trees. Ed.] Our author first proceeds to quote examples of such formulations as Moses uses here meaning prayer. We find in Lamentations 3,55 קראתי שמך ה' מבור תחתיות, ”I have called on Your Name from the depths of the Pit.” Clearly, Jeremiah refers to his prayer. We read in Psalms 99,6 concerning the trio of Moses, Aaron, and Samuel, that they were known as קוראי שמו והוא יענם, “that whenever they prayed to G’d He would respond to them favourably.” Moses therefore tells the people: “when I pray for the ingathering of the exiles I want G’d to orchestrate this so that it is like the eagle rousing his young and carrying them to a new destination on the back of his wings.” (verse 11) Moses continues, focusing in his prayer on the arrival of the Messiah by saying ה' בדד ינחנו, G’d will do this all on His own, without anyone’s assistance (verse 23). At the very end of his shirah, (verse 43) he exclaims הרנינו גויים עמו, which is equivalent to the instruction in our verse here of הבו גודל לאלוקינו, render glory to our G’d. (2) GIVE GLORY TO OUR GOD. Do not attribute to Him mutability regarding what is recounted in the poem about Israel's future and that He would become like an enemy to you, for you know, through the wonders in His Torah, that He is --"

כי שם ה׳ אקרא, "For I will proclaim the name of the Lord, etc." Moses explains that the whole objective of his speeches is to exalt the name of G'd, much as we have read in the Zohar volume 3 page 98 that the entire written Torah is an elongated name of the Lord. Concerning this statement Moses says: "and my teaching drop like rain [the teaching being a simile for the name of G'd. Ed.]. The word אקרא may be understood as from the root יקר, precious. Another thought Moses may have had in mind here is that although he compared the written and oral Torah respectively to rain and dew, the people should not think of that distinction when studying Torah. All they should concentrate on is to study G'd's Torah. The reason Moses said כי, "for," is to to warn that the reason for Torah study should be to learn the word of G'd in order to better appreciate what His name stands for. Only in this fashion can a man truly ascribe greatness to G'd and His name. In other words, Torah is to be studied לשמה, for its own sake. The reason Moses said אקרא, is that he wants every individual to do precisely this, to proclaim the greatness of G'd. Alternatively, we may understand this in terms of the Zohar volume three page 273 that all the people who are engaged in Torah study are sparks of Moses' soul, and this does not only apply to the generation of the Jews in the desert but all down the long millennia of history until the coming of the Messiah. Anyone who studies Torah is blessed by Moses. This is the reason he could credit Israel's preoccupation with Torah to himself. Another thought Moses may have had in mind when saying כי שם ה׳ אקרא, is that it is the reason for what Moses said later, i.e. הבו גדל לאלוקינו. In order to appreciate this let us look at Yalkut Shimoni Noach item 62 where the author interprets Psalms 22,4 ישב תהלות ישראל, "the enthroned One, the Praise of Israel." According to the Yalkut what this verse means is that G'd did not take His seat on His throne until the angels in heaven had proclaimed: "blessed be the Lord G'd of Israel." He had not been satisfied with being called the "G'd of the heaven and of the earth." This is why Moses here called on the Israelites to praise the Lord. The operative word in what Moses is saying is the word אלוקינו, "our G'd." Only when the Israelites are engaged in studying the Torah do they truly praise the Lord in a manner no one else can. When the angels praise the Lord by reciting the formula: "blessed be the Lord G'd of Israel," this threatens to become a mockery unless the Israelites are engaged in Torah sudy. Should they fail to do so, they make liars out of the angels. Our sages have offered many different interpretations on this verse.

כי שם ה' אקרא, “for I will proclaim the Holy Name of the Lord;” this refers to Moses’ previous reference to heaven and earth; he tells his people that at all times they need to proclaim the greatness of the Lord both in heaven an on earth; this is similar to the psalmist proclaiming in Psalms 69,35: הללוהו שמים וארץ, “praise the heavens and the earth!” The psalmist also phrases this thought when he said (Psalms 19,2) השמים מספרים כבוד אל, “the heavens tell of the glory of G-d.” We do all this whenever we read the Torah in public and a forum of ten male adults is present. The prophet Jeremiah, 33,25, has taught us that G-d is on record as saying that if it were not for His covenant with the Jewish people, He would not consider it worthwhile to have created the universe, i.e. day or night and all of nature that goes with it. The letters in the names of G-d themselves provide a hint, 6 letters which in addition to the four directions of earth point to heaven and earth themselves, [i.e. the number 6 reminding us of the number of days G-d took to create our universe.] כי שם ה' אקרא, these words have been interpreted by the author of the Targum Jerusalem (32.3) as meaning that Moses prophesied: “woe to you sinful the gentiles who mention the Holy Name of the Lord;” Even the angels are not able to pronounce that holy name until after the Jewish people here on earth have proclaimed it in the kedushah, by saying: קדוש קדוש קדוש three times. It was Moses who here provided the key to praising G-d in this mode. There are 21 words from the beginning of our portion, containing 85 letters. According to the Sifri, Moses said: “I am satisfied to be immediately behind in rank to seven angels,” i.e. to recite the holy Name of G-d after these twenty one words. This is the reason why the sages arranged for the part of our daily prayers known as “kedushah” to comprise a total of 21 words. [The 21 words are: נקדש את שמך בעולם כשם שמקדישים אותו בשמי מרום, וכן כתוב על יד נביאך וקרא זה אל זה ואמר קדוש קדוש קדוש. In the corresponding morning kedushah prayer on Sabbath mornings, there are 85 words, beginning with: נקדישך ונעריצך כסוד שיח שרפי קודש המקדישים שמך בקודש וגו'. We are not allowed to pronounce the critical words: קדוש קדוש קדוש until after an introduction of 85 words. The same is true of the kedushah prayer in the mussaph service, which commences with words: 'כתר יתנו לך המוני מעלה וגו.]

הבו גודל לאלוקינו, “ascribe greatness to our G’d.” Moses addresses these words to both heaven and earth. Alternatively, the words may be addressed to Israel, asking the people to acknowledge the miracles G’d had performed for them.

כי שם ה' אקרא, when I will tell you about the great and wonderful things G’d has done for you, as well as that He is righteous in what He will do for you in the future, you too will want to render Him homage, proclaim His greatness, by proclaiming Him as our G’d. This will not be flattery, but recognition of what is a truth.

The Mighty One, whose works are perfect, for all His ways are justice — a faithful God, from before whom no wrongdoing goes forth; from before Him who is righteous and upright is He.

הצור תמים פעלו THE ROCK, HIS WORK IS PERFECT — Although He is strong (הצור!) yet when He brings punishment upon those who transgress His will, He does not bring it in a flood of anger, but in deliberate judgment, because תמים פעלו HIS WORK IS PERFECT. אל אמונה A GOD OF FAITHFULNESS — faithful to recompense the righteous their righteousness in the world to come; and even though He defers their recompense, in the end He will prove faithful (אמן) to His promise. ואין עול AND WITHOUT INJUSTICE — even to the wicked He pays the reward for their meritorious deeds, but in this world (Sifrei Devarim 307:11; cf. Rashi on Deuteronomy 7:10). צדיק וישר הוא — The meaning is: All acknowledge His judgment to be just (צדיק), and this is befitting and right of them (ישר), i.e., He is declared צדיק by the mouth of men, וישר, and it is right for them to declare Him צדיק, as righteous.

THE ROCK, HIS WORK IS PERFECT. This is an allusion to the attribute of justice. He states His work is perfect for whatever act emanates from Him is perfect and complete, eternally immovable and unchangeable. For all His ways are justice. They are [indeed] the merciful ways, and there is no deficiency in [His] work; [rather, His work is performed] but in a just measure. For justice belongs to the G-d of faithfulness and there is no injustice in the Rock. Thus the justice [dispensed] is righteous and the Rock is upright.

"The Rock — His work is perfect" (ha-Tzur tamim po'alo). This is to make known that everything that befell Israel was on account of their evil deeds. The meaning of "the Rock" (ha-Tzur) is that He endures always, like a rock. Do not wonder at this, for Scripture speaks likewise — "like a lion he roars" (Amos 3:8) — for one speaking of Hashem's acts cannot compare them to anything except His own works, since all things are His works. Similarly, "the rock of my heart" (Ps. 73:26) means support, strength, and constancy. Some say it derives from tzurah (form), and similarly, "and their form shall be consumed in the grave" (Ps. 49:15). But the essential point is that He has no material substance to receive anything — He is the primordial Rock — and the first interpretation seems correct to me. "His work is perfect" — for every work of a maker is deficient, because it depends on something above it, except for the work of the glorious Name; and all [things] are distinct from the Maker of all. "For all His ways are justice" — that they do not change but follow a single standard of justice. This is the praise. And all created things vary in their actions according to their needs, whereas the acts of Hashem are in power according to wisdom. One cannot object based on the standing still of the sun, for its secret is clear from the phrase "and the moon in the valley of Aijalon" (Josh. 10:12), as I explained in its place. "God of faithfulness and without iniquity" — He alone possesses true power, for all power in the mighty is a transient accident received from another. The meaning is: since He is a God of faithfulness, it is impossible that He should act unjustly; and it is possible to interpret "without iniquity" as referring to His ways. Or the word "God" (el) draws itself along with another [clause]. "Righteous and upright is He" — because [the verse] said "corruption belongs to him" (verse 5), it then says that His righteousness shows up the corrupt one and the twisted one, and He alone is upright — and the upright one's role is to set right what is crooked. Therefore, the meaning of "to Him" (lo) is because they originally belonged to Him.

Do not relate to Him differently on account of what you hear in my song about Israel’s future. Do not come to the mistaken conclusion that G’d will ever change and that the experiences that will befall the Jewish people during the course of history, and which I am about to foreshadow, are evidence of His changing and possibly becoming the Jewish people’s enemy. You are very well aware through the variety of miracles He has performed on your behalf that הצור, He remains the Rock and His actions are always motivated by pure motives. This being so, if at times He does not appear to help you, save you, this is not due to a weakening on His part, neither is He hard of hearing so that He did not hear your pleas; never ascribe any injustice to Him; כל דרכיו משפט, all of His paths are justice; א-ל אמונה, a totally reliable and loyal G’d is He; when He swore to the patriarchs that He would perform deeds of love for their children on account of these patriarchs’ merit; ואין עול, never false, even when He visits retribution on you. צדיק, because He is so righteous He will not abandon you even in exile וישר הוא, not withholding from anyone of His creatures the reward due to it for any good deeds. This is the reason why He often appears as being overly patient before He pays back certain people for their sins. He has to reward, pay, those who hate Him while they are still on earth as they have already forfeited any portion they claimed to life in the hereafter.

הצור תמים פעלו, "The Rock, His work is perfect." Moses had stated in the last verse that the cause of rainfall and dew is Torah study. Moses now adds that if someone who does study Torah nonetheless experiences extreme poverty, or if one sees a person who had suffered deprivations until he shook off the yoke of Torah and suddenly became very wealthy, the reason is not due to this person shaking off the yoke of Torah. The onlooker should not make such phenomena an excuse to become an heretic, but should acknowledge G'd as a fair Judge. This is reason Moses describes G'd as הצור, as someone Who is strong and steadfast even if He appears to discipline man. Our response has to be that תמים פעלו, "that whatever He does is perfect." This is the correct reaction to when we observe that G'd apparently compensates very sparingly people who have been very generous doing good works and who have studied Torah. The words כי כל דרכיו משפט, "for all His ways are justice," refer to the reverse phenomenon, i.e. people who have apparently done hardly anything to deserve the way in which G'd appears to lavish His bounty on them. We have to remember that G'd does not afflict the righteous until he has become guilty to suffer afflictions, and He does not lavish His goodness on the wicked unless they had done something to deserve it. Moses continues with אל אמונה ואין עול, "A G'd of faith without iniquity, etc." Our sages in the Sifri understand the word אמונה, to mean "faithful to repay the righteous in the hereafter," and the words אין עול, "without iniquity," they understand as His repaying the wicked for the good they have done in this life. The sages' thinking may be understood when one reads how they interpret Psalms 4,8: "You put joy in my heart when their grain and wine show increase." Midrash Tehillim on this verse explains that when David observed all this he said to himself: "if people who constantly violate many of G'd's commandments fare like this, I, who strive to carry out G'd's will, will most certainly fare at least as well. This is why my heart is filled with joy when I behold the success of the nations." The meaning of אל אמונה then is that the righteous draws additional faith from the way G'd deals with those who are merely Gentiles. The words ואין עול refer to G'd's need to pay the Gentiles their reward in this life as it is the only life they have. צדיק וישר הוא. "He is righteous and upright." This is a reference to the fact that G'd the Creator created the universe based on justice, as we know from Proverbs 29,4: "a king sustains earth by justice." Our sages in Tanchuma Shoftim say that G'd swore an oath that He would erect the universe based on justice. On the other hand, we find that He has at least 13 attributes (virtues) which are all various forms of mercy rather than justice. If G'd swore that the universe is based on justice, how does the attribute of Mercy fit into the picture? We have to understand this on the following basis. When G...

הצור תמים פעליו, “The Rock, all of whose works are perfect;” this is again a reference to the “heaven and earth,” and the four directions on earth, north south, east and west. תמים פעליו, all of G-d’s activities are performed in a perfect manner, as opposed to the works performed by man. When a human being constructs a building it will always be found that when he reviews it, that he had omitted something which needs replacing, adding, removing, or changing. Not so with anything G-d has constructed. One of the reasons man cannot complete something perfectly at the first try is that he has not created the raw materials that he uses in the building’s construction. כי כל דרכיו משפט, “for all His ways are just;” Moses wants to tell the Jewish people that although in the limited time that man spends on earth he cannot always live long enough; however, all that G-d has planned works out perfectly in the end, the fact is that G-d judges His people first for their wrong doings, (something that results in their repentance and rehabilitation) whereas He deals with the gentile nations later but they will not then have a chance to rehabilitate themselves.) The details of how this works will be spelled out in the verses following.

הצור תמים פעלו, “the Rock, Whose work is perfect!” According to the plain meaning of the text the term צור applies to G’d and describes strength, toughness, such as the essence of a rock. Just as rocks appear to be the foundation of the earth, so G’d has founded the earth and the description fits Him. At this point, Moses starts speaking to the witnesses and says: “this Master about whom I wish to speak is the Rock, and there is none as strong and enduring as He. Nonetheless, His works are perfect” [although He could get away with being imperfect and no one could challenge Him successfully, He obeys His own rules. Ed.]. David used similar language when praising the Lord in Samuel II 22,31 ה-אל תמים דרכו, “the G’d Whose path is perfect.” He meant that in spite of G’d’s overwhelming power, He deals with His creatures in absolute perfection. We have another verse, in Job 36,22-23 where Elihu mentions that no one ever reproached G’d for His conduct in spite of the great power He represents. He is even very generous in forgiving His creatures. Our sages (Megillah 31) state that whenever G’d’s power is mentioned we always find examples of His “modesty,” i.e. of how He restrains Himself in exercising this power. They cite proof of this both from verses in the Torah, the Books of the Prophets, as well as from Scriptures. If David used the expression תמים פעלו, that “His works are perfect,” it is because no other forces of the universe can be perceived as performing their duties in a perfect fashion. Their imperfections consist in that they need divine input in order to perform their tasks at all. They do not originate anything. I have heard from my teacher Rabbi Shlomo Aderet that there is no need to say the words פועל אמת שפעולתה אמת in the monthly benediction over the new moon, seeing that anyhow any celestial force which needs divine input cannot be perceived as performing what we call פעולת אמת, “a true function.” Such a force is by definition not אמת, true. [According to Sanhedrin 42 and Rashi there, the words פועלי אמת שפעולתה אמת refer to the moon’s dependable performance. What Rabbi Shlomo Aderet objected to was the feminine form פועלתה instead of פעולתו. Ed.] The entire line should refer to only a single force to whom the attribute אמת can be accurately applied, i.e. פועל אמת שפעולתו אמת, an obvious reference to G’d, Who activates the orbit of the moon, and not a reference to the moon per se. [Rather, the fact that the moon needs to renew itself every month as a result of having been reduced in size at the outset is cited by us as part of G’d’s perfection. He was justified in reducing the light of the moon. Ed.] This formula would be parallel to what Moses said here הצור תמים פעלו. With these words Moses alluded here to the creation of man, his sin, and his punishment. Seeing that Adam’s sin became the cause why all his offspring has to die at one point or another, Moses saw fit to choose the day of his death to acknowledge that G’d and all that He does is perfect. He implied that when G’d created man He intended for him to be and remain perfect and to serve Him as do the angels in heaven. The word צור is also related to צר, or צייר. He fashioned all creatures including man. When Moses continues describing “His paths as being justice, loyalty, not stained by iniquity,” all these attributes must be viewed as a contrast to man. Seeing man sinned, he deserved to be punished. G’d Himself remains as He has always been. If anything changed it was the fact that G’d’s favourite creature, man, became corrupt vis-a-vis his Creator, i.e. שחת לו. The singular לו, “to Him,” instead of the word להם, “to them,” makes it plain that Moses describes Adam’s sin against his Maker. Our sages, seizing on the meaning of צייר, “painter” in the word צור, suggested that the verse (Samuel II 2,2) אין צור כאלוקינו, might instead be read as אין צייר כאלוקינו, “there is no ‘painter, artist’ comparable to our G’d.” Moses refers to history repeating itself. Whereas Adam had sinned against His Maker, the Jewish people had copied him by making the golden calf, effectively repeating the sin Adam their ancestor had been guilty of, an act of disobedience amounting to dethroning G’d, or, in the words of our sages, קצץ בנטיעות, “uprooting what had been planted with such care.” (Compare author on Genesis 3,6) We know that this was an act of corruption from when He said to Moses שחת עמך, “your people has become corrupt. (Exodus 32,7) G’d applied this term to the sin of the golden calf though not all of the Israelites participated in it, so that the description קצץ בנטיעות would appear to be an exaggeration. The word לא which follows the word לו reminds the people that Adam had transgressed a negative commandment. Continuing with the words בניו מומם is an allusion to Kayin and Hevel who also had become corrupt. [This editor has always felt that unless Hevel had been guilty of a major sin G’d would not have allowed him to become the first victim of murder and to die without having sired children.]

The Rock, His work is perfect. This is explained in the way that Solomon said (Ecclesiastes 7:29), God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes. This is to remove from the heart of man evil thoughts, to speak incorrectly about God, claiming that the Craftsman who created him put within him material that has a tendency toward physical desires, and that this corruption came from His hand. As we say by way of excuse, Remember that we are dust (Psalms 103:14), and similarly Job said (10:9), Remember, I beseech You, that You have made me as clay, etc. Perhaps the sinner might come to attribute his guilt to his Creator. On this it says that this is not so, but rather “the Rock [Tzur] who formed man with wisdom, His work is perfect.” For “there is no artist [tzayar] like our God” (Berakhot 10a), and all His work is perfect without deficiency. The proof of this is that all His ways are just, and if man were deficient because of his creation, then he would not have free will, as he would be compelled in his actions, and it would not be appropriate to bring him to judgment for his deeds. Yet you acknowledge that all of God’s ways are just and far be it from the Almighty to do injustice. For God is faithful, to reward the righteous, and without injustice, to repay even the wicked. Just as you acknowledge that He justly gives good reward to those who do His will, so too He justly punishes the wicked because He is righteous and upright, and He made man upright in every way, but they have sought out many schemes. For corruption came from their side and not from His side, blessed be He. This is what it means by He has corrupted himself, which Onkelos translates as “they have corrupted themselves, it is not His,” because the corruption depends on them due to their poor choices, and not on Him, for one cannot attribute the corruption to Him at all. The defect is not of His children, meaning that it is not as they thought, to attribute their defect to being His children, saying to the Craftsman who made me a physical being, This came to me from Your hand. Rather, their main defect is from themselves, in that they are a perverse and crooked generation. And they have no defect or deficiency from the aspect of being His children, blessed be He, for the Rock made them in perfection, without deficiency, but they chose for themselves corrupt ways that God did not command. This also fits well with Rashi’s interpretation, who explains himself/Himself as referring to the Holy One, blessed be He, meaning that this corruption should be attributed to Him, blessed be He — no, this is not so, but rather they were His children, and the corruption, their blemish, is their own blemish. Another explanation of “He has corrupted Himself”: To attribute corruption to Him, blessed be He? No, this is not so; rather, “the defect is His children.” Their main defect is that the Holy One, blessed be He, called them His children and raised them and exalted them. Therefore, they assume that God will have mercy on them as a father has mercy on his children, and that He will not look at their wrongdoings. Moreover, because of this, their hearts became haughty to the point of corruption, and through their pride they came to sin. This verse will be further explained shortly, and see the section about the rebellious son for the refutation of this view.

הצור תמים פעו, “The Rock, perfect is His work;” Ibn Ezra writes that the reason Moses commences with this praise of Hashem, is to make plain to the Israelites to begin with, that if they will experience disasters of whatever kind in the future, the cause must not be attributed to the Creator but they must search for it in their own shortcomings, seeing that there are no shortcomings in anything G’d has created. פעלו, “His work;” Ibn Ezra writes that whatever work or masterpiece is performed on earth by any of G’d’s creatures, is by definition deficient, as it was dependent on input by the Creator, whether direct or indirect, and it requires at least the passive tolerance of the Creator in order to function and not to collapse. This is the basic difference between His work and our work, even the most perfect. כי כל דרכיו משפט, “for all His ways are justice.” They are not subject to change, i.e. never need to “improve,” as they have always been correct and perfect. Seeing that His creatures experience different needs at different times, as opposed to their Creator, their works must change from time to time in order to meet changing requirements. G’d’s actions always correspond to His wisdom and glory, both of which are constants. א-ל אמונה, “a G’d of Faith,” He alone possesses the virtue of Truth in an absolute degree, able to keep faith, as opposed to His creatures, however well intentioned, as their power was on “loan” from a higher source, and they can be deprived of it at a moment’s notice. ואין עול, “without iniquity;” seeing that He is a G’d of perfect loyalty, keeping faith, how could there be any iniquity associated with Him?

הצור תמים פעלו, this poem envisages the entire future; this is why it deals primarily with the holocaust the Israelites will experience as retribution for their sinfulness. Moses’ point is that no matter what terrible times the Jewish people experience, none of it is a reflection on the perfection of its G’d, the Rock of the universe; He remains perfect throughout in whatever He does. צדיק וישר הוא, as he will explain forthwith when he lists how G’d has dealt Israel by heaping acts of loving kindness upon them. However, they responded with וישמן ישורון ויבעט, becoming fat and instead of showing gratitude they “kicked” i.e. resented having to obey His commandments. (verse 15)

הצור תמים פעלו, “the Rock, His work is perfect;” it is only fair that you will acknowledge His greatness seeing that he is unshakably strong and therefore whatever He has created is perfect; moreover He does not display anger when facing those who are bent to make Him display His anger. צדיק וישר הוא, “He is righteous and just.” This refers to those human beings that act in accordance with His will. He does not withhold their reward. Seeing that Moses was bent on explaining how G–d takes revenge from those Israelites who deliberately cause Him anger, before doing the same to the gentile nations, he mentioned the righteous and his judgment first.

They have corrupted themselves toward Him — not His are children who served idols — a generation that changed its deeds and was transformed.

שחת לו — Take it as the Targum has it: חבילו להון לא לה “Corruption is theirs, not His”. בניו מומם HIS CHILDREN, THEIR FAULT — i.e., they were His children, and the corruption which they wrought is their fault. בניו מומם means: it was the fault of His children not His fault. דור עקש means, [A] CROOKED AND PERVERTED [GENERATION]. עקש has the same meaning as the verb in (Micah 3:9) “and pervert (יעקשו) all equity”. In Mishnaic Hebrew we have (Chullin 56a): a weasel whose teeth are bent and crooked (עקושות). ופתלתל entortille in old French, Engl, twisted: like a thread (פתיל), which one twines and twists round the central strand. The word פתלתל is of the “doubled” words (in which the two last letters are the same), like (Leviticus 13:49): ירקרק. אדמדם; (Psalms 38:31): סחרחר; (1 Kings 7:23; Targum Jonathan on): סגלגל.

THE CORRUPTION WAS TOWARDS HIM; THEY ARE NOT HIS CHILDREN [BECAUSE OF] THEIR BLEMISH. The blemish is called “corruption,” as it is said, their corruption is in them, there is a blemish in them, and similarly, and he sacrificeth unto the Eternal ‘a corrupted’ thing, [which means “a blemished” thing]. He [Moses] thus states that the blemish of Israel is the corruption towards the Rock of His people and His inheritance, and [therefore] he calls them not His children, just as, in an acceptable time [a time when they conduct themselves properly] he calls them “His children.” He states that they are a generation crooked and perverse, for crookedness is the opposite of uprightness, similar to what is said, and they make crooked all equity, and the perverse is the opposite of the righteous. Consequently, since He is just and right and they are the opposite of that, they are not [considered] His children; rather, they are considered by Him to be corrupted. And the sequence of the verse is thus: “their corruption towards Him — which is their blemish — has caused them not to be considered His children, [for they are] a generation crooked and perverse.” The sense thereof is that the dimunition of their status did not result from the deed of the Rock, for He is perfect and there can never be imperfection in Him, but it is their blemish that corrupts them before their Father. And the meaning of the expression not His children is like And I will say to them that were not My people: ‘Thou art My people.’ Similarly, They have aroused Me to jealousy with a no-god, meaning, with something that is not a god. So also, and they have sworn by no-gods. Or it may be that the verse here states: “The corruption towards Him is their blemish, that they are not His children, for they are a generation crooked and perverse, the opposite of Him.”

"Not His children" (lo banav). These are those who say that they are not His children, and similarly, "children in whom there is no faithfulness" (Deut. 32:20). The meaning is that they do not acknowledge that He created them; or if they acknowledge it with the mouth, they do not acknowledge it in the heart — and the proof is that they do not fear Hashem. The lamed of lo ("to him") draws itself along with another [word], namely "to their blemish" — the meaning being that on account of their blemish, they are a perverse and crooked generation. "And crooked" (u-fetaltol) — one who strengthens himself and prevails in his perversity, and similarly, "wrestlings of God" (naftulei Elohim, Gen. 30:8). Some say the meaning of "corruption belongs to him" is as if it said "they have corrupted themselves" (shihatu lahem), meaning for their own souls. Do not wonder on account of the word being singular, for such is the way of the language — do you not see, "Remember the days of old, consider the years of generation after generation" (verse 7)? But what seems correct to me is that it means: they have corrupted [what belongs] to Hashem — that is, they corrupted the ways of Hashem that were planted, and the statutes He commanded — as if to say, "they have corrupted what belongs to Him, a perverse generation, who are not His children" — and that is their blemish. The proof that this is the interpretation is what follows it: "Is this how you repay Hashem?" And I have already explained the significance of the interrogative heh in my book Moznayim.

שחת לו לא בניו מומם דור עקש ופתלתול, however, a twisted and perverse generation He does not view as His true children, such as when they made the golden calf. מומם, their blemish was not due to anything G’d had done Moses recalls that when G’d first told him about the people having become corrupt during his stay on the mountain that they were “your people” (Exodus 32,7), that although Moses, when accepting the conversion of the mixed multitude to Judaism had meant to sanctify the name of G’d, the fact was that instead of becoming a shining example to the world, these people had corrupted what would otherwise have been a kingdom of Priests. They had re-introduced idolatry among these people so recently weaned from it.

שחת לו לא בניו מומם, "Its corruption caused them no longer to be His fit children due to their blemish." When they become corrupt they cause harm to themselves. They are no longer called the children of the living G'd as our sages have said in Baba Batra 10: "as long as the children of Israel follow the path of G'd they are called "children;" if they stray, they are called "slaves." Moses mentions that if Israel becomes corrupt vis-a-vis G'd they are no longer His children. He adds the word מומם, their blemish, to remind Israel that if it does become blemished the fault is not with G'd but with themselves. Moses had to add this so that one would not conclude that the blemish found in the Israelites must eventually be traced back to G'd Himself, to their origin. G'd had created man, i.e. Israel, ישר, morally upright; we know this from Isaiah 5,1 where G'd describes Himself as "having owned a vineyard on a fruitful hill. He broke the ground, cleared it of stones and planted it with choice vines, etc. etc. Instead it yielded wild grapes." In other words, the corruption, the blemish, developed out of the people not out of their association with G'd. We are told in Sotah 3 that one does not commit a sin until after one's mind has been invaded by a streak of madness. This is the mystical dimension of Deut. 15,21 מום רע, "a severe blemish." The continued presence of this blemish is attributable exclusively to the deeds of man. דור עקש ופתלתל, "a perverse and twisted generation." If the generation were smitten only with perversion the words of Torah might suffice to straighten out these people. Who is responsible for the people to have become so twisted? None other than their inherent tendency to be stiff-necked, not to be willing to admit they had been mistaken. It is tragic to be a witness to all kinds of heresy being rampant during these generations and whenever someone comes along and tries to straighten out the misguided thinking of these heretics they become reinforced and even more entrenched in their heresy. This leads to these people losing their homeland.

שחת לו לא בניו, “Is corruption His? No His children’s is the blemish.” Did G-d cause them to become corrupted, so that they would no longer be His children? Compare Hoseah 2,1: !לא עמי אתם, “You are not My people!” Rather it was your sins which have made you corrupt, so that you are no longer fit to be identified with your “father” in heaven. בניו מומם, “His children have become blemished, have caused it themselves;” Compare Leviticus 22,25, (according to Seforno) כי משחתם בהם מום בם, “for their corruption is within them, not only external.”

דור עקש ופתלתל, “a perverse and twisted generation.” Now Moses addresses his people, calling them by an unflattering description. These words belong together with the words in the next verse הלה' תגמלו זאת, “are you really going to repeat the mistakes of Adam, Kayin and Hevel and act likewise against Hashem?” (The author states that the period sign after the word פתלתל does not present an obstacle to how he reads these two verses). Seeing that Moses had already told the people in 31,29 that he foresaw how they would become corrupt after his death and serve idols after the death of Joshua, he now urgently warns them against pursuing such a path.

He corrupted himself; the blemish is not His children’s. In the Yalkut for Parashat Ha’azinu (32:942), it concludes: “Look at the heavens that I created to serve you — have they changed their ways? etc. If these [celestial bodies], which were created neither for reward nor punishment, and do not care about their sons and daughters, have not changed their ways — you, who have [the potential for] reward and punishment, and who care about your sons and daughters, how much more so should you not change your ways.” Who told the author of this Midrash to mention sons or daughters in this kal vachomer [a fortiori] argument? Earlier, in Parashat Nitzavim (30:19), I explained that he learned this from what is written there: I call heaven and earth to witness against you, and it is written afterward, that you and your offspring may live. Why did it mention his offspring in this promise more than in all other promises? Rather, it is as if He said to him: “If you will not do it for the sake of your own life, please do it for the sake of your offspring’s lives, for you naturally care about sons and daughters.” Similarly, in this portion, after saying Listen, O heavens, etc., it says He corrupted himself; the blemish is not his children’s. Initially, it says He corrupted himself — that the sinner and rebel corrupts himself. And not only this, but he doesn’t even care about the lives of his children, as if they were not his children, and this is their great blemish. For sometimes the desire of the moment pressures him so that he does not consider the punishment that will eventually come, but what have his children done to him? They have no part in this pleasure, but they do have a part in the punishment. And this is what it says immediately afterward, And the Lord saw and despised them because of the anger of His sons and daughters. For granted, the fact that he [the sinner] did not have pity on himself is not such a great [cause of] anger, because Jeshurun grew fat and kicked, you grew fat, you grew thick etc., meaning that momentary pleasure compels him. But his sons and daughters, who do not even have momentary pleasure, how could he not have pity on them to bring them into the trap of that punishment? This is what angers the Holy One, blessed be He, the most. This is what it says immediately after you grew fat, you grew thick, etc., And the Lord saw and despised them because of the anger of His sons and daughters, that God despised him because he caused the anger of his sons and daughters. Therefore, these two corruptions are mentioned here, and it emphasizes more the corruption that he causes to his children than the corruption of his own soul. For that is why it says, And the Lord saw and despised them because of the anger of His sons and daughters, and here [it says], They have corrupted themselves, they are not his children, that is their blemish. Although he corrupted himself, nevertheless this blemish in him is not as great as the blemish he causes in his children, because it seems to him as if they are not his children — this is the main aspect of their blemish. Another explanation of “His children’s blemish.” This is their main blemish, that they are children of the Holy One, blessed be He, yet they did not look to the Rock from which they were hewn, for the Rock, His work is perfect. They should have followed the ways of their Father in heaven, as it is written, You shall walk after the Lord your God (Deuteronomy 13:5) — walk after His ways, as it is said, Is He not your Father who created you? And you should have walked in His ways. Another explanation is that “His children” [or “His sons”] is a reference to a person’s deeds, which are called a person’s offspring. The offspring of the righteous are good deeds, while the deeds of the wicked are as it says He conceives trouble and gives birth to falsehood (Psalms 7:15). The wicked person never admits the truth, and regarding all the evil offspring that he produces, he will say “they are not his children.” This is the main blemish within them — that they do not place blame on themselves for any of their evil deeds, and they deny saying, “These are not my children, I did not give birth to them.” The reason for this is that they are a perverse and crooked generation. Because they are a perverse generation, they never admit the truth and say to anyone who rebukes them, “I have not done wrong.” A second reason is that when a person commits a sin and repeats it, becoming accustomed to doing it many times until it becomes like a permissible act to them (Yoma 86b). This is what Scripture means by saying and crooked [petaltol], like a threefold thread [petilah], so too someone who transgresses, and repeats, and does it a third time — it becomes like a permissible act to them, and they will never turn back from their way.

שחת לו לא בניו מומם, ”Corruption is not His, the blemish is His children’s.” Nachmanides explains that the verse can best be understood if we read it as if it had been written in the sequence: מומם שחת אותם לו, ”His children’s blemishes have made them corrupt for Him, so much so that He no longer refers to them as His children.” דור עקש ופתלתול, “a perverse and twisted generation.” Moses explains the reason why none of this has a negative effect on the Creator as being that since He is perfect, He can –metaphorically speaking- be compared to a Rock that was constructed to be perfect forever. It will not develop weaknesses, faults, etc. However, the Israelites’ blemishes will expose themselves to their enemies with dire consequences.

שחת לו, Israel induced its own corruption as the prophet Hoseah said in Hoseah 13,9 שחתך ישראל כי בי בעזרך, “You have caused yourself all your own injuries, corruption, for from Me you had received only help, assistance.” לא, no one else is to blame; בניו מומם, the word מומם is an alternate for שחת ישראל, i.e. a repetition of the same thought, their corruption. Similarly, the wordבניו is an alternate for ישראל, in other words, G’d’s children are themselves to blame for their having become corrupt. If we needed further proof for the meaning of the word שחת, we find it in Leviticus 22,25 כי משחתם בהם מום בם “for their mutilation, defectiveness is inherent in them etc.”

שחת לו, לא בניו, “Is corruption His? No, His children’s is the blemish. What Moses is explaining is that if His children, the Jewish people perform corrupt deeds, it is not He who will suffer from this; the fallout of their evil deeds will leave a blemish on the children of those who have performed these deeds. They will bear the shame of the deeds of their fathers. This is also the meaning of the Targum on this verse. Rabbi Moses from Pontresia was bothered by the fact that if this interpretation is correct the Torah should have spelled the two words lo in the reverse manner, i.e. לא, לו. As a result, he interpreted the meaning as follows: “the blemish will not adhere to their children, but to them who have performed the corrupt deeds.” This is also what the prophet Hosea said in Hoseah 2,4: כי היא לא אשתי והם לא בני כי בני זנונים המה, “for she is not My wife and I am not her husband, for they are the brood of harlotry.” [though bastards cannot be blamed for the deeds of their progenitors. Ed.]

Is this what you repay before Hashem, O people who received the Torah and did not grow wise? Is He not your Father, and you belong to Him? He made you and established you.

הלה׳ תגמלו זאת DO YOU THUS REQUITE THE LORD? — This Is an expression of astonishment: Do you mean to grieve Him Who has the power to punish you, and Who has bestowed all these favours upon you? עם נבל A FOOLISH PEOPLE — i.e., a people that has forgotten all that has been done to them, ולא חכם AND NOT WISE to consider what will result from their actions, viz., that it is in His power to do them good or evil according to their actions (cf. Siphre). הלא הוא אביך קנך IS NOT HE THY FATHER קנך? The last word may mean: Who has acquired (קנה) thee, or, Who has placed thee (more lit., made thee nest, קנן) in a nest of rocks and in strong ground, or. Who has fitted you out (תקן) with everything that will benefit you. הוא עשך HE HATH MADE THEE a nation among the nations of the world, ויכננך AND HATH ESTABLISHED THEE afterwards on every kind of firm base and foundation (כן) (i.e. made you self-contained): out of your midst come your priests, out of your midst your Levites, and out of your midst your kings — a city in which is everything (Sifrei Devarim 309:7; Chullin 56b).

AM NAVAL’ (A FOOLISH PEOPLE), AND NOT WISE. “A foolish people — that has forgotten [all] the good that He has done for them. And not wise to understand the result [of their actions], that it is in His power to do them good or evil.” This is Rashi’s language. Now, Onkelos rendered [am naval]: “a people that has received the Torah, [and who are not wise],” deriving it from [the expression] navol tibol which he translated milah thilei (“thou wilt surely become weary”). Thus the verse here states: “it is a people weary of the observance of the Torah and they are not wise [enough to realize] that it is for their eternal good.” Similarly Onkelos rendered b’goi naval — “with a foolish people,” apathetic in becoming wise or people of faith. And Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra interpreted: “Naval (foolish) in deeds, and not wise in heart.”In my opinion he who performs an unrequired act [of goodness or kindness] is called nadiv (generous), while he who repays his benefactor with evil is called naval (a vile person). And so it is stated, ‘L’naval’ (the vile person) will no longer be called ‘nadiv’ (generous), for one is the opposite of the other. Therefore it was said of Nabal the Carmelite, for as his name is, so is he: Nabal is his name, and ‘n’valah’ (vileness) is with him. For David did him a great favor — he guarded all his belongings — and he [Nabal] did not want to pay him any recompense; instead, he shouted at his [David’s] messengers and disgraced them. And this is the sense of the verse concerning [G-d’s words to] the friends of Job: [And my servant Job shall pray for you; for him alone will I receive favorably,] so as not to do unto you ‘n’valah’ (an unseemly act) [because you have not spoken of Me properly, as My servant Job hath;] since they had defended the deed of the glorious and fearful Name, saying it was done justly, and if He were to punish them now, it would appear as n’valah (an unseemly act). It is possible that the term naval is used [for a vile person] because he is an inferior type of a human being, just as the expression as an oak whose leaf ‘noveleth’ which means “falls” [because it withered. Thus, the word noveleth (withers), spelled with a beth, is related to nofeleth (falls) spelled with a fei. Similarly, a person who is nofel, “falls” short of acceptable standards of conduct, is referred to as naval.] A dead animal is called n’veilah because “it falls” upon the earth and dies, just as it is said, to see the ‘mapeleth’ (carcass) of the lion. If so, Scripture states here: “Do you thus requite G-d for all the good He has done for you? It is an am naval that repays evil for good, and unwise not to know that they have wrought this evil unto themselves,” and not to G-d. It is similar to what is stated, If thou hast sinned, what doest thou against Him? And if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto Him? If thou be righteous, what givest thou Him? or what receiveth He of thy hand? For G-d is thy Father, Who brought you forth...

"Degraded" (naval) — in his deeds. "And unwise" (ve-lo chakham) — in his heart. Thus he is entirely deficient in thought and in deed. "Your father" — because [the verse] said they are not His children. "Has made you" (kananekha) — with the sense of "Hashem has created me" (Prov. 8:22). "He made you" (hu asekha) — He established you. "And established you" (va-yekhonenekha) — to be receptive to that establishing.

הלה' תגמלו זאת, after G’d had planned to make you superior over all other nations, is it indeed imaginable that you would respond by frustrating His intention by desecrating His name and to thereby prevent G’d from realising His declared intention when He created man that he should reflect the image of G’d? (Genesis 1,26) עם נבל, a contemptible nation, repaying generosity of the most lavish kind by ingratitude. ולא חכם, pursuing a policy while not considering its ultimate result. הלא הוא אביך קנך, He is not like a natural father who had no control over the type of son he had sired, but had to leave this to chance; G’d deliberately adopted the Jewish people giving them the kind of existence that would make Him proud to be called your “owner,” and made Him look forward to achieve His aim in creating mankind through you. Had He not made you into a nation you would have remained an insignificant tribe of sorts. ויכוננך, He equipped you with the basic ingredients to enable you to become the precious nation He mentioned prior to the revelation at Mount Sinai.

הלה׳ תגמלו זאת, "Is this the way you repay the Lord?" The reason Moses employs the term גמול, "compensation," [something that does not really apply in our relationship with G'd. Ed.] is that instead of our going out of our way by showing appreciation for what G'd has done for us we do the very reverse. עם נבל ולא חכם, "a nation which is vile and unwise!" Why does the Torah contrast two characteristics which are not opposites? Vileness is not the opposite of lack of wisdom! Moses means that even though they may be a vile people by nature, if at least they possessed some wisdom they would not display their vileness vis-a-vis G'd! The vile recognises that the fact that he is vile is to his detriment and therefore he would not display such a trait. This is more or less what Moses meant when he added: הלא הוא אביך קונך, "Isn't G'd the One Who is your father and the One Who owns you?" Moses makes 4 distinctions here. 1) Seeing that G'd created man, he calls G'd "your father." 2) He acquired all of us as His slaves when He took us out of bondage in Egypt, and revived us in the desert and brought us to the Holy Land, a land full of goodness. This then is the meaning of קנך. 3) He awarded us an additional and superior gift, i.e. His Presence amongst us and the availability of prophets in our midst. This is what Moses meant when he said הוא עשך, "He has made you." G'd has added a new element to your life, something no other living beings enjoy. 4) He has equipped us with an automatic entrance card to the hereafter, life's main arena. How could even a vile nation be prepared to jeopardise all these advantages unless they were foolish also?

?הלה' תגמלו זאת, ”is this how you requite the Lord?” Do you repay His favours to you by worshipping other deities? ולא חכם, ”you surely are most unwise!” You have not acquired any wisdom. The word is a verb, i.e. החכים, “he became wise.” The reason why we have two vowels kametz here is on account of the phrase here terminating with the dividing cantillation sign etnachta. קנך, from תקון, healthy, in good condition. Compare Psalms 78,54: הר זה קנתה ימינו, “His right hand had acquired this mountain.”

הלה' תגמלו זאת, “is it to Hashem that you plan to repay thus?” This is a reference to their becoming corrupt against their father in heaven who had performed so many deeds of loving kindness for them. Another way of explaining the verse commencing with the word הצור, is that seeing that this was the day on which Moses was going to die, it was up to him, as it is up to any mortal at that stage of his life, to acknowledge G’d’s righteousness and justice in letting him die at that point. He therefore said that all of G’d’s ways are perfect; even death did not represent something perverse or twisted, עקש ופתלתל. He is א-ל אמונה, “a G’d of faith, etc.” Moses meant that all those who in this life do not appear to have been dealt with equitably, will find out after the death of their bodies that that there is an accounting, and that any reward which has not been paid in life on terrestrial earth will be paid then. We have many verses on this subject, to quote but one from Samuel I 26,23: “and the Lord will requite every man for his right conduct and loyalty” (David speaking to King Shaul). Other verses on this subject are found in (Psalms 89,38, et al). The words following, i.e. ואין עול, mean that G’d will not let the sinners get away with their iniquities, even if this was not noticeable while these people were alive on earth. They too will be dealt with after their bodies have died. The words following this, i.e. צדיק וישר הוא, “He is righteous and straightforward,” mean that He manifests righteousness in the world to come, the world after resurrection of the bodies, and He is straightforward in the עולם הבא, the world of disembodied souls awaiting the resurrection. With these words Moses alluded to a total of four worlds [in terms of time rather than in terms of space. Ed.] They are: 1) this present terrestrial world of bodies and soul. 2) the world of disembodied souls. 3) the era when souls and bodies are reunited. 4) the period after that. You, the reader, are already aware that all of these four worlds are alluded to in a single verse in Proverbs 6,22: בהתהלכך תנחה אותך, בשכבך תשמר עליך, והקיצות היא תשיחך. “When you walk it will guide you; when you lie down it will protect you; when you are awake it will talk to you.” The first three words refer to the present terrestrial world; the next three words refer to the world of the souls; the word “when you awake,” refers to the period after the resurrection, whereas the final words היא תשיחך “she will talk to you,” refer to the fourth world. Our verse also contains references to these four different worlds which the soul of the righteous will experience. According to the above-mentioned interpretation it is extremely appropriate that we have the custom to recite this verse (הצור תמים) in the prayer known as צדוק הדין at funerals, or even when we visit the cemeteries. If the father of all prophets saw fit to recite this verse on the day of his own death, it is certainly in place for us to do so also. Another reason why Moses may have chosen to refer to G’d as צור on that occasion may have been his own sin when he accused the Jewish people of almost stoning him to death, and when G’d commanded him (Exodus 17,6) “here I will stand before you by the rock in Chorev; you shall strike the צור and water will emerge, etc.” It had not been Moses’ practice, throughout the Torah, to make reference to this name of G’d which conveys an image of aggressiveness and overlordship; Moses had always preferred to invoke the names of G’d which reflect on His attribute of Mercy. There were only two exceptions to this; the first time in the שירה, when he described the attribute י-ה as עזי (Exodus 15,2) when he spoke of this manifestation of G’d against the Egyptians, and the second time when he spoke about the ongoing battle G’d wages against Amalek where Moses said כי יד על כס י-ה מלחמה לה' בעמלק (Exodus 17,16). When Moses now mentioned the attribute צור, he did so as he wanted to praise G’d with the same word as he had once sinned against Him. This would correspond to what the sages said in Shemot Rabbah 5,23 that the reason why Moses commenced the song of thanksgiving after the crossing of the Sea of Reeds with the word אז, was to atone for a previous occasion when he had used the word אז, criticizing G’d for having worsened the fate of the Jewish people from the time he, Moses, had been appointed as their leader (Exodus 5,23). If you will analyse this verse still further you will find in it an allusion to the seven disciplines (emanations) of wisdom. The words תמים פעלו refer to the emanation חסד; the words כי כל דרכיו משפט refer to the emanation גבורה; the words א-ל אמונה refer to the emanation אמת, the “centre” of the diagram of emanations. The words ואין עול refer to the emanation נצח; an emanation we know from Samuel I 15,29 וגם נצח ישראל לא ישקר ולא ינחם; the word צדיק refers to the emanation יסוד, seeing the צדיק has been described as the foundation of the universe (its raison d’etre.) The word וישר refers to the emanation מלכות. Moses added the word הוא in order to show that the previous attributes are all to be considered as part of a whole. שחת לו לא בניו מומם, Nachmanides writes on this that the words are to be understood as “its corruption reflects upon itself, not upon G’d; because of their blemish they are no longer His children.” The word מום, blemish, describes and defines this corruption. It is a similar construction to Leviticus 22,25 כי משחתם בהם מום בם, “for their corruption is in them, a blemish is in them.” The reason the Torah here refers to the people of Israel as לא בניו, “not His sons,” is precisely because in times when G’d feels favorably disposed towards them they are described as בניו, “His sons.” Seeing that their “father” is צדיק וישר, how can the people of Israel be described a His sons, seeing they are perverse and twisted? Hence the only description which fits them is “לא בניו.” This interpretation is correct. However, seeing the word לא has the tone-sign tipcha, i.e. it belongs to the words preceding it, so that the words בניו מומם belong together but not to the preceding word לא, it is possible to offer the following interpretation. The words שחת לו לא belong together and mean that the reason the Israelites have become corrupted is because they themselves rebelled against the word of the Lord. We find something similar in Isaiah 42,24: ולא אבו בדרכיו הלוך, “and they did not want to walk in His ways.” Whenever Moses wanted to guide them along a certain path, the straightforward path, the true path, they did not want to and responded by saying לא נעשה, “we are not going to do this.” In other words, their corruption revealed itself in their constant use of the word לא, “no.” Seeing that previously they had been called G’d’s children, (Deut. 14,1) בנים אתם לה' אלוקיכם, “You are children to the Lord your G’d,” they have to be described as “not His children” when they act rebelliously. This refusal to accept G’d’s (Moses’s) leadership is a major blemish, one which deserves to be characterized as עקש ופתלתל, perverseness and being twisted. הלה' תגמלו זאת עם נבל, “do you thus requite the Lord, o tiresome people?” The nation that strained themselves when accepting the Torah. The people considered having accepted the Torah as something which made them weary. The word נבל is reminiscent of what Yitro said (Exodus 18,18) נבל תבול, which Onkelos translates מילאה תלאי, “you will become very weary.” In our verse, Onkelos likewise translates עם נבל “they are a people who received the Torah.” According to this interpretation these words were meant as a compliment. [According to Rabbi Chavell, the meaning of Onkelos here is that the people welcomed the Torah by exerting themselves in intense study and performance, so that Moses did not criticize Israel with these words but complimented them.] Nachmanides writes that נבל is the description of someone who is ungrateful for favors received, whereas someone who performs kind deeds without recompense is called a נדיב, donor. He quotes Isaiah 32,5 לא יקרא עוד לנבל נדיב as proof that a נבל is an ingrate, the opposite of a נדיב, seeing he repays kindness not only with indifference but with evil. This is the reason why Avigail in her conversation with David refers to her own husband (Samuel 25,2) Naval HaCarmeli as: “as his name so is he,” i.e. repaying kindness with evil. David had done him great favors protecting his property only to be repaid with insolence. This is also what G’d had in mind when He instructed Job’s companions (Job 42,8) to offer sacrifices as atonement for the way they had treated Job. He said: לבלתי עשות עמכם נבלה, “not to treat you vilely; Job was going to pray on their behalf though they had accused him of a variety of wrongdoing. The companions, in defending G’d’s treatment of Job, had described him as deserving the afflictions he had endured. Thus far Nachmanides. הלוא הוא אביך, “is He then not your father, etc.?” Moses means that G’d made Israel His possession, bringing them out of nothing into something. Every יש, is by definition the property of the one who brought it into existence. This is also the meaning of Proverbs 8,22: ה' קנני ראשית דרכו, “the Lord acquired me at the beginning of His way.” Similarly, G’d is referred to as owning heaven and earth, seeing He created them (Genesis 14,19). In Bereshit Rabbah 43,5 the word קנך is understood in its normal meaning, i.e. an acquisition from someone else. The Midrash answers the question from whom G’d could have acquired heaven and earth by saying: ”from the raw material they are constructed from.” I have referred to this in Genesis 14,19. G’d is called “our father,” as He created the soul which He blew into Adam in order to make him come alive. Just as the physical father deserves this appellation vis-a-vis the body which he sires, (seeing his sperm is the first input) so G’d is described as the true and eternal father, who has provided the original input for all life. David also referred to G’d as his father when he said (Psalms 27,10) “for my father and my mother have abandoned me, only the Lord is taking me in.” Also the prophet Isaiah speaks of G’d as father when he said (Isaiah 63,16) “surely You are our Father: though Avraham regard us not, and Israel recognise us not, You, O Lord, are our Father from of old, Your name is ‘Our Redeemer.’” You should appreciate that the word ה-ליה-וה is written as two words, i.e. the first letter ה has the vowel patach and the letter ל which follows has a silent sheva instead of a semi vowel, i.e. sheva na, as in לישראל. The reason is that it is humanly impossible to pronounce two successive sheva na. This is why the sages decided to allow the sheva under the letter ל to remain silent so as to enable us to pronounce the sheva na under the letter י [for those for whom it is allowed to pronounce the tetragrammaton. Ed.] Otherwise, part of the Holy Name of G’d would be “concealed” (if it is incapable of being enunciated). The word is totally strange, there is no parallel for it in the whole Bible. It is also impossible to put the vowel chirik under the letter ל as we do in the word ליהודה, because then too one dot of the correctly spelled and vocalised tetragrammaton would be missing, or “hidden.” You should further realise that this letter ה which is written separately is written in larger script and is one of 22 such letters in the Torah which are written in larger script. (Each letter of the א-ב appears once in larger script in the Torah, compare details in the Encyclopedia Talmudit, 1,191) A Kabbalistic approach: it is possible to view this letter as alluding to the specially small letter ה in Genesis 2,4. Perhaps Moses wrote the letter ה here large, at the end of the Torah, as opposed to when he wrote it “small” at the beginning, in order to remind us that this is the letter (last letter of the tetragram) with which the Lord created the terrestrial universe. The extra large letter ה at the end of the Torah is an allusion to the extra small letter ה near the beginning (Genesis 2,4), to show that the large letter ה at the end provided the extra power needed for the small letter ה to create the universe with. The large letter ה in our verse is symbolic of the repentance of the souls; in other words the ultimate repentance by man made the creation of the universe a wothwhile project for the Lord. It is an accepted concept that when the Jewish people are full of merits they thereby reinforce the power of the Shechinah, whereas when they accumulate demerits, this power wanes somewhat. Moses asks the people by using the preface ה-לה', “are you going to be responsible by your deeds for reducing the power of the Shechinah, for making G’d feel that He wasted His time in creating man?” [freely translated. Ed.] The word זאת describes the attribute of G’d which would “suffer” through the iniquities committed by a people who are perverse, etc. This is why Moses added: “If only they would have drawn on the source of the attribute חכמה, they would have understood this and prevented it from coming about.” They would then have strengthened the attribute זאת instead of weakening it. The whole verse 29 refers to the fact that if the people had displayed the wisdom and intelligence generally attributed to them, they would have contributed to more knowledge all around as a result of which G’d’s image and attribute זאת would have been greatly enhanced. They would have considered the consequences of failing to do so. The line הלא הוא אביך קנך is read by the Kabbalists as if the word קנך had been vocalised “kinecha,” your nest.” The first small letter ה in the Torah we referred to is understood to refer to G’d as the “nest” of the universe, performing a function similar to that which the birds’ nests perform for their inhabitants. It is perceived as the foundation of the existence of the birds; where there is no nest, birds cannot develop. Some of these considerations are reflected in the commandment of שלוח הקן, the sending away of the mother bird before emptying her nest of its young. The last letter ה in this verse, i.e. הוא עשך, is a parallel construction to הוא עשנו ולו אנחנו, “He has made us and we are His” (Psalms 100,3). The word ויכוננך, “He has established you firmly,” means that G’d has constructed Israel in such a way that it may be rehabilitated. A Midrashic approach based on Sifri Haazinu; the word וכוננך means: “a metropolis which contains everything” — It is a people which produces its own priests, prophets, scholars, scientists, scribes, etc. It does not have to rely on outsiders, non-Jews. This is the meaning of Zecharyah 10,4: “from them shall come cornerstones, tent pegs, bows of combat, and every captain shall arise from them.” [The prophet speaks of the self-sufficiency of the Kingdom of Yehudah.] Pharaoh had not found anyone amongst all his wise men who could interpret his dream satisfactorily, but he had to turn to Joseph. Nevuchadnezzar did not find an interpreter among all the wise men of Babylon and had to turn to the Jew, Daniel.

Is this how you repay the Lord, you foolish and unwise people, etc. The connection of these verses with the previous verses appears to me to be in the manner stated If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against Him? And if your transgressions are many, what do you do to Him? If you are righteous, what do you give Him? Or what does He receive from your hand? (Job 35:6-7). In the same order as mentioned there, they are mentioned here as well. For before entering into words of rebuke with them, He established this premise so they would not think wrongly about God, saying that it matters to the Holy One, blessed be He, whether you do evil or good. And you might think to say that the Holy One, blessed be He, seeks His own benefit to push away from Himself the harm that comes to Him from your transgressions, and to draw near to Himself the benefit that flows to Him from the fulfillment of the commandments. Regarding this it says that you are mistaken in both cases. For regarding corruption, it first says He has corrupted himself, not — as Onkelos translates it “They have corrupted for themselves, and it is not His,” as If your transgressions are many, what do you do to Him? The primary corruption is for them, and the blemish is theirs and not God’s. Afterward, it speaks about the fulfillment of commandments, for the term “repay” [גמול] applies to some good repayment, and it says Is this how you repay the Lord? The letter ה [which has a numerical value of five] in הלה’ is written large to allude to the five books of the Torah, meaning: Do you think you are repaying the Holy One, blessed be He, some favor by your fulfillment of the five books of the Torah which are called “זאת” [this], as it is said And this is the Torah (Deuteronomy 4:44). A foolish [naval] people without wisdom. Even though without wisdom is not the opposite of a foolish people, nevertheless it seems to me that this is its explanation. For regarding the word “naval” [fool/base person], various interpretations have been given by commentators. I say that anyone who is not generous of heart is called a “naval,” with proof from the verse The naval shall no longer be called generous, nor the miser said to be noble (Isaiah 32:5). This implies that a “naval” is the opposite of a generous person. Naval the Carmelite proves this, as he said Shall I take my bread, etc., and give it to men of whom I know nothing? (1 Samuel 25:11) About him it is said As his name, so is he; Naval is his name, and nevalah is with him (1 Samuel 25:25). Perhaps this name is derived from the language of “yoval” [bring forth] and “yevulah” [produce], meaning just as you bring things to it [the land], so too this person who is not generous of heart spends all day bringing things from others to himself, but gives nothing to others. Now, the person who errs thinks that the Holy One, blessed be He, has some need for His commandments. Who led him to think such a corrupt thought? This is only because he himself is base [naval] and not generous, and it seems implausible to him that one would do good to another for free unless he knows that the recipient of his kindness will return and repay him according to his deed. For if he is not expecting repayment, why would he do good to another for free? Thus he thinks the same about the Holy One, blessed be He. When he sees the greatness of the good that God has done for him, he thinks: “Why does He do these good things for me for free? This must be so that He too will receive benefit from me greater than these.” Therefore, He calls one who thinks this thought “naval” and not generous, because it seems implausible to him that God would do good to him out of generosity and kindness. Therefore, it says afterward, Vayenabel the Rock of his salvation, meaning he spoke about Him as one would speak about one of the nebalim [stingy people]. Therefore, measure for measure, I will anger them with a stingy nation. Further, He called him without wisdom, because besides being stingy and not generous, he is a son without wisdom, for he did not ask about this matter wisely. And then he explained about the first [issue] first and the last [issue] last, for what he said a foolish nation — about this he said Is He not your father who acquired you. Because even if one were to assume, let it be as you say, that no person does good to another for free — this applies to a stranger, but a father to his son, even one who is stingy with others, nevertheless, isn’t it the way of the world that a father does many kindnesses for his son from the day of his birth out of generosity, for free, without expecting any recompense? Similarly, the Holy One, Blessed be He, Is He not your father who acquired you, and He has mercy on you as a father has mercy on his children, even though He derives no benefit from you. And regarding what He called [Israel] “unwise children,” He wanted to prove this by saying He made you and established you. Since He made you, then everything that you do, He, blessed be He, can also do, all the more so — for if He made you, then certainly whatever you have the power to do, He blessed be He, obviously has the power to do as well, as it is written He who implants the ear, shall He not hear? He who forms the eye, shall He not see? (Psalms 94:9). And as it is written If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are Mine (Psalms 50:12). Therefore, He said He made you — He made you and all that you have the power to do together. And since you did not understand this through your intellect, you are certainly “unwise children.” And after that he said, “Remember the days of old.” You, the stingy and ungenerous one, who finds it difficult to believe that the Holy One, blessed be He, would do something out of generosity without expecting payment in return, Remember the days of old, the days in which the Holy One, blessed be He, created the world. For in this, you must at least acknowledge that the world is built on kindness (Psalms 89:3). For before the world was created, He, blessed be He, was alone, and His existence was self-sufficient, not needing any other being since nothing else existed yet. And if so, in the days of the world’s creation, when He created His world, He certainly did not create it except out of the generosity of His heart and His will, as it is written, the world is built on kindness. Consider the years of generation after generation. Rashi explains this refers to the generation of the Flood and the generation of the Dispersion [Tower of Babel], for in these two generations the deeds of all inhabitants of the world were corrupted. With this, the verse seeks to strengthen what was said: He made you and established you, for if He needed your deeds, how did the Holy One, blessed be He, act during these two corrupted generations who destroyed and made abominable their ways on earth? And God saw that there was no man, etc., and His arm saved for Him, and His righteousness sustained Him (Isaiah 59:16). He received no benefit from any being, and in these generations, the world returned to chaos and void, yet nevertheless, He, blessed be He, made it and established it on its foundation as at the beginning, lacking nothing. Therefore it says Consider, in response to calling them “unwise children,” wanting to prove their foolishness from He made you and established you. And now He returns to prove that they lack wisdom and understanding, from what is written: Consider the years of generation after generation, for they are not a people of understanding who have not considered the years of generation after generation. And then he returned to explain in order, from the first: Regarding what he wrote Is He not your father who acquired you, and he wanted to prove from this that because the Holy One, blessed be He, is your father, therefore He benefits you out of generosity, as a father has compassion on his children. Perhaps even in this you will be doubtful whether a father would do something for his son without compensation? To this he says Ask your father and he will tell you, for he will tell you everything that he benefits you out of generosity, and from this you should also infer regarding your father in heaven. And regarding calling him “a foolish son,” he wanted to prove this from He made you and established you, and from what he said consider the years of generation to generation. To this he says, if in any case you lack wisdom and understanding to comprehend what happened in the past, then ask your elders and they will tell you. Rashi explains that your elders refers to the wise men, and they will tell you words of wisdom about what happened in the past. In this way, Is He not your father who acquired you is connected to what he called a foolish nation. And following it is the verse Remember the days of old and the verse Ask your father and he will tell you, for everything is connected to what he called a foolish nation. Similarly, on the other hand, what he called “an unwise son” is followed by the verses He made you and established you, consider the years of generation to generation, your elders and they will tell you. And it seems appropriate to explain these verses in another way, as we have already said that he made a proof from “He made you and established you” that “you are an unwise son,” and afterwards he made a proof upon the proof of He made you and established you. For perhaps you will deny even this, saying: Who says that the Lord God made us? Perhaps all those who are born were born naturally, from one person to another, like the opinion of the heretics who say that the world is eternal and that the lineage of those born continues naturally forever from person to person, a generation goes and a generation comes (Ecclesiastes 1:4), and the world is eternal like the Holy One, blessed be He, who is also eternal along with the world. And perhaps you will return to your waywardness to say that He has some need for your deeds. Regarding this, it says understand the years of generation after generation, for from Adam until Noah, the years of human life reached almost 1,000 years, and afterward several hundred, and from there onward, the years of each generation decreased until these generations that stand at 70 years. This is proof that the world was created anew and is not eternal, and therefore those people who were close to the time of the world’s creation lived much longer than the generations that were further from the time of creation, for reasons given by the commentators. Some say that since the world was newly created, the air was still of the highest quality, for it had not yet deteriorated over time. And some say it was so they would produce many sons and daughters during those many days. And some say it was so they could learn during those years all the matters of wisdom and craftsmanship that the world needed from them, for in several hundred years they would not have been able to learn so many new things as one can learn in these generations in a single year. The Akedah expounds on this at length. In the end, the years of generation after generation is a great proof of the world’s creation, and from this you will learn that He made you and established you. And if you also deny this, saying who can prove that those generations lived much longer than these generations, for this it says ask your elders and they will tell you. For the wise elders who investigate to know the previous things that happened since the beginning of the world received this matter from one person to another until those generations. And it specifically mentions your elders because the elders upon whom old age has jumped in these generations, they will tell the difference between their years and the years of the forefathers. For even if they do not investigate the creation of the world because they do not have much practical interest in the matter, nevertheless, the elders upon whom old age has jumped in few years, they will investigate if this was always the case. And through investigation they will truly know that the years of each and every generation have been decreasing due to the corruption of the air that occurred as the days lengthened. And through this you will truly know that He made you and established you. And this is conclusive proof that He has no need for you nor for your deeds. And what is written “When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, etc.” He provided a proof for the error that he mentioned, and said: See how you are mistaken in saying that the Holy One, blessed be He, has any need or benefit from you performing His commandments. For undoubtedly, if He received any benefit from you, then why did He not give the Torah to all the nations and instead entrusted it to you, few in number, such that for every person from Israel there was a complete nation? For He established the boundaries of peoples according to the number of the children of Israel, as there were 70 nations corresponding to the 70 [men] of Israel [when they came down to Egypt]. Would it not have been better for Him if He had received that benefit from many nations? And examine the other side: If you say that He only gave the Torah to refine the creatures [meaning to perfect humanity], it is not difficult [to understand] why He did not care to refine many nations, because the Lord’s portion is His people, Jacob is the lot of His inheritance. All the nations are like husks [or shells], therefore He only cared to fence His field, because He found it like an uncultivated field, like this desert, lacking all perfection. This is what it means: He found him in a desert land, and in a desolate, howling wilderness. Meaning, they were lacking everything, He broke down its wall, and it was trampled (Isaiah 5:5). Therefore He surrounded him, He instructed him, because through teaching them Torah, they became surrounded and protected like the pupil of an eye. And soon all these verses will be explained in another way. Another interpretation of “Remember the days of old” follows the approach of our Sages of blessed memory (Avot 5:1): “The world was created with 10 utterances. What does this teach us? Could it not have been created with a single utterance? Rather, it is to exact punishment from the wicked who destroy the world that was created with 10 utterances.” This means we say to the wicked person: “See how evil you are, for you are destroying something great, as it was created with 10 utterances.” Similarly, regarding the six days of creation — for the same reason — God could have created it in a single moment, but this teaches the wicked person that through his sin he destroys something great that was created in six days and with 10 utterances. The Holy One, blessed be He, established foundations for the world in the Written Torah, which is encompassed in the Ten Commandments, and in the Oral Torah, which is encompassed in the six Orders, indicating that the world’s existence depends on them. Therefore, He said, Remember the days of old — that the world was created in six days — and guard yourself from destroying this great thing. Similarly, consider the years of generation after generation — these are the 10 generations from Adam to Noah, and from Noah to Abraham, as it is said: Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and his punishment is delayed (Ecclesiastes 8:12). You might think that since the Holy One, blessed be He, is slow to anger and does not collect His due immediately, there is no justice and no Judge, and therefore your heart may be filled to do evil. But you would be trusting in falsehood. Learn understanding from those generations who provoked Him, blessed be He, until He brought the flood upon them, and until Abraham came and received the reward of all of them. As it concludes in Pirkei Avot, after mentioning “with 10 utterances,” it immediately mentions the matter of these 10 generations to make known how patient He is, blessed be He. Likewise, you should not rely on such vain consolations. Just as these concepts are connected in this verse, so too did the Tanna connect them in Pirkei Avot, for both provide moral instruction to sinners as stated.

עם נבל ולא חכם, “a vile people, one devoid of wisdom.” Rashi explains this to refer to their having forgotten all the Good Hashem had done for them. Nachmanides, refers to Onkelos’ translation “a nation that had received the Torah and had not become wise by observing it but had treated it as if it tired them out, had exhausted them instead of uplifting them.” They failed to benefit from what was designed to ensure their enduring success. Ibn Ezra says that the word נבל refers to their deed, whereas the words ולא חכם refers to their heart. Personally, (Nachmanides continuing) I believe that when someone does good without expecting or wanting compensation by the recipient, he is described as נדיב, generous. If someone repays favours done to him with ingratitude, or worse, instead, he is described as נבל. This is the meaning of Isaiah 32,5 לא יקרא עוד לנבל נדיב , “no more shall the villain be called noble;” This is why it was said about נבל of Mount Carmel, [first husband of Avigail, a notoriously bombastic and tightfisted individual, compare Samuel I chapter 25. Ed.] ונבלה עמו, (Samuel I 25,25) that his name aptly expressed his vile character. David had protected his property at a time when he was hunted and had to survive as best he could. Instead of being grateful, Naval repaid him with animosity and disdain. Not only were the Israelites ingrates, they were also foolish by putting their trust instead of in Hashem in all kinds of impotent idols, the ones worshipped by the neighbouring peoples. Did they not even realise that by sinning they could not harm the G’d against Whom they sinned?

?תגמלו זאת, Moses asks rhetorically, if one repays G’d for His kindness by worshipping idols? Besides, קנך, He is your owner; He acquired you when He liberated you from bondage to the Egyptians

עם נבל, “they are a people who repay benefits received with disloyalty;” ולא חכם, “and they are not a wise nation.” They imagine that they are smart and can escape the consequences of their deeds.

Remember the days of old; consider the years of generation after generation. Ask your father and he will tell you; your elders and they will say to you.

זכר ימות עולם REMEMBER THE DAYS OF OLD — what He did to previous generations who provoked Him to anger, בינו שנות דר ודר [CONSIDER] THE YEARS OF GENERATION AFTER GENERATION — the generation of Enosh over whom He caused the waters of the ocean to flow, and the generations of the flood whom He drowned by flood (cf. Sifrei Devarim 310:1). Another explanation is: If you have not set your attention to the past (i.e. if you fail to remember the days of old, then) בינו שנות דר ודר CONSIDER at least THE YEARS OF GENERATION AND GENERATION so that you become conscious of what might happen in the future — that He has the power to bestow good upon you and to make you inherit the blissful days of Messiah and the world to come (cf. Sifrei Devarim 310:5). שאל אביך ASK THY FATHER — these are the prophets who are termed fathers, as it is stated in the history of Elijah that Elisha exclaimed when Elijah departed, (2 Kings 2:12): “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel!” (cf. Sifrei Devarim 310:3). זקניך THY ELDERS — these are the sages, ויאמרו לך AND THEY WILL TELL THEE the events of the former days:

ASK THY FATHER — “this alludes to those who understand [the events of former days], and so thine elders [and they will tell thee — for they too, understand the past]. The purport thereof is, as he stated, which the Eternal thy G-d hath allotted them etc., since for each portion below, [i.e., each nation on earth] there is a [counterpart] portion on high. And the meaning of the expression [He set the borders of the peoples] according to the number of the children of Israel is that the image of Jacob is inscribed in the Throne of Glory, this being a great secret. And the proof for this is For the portion of the Eternal is His people, this being a great distinction which He hath not dealt so with any nation. Therefore, he said, Do ye thus requite the Eternal, O foolish people and unwise? — a people that has fallen from its distinction because of its foolishness. And the meaning of the expression thy Father that hath gotten thee is, that He created you for His honor and taught you, as he explains, as a father does for his son.” Thus far is the language of Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra. The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious. If so, the meaning of Remember the days of old is that they apply their hearts to remember the six days of Creation, the good He did them at the time of the formation [of the nations], as he goes on to say When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance etc. Consider the years of many generations — that they contemplate in order to know what was done for them during the generations since the Divine Presence dwelled among them, as he proceeds to tell: He found him in a desert land etc. Now, Rashi commented: “He found him in a desert land. He found them [the people of Israel] to be faithful to Him in the desert land when they accepted upon themselves His Torah, His Sovereignty, and His yoke — something that the children of Esau and Ishmael did not do. And in the waste, a howling wilderness — a land of drought and desolation, a place of the jackals’ and ostriches’ cry. Even there they continued their faith [in Him] and did not say to Moses, ‘How can we go out into the wilderness?’” But this is not the purport of the chapter, for Scripture [here] reproves Israel, mentioning the favors which G-d did for them — and they requited them [the favors] with evil instead of good.

"Days" (yemot) — [this word appears] together with yemei (days of), as two forms of one word; and similarly, shenot along with shenei. "Of old" (olam) — time that has passed. "Ask your father" — because he said "remember," [he adds:] if you have forgotten what your forefathers told you, ask them. "And he will tell you" (ve-yagedkha) — like ve-yaged lekha (he will declare to you), and similarly, "for you have given me the Negeb land" (Josh. 15:19), and "my sons have gone from me" (Lam. 1:16). "Your elders" — the meaning is doubled [i.e., a synonym of "your father"], as is the way of eloquent speech.

זכור ימות עולם, After concluding the introductory section of his poem, during the course of which he announced that it was his purpose to proclaim the perfect righteousness of the Lord G’d, Who has proven a loyal G’d showering goodness upon the people of Israel, and Who would not reverse a blessing once bestowed, Moses begins to discuss Israel’s past and future. First, Moses reminds the people that G’d had originally hoped to bestow a brilliant future for all of mankind, i.e. ימות עולם, He had hoped that history would develop in that direction. When this failed to happen, שנות דור ודור, during the years of one generation after another, G’d decided on His pilot project the Jewish people and He raised them to an elevated position among the nations. This is basically what He will do at the end of “history,” [history is perceived as a period of education for the people filling or making a brief appearance on the stage of history. Ed.] Second, G’d had provided the people with optimum conditions to serve Him joyfully while they enjoyed all the material advantages that life on earth has to offer. He gave them a beautiful country, one flowing with milk and honey, to do this in. Instead, they rebelled and repaid good with evil. There can be no question that the people responsible for frustrating G’d’s master plan deserve to be severely punished for this. Third, due to the serious nature of their sin they deserve to be wiped out completely. If it were not for the desecration of the Lord’s name that would be a by-product of the destruction of His chosen people, nothing would have prevented G’d from administering this punishment. Fourth, Moses reveals the reason why the redemption of the Jewish people will occur at the end of what we call “history,’ באחרית היים. Fifth, Moses elaborates somewhat on the nature of this redemption and the retribution G’d will wreak at that time on the other nations of the world. The nations will primarily be punished for what they did to the Jewish people throughout history. These then are the five sections into which the portion of Haazinu is divided, our sages having given us an easy way of reminding ourselves of this division by calling the portion הזי'ו ל'ך. (Rosh Hashanah 31) Moses therefore commences with the words: זכור ימות עולם, “study history and thereby learn to recognise how much G’d had endeavoured to shower good upon you, starting already with first man whom He transferred to Gan Eden, the most exclusive environment on earth. בינו שנות דור ודור, you will then understand what amount of goodness G’d “squandered” on successive generations who did not deserve it. These generations of mankind, instead of appreciating it, did their best to ruin the universe until G’d was forced to put an end to them by bringing on the deluge.

זכר ימות עולם, "Remember the days of yore, etc." Moses again makes four divisions corresponding to the four divisions he made in the previous verse. Where he had spoken of "your father" in the previous verse, i.e. an allusion to G'd the Creator, he now says "remember the days of yore," i.e. the six days of creation. Those were the days in which G'd manifested Himself as extremely active. Corresponding to the words קנך, "the One Who owns you" in the previous verse, words which were meant to allude to the Exodus from Egypt and other acts of kindness by G'd for Israel, Moses now says בינו שנות דור ודור, that the Israelites should examine the happenings during the two generations in question, i.e the generation of the Exodus and the generation of Israelites who did enter the Holy Land. By reviewing these two periods in our history we can understand by what right G'd considers Himself as "owning" us. Concerning the word עשך, "who has made you," which Moses referred to in the previous verse, something we described as the supreme improvement G'd made in the condition of man (Israel) [since the sin in Gan Eden. Ed.] when He granted the Jewish people His presence on a regular basis, Moses now says שאל אביך ויגדך, "ask your father and he will tell you;" the "father" in this case is a simile for the prophets whom G'd provided for us to consult with. Finally, concerning the fourth section of the previous verse, ויכננך, the automatic entrance card to our hereafter, Moses now says זקניך ויאמרו לך, "your elders and they will tell you." Moses refers to the scholars of the Jewish people who are familiar with the preparatory steps necessary to safeguard our entitlement to life in the hereafter.

זכור ימות עולם, “remember the days of old;” Moses now proceeds to remind the people of a whole list of acts of loving kindness G-d had performed for them (B’chor shor) בינו שנות דור ודור, “consider the years of many generations.” G-d had prepared a specific land on earth for the Jewish people already long before they had come into existence. (B’chor shor)

זכור ימות עולם, “Remember the days of yore;” Moses asks the people to remember all the good G’d had done for the Jewish people ever since the creation; i.e. בהנחל עליון גוים, “when the Supreme One gave as inheritance to the nations, etc.” בינו שנות דור ודור, “understand the years of generation after generation.” They should understand what occurred ever since the Shechinah made its home within them. This is reflected in ימצאהו בארץ מדבר, “when He found it (the people) in a land of desolation.” The word יצב in יצב גבולות עמים, is to be understood as an infinitive (see Ibn Ezra) similar in meaning to the word להציב. We find the word דבר, i.e. dabber, also used as an infinitive in לא ידעתי דבר (Jeremiah 1,8). The meaning of the full verse then is: “when G’d assigned to the various nations lands as their respective inheritance, and when He separated their languages, as described about the descendants of Noach in Genesis chapter 11, etc.” You will find that in that chapter 70 descendants of Noach are listed. These are the founders of the 70 nations the sages always speak of. You will reflect on the fact that when your patriarch Yaakov descended to Egypt his clan comprised 70 members born to him or his children. G’d did not select for His own inheritance more than these 70 people whom He set apart to become His people. This is the meaning of the words כי חלק ה' עמו, “for Hashem’s portion is His people” (verse 9). Some commentators explain the words גבולות עמים which we translated as “the nations’ boundaries” to mean instead: “the diagonal lines assigned to the world,” i.e. the division of the globe into 12 areas governed by different constellations. The words: “for His people are G’d’s share,” would then refer to the fact that the fate of the Jewish people is not governed by such constellations, but that G’d personally decides on the fates of individual Jews. This verse then would be the clearest proof that the fates of the Jewish people are not subject to the influences of the stars but are decided by higher forces. No other nation has achieved such a status, as is spelled out by David in Psalms 147,20: “He did not do so for any other nation.”

זכור ימות עולם, before you were even born G’d had already prepared your ancestral land for you.

זכור ימות עולם, “remember the days of old;” now Moses begins to list the many acts of kindness G–d had performed for His people; בינו שנות דור ודור, “reflect with intelligence about the years of many generations.” I, G–d, had provided for this nation long before they came into existence as a nation.” The details will be explained in the following verses.

When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He separated the children of men, He set the borders of the nations according to the number of the children of Israel.

בהנחל עליון גוים WHEN THE MOST HIGH DIVIDED TO THE NATIONS THEIR INHERITANCE — when the Holy One, blessed be He gave those who provoked Him to anger their inheritance, He afterwards caused the flood to pass over them and He drowned them (Sifrei Devarim 311:1) בהפרידו בני אדם WHEN HE SEPARATED THE SONS OF ADAM — i.e. when He scattered the generation which witnessed the separation of races, He also had the power to remove them from the world, yet He did not do so, but יצב גבלת עמים HE FIRMLY ESTABLISHED THE BOUNDARIES OF THE NATIONS — He let them (the peoples) remain in existence and did not destroy them, למספר בני ישראל ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL — i.e. because of the number of the children of Israel that were in future to descend from Shem’s sons, and in accordance with the number of seventy souls of the children of Israel who went down to Egypt He firmly established גבלת עמים THE NATIONS ACCORDING TO THEIR BOUNDARIES — i.e. seventy separate nations (cf. Sifrei Devarim 311:5).

"When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance" (be-hanchal Elyon goyim). The commentators have said this refers to the generation of the dispersion, when the whole earth was scattered — for then Hashem decreed that the land of the seven nations would belong to Israel and that it would suffice for their number; therefore, "according to the number of the children of Israel." "He set" (yatzev) — some say this is a verbal noun, like "behold, I do not know how to speak" (Jer. 1:6). Others say it is a future verb used in place of a past, like "they made a calf at Horeb" (Ps. 106:19). But what seems correct to me is that "ask your father" alludes to those who understand, and likewise "your elders" — and the meaning is as stated in "which Hashem your God has divided" (Deut. 4:19), for to each lower portion there is a corresponding higher portion. The meaning of "according to the number of the children of Israel" — as our Sages of blessed memory taught, the form of our forefather Jacob is engraved upon the Throne of Glory, which is a great secret. The proof is "for Hashem's portion is His people" — and this is the great distinction, the like of which He did not do for any other nation. Therefore it says, "Is this how you repay Hashem? O people foolish and unwise" — they who have fallen from their high station through their folly. And this is the meaning of "your father created you," for He created him for His honor and taught him, as will be explained in the manner of a father with his son.

יצב גבולות עמים, after the tower of Babylon episode, when mankind had lived in a single community, G’d separated them, dividing them up, and established territorial boundaries for the various new nations. Instead of destroying the people who had engaged in building the tower as a challenge to G’d, He did not destroy them as He had the generation of the deluge, but limited their future scope of influence, by assigning only clearly marked territories within which they could be sovereign. למספר בני ישראל. For the sake of the Children of Israel who were few in numbers, and who would eventually emerge from among these nations. Proof of all this is כי חלק ה' עמו, that G’d has no special claim on any nation other than the people of Israel. All the other nations worship alien deities. Moses explains that had it not been for the fact that G’d knew that the people of Israel would emerge eventually from among one of these nations, He would have wiped out all the people involved in the building of the tower.

בהנחל עליון גוים, "When the Supreme One gave nations their inheritance, etc." This is a reference to the time when G'd assigned "guardian angels" for the various Gentile nations to represent them at the celestial court. This is an allusion to the fact that G'd considered these nations as inferior so that He did not want to relate to them directly but only by means of an intermediary. בהפרידו בני אדם, "when He separated the children of man." The meaning is that G'd did not deliver all the nations into the hands of a single "deputy," i.e. a minister appointed by G'd to deal with them. Rather He appointed different "ministers" to be in charge of the fates of the various nations. The manner in which G'd went about doing this when He established the borders of the various nations was that He took into consideration the needs of the people of Israel. We must remember that when G'd created the souls He planted them originally in one of two trees. One of these trees is a "good" tree, the other is an "evil" tree. The good tree is the one from which the soul of Adam emanated, whereas the other "tree" is a simile for Samael, the symbol of wicked man. Once Adam sinned and the previous division between good and evil became eroded so that good and evil began to appear intertwined, even the offspring of Adam began to produce wicked souls until eventually one totally pure soul, that of Jacob, emerged. From that time onwards the good tree became clearly identifiable once again. This is why the Talmud in Baba Metzia 84 tells us that the beauty of Jacob's soul was comparable to that of Adam before the sin. The "good" tree we are speaking of has 70 branches corresponding to the number of people who descended to Egypt with Jacob. Accordingly, when G'd separated the various nations from one another, He divided them into 70 to correspond to the seventy branches of sanctity. The idea underlying this division was to enable each branch of sanctity in the world to be able to rule over its spiritually negative counterpart. This is the mystical dimension of Proverbs 5,5: "her feet descend to death." The idea is that the feet of sanctity stomp on the heads of the קליפה, the spiritually negative forces. In other words, Jacob's branches rule over the nations of the world. Moses continues with, כי חלק ה׳ עמו "for G'd's portion is His people," meaning that inasmuch as G'd has chosen the Jewish people to be governed by Himself directly and has thus elevated Israel over the other nations, He thereby rules over mankind as a whole. The reference of חלק ה׳ עמו refers to Israel after they had received the Torah when they became fit to be called the people of G'd. Moses adds יעקב חבל נחלתו, "Jacob is the measure of His inheritance." The word חבל refers to the most important part of that inheritance. This is an allusion to the quotation from Baba Metzia 84 about the beauty of Jacob matching that of original man, Adam. Moses also had in mind the fact that there are two categories of so...

בהנחל עליון גוים, “When the Most High gave to the gentile nations, etc.;” He allocated to each nation its territory on earth. בהפרידו בני אדם, “at the time when He separated the children of man,” i.e. after the destruction of the Tower they had built. (Genesis chapter 11, 19) יצב גבולות עמים למספר בני ישראל, “He set the borders of the peoples according to the number of the Children of Israel.” He set aside 12 portions of land for the as yet unborn 12 founding fathers of the Jewish nation. There is a tradition that the twelve sons of Canaan (listed in Genesis chapter 10, where eleven have been named) who used to be slaves of the descendants of Shem, son of Noach, as per the curse of their grandfather Noach, received the lands which in due course were taken over from them by the 12 tribes of Israel under the leadership of Joshua. When the Israelites took over, the former inhabitants had no legal claim against the at all, as whatever slaves “own,” is really the property of their masters, and seeing that the Israelites were descendants of Shem, the Canaanites’ master, they had not had any title to that land ever. It is not surprising that one these tribes of Canaan split into two, during the approximately 300 years between the end of the deluge and the time of Avraham. The author has mentioned this tradition already in his commentary on Leviticus 20,24.

When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of man. From now on, [the Torah] began to tell of the kindnesses that the Holy One, blessed be He, did for Israel with greater abundance than for all the nations, and showed that Israel is equivalent to all of them. Regarding this it says, When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He divided the world as an inheritance to all the nations at that time, He separated and distinguished Abraham from them and said to him, Go forth from your land (Genesis 12:1). This is what it means by when He separated the sons of man, because you [Israel] are called man and not the [other] nations, and the Holy One, blessed be He, separated them from the nations and took them to one side and established the boundaries of peoples according to the number of the children of Israel — 70 nations corresponding to the 70 souls of Jacob, because in this He showed that each individual among them is equivalent to an entire nation, as explained in the Akeidah, Parashat Beha’alotcha, on the verse I will mention Rahab and Babylon, etc., and of Zion it shall be said, “This man and that man was born in her” (Psalms 87:4–5). “For the Lord’s portion is His people, etc.” This teaches that in three types of numbers, the Holy One, blessed be He, showed the love of Israel, for they are equal to all of existence. Number one: Our ancestors went down to Egypt with 70 souls, corresponding to the 70 nations and the 70 heavenly ministers. About this, it says He established the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel. Number two: The 12 tribes of Israel correspond to the 12 constellations which the Lord apportioned to all the nations, as it is written in the portion of Va’etchanan (4:19), And lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, etc., which the Lord has allotted to all the peoples. Corresponding to this, it says here For the Lord’s portion is His people, meaning that those 12 constellations He gave as a portion to all the nations. However, the Lord’s portion is His people, for they too are numbered as the 12 tribes of Israel, share for share, equal to equal. Number three: It is the three worlds that encompass all of existence. About this it says, Jacob is the lot [chevel] of His inheritance. Like a triple-stranded rope [chevel], so He established the three Patriarchs as the foundation for all existence.

בהפרידו בני אדם, “when He separated the various children of man from one another.” Some commentators feel that Moses was speaking about the generation that built the Tower, and that dispersed after their languages had been confused. יצב גבולות עמים, “He established the boundaries of the seven Canaanite nations;” these corresponded in number roughly to the number of the Israelites.

בהנחל עליון גוים, when He assigned to them ancestral lands בהפרידו בני אדם, after the death of Noach and the time of Avraham about which the Torah wrote (Genesis 10,5) “from this point on they separated, branched out by their respective lands, each with its language, etc.” יצב גבולות עמים, twelve descendants of Canaan (Genesis 10,6) mentioned in that context in that chapter of Genesis, corresponding to the eventual 12 tribes of Israel. Canaan and his 11 sons amounted to twelve. (Genesis 10,15-18) The Torah describes the boundaries of the Canaanites as extending from Tzidon in the north to Gerar, near Gaza in the south, and Sodom in the east. This entire region became the land of Israel during the conquest commencing in the days of Joshua, except for the coastal plains inhabited by the Philistines which was conquered many hundreds of years later, and Jerusalem which was captured by David. The Torah does not give details of the boundaries of the territories of any of the other sons of Noach. למספר בני ישראל, matching the number of the Children of Israel.

בהנחל עליון גוים, “when the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance;” בהפרידו בני אדם, ”when He separated the children of men;” during the generation of the Tower (Genesis 11,1-11) At that time, due to the confusion of their languages, each “nation,” i.e. the people who had a language in common, moved away from one another and established separate cultures. This occurred due to the direct intervention of G–d as we know from verse 8 in that chapter. יצב גבולות עמים למספר בני ישראל, “He set the borders of people, relative to the number of the Children of Israel.” He selected the boundaries of the twelve tribes in the land that would be Israel’s in the future. How did He do this? He first allocated the relevant areas to the descendants of Canaan –who were enslaved to the descendants of Shem through Noach’s curse. Seeing that slaves cannot own anything in their own right, they are never more than tenants on that land.- Genesis 10,15-18 lists the genealogy of Canaan, eleven in number, that are relevant in that respect. At least one of the Canaanite families at some point split into two separate families, (“nations”). This was the P’rizi, which therefore has not been listed in the verses we just quoted. The boundaries of the lands occupied by the descendants of Canaan are also spelled out in that chapter in detail. As a result of this we have 12 separate branches of the Canaanite nation matching the 12 tribes of the Israelites at the time of Moses. [Levi did not get an ancestral share, but Joseph, as Yaakov’s firstborn from the wife Rachel he had worked for had two shares, allocated to Menashe and Ephrayim, the sons born to him before Yaakov’s death. The words: למספר בני ישראל, “corresponding to the number of tribes of the Children of Israel,” in our verse make perfect sense therefore.

For the portion of Hashem is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance.

כי חלק ה' עמו FOR THE PORTION OF THE LORD, HIS PEOPLE — Why all this? (Why did He save them from destruction?) because His portion was comprised in them and was destined to come forth. And who is His portion? עמו HIS PEOPLE. And Who is His people? יעקב חבל נחלתו JACOB THE ROPE OF HIS INHERITANCE — and he is the third amongst the patriarchs, who is endowed with three merits: the merit of his grandfather, the merit of his father and his own merit thus altogether three — like a rope (חבל) that is made up of three strands. Only he and his sons became His inheritance, not, however, Ishmael, Abraham’s son, nor Esau, Isaac’s son (cf. Sifrei Devarim 312:3)...

"Portion" (chevel) — like a lot, as in "cords" (chavalim, Ps. 16:6), for one measures the land with a cord.

יעקב חבל נחלתו, for he as well as his sons became servants of the supreme G’d. By contrast, whenever there was a pious and G’d fearing individual among the gentile nations, such piety and belief in G’d was never transmitted to and carried on by the next generation.

כי חלק ה׳ עמו, “for the portion of the Lord is His people.” He took His own share just as all the nations of the earth took a share each. (B’chor shor) יעקב חבל נחלתו, “Yaakov the lot of His inheritance;” there is a repetition here as the word חבל is understood as meaning the same as the word חלק. We find this word used in this sense in Psalms 16.6: חבלים נפלו לי, “tracts of land have fallen to my lot;” the same word is also used as meaning: “inheritance,” as one measures land by using a חבל, “rope.” (B’chor shor)

He provided for their needs in a desert land, and in a desolate place where there is no water; He settled them round about His Shechinah; He taught them the words of the Torah; He guarded them as the apple of their eye.

ימצאהו בארץ מדבר HE FOUND HIM IN A DESERT LAND — for them (Jacob’s sons) he found to be faithful to Him in the desert land, when they accepted His Torah, His sovereignty and His yoke, something that Ishmael and Esau had refused to do, as it is said, (Deuteronomy 33:2) “And He shone from the Seir (Esau) unto them, He appeared from Mount Paran (Ishmael)” (cf. Rashi on that verse). ובתהו ילל ישמן AND IN THE DESOLATE HOWLING SOLITUDE — i.e. in a land of drought and desolation, a place of screeching monsters and ostriches; even there they adhered to their faith and did not say to Moses, “But how can we go out into the wilderness, a place of drought and desolation?” — just as it is stated, (Jeremiah 2:2) “[I remember the loving kindness of your youth, the love of your espousals,] When you went after Me in the wilderness, [in to a land that was not sown]” (cf. Rashi on Exodus 12:39). יסבבנהו HE SURROUNDED HIM — there He surrounded them and encompassed them with the “clouds of Glory”; He surrounded them with the banners on their four sides; he surrounded them by the underside of the mountain (Sinai), which He arched over them like a cask (cf. Sifrei Devarim 313:11). יבוננהו HE INSTRUCTED HIM there in Torah and wisdom. יצרנהו HE GUARDED HIM from snakes, serpents and scorpions and from hostile nations, כאישון עינו AS THE אישון OF HIS EYE — that is the black in the eye from which the light comes. Onkelos, however, rendered ימצאהו by “He provided Him” with all He needed in the wilderness. It took the words to be of the same meaning as, (Numbers 11:22) “[Shall the flocks … be slain for them] to suffice (ומצא) them?” and (Joshua 17:16) “The hill is not enough (ימצא) for us”. יסבבנהו — Onkelos renders this by “He made them abide round about His Divine dwelling place” — the “tent of congregation” in the middle and the divisions of the tribes (lit., the banners) on the four sides.

The expression [He kept him] as the apple of His eye alludes to watchfulness, the verse stating that G-d watched over him as He would shield “His own eye.” Or it may be that the word “man” is missing here: He watched over him as a man shields the apple of his eye, for generally [where there is no specific reference to the contrary, it is assumed that] Scripture speaks of man. There are many similar verses.

"He found him in a desert land" (yimtza'ehu be-eretz midbar). This is the explanation of "your father created you." The meaning of "He found him" — the [divine] glory accompanied them in the wilderness. Furthermore, they were in the desert like a man wandering in a wilderness through which no man had passed, for so it is written, "in a waste howling wilderness" (tohu). "Yell" (yelel) — a place of howling of jackals and ostriches, which makes any listener desolate from their sound. "He encompassed him" (yesovevenu) — through the clouds. "He instructed him" (yevonenehu) — through the Torah. "He guarded him" (yitzrenhu) — from enemies. "As the pupil of His eye" (ke-ishon eino) — I have already explained ishon (pupil). The expression "His eye" is after the manner of human speech, meaning that He would guard them from every enemy and ambush.

ימצאהו בארץ מדבר, in the desert He found that the heart of this nation which He considered His only share among mankind was pure and loyal, as testified to in Jeremiah 2,2 “you followed Me into the desert.” יסובבנהו, to Mount Sinai, as mentioned in Exodus 19,12 when G’d had said to me: והגבלת את העם סביב, “and you will fence in the people around the Mountain.” יבוננהו, as G’d had said to Moses in Exodus 24,12 והתורה והמצוה אשר כתבתי להורותם, “and the Torah and the commandment which I have written in order to instruct them.” יצרנהו, He carefully engirded them from being enslaved to other nations and from being subject to the angel of death, as we have been taught by Eyruvin 54 that the words חרות על הלוחות, are best understood as חירות על הלוחות, freedom on the Tablets, i.e. acceptance of the Torah would result in the immortality of the person observing it totally. כאישון עינו. Just as a man watches carefully over his eyeball after having tended it, so G’d watched over His people. G’d tried to surround the Israelites with layers of protective legislation to counter their natural tendency to be obstinate and “do their own thing.”

ימצאהו בארץ מדבר ובתהו ילל ישימון. "He discovered it in a desert land, in desolation, a howling wilderness." It appears that Moses referred to a thought expressed in Pessachim 119 that the Israelites did not leave Egypt until G'd had made them to be like a fishpond devoid of fish. [the Talmud deals with the meaning of the word וינצלו in Exodus 12,36. Ed.] Finding Israel in the desert was as unlikely as finding fish in the pond referred to. In Rabbi Chayim Vital's Likutey Torah on Parshat Vayera we read that if the Israelites had remained in Egypt at the time of the Exodus they would have remained mired in that impurity forever as they would have descended to the 50th and absolute level of impurity. This is why Moses stresses "where", i.e. in what spiritually low state G'd found the Jewish people. He does not describe the area as מדבר, "a desert," but as ארץ מדבר, "desert land," as the former has absolutely no spiritual content, is completely barren of spiritual values. Moses also said that not only did this land not have much to offer spiritually, but it was תהו ילל ישמון, it was full of spiritually negative influences. Zohar volume one page 16 describes תהו as one of the levels of the קליפה. ילל ישימן are descriptions of similar phenomena. The reason that such phenomena flourish in those environments is the absence of spiritually positive forces. This is a reason why the Torah describes the fact that G'd "discovered" Israel in the desert land in the future tense, to emphasise that unless the Jewish people in that region enjoy the ongoing protection and supervision of G'd, i.e. יסבבנהו יבוננהו, they would be spiritually lost. Moses means that the Exodus was due to the fact that the Jews could not absorb any additional negative influences in Egypt. He protected them at the time He brought the plagues upon the Egyptians. A simple example of this is Exodus 9,6 which tells us that not even the cattle of the Israelites suffered from the plague of pestilence, not to mention the immunity of the Jewish firstborn during the last plague. יבוננהו, "He granted it discernment." Moses refers to the people receiving the Torah which is the source of their insight, the instrument by which G'd preserved the people "like the pupil of His eye" (Compare Proverbs 2,11 תבונה תנצרכה, "understanding will preserve you.") When Moses added the reference to the "pupil of His eye," we are reminded of Zachariah 2,12: "for anyone who harms you (the Jewish people) is as if he harmed the pupil of his own eye." The prophet meant that an eye cannot tolerate being touched by the finger of man. The reason is that whereas the eyeball is scrupulously clean, man's fingers are not. The eye symbolises spirituality, the finger, physicality. The former does not like to be touched by the latter. This is the mystical dimension of Rabbi Shimon's saying in the Zohar volume two page 211: "woe to the soul that has to suffer from alien fire." He viewed the fire which enters the soul to punish i...

ימצאהו בארץ מדבר, “He found him (Israel) in a desolate land.” I believe that the reason Moses said: “in a desolate land,” i.e. ארץ מדבר instead of simply: מדבר, is that the clouds representing the attribute כבוד joined the people at the time they entered the desert, מדבר. The meaning of the words בארץ מדבר then is: “in a land adjoining a land, i.e. cultivated, inhabited areas.” You will find something similar in the Torah’s description of the Jewish people’s departure from Egypt, when the Torah writes (Exodus 3,20-21) “they journeyed from Sukkot and they encamped in Eytam, at the edge of the desert, בקצה המדבר. The Torah adds: “and the Lord would walk with them both by day and by night.” The meaning of the words ימצאהו then is twofold: it can mean “He found them,” i.e. the word is derived from מצא, or it can mean “supplied, “ i.e. ספק.“ Onkelos appears to have understood it as meaning the latter when he translated ספיק צרכיהון בארעא מדברא, “He supplied their needs in a desert-like country.” Onkelos means that the attribute כבוד found the Jewish people when they were about to enter a desert-like country and proceeded to supply their needs. ובתוהו ילל ישמון, “in desolation, a howling wilderness.” Moses recalls that when the people reached this point in their journey, far from civilisation, the matzot (dough) which they had slung over their shoulders when they left Egypt (Exodus 12,39) were exhausted. יסובבנהו, “He circled it.” He surrounded the Jewish people with the clouds of glory. According to Onkelos who translates as אשרינון סחור לשכנתיה, the meaning is: “He surrounded them with flags from four sides.” The verse then explains that the Jewish camps in Sinai were like a circle with the Shechinah among them; this is also the meaning of Song of Songs 7,1: כמחולות המחנים, “with the camps encircling.” The author speaks of two camps, i.e. the camp of the Israelites and that of the angels. The latter had descended from their celestial regions with the Shechinah (Bamidbar Rabbah 2,2). This is also alluded to in Taanit 31 that at some time in the future G’d will arrange for a circle for the righteous in Gan Eden and His attribute כבוד will be amongst them. יבוננהו, “He granted insights to it,” He enabled them to understand things by means of the Torah. יצרנהו, “He preserved it;” He protected them against the attack by Amalek and attacks from the other nations. כאישון עינו. “as the pupil of His eye.” The pupil of the eye is known in classical Hebrew as אישון. The reason is that it contains within it something which resembles a human being, איש. The word, or rather the ending ון, suggests something small, just as the word שבתון in the expression שבת שבתון suggests a diminution of the Sabbath, something akin to but not quite like the Sabbath. Whereas the word שבת describes the principal parts of the Sabbath, the word שבתון describes an addition to the Sabbath, something secondary and therefore something “smaller.” We find a similar construction in אמנון, אמנינון in Samuel II 13,20 where it describes Amnon being put down, being degraded as a brother, seeing he had not acted as a brother should (compare Kimchi).

“He found him in a desert land,” etc. This verse can be interpreted as praise for Israel, saying that even in the desert land, a place of chaos, they followed after Him, blessed be He, as it is written I remember for your sake the devotion of your youth, how you followed Me in the wilderness (Jeremiah 2:2), as Rashi explains. However, according to the context of the passage which comes to rebuke them, as it is written For I know your rebellion and your stiff neck (Deuteronomy 31:27), we can say that it speaks of their disgrace, for it is known that in the land of Egypt they were wicked and sinful to God, as is found in Ezekiel (20:5-7): And I made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt… and I said to them: “Each of you, cast away the detestable things of your eyes”… but they did not wish to listen. This connects to the rebukes above, saying that despite all the superior qualities I bestowed upon you above all nations, nevertheless you did not cleave to Me. Furthermore, even when you were in the iron furnace in the land of Egypt, those sufferings did not bring you back to the right path, the food was still in their mouths (Psalms 78:30). But when He brought them out to the desert, a place of chaos, howling desolation, with no seed or fig, no bread to eat, no water to drink, then their uncircumcised hearts were humbled and they returned to God. This is what is meant by He found him in a desert land — not before then, even though they suffered afflictions in Egypt. God did not find their hearts perfect with Him except in the desert, due to the great pressure of hunger and thirst. Then God found their hearts perfect with Him, then He surrounded him with His clouds of glory, He instructed him with knowledge, understanding, and wisdom through the giving of the Torah, and He protected him as the pupil of His eye — not fleshly eyes, but His, blessed be He. And Ramban explained that this refers to man, just as a person guards the pupil of his eye. And as a hint, it alludes to the Torah, which was written in black fire upon white fire, like this eye that has black and white. So too, the Torah has revealed aspects like the appearance of white, and hidden aspects like the appearance of black. Therefore, the Holy One, Blessed Be He, protects them [Israel] just as they protect the Torah, which is compared to the pupil of an eye, for these two types of protection depend on each other. “As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovering over its young.” Here, the eagle is above and the fledglings below, and afterward He spreads His wings, takes him, bears him on His pinions — now the fledglings are above the eagle. This aligns with the Midrash (Song of Songs Rabbah 3:21) cited by Ramban in Parashat Chayei Sarah (24:1), that Israel is called daughter, sister, and mother, etc. For apparently this is not in order of progression. But it seems that initially the Holy One, blessed be He, called Israel “daughter” — Listen, daughter, etc. (Psalms 45:11). Just as a mother rules over her daughter, so the Holy One, blessed be He, rules over Israel. Afterward, He called them “my sister,” for just as brothers and sisters are equal, so the righteous become like partners with the Holy One, blessed be He. And afterward, He called them “mother,” for just as a mother rules over her daughter, so a righteous person rules through fear of God, as our Sages said (Moed Katan 16b): “The Holy One, blessed be He, said: ‘Who rules over Me? The righteous,’” etc. We have already explained all this in Parashat Yitro (19:4) on the verse I bore you on eagles’ wings, etc. And if you will find a difficulty [to reconcile this], behold there it explains the verse I bore you on eagles’ wings as referring to when He calls them “daughter,” as a nursemaid carries an infant. And here you must interpret takes him, bears him on His pinions to mean that the righteous rule through fear of God. The answer is that there He mentioned the wings but not on His body, while here He mentioned His pinions [evrato] instead of wings. And I found explicitly written in the words of the commentators that pinions refers to the feathers directly on His body, and this truly indicates that the Holy One, blessed be He, has given the righteous authority over Him, for He decrees a decree and the righteous person nullifies it. These two extremes are mentioned here, and He omitted the middle position between these two extremes. And if you want to interpret “He spreads His wings, takes him” — meaning “to Him” and not “upon Him,” here are hinted all three levels in their order. For initially, He hovers over His young — the young are below Him, blessed be He; this is when He called them “daughter.” Afterward, He spreads His wings, takes him to Him — similar to Him; this is when He called them “My sister.” And afterward, He carries him on His pinions — the young are above Him, blessed be He, as it were; this is when He called them “mother.” Just as these three levels are mentioned in the portion of Yitro, examine the entire matter there and you will find it well explained.

ימצאהו, as when the Torah had written in Numbers 11,22 ומצא להם, the reference is to G’d being the “supplier,” i.e. “finding” their needs for them. יסובבנהו, with His protective angels, as mentioned in Psalms 34,8 “the angel of the Lord camps around those who fear Him.” We also have a liturgical poem recited on the second Day of Rosh Hashanah which revolves around this theme. [the poem is attributed to Rabbi Shimon bar Yitzchok. Ed.] According to the plain meaning of the text the function of the heavenly cloud was only to provide a barrier in front of the people. It would therefore be erroneous to understand Moses as saying that this cloud enveloped the camp of the Israelites. This had been spelled out quite clearly in Exodus 13,21. Furthermore, the word יצרנהו is basically a repetition, i.e. reinforcement of the word יסובבנהו, כאישון עינו, the cloud, i.e. as G’d’s agent had performed for the Jewish people at the time what the eyelid does for the eye, (pupil ) i.e. it provided a protective cover. The reason it is called אישון, suggesting something dark, is that when the eyelid covers the eye the eye becomes inoperative, its owner remains in darkness. Or, the very fact that the pupil looks black is enough reason for it to be called אישון. We find the word used in Psalms 17,8 where the psalmist implores G’d to protect him as one would the “apple” (אישון) of one’s eye. In Zecharyah 2,12 it is referred to as בבת עין, the part of the eye with which we see.

ימצאהו בארץ מדבר, “He found him in a desert region.” The word I have underlined is equivalent to yamtzieyhu, meaning: “He provided all their needs for them in that desert. He provided water, heavenly bread, manna, quails (meat) and made their garments resist decay. (Compare Deuteronomy 8,4.) ובתהו ילל ישימון, “and in an empty howling waste, etc.” in that very region which harbors only jackals and ostriches, as we know from Micah 1,8 which are constantly lamenting, I provided all that could be wished for. An alternate interpretation for the expression: ימצאהו בארץ מדבר. In this area where one could not logically have expected to find anything worth while, Israel found a real treasure i.e. the Torah which the Lord gave them. ובתהו ילל ישימון, “as long as they had not received the Torah that region had been a completely arid wasteland for them.” Once they received the Torah, it was as if they had been given the gift of light. This is why Solomon said in Proverbs 6,23: כי נר מצוה ותורה אור, “for the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is a light. יסובבנהו, ”He enclosed it (protectively) by clouds;” Another interpretation: “He surrounded it with an upside down turned mountain, Sinai, like a bucket.” (compare Talmud, tractate Shabbat folio 88). יבוננהו, “He provided them with insights;” through the Torah. Alternate interpretation: based on the root: בנה, “to build”, “He provided them with a building,” i.e. the Tabernacle. יצרנהו כאישון עינו, “He kept him as the apple of His eye.”

Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, hovering over its young — it spread its wings, receiving them, bearing them upon the strength of its pinions.

כנשר יעיר קנו AS AN EAGLE STIRRETH UP ITS NEST — He guided them with mercy and pity like the eagle which is full of pity towards his young and does not enter its nest suddenly — before it beats and flaps with its wings above its young passing between tree and tree, between branch and branch, in order that its young may awake and have enough strength to receive it (Sifrei Devarim 314:1). יעיר קנו means, AWAKENS ITS YOUNG (i.e. קן, “nest” is a term for young birds). על גוזליו ירחף IT HOVERETH OVER ITS YOUNG — it does not press heavily upon them, but hovers above them — touching them and yet not touching them. So too, the Holy One, blessed be He, (Job. 37:23) “The Almighty, we did not find Him to be too powerful in strength”: when He came to give the Torah to Israel, He did not reveal Himself from one side, (thus concentrating His power at one point), but from four sides, as it is said, (Deuteronomy 33:2) “The Lord came from Sinai, and shone forth from Seir unto them; He appeared from Mount Paran"; also (Habakkuk 3:3) “God came from Teman” — this is the fourth side (Sifrei Devarim 314:1). יפרש כנפיו יקחהו [AS AN EAGLE …] SPREADETH ABROAD ITS WINGS, TAKETH IT — When it comes to remove them (the young) from one place to another, it does not take them with its claws, as other birds do: because other birds are afraid of the eagle that soars so high and flies above them, therefore they carry them (the young) by their (the mother’s) claws for fear of the eagle. But the eagle is afraid only of an arrow, therefore it carries them (the young) on its wings, saying, “It is better that the arrow pierce me than that it should pierce my young”. So, too, the Holy One, blessed be He, says, (Exodus 19:4) “I bare you as on eagles wings” (Mekhilta): when the Egyptians marched after them and overtook them at the Red Sea, they threw arrows and stone missiles at them, whereupon at once “The angel of God moved … and came between the camp of Egypt [and the camp of Israel]” that it might receive the arrows etc. (Exodus 14:19—20 And Rashi thereon).

"As an eagle stirs up its nest" (ke-nesher ya'ir kino). This is a transitive verb, and the meaning is that He led them from place to place. "Its fledglings" (gozalav) — these are the young ones; and similarly, "a turtledove and a fledgling" (ve-gozal, Gen. 15:9). The word gozal is a general noun together with a pronominal suffix denoting the chicks, like tzipor (bird). "He hovers" (yerachef) — as they journeyed, from the root merakhefet (hovering, Gen. 1:2); and similarly, the cloud was over them as they journeyed. "He spread His wings, He took him" (yifros kenahav yikachehu) — He took each and every fledgling until He bore it on His pinion, for it had no strength to fly — this is its explanation. But the interpretation of "on the wings of eagles" (Ex. 19:4) connects with "and I brought you to Myself" — meaning that they went out with a high hand and came quickly to Mount Sinai, as in the sense of "Who are these that fly like a cloud?" (Isa. 60:8).

כנשר יעיר קנו, may it be His will that just as at Sinai it had been His intention to make you immortal, and He would have succeeded if the sin of the golden calf had not intervened, He will do so once more in the future, when Israel/Moses’ prayer in this respect will be granted. This is what Zecharyah 10,8 spoke about when he said: אשרקה להם ואקבצם כי פדיתים, “I will whistle to them and gather them, for I will redeem them.” על גוזליו ירחף, as we read I Isaiah 49,22 הנה אשא על גוים ידי, ועל עמים ארים נסי, והביאו בניך בחצן, “I will raise My hand to nations, and lift up My ensign to peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosoms, etc.” יפרוש כנפיו יקחהו, as per Isaiah 27,12 ואתם תלוקטו לאחד אחד בני ישראל, “and you shall be picked up one by one, O Children of Israel.” ישאהו על אברתו, as in Isaiah 60,8 מי אלה כעב תעופנה, “who are these who fly like a thick cloud?”

כנשר יעיר קנו, "He was like an eagle rousing its nest, etc." Our sages in the Sifri pursued their own path in interpreting this verse; we ourselves also pursue our own path based on Vayikra Rabbah 17,4 discussing the affliction of Tzoraat. As long as the Israelites serve the merciful judge (in a general way), G'd does not immediately afflict the persons but rather the קן, property, such as the houses of the Israelites. If this proves ineffectual, G'd affflicts the clothing, and only as a last resort does He afflict the body of the sinner. Moses uses the simile of the eagle to show that just as the eagle rouses its young first, so G'd rouses the children of man to warn that man has to put his spiritual house in order. Any afflictions are in keeping with the victim's ability to endure them. Compare Bereshit Rabbah 55,2 that G'd never subjects man to a trial which is beyond his capacity to survive intact spiritually. יפרש כנפיו יקחהו, "spreading its wings and taking it." We may understand this as being analogous to Sifri Devarim 3,29 that G'd's right hand is stretched out to welcome the repentant sinners. The previous arousal described in our verse leads to G'd stretching out His hand to those who have responded to the arousal. Moses uses the future tense when saying יפרש, "He will spread out," to indicate that the "whole reason G'd spreads out His wings" in the first place is in order to be able to "catch" the penitents. Were it not for the fact that He hopes for the Israelites to return to Him in penitence, He would not indulge in the gestures described here by Moses. ישאהו על אברתו, "He will carry it on His pinions." This may be understood by reference to the Zohar volume one page 92 explaining Kohelet 10,20: "some winged creature may betray the matter." According to the Zohar there is a class of angels known as בעלי כנפים, "winged creatures." It is their task to relate to the heavenly regions every worthwhile thing a Jew has uttered and to use its wings for that purpose. Moses referred to G'd, i.e. His messengers, carrying such words which please the Lord to the celestial regions.

כנשר יעיר קנו, “Like an eagle arousing its nest;” Moses compares G’d’s attribute כבוד to the eagle, the king of the birds. Similarly, the attribute כבוד is perceived as the “king” of all the disembodied spirits. Just as the eagle takes its young, carrying them on top of its wings, guiding them to various places, so G’d alone, guides the Jewish people (in the desert). He did not employ the help or assistance of any other deity. We have a similar verse in Psalms 73,25: “Whom else do I have in heaven except You?” Assaph means that we rely neither on angels nor any other celestial forces but only on G’d directly. He goes on saying: “having You I want no one on earth.” Furthermore, elaborating on the comparison with the eagle, “just a the eagle renews itself from time to time, so Israel does renew itself from time to time.” The author cites Isaiah 40,31 יעלו אבר כנשרים as meaning that the eagle produces new wings from time to time. He quotes Psalms 103,5 as confirmation of the verse in Isaiah.

יעיר קנו, who awakens his nestlings and moves them from its nest in order to carry them on its wings; ישאהו על אברתו, the expression יעיר for rousing also occurs in Isaiah 41,25 הערותי מצפון ויאת, “I have roused him from the north and he has come;” it also occurs in Isaiah 13,17הנני מעיר עליכם, “here I am about to stir up against you, etc.” Transferring someone or something from one location to another is called הערה, “pouring out,” in modern parlance. Awakening the one to be transported is a precondition to the transfer.

Hashem alone is destined to settle them in the world that is destined to be renewed, and no worship of idols will endure before Him.

ה׳ בדד ינחנו THE LORD ALONE GUIDED THEM — i.e. He guided them in the wilderness alone (unassisted) and yet in security, ואין עמו אל נכר AND THERE WAS NO STRANGE GOD WITH HIM — for not one of the gods of the other peoples possessed the power to display its might and to war with them. — Our Rabbis, however, explained it as a promise referring to the future (cf. Sifrei Devarim 315), and so, too, does Onkelos render it. But I say that they (the statements of this chapter) are words of reproof which he said with the view of calling heaven and earth as witnesses against them, and also in order that this song (cf. Deuteronomy 31:21) should be witness, because He knew (Deuteronomy 31:29) that they would in future prove faithless and would bear in mind neither the past (lit., the first) deeds that He performed for them nor those that would come to pass (lit., that would be born), which at a future time He would do for them. For this reason it is necessary to make the text fit in with this and with that (the past and the future). Indeed, the whole section is to be connected with (v. 7) “Remember the days of old (i.e., the past), consider the years of generation after generation” (the future) (cf. Rashi on that verse): Thus has He done for them and thus will He in the future do for them — all this they ought to bear in mind.

THE ETERNAL ALONE DID LEAD HIM — G-d dwells in Israel securely alone; AND THERE WAS NOT WITH HIM — the pronoun referring either to G-d or Israel — ANY STRANGE GOD. The purport is that Israel has no prince or ruler of all the bnei ha’elohim that guides the nation or assists in its guidance except for G-d alone, for it [Israel] is His portion and His inheritance, as he mentioned. I have already written on this subject. And in the Sifre we find: “The Eternal alone did lead him. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: Just as you dwelled alone in this world and derived no benefit from the nations, so will I place you alone in the World to Come and none of the nations will benefit from you at all. And there was not with him any strange god — none of the princes of the nations of the world will have the right to come and dominate you. This is similar to what is said, and when I go forth, lo, the prince of Greece shall come; but the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me; nevertheless I will declare unto thee that which is inscribed in the writing of truth etc.”

"Hashem alone guided him" (badad yanchenhu). Hashem alone — in the sense of "by the command of Hashem they camped and journeyed" (Num. 9:20) — and Hashem has no partner. It is also possible that badad refers to Israel, as in "behold, a people that dwells alone" (Num. 23:9). "And there was no foreign god with him" — with Israel; and the proof for this interpretation is [the following verse], "He made them jealous with strangers."

ה' בדד ינחנו, as per Jeremiah 46,28 כי אעשה כלה בכל הגויים...ואותך לא אעשה כלה, “though I will wipe out all the other nations …you I will not wipe out.” אין עמו אל נכר, as per Tzefaniah 3,9 and Isaiah 54,5, both of whom emphasise this exclusive nature of G’d.

ה׳ בדד ינחנו, "The Lord alone guided it, etc." This may be understood on the basis of Bereshit Rabbah 38,6 commenting on Hoseah 4,17: חבור עצבים אפרים הנח לו, "Ephrayim is addicted to images; let him be." According to the view of the Midrash as long as the Israelites will live peacefully with one another and they maintain unity, even the sin of idolatry may be allowed to fester, i.e. הנח לו. The meaning of the word is similar to the way it is used in Esther 2,18 "the king made a הנחה," an amnesty of outstanding taxes to certain of his provinces. The reason Moses chose the expression בדד, is to relate it to the word בד, alone, no longer part of a foreign culture, G'd will lead it. ואין עמו אל נכר. "No other deity is with Him." This means that though they are idol worshipers, G'd does not account this sin for them. The words אין עמו must be understood similarly to the way our sages in Rosh Hashanah 30 interpreted Jeremiah 30,1 דרש אין לו, "whom no one seeks out." The Talmud translates instead: "it is not investigated" i.e. brought to one's attention (at that time). This proves that it merits investigation nonetheless. [The subject matter is the use of the Lulav even after the destruction of the Temple on all seven days, as a reminder of former times. Ed.] Here too, the sin of idolatry certainly deserves investigation and judgment but not at this time. [I confess that I find this interpretation of אין עמו אל נכר very hard to understand. Why is there a need to depart from the plain meaning? Ed.] We may also understand the verse as follows: "When does G'd alone guide the fortunes of the Jewish people? When they have rid themselves of all alien deities."

בדד ינחנו, “the Lord all by Himself did lead him;” in the Sifri, the word ינחנו is perceived as derived from מנוחה “rest;” G-d is understood by Moses as promising that in the future the Jewish people will experience rest and contentment in the world.

“The Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.” In Tractate Berachot (6), they interpreted the verse You have declared the Lord today (Deuteronomy 27:17). You have made Me a unique treasure in the world, as it is said (Deuteronomy 6:4), Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. And the Lord has declared you, etc. (Deuteronomy 27:18), to make you a unique treasure in the world, as it is said (1 Chronicles 17:21), And who is like Your people Israel, one nation in the earth. This is what is meant by The Lord alone did lead him — meaning that He made Israel a unique treasure in the world, for He led them alone, as it is written (Numbers 23:9), Lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone. And alone refers to Israel, whom He separated from the nations to be one people dedicated to Him, blessed be He. They alone are separate, not the other nations. But this is conditional on there was no strange god with him — with Israel — meaning that they would make Him, blessed be He, a unique treasure in the world. Then God has made the one as well as the other (Ecclesiastes 7:14).

ה' בדד, He alone took the Jewish people out of Egypt and led them to the Land of Israel.

He settled them upon the heights of the land and fed them with the spoil of their enemies; He gave them the spoil of the rulers of cities, and the wealth of the inhabitants of mighty fortresses.

ירכבהו על במתי ארץ HE MADE HIM RIDE ON THE HIGH PLACES OF THE EARTH — The entire text (vv. 13 and 14) is to be understood metaphorically as the Targum has it (i.e., as referring to Eretz Israel). ירכבהו וגו׳ HE MADE HIM RIDE [UPON THE HIGH PLACES] — This expression is used because the land of Israel is higher than all other countries (Sifrei Devarim 316:1). ויאכל תנובת שדי THAT HE MIGHT EAT THE PRODUCE OF THE FIELDS — This refers to the fruits of the land of Israel which are quicker to shoot (נוב) and to ripen than all the fruits of other countries (Sifrei Devarim 316:2). וינקהו דבש מסלע AND HE MADE HIM SUCK HONEY OUT OF THE ROCK — Indeed it once happened that a man said to his son In Sichnin (a town in Galilee): “Bring me dried figs from the cask”. He went and found the honey flowing over its brim. He said to him, “But this is a vat of honey (not of figs)”. Thereupon he said to him: “Put your hands deep into it and you will bring up figs from it” (Sifrei Devarim 316:3). במתי ארץ is an expression denoting height. שדי has the same meaning as שדה, field. מחלמיש צור (lit., out of the flint of the rock) — The meaning is: the strength and the hardness of the rock. — When it is not connected with the following word (that is, when it is used in the absolute state) it is vowelled חַלָּמִישׁ (as in Deuteronomy 8:15). whilst when it is connected (is in the construct state) it is punctuated חַלְמִישׁ as here. ושמן מחלמיש צור AND OIL OUT OF THE FLINTY ROCK — this refers to the olives of Giscala (a place in Galilee) (Sifrei Devarim 316:4).

"The high places" (bamotei) — with a vav, not varying from the root, as in "upon their high places you shall tread" (Deut. 33:29) — there is none like it — and also "and with the wicked" (some manuscripts read: the wealthy) "in his death" (bamotav, Isa. 53:9).

ירכיבהו על במתי ארץ, this is something He has to do seeing that He did not achieve the desired result at the time He gave the Torah to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. He will make a second attempt at achieving this as we know from Psalms 105,45 בעבור ישמרו חקיו, “in order that they may observe His statutes.” G’d gave them the land of nations in order that they keep His statutes.” Ezekiel 20,6 extols the land of Israel as ארץ צבי, the choicest of all the countries ויאכל תנובות שדי, Moses mentions only the eating, not referring to the labour in the fields leading up to this, eventually. He meant that it would not take any effort to reach the state of eating the produce the land has to offer. Compare Joshua 24,13 “vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant you are eating from.”

ירכיבהו על במותי ארץ, He makes him ride on the heights of the earth." This verse is not the continuation of what has been written immediately before, but it is the beginning of a new subject and the verse belongs to what follows. The basic subject being introduced here is וישמן ישורון, "Yeshurun became fat and kicked."

ירכיבהו על במותי ארץ, “He would make him ride on the high places on the earth;” we have a parallel of this promise in Isaiah 58,14: והרכבתיך על במותיך תדרוך, “I’ll set you astride the heights of the earth.” במותי ארץ, “the princes of the earth;” as in Deuteronomy 33 29: ואתה על במותימו תדרוך, “and you shall tread on their high places.” The letter ו is extraneous, and the letter מ should have a short vowel kametz, chataf kametz. ויניקהו דבש מסלע, “He made him suck honey from a rock;” this is a reference to the honey from dates which grows on palm trees between rocks and in the mountains. An alternate interpretation: the honey found in the crags of rocks is bee honey, as the bees hide it there. (B’chor shor) This would be in accordance with Rabbi Joseph quoted in the Targum when interpreting the line; כאשר תעשינה הדבורים, “as the bees produce”, on Deuteronomy 1,44. ושמן מחלמיש צור, “and oil out of a flinty rock.” It is the habit of olive trees to grow in areas surrounded by rocky earth., on Deuteronomy 1,44.

ירכיבהו על במתי ארץ, “He makes it ride on the heights of the earth.” This is a simile describing Israel as having received control of a choice piece of real estate on earth, a central part of the civilized world, a land “higher” than all other countries. [If the earth is considered as a globe and Jerusalem its center, instead of the equator or longitude 180 degrees, then this is literally true. Ed.] (The author bases himself on Sifri 316). The thrust of these verses is that in spite of the advantages conferred on the Jewish people in every sphere, they trampled it and thereby kicked out (at G’d). The meaning of the words כליות חטה in verse 14 is “the fat part, choicest part,” of the wheat kernels. The reason Moses uses the comparison with kidneys, כליות, is because the wheat kernels resemble the shape of the kidney. According to Taanit 23, in the days of Shimon ben Shetach there was such prosperity in Israel that the wheat kernels were as large as oxen.

“He will place him on the heights of the land, etc.” In the word “bamotei” [heights], there is an extra “vav” written, and the Ba’al HaTurim explained it as he explained. But I say that this extra “vav” is a hint to the six times the word “eretz” [land] is mentioned in Parashat Ekev (8:7–9) in praise of the Land of Israel. Therefore, it says “bamotei eretz” [heights of the land] as if saying “six lands,” and this is easy to understand. And afterward it says, He will let him suck honey from the rock. In the word “vayenikehu” [He will let him suck], the letter “yud” is missing. It seems to me that this hints that because He let them suck honey from the rock, Jeshurun grew fat and kicked and they forgot the Torah, which is summarized in the Ten Commandments. And this interpretation is more correct than what the Ba’al HaTurim explained. Similarly, in tzur yeladcha teshi [the Rock who bore you, you neglected], the “yud” is small, because by transgressing the Ten Commandments, they caused, as it were, a weakening of strength Above. And regarding the phrase yatzev gevulot amim [He set the boundaries of peoples], the Ba’al HaTurim explained that “gevulot” is written without a “vav” to suggest that the 12 constellations were set according to the number of the children of Israel. An explanation of his explanation: when you [spell out] “vav,” what is missing [in the writing of the letter] is “vav” as well; similarly, the constellations include six that serve during the revealed day and six that serve during the concealed night. And since “Israel has no [controlling] constellation” (Shabbat 156a), therefore “gevulot” is written without a “vav” to indicate that the constellations have no dominion over the 12 tribes, but only over the nations. That is why it says yatzev gevulot amim [He set the boundaries of peoples].

על במתי ארץ, as if the Torah had written במתי ארץ (without the letter ו after the letter מ). The land of Israel is perceived as the highest on the globe. [I have explained once that if one considers Jerusalem as the center, the globe sloping off in all directions from this pinnacle, this is easy to understand and does not conflict with scientific measurements which relate only to height above sea level. Ed.[ דבש, made from dates; the word שמן refers to oil from olives, olive trees growing primarily in mountainous regions.

ירכיבהו על במתי ארץ, “He made him ride on the high places of the earth.” Moses repeated this metaphor again in Deuteronomy 33,29, ואתה על במותימו תדרוך, “and you shall tread on their high places.” ויאכל תנובות שדי, “he ate of the fruitage of the field;” Here Moses speaks of the future, after the Israelites had conquered the land of Canaan and grown their own crops. By that time the manna had ceased to descend from heaven, as stated in Joshua 5,12: וישבות המן ממחרת הפסח ויאכלו מעבור הארץ, “the manna ceased immediately after the Passover, and they began to eat from the produce of the land.” This enabled them to strengthen their bodies in anticipation of fighting to conquer the land. Concerning this subject we read in the Talmud, tractate Kidushin, folio 38, that as soon as they offered the first omer offering, (a measure of the new barley harvest) they were permitted to eat from the produce of the land. This statement in the Talmud was challenged by Rabbi Nathan Ophniel, who asked why they had to wait until they had offered that offering, seeing that the positive commandment of eating matzot on the first night of the Passover festival (Exodus 12,18) should override the negative commandment (Leviticus 23,14) of not eating from the new barley harvest, just as the positive commandment of circumcising oneself on the eighth day (overrides the negative commandment of not tampering with the foreskin of the newly born if it had displayed signs of the skin affliction known as tzoraat. The answer to his objection is that the sages decreed the prohibition on account of the second piece of matzah, i.e. once the amount of an olive’s size of matzah had been eaten, the commandment in Exodus is no longer mandatory, and it would be too easy to transgress the commandment of not eating from the new barley harvest prior to offering the omer. We find a similar situation with the widow of brother a of the High Priest who had died without child, and who would be in line for the levirate marriage to her brother-in-law the High Priest. (Compare Talmud tractate Yevamot folio 20) You could argue that the positive commandment of performing such a rite (Deuteronomy 25,5) should override the negative commandment that a High Priest must not marry a widow. (Leviticus 21,14) There too the sages forbade the levirate marriage as after the first marital union the High Priest would have fulfilled the whole commandment, and if he were to sleep with his wife by levirate marriage a second time, he would have committed a very serious sin. The sages therefore forbade such a levirate marriage in order to make sure that the High Priest would not become guilty of such a sin. וינקהו דבש מסלע, “and He made him suck honey from a crag in the rock.” The honey mentioned here is bee’s honey. If date trees had grown in rocky areas their honey would also have been included. ושמן מחלמיש צור, “as well as oil out of a flinty rock.” Olives growing in such rocky areas are superior in taste to those growing from trees in the field. This is most likely due to the heat of the sun’s ray being reflected from the rocky surface instead of being absorbed by the soil.

He gave them the spoil of their kings and their rulers, together with the wealth of their nobles and their mighty men — the people of their land and their inheritance — along with the spoil of their armies and their camps, and the blood of their mighty men will be shed like water.

חמאת בקר וחלב צאן [AND HE GAVE THEM TO EAT] CLOTTED CREAM OF THE HERD AND MILK OF THE FLOCK — This was in the days of Solomon, as it states (1 Kings 5:2—3): “[And Solomon’s provision for one day was …] ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen (בקר) out of the pasture, and an hundred sheep (צאן)(Sifrei Devarim 317:1). עם חלב כרים WITH FAT OF FATTENED LAMBS — This was in the days of the “Ten Tribes” (the period of the Northern Kingdom). as it is said, (Amos. 6:4) “Who eat lambs (כרים) of the flock” (Sifrei Devarim 317:1). חלב כליות חטה [WITH] THE FAT OF KIDNEYS OF WHEAT — This again was in the days of Solomon, as it is said, (1 Kings 5:2) “And Solomon's provision for one day was [thirty measures of fine flour etc.]” (Sifrei Devarim 317:1). ודם ענב תשתה חמר AND THOU SHALT DRINK THE FOAMING BLOOD OF THE GRAPE — this again was in the days of the “Ten Tribes” as it is said, (Amos 6:6) “That drink wine in bowls” (Sifrei Devarim 317:1). חמאת בקר is the cream that is gathered from the surface of the milk. וחלב צאן means, and milk of sheep (i.e. the first word is in the construct state); whenever it is connected with the following word it is vowelled חֲלַב, as in (Deuteronomy 14:21) “in the milk of (בַּחֲלֵב) its mother”. כרים are SHEEP. ואילים has its ordinary meaning: RAMS. בני בשן RAMS OF THE BREED OF BASHAN — These were very fat. כליות חטה KIDNEYS OF WHEAT — wheat that is fat as is the fat of kidneys and the kernels of which are as large as kidneys. ודם ענב AND THE BLOOD OF THE GRAPE [THOU SHALT DRINK חמר] — This means: Thou shalt drink good wine, and taste wine of a fine and good quality. חמר — This word means wine in general in the Aramaic language, but this (the word חמר in our verse) is not a noun but it means excellent in taste, vinos in old French, (English = vinous). — One may also expound these two verses according to the Targum of Onkelos which has: אשרינון על תקפי ארעא וגו׳, He made them dwell upon the strong places of the earth etc.

"Curds of cattle" (hemat bakar) — much meat. "And milk of the flock" — were it not for the parallel structure, this verse would support the matter of the fat (chelev) of which I have spoken in its place; or the meaning of "fat (chelev) of lambs" is the best and finest, as in "all the finest (chelev) of oil" (Num. 18:12). "Rams of Bashan" (benei Bashan) — which grew up on the mountain of Bashan. "The kidney-fat of wheat" (chelev kilyot chittah) — a figure of speech, for the fat is on the kidneys, and also the grain of wheat resembles a kidney. "And the blood of the grape" — the wine. Thus [the land] was abundant in honey and oil, meat and bread and wine and all fruit — and this is the meaning of "the produce of the field" (tenuvot sadai). Some say that "honey" here refers to date-honey. "Foaming" (chemer) — like yayin (wine), and similarly, "a vineyard of wine" (kerem chemer, Isa. 27:2). The tav [in tishti, "you drink"] addresses [Israel] in the second person, and the meaning is: to say to his companion — it was so abundant that you could drink foaming wine at any time. Some say that "grape" (anavim) is feminine and thus requires the tav; but this amounts to nothing, for the tav should then have a patach [to indicate it is directed toward others]. Some say it follows the use of the assembly, since Israel [can be addressed] in masculine or feminine — and this is somewhat close to correct.

ודם ענב תשתה חמר, grape juice was fit to drink without investing much toil beforehand. This is an example of people earning their livelihood easily. The reason why G’d had arranged things in such a fashion was so as to leave the people ample time to study Torah, and to enable them to fulfill the various commandments of the Torah which do consume time.

עם חלב כליות חטה, “with the kidney fat of wheat.” With the fat from the best grades of wheat, i.e. this kind of wheat is likened to the fat surrounding the kidneys. The kernels of such wheat are described as big as a kidney. These kernels have an indentation and a shape similar to kernels of wheat.

ודם ענב תשתה חמר, “and you would drink the blood of its grapes as if it were aged wine.” Moses refers to the juice in the grapes as “blood,” seeing that its red color is similar to the color of blood. Another reason, mystical, if you will, is that grapes were the indirect cause of death in the world according to the view that the fruit of the tree of knowledge were grapes (Bereshit Rabbah 19,8). The word ענב refers to the seeds inside the grape. The reason Moses speaks about grapes in the singular instead of the customary ענבים, plural, is that he wanted to alert us to the vast amount of wine, blessing for the country, which develops from such tiny beginnings as the seeds in the grapes. When the grapes hang together in a cluster they are called אשכול by the Torah, whereas in Talmudic parlance such a cluster is known as פרכיל. We find the expression פרכיל ענבים in Sukkah 10, i.e. clusters from which grapes are suspended. The trunk from which such clusters of grapes are hanging is called גפן, a grapevine, when the cluster is still attached to it, whereas when the branch to which the clusters are attached has been severed from the trunk it is called זמורה. This is borne out by Numbers 13,23 ויכרתו משם זמורה ואשכול ענבים, “they (the spies) cut from there a branch, full of clusters of grapes.” The verse in Numbers describes the excellence and quantity of the produce of the land of Canaan at that time. The Torah there adds the word אחד, to tell us that each of the spies took a different specimen from the fruit of the land. One took a cluster of grapes, another pomegranates, still another a fig.

חמאת בקר, according to the plain meaning of the text Moses describes the land in terms of it flowing with milk and honey and providing an abundance of meat for its owners. חלב כרים, rams that had grazed in the desert, having stuffed (fattened) themselves with excellent pasture. The expression is used in this sense both in Isaiah 30,23 and in Psalms 65,14. The author quotes more verses from Scripture on this subject; the message of Moses is clear beyond doubt. he extols the excellent physical properties of the Land of Israel. ואילים בני בשן, ordinary animals that had grazed in Bashan (the land conquered from Og) were known to be excellent specimen; כרים, both in Bashan and special ones elsewhere, had a tendency to grow fat, something which was in high demand. The rams of Bashan were therefore the very finest anywhere. עם חלב כליות חטה, the choicest fat of the wheat kernels. [The word כליות can obviously not refer to kidneys, seeing that wheat does not have kidneys. The author therefore searches for other pertinent meanings which can be applied to Moses’ hyperbole here. Ed.] In Samuel II 13,39 we find the line ותכל דוד המלך לצאת אל אבשלום, which the author understands as “King David now pined, had an overpowering desire for Avshalom,” since he had by now gotten over the death of his son Amnon (whom Avshalom had murdered). In Psalms 84,3 we read כלתה נפשי, “my soul yearns for….” In other words, the root כלה, from which the wordכליות is derived can mean “to have a craving.” People can develop a craving for this kind of wheat once they have tasted its excellence. In Psalms 73,26 כלה שארי, the word may also describe a craving of one’s body. As to the letter י in the word כליות in our verse, which appears to contradict the claim that the root is כלה, consider the relationship between שבה and שביה, shivyah, where we also suddenly discover a letter י that appears unaccounted for. Another such example occurs with the root בנה and הבניה in Ezekiel 41,13, where the י in הבניה appears unaccounted for. The fact is, that when roots ending with the letter ה such as בנה and שבה experience the semi-vowel sheva abbreviating the syllable, the letter י is substituted for the original letter ה.

עם חלב כרים ואילים, “and curds as well as and rams raised in Bashan.“ Moses lists the highest quality of these species, similar to Genesis 45,18 ואכלו את חלב הארץ, ”and live off the fat of the land!” עם חלב כליות חיטה, “with the kidney fat of wheat.” The word “kidneys” here is not a metaphor but is to be understood literally. This is because the shape of wheat with its groove is similar to that of the shape of a kidney. (Ibn Ezra) ודם ענב תשתה חמר, “and of the blood of the grape you will drink foaming wine.” The wine will be red as blood, an indication of its value, similar to what Solomon described in Proverbs 23,31: אל תרא יין כי יתאדם, “do not look at wine when it is red;” [sign that the wine is strong in alcohol content. Ed.]

And Israel grew rich and grew wanton; you became prosperous, acquired strength, and amassed possessions; then they forsook the worship of the God who made them, and provoked before the Mighty One who redeemed them.

עבית has the meaning of “thickness” (stoutness), it therefore means: “ Thou hast waxed fat”. כשית is the same as כסית (ס and ש interchanging). It has the same meaning as in Job 15:27 “Because he hath covered (כסה) his face with his fatness”— like a person who is full of fat inside and whose flanks therefore lie in folds outside, as it goes on to state, (Job 15:27) “and be made folds of fat on his flanks” (Sifrei Devarim 318:6). כשית — There exists a Kal form (as is this word) in the sense of covering, as (Proverbs 12:16) “And a prudent man is covered with (וְכֹסָה) shame”. If it had written כִּשִּׂיתָ with a dagesh in the ש. it would imply, “Thou hast covered others (or other things)” (i.e., it would be transitive), as in the text already quoted, “For he hath covered (כִסָּה) his face”. וינבל צור ישעתו AND HE LIGHTLY ESTEEMED THE ROCK OF HIS SALVATION — This means, He showed contempt for Him and scorned Him, as it is said, (Ezekiel 8:16) “[and, behold, … there were … men] with their buttocks towards the Temple of the Lord” — surely, there can be no greater contempt than this (see Rashi on this verse) (Sifrei Devarim 318:9).

VAYENABEIL’ THE ROCK OF HIS SALVATION — “he showed contempt for Him and disregarded Him, just as it is said, with their backs towards the Temple of the Eternal, and their faces toward the east. There is no greater contempt than this.” This is Rashi’s language. And Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra commented: “Vayenabeil — that he caused ‘the profaning’ of G-d’s Name so that He would no longer help him.” This interpretation, too, does not appear to me to be correct, for it is not within the context of this place [i.e., this section of the Song], for he is still narrating [here] their sins, and will not state their punishment and vengeance that He would inflict upon them until [further on in the verse], And He said: ‘I will hide My face from them.’ The correct interpretation appears to me to be what I have mentioned above, that the term n’valah is used to describe repaying evil for good. The verse thus states that the people of Israel abandoned the G-d Who created them in favor of strange gods and, in utterance and thought, showed disregard for the Rock Who helped them. [Israel] said “In return for serving Him, there is nothing but repayment of evil. By worshipping the strange gods he shall have plenty of bread; but when worshipping the Rock they will be contemptible and base before all the people.” As our fools said, It is vain to serve G-d; and what profit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked mournfully because of the Eternal of hosts? And now we call the proud happy etc., and as the accursed women said [to Jeremiah], But since we let off to offer to the queen of heaven etc., we have wanted all things. Similarly [the prophet Jeremiah prayed], Do not abhor us, for Thy Name’s sake, do not dishonor the throne of Thy glory because they will say of Him that He repays His people with evil for good, just as [the prophet] said, Break not Thy covenant with us.

"Jeshurun grew fat" (va-yishman Yeshurun). This is Israel. It is possible that it derives from yashar (upright), and the meaning is: this fat one who had been upright. Some say it derives from ashurennu ("I behold him"). The first interpretation seems correct to me, and the proof is that it is singular. "And he kicked" (va-yivat) — as in "why do you kick" (lama tiv'atu, 1 Sam. 2:29) — in keeping with the context. "You grew fat" (shamanta) — and gave no thought to their soul. "You grew thick" (avita) — like "my littleness is thicker" (ketani aveh, 1 Kgs. 12:10). "You are covered" (kasita) — some say it is like "his face is covered with fat" (kissah panav be-chelvo, Job 15:27), found in the light conjugation. Others say it is like "I have strayed like a lost sheep" (ta'iti ke-seh oved, Ps. 119:176) — but this form (some manuscripts add: does not) appear in any of the verb stems. What seems correct to me is that this word has no cognate and its meaning is like "you kicked" (bata't). "And he abandoned" (va-yitosh) — the commandments of his God. "And he spurned" (va-yinaval) — in thought and in speech. But what is correct is that he profaned the Name by not having been saved [by God] — he himself brought this about; therefore it is written "the Rock of his salvation," and this verse too follows the interpretation of "the Rock — His work is perfect."

וישמן ישורון ויבעט, however, even the most erudite of them, the ones known admiringly as Yeshurun, (based on Bileam’s prophecy of אשורנו ולא קרוב, in Numbers 24,17) acted as if they were animals, kicking the very people who give them food. שמנת עבית כשית, you, the elite of the people, preferred to concentrate on the physical enjoyments offered by a life of leisure, and by doing so עבית, you became too gross to understand the finer points of the teachings of the Torah, the only truth. Isaiah 28,7 describes the conduct of the spiritual elite of the people when he writes: “but these are also so muddled by wine, and dazed by liquor, Priest and Prophet are muddled by wine;“ כשית, compare what Isaiah 44,18 writes, “they have no wit or judgment, their eyes are besmeared and they see not;” ויטוש אלו-ה עושהו, so that, following the example of their elite, the people at large abandoned G’d the One Who had made them; וינבל צור ישועתו, despising the Rock of its salvation, i.e. sliding from bad to worse in their lifestyles.

עשהו, “Who made him;” the word: עשה here is a simile for wealth, עושר, as in Numbers 24,18: וישראל עושה חיל, where it means that Israel is abandoning the G-d who has made it wealthy.” [This editor admits that he has not understood the interpretation nor its comparison to Numbers 24,18.]

וישמן ישורון ויבעט, “Israel became fat and kicked.” Up until this time the Jewish people had never been called Yeshurun. It is possible that Moses did not use the name in order to flatter them, but, on the contrary, in order to point out how a people who were once considered entitled to such a compliment had forfeited their claim to that name. The name derives from אשורנו, a vision the prophet Bileam refers to as having had, i.e. the ability to behold supernatural phenomena (Numbers 14,17). The Jewish people had seen such phenomena, i.e. the attribute of כבוד at the time they experienced their spiritual high during the revelation at Mount Sinai. This is why Moses employs this term immediately after having described the Mount Sinai experience of the Jewish people with the words יסובבנהו יבוננהו in verse 10. Seeing that the Torah described the attribute Israel focused at that time as “and the appearance of the glory of G’d was similar to consuming fire at the top of the mountain,” (Exodus 24,17) it is clear that the people at the time had a visual experience. Later on, during his blessings of the people in 33,4 Moses again refers to this term saying ויהי בישורון מלך, “the Lord became King amongst the people known as “Yeshurun.” When Moses concludes his blessings of the people in Deut. 33,26 he again refers to the Jewish people as Yeshurun, saying אין כא-ל ישורון, “there is none like the G’d of Yeshurun.” He meant that the very experience the people had had at Sinai should have convinced them that there is no power in the world that can equal their G’d. All this is really part of this song which is a collection of criticism, rebuke, during which Moses argues with the people concerning their conduct in the future. He foretells them that they would become sinful and rebel against the Lord, becoming forgetful of all the kind deeds G’d had performed for them. This is why on this day, the last day of his life, he mentions the description Yeshurun three times to underline how terrible it is when a people who attained such spiritual stature as they would experience a spiritual decline. The prophet Isaiah paraphrases Moses when he said in Isaiah 1,4 הוי גוי חוטא עם כבד עון, “woe, a sinful people, a nation laden with iniquity!” Our sages comment on this that when Isaiah used the term גוי he referred to the people who had distinguished themselves as being referred to as ,ומי גוי גדול, “and who is such a great nation?” How could such a nation become sinful? Furthermore, this was the nation which had been described as עם קדוש, “a consecrated people,” in Deut. 14,2. How could such a people have fallen so much that it fits the description “laden with iniquity?” The Jewish people had been described as “children are you to the Lord your G’d” in Deut. 14,1, and as “seed blessed by the Lord” (Isaiah 61,9). ויטוש אלו-ה עשהו וינבל צור ישועתו, “it deserted G’d its Maker, and was contemptuous of the Rock of its salvation.” The verse alludes to the two attributes of G’d which orchestrated the Exodus. The reason Moses did not say א-ל but אלו-ה was to include both the emanation תפארת and כבוד. This is why he added the letters ו and ה. This idea is reflected also in Job 35,10 איה אלוה עושי . The words וצור ישעותו mean that by means of the attribute צור, the deliverance of the Jewish people at the Sea of Reeds was orchestrated.

וישמן ישורון ויבעט, “Yeshurun grew fat and kicked.” The name “Yeshurun” is a complimentary name for Israel who are considered (when at their best) to be a nation of ישרים, loyal upright self-confident and G’d-fearing people. וינבל צור ישועתו, “acting villainously against the Rock of its salvation.” Nachmanides refers to Ibn Ezra’s interpretation that the villainy of Israel consisted in that it accused Hashem as not continuing to be able to act as its Saviour, views the whole “kicking” as an act of blasphemy both in word and in deed. He disagrees with Ibn Ezra, The reason that he does so, is that Moses is still reciting the people’s sins and has not yet begun to speak about the punishment they would have to suffer on account of their sins. This part only commences with verse 20 when G’d is quoted as withdrawing His Presence from the people, אסתירה פני מהם. The correct interpretation, according to Nachmanides, is that Moses continues with the theme discussed by me earlier, that the most serious aspect of Israel’s sins is that they repay good with evil. They abandoned a G’d who not only had created them as a nation, but had redeemed them from slavery. He had saved them from the pursuit of Pharaoh and for forty years kept them alive in the desert in spite of being provoked by them. He kept His promise to Avraham to bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey. They had repaid all this by failing to serve this G’d, although He did not demand anything difficult from them. They blasphemed by mouth and deed, transferring their allegiance to useless idols.

עבית, related to the expression במעבה האדמה, “in earthen moulds” where the root letters עב have also been reversed, the normal order being עב. (Kings I 7,46) The disappearance of the third root letter ה is similar to such disappearances in ראית, “you saw,” from the root ראה, and עשית, “you have done,” from the root עשה. The construction מעבה in the verse from Kings we quoted parallels the word מראה from the root ראה. Similarly, the noun מעשה parallels the root עשה.

They aroused His jealousy before Him with the worship of idols; with abominations they provoked before Him.

יקנאהו means, they made His anger and His jealousy (קנאה) glow. בתועבת WITH ABOMINATIONS — i.e. with abominable deeds such as pederasty and sorcery, of which the term תועבה is used (cf. Leviticus 18:23 and Deuteronomy 18:10—12).

WITH ABOMINATIONS DID THEY PROVOKE HIM — “they kindled His anger with abominations and unseemly deeds, such as sodomy and sorcery in which there is abomination.” This is Rashi’s language, and it is also so stated in the Sifre. But in this Song there is reproof for idolatry only [and not for immorality]! And the word ‘b’zarim’ [They roused Him to jealousy ‘b’zarim’] is connected with the expression G-d Who made him [in the preceding verse, to mean]: “they roused Him to jealousy with ‘strange gods,’” similar to the phrase other gods. And the meaning of the expression, with abominations is [that they worshipped] the demons by burning their children in fire to other gods. For all this is “abominable” to Him, just as it is said, for every abomination to the Eternal, which He hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters do they burn in the fire to their gods, and it is further written, which I commanded not, nor spoke it, neither came it unto My mind.

"They made Him jealous" (yikna'uhu) — in their thoughts, as in "nothing will be withheld from them" (Gen. 11:6). "With strangers" (be-zarim) — with foreign gods. "With abominations" (be-to'evot) — these are idols.

בתועבות יכעיסוהו, causing the benevolent presence of G’d to forsake the people of Israel so that they would no longer enjoy an advantage over the gentile nations.

יקניאוהו בזרים, “they kindled His jealousy by means of alien (gods).” By turning to idols, the Jewish people aroused G’d’s attribute of “the jealous G’d.” They angered this very attribute which had delivered them at the Sea. A reference to the sin of the golden calf and possibly to the affair at Shittim.

בתועבות יכעיסוהו, “with abominations they provoke Him.” Robbery and sexual misconduct are what Moses referred to here. Both have been described in the Torah (Leviticus 18,27) as “abominations.”

They sacrificed to demons who have no need in them — fears they did not know — new ones that came into being but recently; your fathers never occupied themselves with them.

לא אלה — Understand this as the Targum does: They sacrifice unto devils in which is no utility, for if there were at least any utility in them to the world (as e.g:, the sun, moon and stars) God’s jealousy would not have been so intense (lit. — doubled) as it is now. (Sifrei Devarim 318:13). חדשים מקרב באו [THEY SACRIFICED … TO GODS] THAT CAME UP RECENTLY — i.e. with which even the heathen nations were not familiar. Indeed, if a heathen saw them he would say, “This is a Jewish idol” (Sifrei Devarim 318:14). לא שערום אבתיכם — This means, which your fathers feared not; more literally it means: Their hair (שער) did not stand up on end because of them — for it is the nature of a person’s hair to stand up out of fear. Thus is it (the word שערום) explained in Sifrei Devarim 318:15. But it is also possible to explain it as being connected with the noun in (Isaiah 13:21) “And שעירים shall dance there”; שעירים are demons (satyrs), and the meaning of our verse would then be: your fathers never made these satyrs.

THEY SACRIFICED UNTO THE DEMONS, NO-GODS. I have [already] explained this.

But in my opinion there is no need [for this] — its meaning is simply: to demons, which are not gods; and they are called shedim in the manner of [the word] Emim, from 'shod ha-da'at' — meaning they are the devastators/destroyers of reason.

לשדים לא אלוה, forces which are not enduring; our sages in Chagigah 16 already taught us that these demons known as שדים are as mortal as is man himself. אלוהים לא ידעום, חדשים מקרוב באו, whenever they discover a phenomenon not previously known to them they thought that this must be an ancient power and proceeded promptly to worship it.

לא אלוה, "non-deity." The Israelites do not offer sacrifices to these demons because they consider them as deities, but because they hope that by this means the demons would do their bidding and take care of their needs. Concerning other sacrifices, offered to deities because the Israelites offering these sacrifices do believe that they have divine powers, Moses says: אלהים לא ידעום, "gods they never knew before." Moses scores the Israelites for offering sacrifices to deities who never even demonstrated their power to the people who used to worship them previously. חדשים מקרוב באו, new ones, recently arrived." Compare what I have explained on Deut. 13,7 when we discussed the seducer.

לשדים, “to demons;” the word is derived from the root שדד, “to ruin, lay waste.” Demons have that effect on the brains of human beings. (B’chor shor) לא ידעום, “that they have not known;” the brain of human beings is described as not possessing knowledge, as opposed to G-d Who is always described as “knowing,” i.e. וידע אלוקים, (Exodus 2,25) or כי ידעתי את מכאוביו, ”for I have known its pains;” (Exodus 3, 7) The socalled “deities” which idolaters worship have absolutely no knowledge of the emotions of the people who worship them. As to the reason why such “deities” cannot help their worshippers, this is because they are new, often even of more recent origin than their worshippers, .חדשים מקרוב באו לא שערום אבותיכם, “your fathers had not been in dread of them.” (their hairs, שער, did not stand on edge in fear of them.) Seeing that they did not punish your forefathers, פקד, you had no reason to fear them and sinned relentlessly.

יזבחו לשדים לא אלו-ה, “they would slaughter to demons, non-deities.” These possess no power at all; (unlike celestial constellations). אלוהים לא ידעום, “gods which they did not even know of as such.” These so-called deities were not even on a par with angels, disembodied spirits which had been created prior to the 6 days of creation, or on the second day of the creation, or on the fifth day (compare author on Genesis 1,4) חדשים מקרוב באו, “new ones, recently arrived!” Creatures which are more recent than man. A reference to the mortality of demons equaling the mortality of man. לא שערום אבותיכם, “beings which were unable to inspire fear in your fathers.” Another meaning of the line, “new ones, recently arrived.” The line is a reference to the theology in question, i.e. something the Jews had learned recently, such as when they were in Egypt. The Egyptians were already familiar with that cult. Another possible approach to these words: There are basically three categories of idolatry (compare author on Yitro 20,3). One of them is the believing in certain philosophies, even if one does not worship something physical. We have been warned against such idolatry by the first words of the second Commandment: לא יהיה לך אלוהים אחרים. The second category of idolatry is the worship of reproductions in a cast form or other three-dimensional form, of celestial phenomena, the assumption being that one thereby wants to “catch” the power of these phenomena and put them to work on one’s behalf. The Torah warns against this with the words: “do not make for yourselves, etc.” (Exodus 20,4) The third category of idolatry consists of serving demons, something we have been warned against by the words אשר במים מתחת לארץ, “which are in the water beneath the earth” (Exodus 20,4). These are the demons that dwell in the תהום, “the empty space” mentioned in Genesis 1,1. This is why, at this point, Moses warns against serving these demons, saying we must not slaughter for them seeing they do not possess any power, not even that attributed to the celestial phenomena commonly known as horoscopes. Moses adds the apparently gratuitous words: אלוהים אשר לא ידעום, to emphasize that not only are these phenomena not deities, not equipped with any powers, but they have never even been acknowledged by idolaters a having any power. They are phenomena of such recent origin that they were not even perceived as threatening by their forefathers. The forefathers Moses referred to were Terach and Nachor, Avraham’s father and grandfather, who did worship hewn images of celestial phenomena. Even they were not so foolish as to imagine that cults involving demons could be of any use.

ולא שערום, related to the demons known as שעירים, of whom we heard in Leviticus 17,7 that the Israelites whored after, as possessing some divine powers, capable of foretelling the future.

יזבחו לשדים, “they sacrificed to demons.” This is one of the most abhorrent forms of idolatry. לא אלוה, “no-gods;” these demons possess no power whatsoever. Compare Ezekiel 17,13: ואת אילי הארץ לקח, “and the ‘mighty’ of the land he took away. [Nebuchadnezzar carried away those who had thought of themselves as ‘mighty.’ Ed.] Onkelos translates our verse as meaning that they are useless. (the demons) If they had any value at all Moses would not condemn worshipping them with such vehemence as he does here. A certain Roman said to Rabbi Shimon, wondering about Exodus 20,5 where Hashem is described as a “jealous” G–d, why this G–d would be jealous of a “nobody.” A truly powerful person is jealous only of another powerful person, not of someone clearly inferior. Why does Moses describe G–d’s jealousy as having been aroused by a “no-god” so that he retaliates by arousing the jealousy of His people by a “no-people?” Rabbi Shimon answered him by using a parable to illustrate his point. A man had married an extremely attractive looking wife. After a while he took a second wife who was ugly in the extreme. His first wife became extremely angry at her husband, saying to him that she could have understood it if he had married another attractive woman who would have been competition to her. The fact that he married an ugly woman, she felt was a deliberate insult, suggesting that she was just as ugly as the second wife he had taken. (Compare Talmud, tractate Avodah zarah, folio 55.) Moses is telling the people that although G–d would be angry at them for worshipping the sun, which appears powerful and a source of life to them, instead of worshipping Him Who had created the sun; but to worship something that is totally useless to them was an additional insult which He resents accordingly with great anger. אלהים לא ידעום, “a deity they had never heard of.” They had heard of it, but had never heard that it possessed any power. Rabbi Joseph Kara explains the reason why Moses chose this expression as being that we have a verse in Exodus 3,7: where G–d tells Moses that He is well aware of the people’s pains, כי ידעתי את מכאוביו, that the deities His people turned to were ones which had no such knowledge. How could such deities help when they were completely unaware of the problems its worshippers faced? חדשים מקרוב באו, “new gods that came up of late.” These so called deities had never been considered as deities by anyone. לא שערום אבותיכם, “gods that your fathers had never dreaded.” The word שער in Aramaic is equivalent to the Hebrew פוקד, compare Targum Deuteronomy 5,9, and thus would mean “remembering with a view to punishing.”

The fear of the Mighty One who created you, you forgot; you abandoned the worship of the God who made you.

תשי means THOU HAST FORGOTTEN. But our Rabbis explained it thus: whenever He was about to bestow good upon you, you provoked Him to anger and, as it were, weakened (תש) His power so that He could not do you good (Sifrei Devarim 319:3). אל מחללך means, God Who has brought you forth out of the womb. It has the same meaning as in (Psalms 29:9) “[The voice of the Lord] makes hinds to bring forth (יחולל)”, and (Psalms 48:7) “travail (חיל) as that of a woman in childbirth”.

"The Rock that begot you, you forgot" (Tzur yeladkha teshi). The prophet speaks and wonders: how could you have forgotten the One who begot you and gone to serve new gods? And this too — "the Rock that begot you" — is as in "Look to the rock from which you were hewn" (Isa. 51:1), as if from Him [all] came, for everything is through the power of Hashem, as in "who spread out the earth with Me" (Isa. 44:24). And the wonder is all the greater for those who stray in heart, in light of [the verse] "This day I have begotten you" (Ps. 2:7) — and they have forgotten this verse. "Teshi" — like "do not forget" (al tisheh, Ps. 137:5), with the quiescent [alef] after the tav standing in place of the dagesh, the alef being absorbed, and the yod in place of heh. Similarly, "al timchi" ("do not blot out") — both come with the accent on the first syllable (mil'el), to distinguish masculine from feminine in verbs whose final letter is a quiescent heh. But what seems correct to me is that the yod is an addition, and [the form] follows the pattern of "do not turn from my mouth's utterance" (al tet me-amarai fi, Prov. 4:5). "Who formed you" (mekholelekha) — like "who begot you" (yeladkha). And since God is mighty and strong as a rock, it is possible that mekholelekha derives from chayil (force), as in "a pregnant woman draws near to give birth — she writhes" (tachil, Isa. 26:17).

צור ילדך תשי, even you, Yeshurun, the one blessed with erudition, once you turned your attention to the physical enjoyments of life on earth, undermined, weakened your wisdom and your knowledge about the greatness of G’d and His Torah. ותשכח א-ל מחוללך, Who had treated you so well. Compare Isaiah 51, 12-13 אנכי הוא מנחמכם...ותשכח ה' עושך נוטה שמים וארץ, “I, I am He Who comforts you!…You have forgotten the Lord your Maker, Who stretched the skies and made firm the earth.”

צור ילדך תשי, "You neglected the Rock that begot you;" This is best understood in connection with Sanhedrin 38 that at the time G'd was about to create man, He consulted with the angels about His project. Some angels strenuously opposed the creation of man. G'd not only ignored these angels and created man, but He punished the angels who had opposed man's creation. Whenever Israel sins this weakens G'd's argument in favour of having created man. This is what Moses meant when he said ילדך תשי, "you weaken the One who begot you." ותשכח אל מחללך, "You forgot the G'd who brought you forth." The word מחללך may be understood as a reference to jewels as in Hoseah 2,15 ותעד נזמה וחליתה, "when she was decked out with her nose-rings and her jewelry," etc. What Moses means is that Israel forgot the very G'd who had made her a more precious jewel than any other creature including the angels. Compare Psalms 66,12, or Isaiah 49,3 "Israel in whom I glory." G'd means that He wears the name of Israel like a person wears a jewel. Our sages have offered a variety of interpretations of this verse.

צור ילדך, “of the Rock that begot you,” the word is used in the conjugation kal, actively, although its meaning is causative; we find an example of this mode in Genesis 10,24: וארפכשד ילד את שלח, “and Arpachshad sired Shalach,” instead of הוליד. Similarly, in the same verse: ושלח ילד את עבר, “and Shalach sired Ever.” תשי, “was unmindful;” the letter י in this word, is just like the letter י in Jeremiah 18,23: אלתמחי, where it is also superfluous and the prophet could have written: אל תמח, “do not wipe out!” מחוללך, “that bore you;” a reminder how when you were (brought out of Egypt you danced for joy and sang songs; מחולות, dances.

ילדך, as in Genesis 10.26 when the Torah writes ויקטן ילד את אלמודד, where the verb ילד though it appears in the kal-mode, is to be understood in the transitive hiphil-mode, as הוליד, “he sired.” תשי, from the root נשה, to be weakened, the construction teshi parallels אל תט אל דרכיה from the root נטה, to deviate, turn away. The letter י at the end of the word תשי, parallels the word תמחי instead of תמחה in Jeremiah 18,23. It means the same as if it had been spelled with the letter ה at the end instead of the letter י.

צור ילדך תשי, “You neglected the Rock that begot you;” You forgot the Almighty Who formed you in your mother’s womb and caused you to be born; you did all this on account of something new that had not proven itself in any way. ותשכח א-ל מחוללך, “you forgot the Divine Power who brought you forth. Moses repeats the thought as it seems so unbelievable that the Jewish people could ever become so foolish. Once I have done this, Moses quotes G–d as saying: אראה מה אחריתם, “I will see what their end shall be;” G–d will watch what use their new found deity has been to them.

And it was revealed before Hashem, and His anger was intensified because they provoked before Him — sons and daughters.

[AND THE ETERNAL SAW, AND SPURNED,] BECAUSE OF THE PROVOKING OF HIS SONS AND HIS DAUGHTERS. Scripture uncustomarily mentions here “the daughters” — for just as he said above lo banav [which although literally means “not His sons,” it is yet the custom of Scripture to use it for sons and daughters, rather than specify daughters separately], and so also wherever he mentions banim (sons) the daughters are included. [Why then does the verse before us make special reference to His daughters?] But this phrase is among his [Moses’] allusions, for, in the generation of the destruction [of the First Temple], the wickedness of the women and their sin would be very great because they provoked G-d. They were especially attached to the idols, and it was they who enticed the men to worship them, as is made clear in the words of Jeremiah, Then all the men who knew that their wives offered unto other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great assembly. It was they [the women] who were impudent against the prophet, saying to him, But we will certainly perform every word that is gone forth out of our mouth, to offer unto the queen of heaven. And it is further written there, in that ye provoke Me with the works of your hands, offering unto other gods, and again it is stated, Have ye forgotten the wicked deeds of your fathers, and the wicked deeds of the kings of Judah, and the wicked deeds of their wives? And in the Book of Ezekiel it is further stated, He said also unto me: ‘Thou shalt again see yet greater abominations which they do.’ Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Eternal’s House, which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat the women weeping for Tammuz.

"And He saw, He spurned" — so too it is written, "and the almond branch spurned" (va-yena'etz ha-shaked)? Or it is an intransitive verb. "His sons and his daughters" — men and women, for they too (some manuscripts add: all of them) offered incense to idols.

וינאץ מכעס בניו ובנותיו, after He had failed to make you attain your perfection while on your own land, He chose a third route, namely to refine your character while you were in exile; by doing this He appeared to despise His sons and His daughters, and did not display mercy on their children nor respect the dignity of their daughters.

מכעס בניו ובנותיו, “by the anger caused by His sons and daughters.” This was an allusion to the first Temple when both men and women practiced idolatry as we know from Jeremiah 44,9: “have you forgotten the wicked acts of your forefathers, of the kings of Yehudah and their wives?” We have another verse relating to his subject in Ezekiel 8,14: “next He brought me to the entrance of the north-gate of the House of the Lord and there sat the women bewailing Tammuz.” (a Babylonian god). This is why our verse lists “His sons and His daughters,” separately.

מכעס בניו ובנותיו, “by the anger aroused in Him by His sons and daughters.” Nachmanides writes that the reason why we suddenly find the Jewish women mentioned separately, is that in the last generation, the one during which the destruction of the Temple would occur, the Jewish women would be exceptionally wicked in their deeds. Their deeds (misdeeds) would greatly inflame G’d’s anger. As a result of their devotion to cults, they would seduce their husbands, something documented in the Book of Jeremiah, chapter 44.

בניו ובנותיו, בנים לא אמון בם. We explained this already on verse 5 where we understood it as a reference to Israel’s character flaw of disloyalty.

And He said: I will withdraw My Shechinah from them; it is revealed before Me what will be at their end — for they are a generation that changed; children in whom there is no faithfulness.

מה אחריתם [I WILL SEE] WHAT THEIR END SHALL BE — i.e. what will come upon them in the end. כי דור תהפכת המה FOR THEY ARE A GENERATION OF PERVERSITY - i.e. they change (הפך) My goodwill into anger. לא אמן בם means, My training is not evident in them, for I showed them the good way and they have deviated from it. אמן is of the same meaning as in (Esther 2:7) “And he brought up (אמן) Hadassah”. Nouriture in old French — Another explanation of אמן: it has the same meaning as אמונה, faithfulness, as the Targum takes it (“in whom there is no faithfulness”). At Sinai they said, “We will do and we will hearken” and after a very short time they broke their promise and made the golden calf (Sifrei Devarim 320:6).

AND HE SAID — “that is, and G-d said in His heart, or to the angels. I WILL HIDE MY FACE FROM THEM. This expression is according to the language of man; so also, I will hide Mine eyes from you. And the meaning thereof is that when they will seek Me they will not find Me. I WILL SEE WHAT THEIR END SHALL BE. Some scholars say: ‘I will hide My face from them because I see what they will do in the end.’ But the correct interpretation is as its simple implication: ‘[I will hide My face] until I will see what they do in their distress.’” Thus far are the words of Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra. Now the word vayomer (and He said) applies only to the thought and the will before Him to do so, [rather than to an actual statement], similar to the expression and G-d said in the account of Creation. I have already explained it. I have also explained the expression My face by way of the Truth. Thus, I will hide My face means that I will remove My Divine Presence. I will see what their end shall be is similar to I will go down now, and see, which I have already explained. For they are a generation of perversity and they will not be able to stand up before Me. Children in whom is no ‘eimun’ (training), for they have no nurse nor tutor. The person learned in the mysteries of the Cabala will understand. Now, up to this point Moses utters the Song and speaks in the first person. From this verse onward, wherein he mentioned, And the Eternal saw, and spurned, And He said: ‘I will hide My face’ — they are all the words of the Glorious Name: They have roused Me to jealousy; they have provoked Me, and similarly the entire Song [to the end].

"And He said" — Hashem, in His heart or to the angels. "I will hide" (astira) — after the manner of human speech, and similarly "I will shut My eyes" (Isa. 1:15); the meaning is: when they seek Me they will find no help. "I will see what their end will be" — some say: I hide My face from them because I foresee what they will do in the end. But the correct interpretation is that it is as its plain meaning: I will wait to see what they do when in distress. "For they are a generation of perversions" (ki dor tahpukhot) — this connects with "I will hide My face." "Of perversions" (tahpukhot) — they who have turned to worship other gods, though they were My children, for I gave birth to them — and there is no faithfulness in them. And this is a noun or adjective, for we find: "the faithful have disappeared" (ki fassu emunim, Ps. 12:2), corresponding to "the godly" (chasid); and also "who keeps faith" (shomer emunim, Isa. 26:2).

אסתירה פני מהם, from the sons and daughters. אראה מה אחריתם, because I can foresee that there is no chance that they will become penitents. כי דור תהפוכות המה for they have thoroughly turned their hearts away from the path of the living G’d; בנים לא אמון בם, completely faithless children who had not learned from their fathers any true values in life.

כי דור תהפוכות המה, "for they are a generation who have reversed themselves." Inasmuch as G'd had said in the first half of this verse that He would hide His face from them, awaiting what would befall the Israelites, this implies that even if they were to turn penitent -seeing G'd would not observe this as He had stopped watching what the Israelites were doing,- He would not accept such penitence. Moses offers as the reason for such an attitude by G'd that the people have turned already from good to evil; he adds בנים ולא אמון בם, "they are thoroughly faithless children." Even if they were to repent to the point of again qualifying for the description of children (of G'd), such repentance will not endure as they are fickle and do not keep faith. As a result of such considerations G'd hides His face from them.

אסתירה פני מהם, “I will hide My face from them;” by doing so I will await what awaits them when I do not supervise their fate every minute. We will see how useful the stars will be which they worship instead of Me. (B’chor shor) כי דור תהפוכות המה, “for they are a perverse generation;” only yesterday they said: “we will carry out everything the Lord bids us to do as soon as we will hear the details;” (Exodus 24,7) today they say to a golden calf: “you have taken us out of Egypt.” (Exodus 32,4)

ויאמר אסתירה פני מהם, “He said: ‘I will hide My face from them.’” I have already mentioned in Genesis 1,3 that the term אמירה, i.e. ויאמר, when applied to G’d reflects a benevolent kind of utterance or thought [when it was not uttered in someone’s hearing such as at the time when there were no creatures as yet who could hear the utterance. Ed.]. We may understand the words אסתירה פני as 'אסתיר ה', “I will hide the attribute ה which is “My face.” בנים לא אמון בם, “children who have no sense of loyalty within them.” According to the plain meaning of the text the word אמון here is an adjective raised to the level of a noun. The verse then would mean that amongst these “children” there is not a single loyal person, a person of faith. A Midrashic approach: These children do not respond with Amen.” This is reflected in the absence of the letter ו which we would have expected if only the plain meaning were correct. [The failure to pronounce Amen after the blessing of the prophets is a serious offense. Ed.] Our sages in Berachot 58 derive from this verse that a person who responds by saying Amen to a blessing in which the Lord’s name is mentioned has performed a greater mitzvah than the one who recited the actual benediction. A Kabbalistic approach: they are sons who have no one who teaches them and trains them (in the right path). The divine force which is known as פנים, “G’d’s face,” is the one that teaches and trains His children. Seeing that the Jewish “children” referred to are the Jews in exile from whom G’d “hid” this “face,” they have no one to train them in true Jewish values, to teach them the living Torah. The אומן Moses speaks about is symbolized by the final letter ה in the tetragrammaton. This is what the words אסתיר-ה פני מהם refer to.

“I will see what their end will be, for they are a generation of reversals.” Israel is called by three names: Jacob, Israel, and Jeshurun, and the final letters of these names spell “lavan” [white], signifying that through Jacob’s merit, God will whiten [or cleanse] their sins. But they have reversed the word “lavan” to “naval” [scoundrel], as stated above a scoundrel nation without wisdom, as our Sages said (Sanhedrin 97a): “In the generation of the Messiah, everything will turn to heresy. What is the Biblical source? As it is said (Leviticus 13:13), It has all turned white; he is pure.” This means that the reversal of the word “lavan” [white] is “naval” [scoundrel]. Therefore, He says here, I will see what their end will be, because the end [final letters] of these three names are the letters that spell “lavan,” alluding to the whitening of their deeds. But they are “a generation of reversals” who have turned “lavan” into “naval,” as it says, a scoundrel nation without wisdom. And above, I explained the verse a scoundrel nation as referring to one who loves money and is stingy, and about him it is said (Jeremiah 17:11), He who acquires wealth unjustly… in the end he will be a scoundrel. This is what is meant here by I will see what their end will be. And some evidence to support this connection, as the matter begins with naval [foolish/disgraceful] and ends with naval — it begins with it as it says vayenabel tzur yeshuato [he disgraced the Rock of his salvation], and ends with it as it says begoy naval ach’isem [with a foolish nation I will anger them]. This is what is meant by ki dor tahpuchot hemah [for they are a generation of reversals] who reverse lavan [white] to naval [foolish], and from this aspect they are banim lo emun bam [children with no faithfulness in them]. They provoked Me with a non-god, because they also reversed the word El [God] which in its reversal is lo [not], as they denied God and said lo hu [it is not He] (Jeremiah 5:12). They angered Me with their vanities, by reversing all words. And against these two reversals, I will provoke them with a non-people, telling them you are not My people (Hosea 2:1). With nothing they sinned and with nothing they will be punished; with naval they sinned and with naval they will be punished. This is what is meant by with a foolish nation I will anger them. Therefore it says, If they were wise, they would understand their end, which refers to lavan [whiteness] — that they should whiten their deeds through repentance, returning to God, of whom it is said His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool (Daniel 7:9). And then He would fulfill in them though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool (Isaiah 1:18).

ויאמר אסתירה פני מהם, “so that He said: ‘I will hide My face from them.” Ibn Ezra refers to commentators who understand this line as being addressed by one attribute of Hashem to another attribute of His. Alternately, Hashem said this to the angels, adding: “let us see how they will fare in the end?” G’d meant that what He was going to do was in order that what He had foreseen as their eventual future could materialize. Ibn Ezra himself feels that the correct interpretation is to understand it at face value, i.e. “let us find out how they will react when they find themselves in serious trouble.”

ויאמר אסתירה פני מהם, so that I said: “I’ll hide My face from them.” According to the Targum, this is an expression meaning that G–d will withdraw His benevolent Presence from them. כי דור תהפוכות המה, “for they are a treacherous generation;” they had considered the beneficial acts I had performed for them as harmful for them. As a result they became disloyal to Me.

They aroused My jealousy before Me with that which is no god; they provoked before Me with the worship of idols — and I will arouse their jealousy with a non-people; with a foolish nation I will provoke them.

קנאוני means, they made My anger glow (cf. Rashi on v. 16). בלא אל means, with something that is not a god. בלא עם [I WILL MOVE THEM TO JEALOUSY] WITH THOSE WHO ARE NOT A PEOPLE — i.e. with a nation that has no reputation, as it states e.g. of the Chaldeans (Isaiah 23:13), “Behold, the land of the Chaldeans, this people was not; [the Assyrians founded it …]”, and of Esau it states (Obadia 1:2) “Thou art greatly despicable”. בגוי נבל אכעיסם I WILL PROVOKE THEM TO ANGER WITH A DEBASED NATION — these are the “Minim”, the heretics. So indeed, it states, (Psalms 14:1) “The heretic (נבל) hath said in his heart “There is no God” (Sifrei Devarim 320:10; Yevamot 63b).

THEY HAVE ROUSED ME TO JEALOUSY WITH A NO-GOD — “with something that is not a god.” This is Rashi’s language. And if so, He alludes to the demons mentioned earlier. The correct interpretation is that He is stating: “They have roused Me to jealousy with an untrue god, for there is no G-d save the Eternal, and beside Him there is no savior,” similar to what is stated, Now for long seasons Israel was without the true G-d. THEY HAVE PROVOKED ME WITH THEIR VANITIES — [their vain belief in] the demons. AND I WILL ROUSE THEM TO JEALOUSY WITH A NO-PEOPLE — the Chaldeans, of whom it is said, Behold, the land of the Chaldeans, this is the people that was not, meaning the people that were not esteemed as a nation, and the Holy One, blessed be He, raised them to subjugate His world through them, as He said, Thou art My maul and weapons of war. I WILL PROVOKE THEM WITH A ‘NAVAL’ (VILE) NATION — with Esau who is vile, and he remembered not the brotherly covenant. He thus alludes to both exiles [by the hands of the Chaldeans, i.e., the Babylonians; and by the Edomites, the Romans].

"They made Me jealous" (kin'uni) — [the ayin is] lightened to ease the tongue. "With no-god" (be-lo El) — the meaning is that it has no power to save. "With their vanities" (be-havleihem) — and not with anything true. "I will make them jealous" (akni'em) — from the intensive-causative conjugation, taking two objects. "With a no-people" (be-lo am) — with those who are not My people. The explanation is: how will He make them jealous? He will bring upon them alone strange afflictions. But worst of all: "a base nation" (goy naval) — for the fool and the base man does not know, and therefore he slays without mercy.

הם קנאוני בלא אל, the generations during the first Temple aroused My jealousy because they practiced idolatry, i.e. they worshipped “non-gods,” whereas the generations during the second Temple made Me angry with their reliance of various vain phenomena. As a fitting punishment אקניאם בלא עם, during the first Temple I will arouse their jealousy by the “non-people,” the Babylonians, destroying the Temple and taking them captive, (compare Isaiah 23,13 and how he describes the Chaldaens), whereas the second Temple will be destroyed through a thoroughly wicked nation ,בגוי נבל אכעיסם, possessing neither their own language nor alphabet. (Gittin 80).

בלא עם, “with a vile nation.” (literally, a nonation). Compare Isaiah 23,13: "זה העם לא היה" “this nation never existed.”

הם קנאוני בלא א-ל, “They have aroused My jealousy by means of a non-deity, etc.” Seeing that they chose to exchange Me for something which has no power to save anyone, (compare Ezekiel 8,3 that the סמל הקנאה המקנה, it is the image of jealousy which provokes jealousy. Seeing that G’d is a jealous G’d, such symbols provoke His latent jealousy.) ואני אקניאם בלא-עם, “so I will (retaliate) by provoking them by a non-people.” [A group of human beings claiming to be a nation and having the rights of a nation although they do not share the ingredients which make a people into a nation. Compare the Palestinians in our days. Ed.] Moses referred to the Jews being exiled by the Babylonians (compare Isaiah 23,13 who ridicules the Babylonians’ claim to nationhood, seeing the Assyrians had annihilated that people.) בגוי נבל אכעיסם, “I will make them angry by means of a vile nation.” This is an allusion to the exile under the Edomites (Romans). The reason the Torah refers in such demeaning terms to the Edomites is because the founders of this nation denied the genetic bond which existed between their common ancestor Yitzchok. Instead of assisting his kin, that nation watched gloatingly when the first Temple was being destroyed (Ovadiah 11). You will also find that Assaph referred to Edom as נבל, vile, in psalm 74,18 where we read: ”be mindful of how the enemy blasphemes the Lord, how base people revile the Lord;” he continues in verse 22 of the same psalm: “rise O G’d, champion Your cause; be mindful that You are blasphemed by base men all day long.” In verse 19 of that psalm the author writes: “do not deliver Your dove to the wild beast; do not ignore forever the band of Your lowly ones.” All of this is meant to make plain that the base people, עם נבל, he referred to was the חיה הרביעית, the “fourth beast” in Daniel’s vision, a reference to the kingdom of Edom. (Our author elaborated on this in connection with Bileam’s prophecies Numbers 24,28). (Compare also Psalms 68,31 where the “beast of the marsh” is a reference to Edom.)

ואני אקניאם בלא עם, ”I will rouse them to jealousy with a no-people;” G–d retaliates by making the punishment fit the crime. It seems as if G–d is referring to bands of terrorists who will invade their land temporarily before leaving destruction in their wake. These terrorists are called “no-people,” as they are hated universally, seeing they do not only single out the land of Israel for their activities.

For a strong east wind, like fire, went forth from before Me in fury, and it consumed to the lowest Sheol; it swept away the land and its produce, and scorched to the roots of the mountains.

קדחה means, IT BURNS. ותיקד AND IT SHALL BLAZE in your midst to the very foundations (Rashi merely supplies the words “in your midst” and paraphrases עד שאול תחתית). ותאכל ארץ ויבלה AND IT SHALL CONSUME THE LAND WITH HER INCREASE — i.e., your land and its produce (Rashi means that ארץ does not mean “the ground”, “the soil”). ותלהט AND IT SHALL SET ON FIRE [THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE MOUNTAINS] — i.e. Jerusalem that is founded on the mountains, as it is said, (Psalms 125:2) “Jerusalem, mountains are round about it” (Sifrei Devarim 320:12).

"Has been kindled" (kadechah) — the jealousy, or what they have done; for we find this word used transitively, as in "for you have kindled a fire in My anger" (ki esh kadachtem be-api, Jer. 17:4). It is possible that kadechah is like nikdechah (it was kindled), as in "all these joined together" (kol eleh chaveru nechberu). All of this refers to the burning anger. "To the nethermost Sheol" — in the sense of "brimstone and salt, a burning of all its land" (Deut. 29:22). "And it consumed the earth" — the land of Israel. "And it set ablaze" (va-tlahat) — from the root lahat ha-cherev (the flaming sword, Gen. 3:24). "The mountains" — the mountains of Israel.

כי אש קדחה באפי, for when I disciplined them in order to induce them to repent their sins this people lit a fire in My wrath ותיקד עד שאול תחתית, they heaped sin upon sin until My wrath burned to the very bottom of Sheol, (lowest layer of purgatory). In other words, their punishment would consist of being consigned to this lowest region of purgatory. (compare Chronicles II 28,22 describing Achaz adding sins as a result of his kingdom having been severely chastised by G’d.) ותלהט מוסדי הרים, it burned and consumed down to the foundations of the mountains. The “mountains” are a simile for the high-ranking personages, all of whom were the first ones to be exiled prior to the destruction of the first Temple. (compare prediction by Isaiah 3, 1-3)

כי אש קדחה באפי, “for a fire is kindled in My ostril;” the jealousy kindled that fire in G-d’s nostril. An alternate interpretation of this simile: though written in the active mode, this word is to be understood as if it had been written in the passive mode, i.e. נקדחה. We have other examples of words written in the active mode actually portraying something that has happened, i.e. passive; one such example is found in Genesis 14,3: כל אלה חברו, “all these (kings) came together,” whereas we would have expected the reflexive/passive mode נתחברו. (Compare Ibn Ezra) ותאכל ארץ ויבולה, “ it has consumed the earth and its produce.” This happened in order to starve your people. ותלהט מוסדי הרים, “and sets ablaze the foundations of the mountains.” Anyone hiding beneath the mountains will be forced to flee from fear of the approaching enemies. As an example, we may recall Judges 6,2, when the Israelites had dug tunnels to hide in caves from their adversaries under the mountains. An alternate interpretation of this simile: “setting the base of mountains ablaze,” means that they could not flee there on account of the fire.

ותלהט מוסדי הרים, “(the fire) and set ablaze the foundations of the mountains;” this is analogous to what we read in Job 34,22: אין חשך ואין צלמות להסתר שם פועלי און, “neither darkness nor gloom offers a hiding-place for the evil doers.”

I will heap evils upon them; My plagues I will spend on them.

אספה עלימו רעות — This means, I will join evil to evil, אספה having the same meaning as in (Isaiah 29:1) “add ye (ספו) year to year”; (Deuteronomy 29:18) “in order to add (ספות) the drunkenness to the thirst”; (Jeremiah 7:21) “Add (ספו) your burnt offerings to your sacrifices”. — Another explanation of אספה: it means, “I will expend” (bring to an end so that there will be no more evils to bring upon them); similar to (Genesis 19:15) “lest thou be brought to an end (תספה). חצי אכלה בם means all my arrows I will use to the full against them (i.e., there will be no arrows left). This curse according to the wording in which the punishment is expressed, implies a blessing: My arrows will come to an end, but they themselves will not come to an end (i.e. they will never be exterminated) (Sifrei Devarim 321:2; Sotah 9a).

"I will heap" (aspeh) — some say it has the same meaning as "I will add" (osif); but the correct interpretation is like "it shall consume" (tokhal), from the root ha-af tispe ("will the anger consume?", Gen. 18:24) — even if it is from a different conjugation — and the meaning is that no evil will remain that He will not bring upon them. He compared His plans to arrows that come suddenly, against which there is no way to protect oneself.

אספה, “I will heap;” from the word אסיפה, collecting. The root is used also in Numbers 32,14: לספות עוד על חרון אף ה', “to augment still further G-d’s anger.

אספה עלימו רעות חצי אכלה בם. It is customary for Scripture to repeat the same thing in different words. Here the purpose is to inform the reader that the victim will be struck by a whole variety of disasters. G’d will use most of the ammunition at His disposal to punish the guilty.

אספה עלימו רעות , “I will heap evils upon them;” in other words: “I will not spare them any of the evils that are in existence.” חצי אכלה בם, “I will use all My arrows against them.” By repeating himself, apparently, Moses stresses that G–d will use all the destructive power at His disposal.

Swollen with famine, and consumed by birds, and crushed by evil spirits — the tooth of the wild beast I will send against them, together with the venom of serpents that crawl in the dust.

מזי רעב — Onkelos rendered this by “swollen by famine”. I have, however, no convincing proof for this meaning. In the name of R. Moses the Preacher of Toulouse have heard that it is the same as שעירי רעב, “hairy through hunger”, for an emaciated person grows much hair on his flesh. In the Aramaic language the term for hair is מזיא, as e.g. in the phrase (Megillah 18a) “who was busying himself with his hair (במזיא)". ולחמי רשף This means, the demons fight with them (לחם means “to battle”), — as it states, (Job. 5:7) “As the בני רשף fly upwards”, and they are the demons (Berachot 5a). וקטב מרירי means and the destruction caused by a demon whose name is מרירי. The word קטב denotes “cutting off”, “destruction”, as in (Hosea 13:14) “I will be thy destruction (קטבך) O grave”. ושן בהמת [I WILL SEND FORTH] THE TEETH OF CATTLE [UPON THEM] (i.e., even the teeth of cattle, not only of wild beasts) — It indeed happened once that lambs bit people and caused their death (Sifrei Devarim 321:8; cf. Rashi on Leviticus 26:22). חמת זחלי עפר THE FURY OF THOSE CRAWLING IN THE DUST — i.e. the poison of serpents that crawl on their bellies upon the ground as the water trickles (זחל) upon the ground. The root זחל properly denotes the passage of water upon the dust, and it is similarly used as here of the passage of anything that proceeds in a shuffling manner upon the ground.

"Wasted by famine" (mezei ra'av) — like "burned by famine," from the root le-meza le-atunah ("to heat the furnace," Dan. 3:22). "And devoured by the fiery bolt" (ve-lachumei reshef) — consumed by birds, as in "and the sons of reshef soar in flight" (Job 5:7). But what seems correct to me is that he mentioned four evil punishments: famine — this is "wasted by famine"; burning fever (reshef) and bitter plague (ketev) — this is the pestilence; "I will loose against them the teeth of beasts" — animals; and "the sword from outside shall bereave" — the sword. Thus the meaning of reshef is as in "his sparks" (reshafav, Cant. 8:6), meaning that the air becomes heated. "And bitter plague" (u-ketev meriri) — destruction, like "he who cuts off" (ha-hakratah). "Meriri" — bitterness in the air, as in "the bitterness of the day" (kamarerei yom, Amos 8:10); and similarly it is written, "the destruction that ravages at noon" (mi-ketev yashud tzaharayim, Ps. 91:6) — meaning the pestilence. And "devoured by the fiery bolt" is like "consumed by" — and many [words] follow this pattern. "Together with the venom of crawling things of the dust" (im chamat zochalei afar) — to bite; and the venom is a reference to the bite. "Dust" (afar) means snakes, as with "the fiery serpents" (ha-serafim, Num. 21:6). The word zochalei is [associated] with dread, for all who see them fear them, as in "the awesome ones" (ha-emim, Gen. 14:5); and its companion [word] is found with Elihu ben Berachel (Job 32:6).

מזי רעב, “the wasting due to famine;” burned by hunger; compare Daniel 3,19, למזי לאתונא, “to heat up the kiln;” ולחמי רשף, “their flesh consumed by the vultures;” compare Proverbs 9,5: לכו לחמו בלחמי, “come and eat my bread;” (compare the commentaries on that phrase there.) Compare also Job 5,7: ובני רשף יגביהו עוף, “as the sparks fly upwards.”

מזי רעב, “burned by famine.” The expression is used in this sense in Daniel 3,19 where it refers to stoking a furnace i.e. למזא לאתונא. The idea appears to be that on account of the pangs of hunger, one’s natural warmth is burning up healthy tissue seeing it does not have food to burn up. As a result these people will be consumed by raging fever. וקטב מרירי, “and bitter destruction (death);” according to Ibn Ezra this refers to some kind of poisoned air which kills people. This appears to occur mostly at midday. Examples are: Job 3,5: “may it be struck by the pall of the day.” This is also the meaning of Psalms 91,6 ומקטב ישוד צהרים, “and from the scourge that rages at noon.” A description of the plague, pestilence. Moses speaks of four different judgments, afflictions. which can be summarised as רעב, דבר, חיה, חרב, famine, pestilence, wild beasts, and death by the sword.

מזי רעב, “bloating of famine;” Ibn Ezra understands the expression as “burned by the pangs of hunger,” as in Daniel 3,19 למזא לאתונה, “to heat up the kiln.” ולחומי רשף, “battling flaming demons.” A reference to a species of birds. We find them mentioned in Job 5,7 The correct interpretation (quoting Ibn Ezra) is that the Israelites will be subjected to four different kinds of judgments, penalties, In this verse famine and its impact is described by Moses. The others will follow.רשף, קטף מרירי, חיה רעה and חרב. רשף appears to be sickness caused by microbes in the air.קטב מרירי is a kind of pestilence brought on by polluted air.

מזי רעב. This word has different meanings in different contexts. When it appears in the Talmud as in Chulin 45 it means ((נתמזמז being emptied of vital content. ולחומי רשף, mixture of hail and fire from the sky. The word occurs in this context in Song of Songs 8,6 רשפי אש. If it has the meaning used in the Talmud it describes breaking out of rashes on the skin as in Job 5,7 בני רשף יגביהו עוף, caused by celestial sources such as sparks (in the spiritual sense) and not something that originates on earth. It refers to fiery arrows when used in Psalms 76,5, and in a similar sense in Psalms 91,5 מחץ יעוף יומם, “from arrows flying by day.” Basically, we are dealing here with destructive phenomena which do not have their origin on earth. וקטב מרירי, stabbed and cut up (mutilated) by robbers who make a point of killing people cruelly. The construction of the word מרירי is similar to the construction of the word פלילי, criminal, from ונתן בפלילים, (Exodus 2,22) describing judges who deal with criminal matters. The judges incriminate the guilty, (transitively), similarly, מרירי is transitive, describes not what the victim suffers, endures, but the force which make the life of the victim intolerable. The word ישוד, from שוד, in Psalms 91,6 מקטב ישוד צהרים, also refers transitively to the forces perpetrating the robbery. “the scourge which is ravaging around noon.” Both Jeremiah 15,8 and Tzefaniah 2,4 use this word in a similar sense.

מזי רעב, “wasting famine;” compare Daniel 3,19 for use of the word מזי. We read there למזי לאתונה חד שבעה, “to heat the kiln seven times.” The people’s skin would be full of holes and blisters due to excessive pains caused by hunger. ולחומי רשף, compare Song of Songs 8,6, רשפיה רשפי אש, “its flashes are flashes of fire;” epidemics caused by excessive heat-waves. וקטב מרירי, “and bitter destruction.” The word קטב is found in Hoseah 13,14: אהי קטבך שאול, “your pestilence where? Sheol” (Metaphor for the fires of hell.) The word מרירי meaning: “bitter,” is familiar to all of us, although our author provides examples for where it is used. However, in the Talmud tractate Pessachim folio 111, the word is understood to mean sheydim, “demons,” the Talmud coming to the conclusion that there are two different kinds of ketev m’riri, demons, one is active before it is noon, and one after the sun has reached its highest point on the horizon.

From without, the sword will bereave; and from within the chambers, terror of death — both their young men and their young women, their nursing infants together with the men of their old age.

מחוץ תשכל חרב WITHOUT, THE SWORD SHALL BEREAVE — This means, outside the city will the sword of the hostile troops bereave them, ומחדרים אימה AND WITHIN, DREAD — when one flees and escapes, the recesses (חדרים) of his heart will vehemently beat out of dread, and he will gradually die through this (Sifrei Devarim 321:11). — Another explanation of ומחדרים אימה: In the house there will be the fear of pestilence, as it says, (Jeremiah 9:20) “For the death is come up into our windows" (cf. Bava Kamma 60b). So, too, did Onkelos translate it. — Another explanation of this verse: מחוץ תשכל חרב — the sword shall destroy them on account of what they have done in the streets (חוצה; the prefix מ denotes the cause: on account of the streets), as it is said, (Jeremiah 11:13) “According to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have you set up altars to the shameful thing” (Sifrei Devarim 321:12); ומחדרים אימה — on account of what they have done in the innermost chambers of their houses, as it is said, (Ezekiel 8:12) “[Have you seen] what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his marbled chambers?” (Sifrei Devarim 321:12)

"The young man also" (gam bachur) — this connects with "the sword shall bereave." The meaning of "also" (gam) — as is the way of the language, as I explained. And he thus combined everything: young men and also maidens, old men along with youths.

ומחדרים אימה, גם בחור גם בתולה, young men and women hiding in their houses will be made orphans.

I said: I will let My wrath pour out upon them and destroy them; I will cause their memory to cease from among mankind.

אמרתי אפאיהם means, I said in my heart, “I will אפאה them”. One may explain אפאיהם to mean: I would make them as פאה, i.e. “as grain left in the corner of the field”, to cast them away from Me as something free to all. We find a similar idea to this in Ezra (Nehemiah 9:22), “And thou gavest them kingdoms and nations and didst set them aside as a corner (פאה)” — i.e., as free to all. Thus (under this meaning) did Menachem ben Seruk classify it. Others expound it as the Targum does: My wrath (אף) will fall upon them. This is, however, not correct, for if it were so (i.e., if אפאיהם were connected with אף) it ought to have written אֲאַפְאֵיהֶם with two Alephs, the one as a servile letter (a prefix) and the other as a root letter, just as in (Isaiah 45:5) אאזרך, “I girded thee”, and (Job 16:5) “I would strengthen you (אאמצכם) with my mouth” (in both these cases the first letter of the root is א as it is in אף), and the middle א (that after the פ) would not be proper to be in it at all. Onkelos, however (in connecting the word with אף, anger), rendered it according to the explanation of a Baraitha taught in Sifrei Devarim 322:1 which divides this word into three words, אמרתי אף אי הם, which means, I said in My anger (אף) I will make them as though they were not existent, i.e., that those who are looking for them would ask about them, “Where are they (אי הם)?".

[‘AMARTI’ (I SAID)] ‘APHEIHEM.’ Grammarians explained it as meaning: “I will disperse them into every ‘corner.’” And if so, the word amarti means that it was the Will before Him by the attribute of justice that they be so scattered forever in every corner, and that their memory cease forever from among men — were it not that I was in dread of the wrath from the enemy. And in my opinion the word apheihem is a composite word, as is mentioned in the Sifre, that it consists of these three words: aph ei heim [“I said in My ‘anger’ that I will banish them so that it will be said of them ‘where are they?’ “]. The meaning thereof is that I will put them in such a place and in such a manner that it will also be said of them “Where are they?” signifying that there will be no name or remnant left of them among the nations, and their place will not be known where they are. He thus alludes to the exile of the ten tribes that were banished to the river Gozan, this being the river which the Sages call “Sabbatyon.” The name “Gozan” is of the expressions: ‘vayagaz’ (and it brought over) quails from the sea; Thou art ‘gozi’ (He that took me out) of my mother’s womb, because those who remain behind [that river] are “divested” of any contacts with other people. It is called “Sabbatyon” because of its rest on the Sabbath-day, for the Sabbath-day in that language, as in Arabic, is called Sabbat, and they add adjectivial suffixes of ‘yon’ to certain nouns, such as: eizoviyon (Greek hyssop), churyon (another), mulyon (a mule), and many others. I WOULD MAKE THEIR MEMORY CEASE FROM AMONG MEN. This is a reference to our exiles among the nations — we, Judah and Benjamin, who have no significance among the nations and we are not considered a people or nation at all. Thus Scripture states that according to the attribute of justice we should remain in this condition of exile forever were it not that I was in dread of the wrath from the enemy. This teaches that, in our present exile, [the protecting influence of] the merits of the patriarchs have ceased and we have no deliverance from the hands of the nations except for the sake of His Great Name, similar to what He stated in the Book of Ezekiel, when I bring you out from the peoples, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you in the sight of the nations. And ye shall know that I am the Eternal, when I have wrought with you for My Name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel. And so also it is further stated, But I wrought for My Name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations etc. Therefore Moses mentioned in his prayer, then the nations which have heard the fame of Thee will speak, saying etc. and G-d, blessed be He, acknowledged him in this, And the Eternal said: ‘I have pardoned according to thy word.’This plea is not meant to demonstrate His power among His enemies, for All the nat...

"I said I would scatter them" (apayhem) — some say this is three words [af + pe + hem]. But the correct interpretation is that it has no parallel, and its meaning is like "I would destroy them" (ashchitem), because what follows is "I would make their remembrance cease among men" — for all of them would die. And if it were according to the grammarians' view, that the meaning is "I would scatter them to every corner" (apitz bekhol pe'ah), the meaning would not connect. Others say it means "I would destroy them in My anger" (achrivem be-api), which would give a doubled meaning — "destroy them" and "cause their remembrance to cease" — and this is plausible, were it not for the alef of apayhem, which should rightly be anpayhem; and the meaning would be "I would be angered at them." But the first interpretation seems correct to me. The meaning of "I said" (amarti) — after the manner of human speech: I said in My heart.

אמרתי אפאיהם, I had said that I would leave a small “corner” (from פאה, the 1/60th of the farmer’s field to be left for the poor to help themselves to) of them survive whereas I would destroy the balance. This is what I will do at the end of history before the final redemption, seeing that I had been unable to achieve My purpose either through giving them the Torah, or through giving them the Land of Israel, or even through sending them into exile to give them a taste of what they had lost due to their obstinacy. (compare Yoel,3,5 warning the Jewish people of precisely this )

אמרתי אפאיהם, "I had said 'I will scatter them, etc.'" The meaning of the word אפאיהם is: "I will continue My anger with them until their memory will cease from human memory."

אמרתי אפאיהם, “I said I would make an end of them;” the word is related to פיאה, “corner, remnant,” I would not even leave a remnant of them. (B’chor shor)

אמרתי אפאיהם, “I had said: ‘I will consign them to the most remote corner.’” “I will scatter them to the ends of the globe.” According to Nachmanides, the words mean that G’d says: “I had originally wanted that they remain scattered to the corners of the globe forever so that their memory will be blotted out among mankind.”This is an allusion to the exile of the Ten Tribes who were exiled to the region of the river Gozan, (Kings II 17,6) the river referred to by our sages as Sabatyon. (according to Sanhedrin 65 Sambatyon) The word גוזן is related to ויגז שלוים, Numbers 11,31 “it (the wind) swept quail.” We also encounter the a similar word in Psalms 71,6 כי אתה גוזי, “for You were my support.” The people standing on the far side of that river are effectively removed from human society (no one can cross the river). The river is called Sabatyon because it stops flowing on the Sabbath. In the language of the people in that region the word סבט is equivalent to our word שבת. In Arabic too, the Sabbath is called סבט. It is a custom among those people to append the ending יון to many words, hence the name סבטיון. Nachmanides furnishes examples of other words with that ending. Even though, at this stage, the Torah speaks here in riddles, allusions, and in a very abbreviated form, we can find illuminating comments by our sages on the subject scattered throughout the Talmud and Midrashim. For instance, in Bereshit Rabbah 73,6 Rabbi Yehudah son of Rabbi Seymon says that the tribes of Yehudah and Binyamin were not exiled to the same areas as were the Ten Tribes who had been exiled long before beyond the river Sabatyon, whereas the tribes of Yehudah and Binyamin were scattered all over the globe. In Midrash Shir Hashirim Zutta 1,16 the words אף ערשנו רעננה are understood by the Midrash as an allusion to these Ten Tribes who were exiled beyond the river Sabatyon. The Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 10,8 writes that there were three exiles of the Israelites (the northern kingdom, I presume, Ed.); 1) beyond the river Sabatyon, 2) the exile somewhere close to Antiochya; 3) an exile which was preceded by a cloud descending and hiding the people being exiled. Just as the Ten Tribes (actually 7) were exiled in three stages and to three locations, the two and a half Tribes on the East Bank of the Jordan who were the first to be exiled also were exiled in three stages. The source from which we derive all this is Ezekiel 23,31: בדרך אחותך הלכת ונתתי כוסה בידך, “seeing you walked the same path as your sister, therefore I placed her cup in your hand.” Just as the exile was divided into three episodes and locations, so the eventual return to the Holy land will follow a similar pattern The sages base this on Isaiah 49,9: “tell the prisoners ‘get going;’” this (part of) the verse applies to the exiles from beyond the river Sabatyon. The second half of the verse in Isaiah which reads: “to the ones who were exiled in darkness,” applies to the people exiled beyond the Sabatyon. The next section of the verse i.e. the words: “show yourselves!” refers to the exiles who had been mysteriously swallowed by the cloud; The final words of that verse, i.e. “they shall pasture along the roads,” apply to the group of exiles who had been taken to somewhere near Antiochya. In the Tosephta of Sanhedrin (chapter 13) we have been taught in the name of Rabbi that the Ten Tribes will enjoy a share in the world to come. He bases himself on Isaiah 27,13: “it will be on that day (the day described in verse 12) that a great shofar will be sounded and the strayed who are in the land of Assyria and the expelled in the land of Egypt shall come and worship the Lord on the holy mount, in Jerusalem.” The peoples mentioned are the ones we know as the “Ten Tribes.” According to Sifra Bechukotai 8 the reference is to the people described in Leviticus 26,38. Rabbi Akiva says that the reference is to the Ten Tribes who have been exiled to the land of the Medes.

“I said I would make an end of them, I would erase their memory from mankind.” “Af’eihem” [I would make an end of them] — Rashi explains: “I said I would make them ownerless like the corner [pe’ah].” But is only the corner [of the field] ownerless? Aren’t the gleanings, the forgotten sheaves, and the corner all ownerless? Why specifically mention the corner? It seems that he mentioned here the corner and the forgotten sheaves, because “Af’eihem” refers to the corner, and I would erase their memory from mankind refers to forgotten sheaves. For if He erases their memory so that no one remembers them, they become ownerless like the forgotten sheaves, where the owner has no share in the corner and the forgotten sheaves. Similarly, where it says For the Lord’s portion is His people, I will remove them from before Me because they will no longer be called by My name. However, he did not mention gleanings [leket] because the Sages said (Pe’ah 6:5): “Two [fallen stalks] constitute gleanings, three do not constitute gleanings.” And here, those who are scattered will be more than two, therefore they do not have the status of gleanings which are forbidden to their owners. Rather, the Holy One, blessed be He, will gather [lelaketam] them in the future, as it is said And you shall be gathered [teluktu] one by one (Isaiah 27:12). And what it means by “you will be gathered” in the passive form implies through another, for they will be gathered by the King Messiah, and since two [grains] in one place constitute leket [the gleanings that must be left for the poor], therefore they will be gathered specifically by the King Messiah, about whom it is said poor and riding upon a donkey (Zechariah 9:9), and a poor person is permitted to take the gleanings of one by one, meaning two, which constitutes leket. Therefore it says and you will be gathered one by one, meaning two. But when the scattered ones are more than two in one place, then the Holy One, blessed be He, the Master of the entire world, will gather them Himself in His glory. This is what is meant by and his arm shall reap the ears of grain, and it shall be as one who gathers ears in the valley of Rephaim (Isaiah 17:5) — implying that the Holy One, blessed be He, will gather them with His arm, not through another, because it does not mention there “one by one,” implying that those being gathered are more than two in one place, and they will never leave the domain of the Master of the house. And this is a correct and precious allusion.

אמרתי אפאיהם, “I had said: ‘I will disperse them;’” Nachmaides first quotes the grammarians who derive the word אפאיהם as a derivative of פאה , i.e. I will disperse them to the four corners of the globe.” He adds, that he personally, thinks that the word is a combination of two words, as suggested in the Sifri, i.e. אף אי הם, “I said in My anger that I would treat them as if they did not exist.” (אי הם?) “Where are they?” They would become so assimilated in such small groups that they would cease to exist as an identifiable remnant of the once great Jewish nation. This is an allusion to the exile of the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom during the conquest of most of the land of Israel by the Assyrians [722 B.C.E.] when these tribes were relocated among other nations far to the north, most of them remaining lost to us except for remnants who joined Zerubavel when he returned under the protectorate of the Persian King Cyrus. In the legends transmitted by the sages these tribes were exiled to a mysterious region beyond the river Sambatyon, an unbridgeable and inaccessible region about which many tales have been spun. The essence of the verse is that G’d speaks (through Moses’ vision) of having wanted to destroy the exiles utterly so that history would forget their existence. [second half of our verse. Ed.] He would have done so if not:

אמרתי אפאיהם, I had originally said that I would remove them from the world had it not been for My fear of becoming annoyed when the gentile nations would credit their own power with annihilating the Jewish people. [I am paraphrasing some of this. Ed.]

אמרתי אפאיהם, “I had said I would make an end of them” so that no trace of them would remain. אשביתה מאנוש זכרם “I would make even their memory extinct;”

Were it not for the wrath of the enemy, lest it be gathered — lest the adversary grow arrogant, lest they say: Our hand prevailed for us, and none of this was from before Hashem.

לולי כעס אויב אגור WERE IT NOT THAT THE WRATH OF THE ENEMY WAS אגור — i.e. were it not that the wrath of the enemy were heaped up (אגור) against them to destroy them, and if he does overpower them and destroy them, he will attribute the greatness to himself and to his god, and he will not attribute it to Me. That is the meaning of what is stated immediately afterwords: פן ינכרו צרימו — i.e. lest they treat the matter as arising from a stranger (ינכרו) by attributing their power to a stranger (נכרי) to whom the greatness, however, does not actually belong, פן יאמרו ידינו רמה וגו׳ LEST THEY SHOULD SAY, OUR HAND IS EXALTED etc.

"I dreaded" (agur) — I feared, from the root va-yagor Moav ("and Moab dreaded," Num. 22:3). The Targum said it derives from agorah ba-katzir ("I gather at the harvest," Prov. 6:8). But the correct interpretation is that it is from the word tigra (provocation/contention), and the Scripture spoke after the manner of people so that listeners would understand. "They would act strangely" (yikharu) — the opposite of yakhiru (they would recognize), as in "he made himself unrecognizable to them" (va-yitnakar aleihem, Gen. 42:7). "Wrought all this" — against the tribes.

לולי כעס אויב אגור, that on account of the violent anti-semitism which the gentile nations would unleash against the small remnant of Jewish people so that in order to save themselves from further persecution they would פן ינכרו צרימו, attempt to divest themselves of their Judaism altogether, something the gentiles would hold out to them as a lifesaving gesture, פן יאמרו, and lest the gentiles would approach these remnants of the Jewish people saying to them ידינו רמה, “we have prevailed, we have proven right with our religion, our faith,” and ולא ה' פעל זאת, “this was not what G’d did to you for not obeying Him,” so that you would still have hope to escape your fate by doing teshuvah. G’d scattered you to so many different places on earth that the total oblivion of the people through assimilation by inducements of the gentiles would not be likely. This was what Devorah meant when she said in her song in Judges 5,11 צדקות פרזונו בישראל, G‘d performed righteous deeds when He scattered Israel (instead of sending them to a single country into exile)

לולא כעס אויב אגור, "If it were not for the fact that I am afraid of the anger of the enemy, etc." The author understands the word אגור in this verse as identical with the same word in Proverbs 6,8, i.e. the ant which gathers in the supplies needed in winter during the preceding summer. G'd also refers to the numerous occasions when the Gentile nations have caused Him to be angry. G'd is saying that He is concerned that by wiping out Israel all the Gentile nations will conclude (gather further evidence) that the Jewish religion had never been the truth as demonstrated by the disappearance of the Jewish people. This is the meaning of ינכרו צרימו, "their tormentor will misinterpret (the course of history)." Furthermore, פן יאמרו ידינו רמה, "lest they would say 'our hand has prevailed.' Not only will they deny the authenticity of the Jewish religion but they will continue to sin by claiming that their religion had been the true religion all along. They will not attribute their wellbeing to G'd's patience with them but to the power of the deities they worship and believe in. ולא ה׳ פעל כל זאת, "and it was not the Lord who accomplished all this." This is a reference to all the glory the Jewish people had achieved prior to its decline. The nations will claim as proof for their theory that a) the Israelites had not been doing something that they had not been doing for a long time; 2) the Gentile nations gained control over them and destroyed them. Alternatively, the Gentiles will conclude that what had befallen Israel could only be explained in terms of a combination of both alien gods and the Lord cooperating to bring about the demise of the Jewish people.

ולא ה' פעל כל זאת, “and that not the Lord had brought all this about.” [Moses is quoting the enemies of the Jewish people. Ed.] They deny that our misfortune was G-d’s way of chastising His people.

לולא כעס אויב אגור, “If I were not concerned with provoking the anger of the enemy, etc.” The Hebrew words are to be understood as: לולא שאני מפחד מכעס אויב as explained by Ibn Ezra, as G’d saying that He is conscious of His need to battle the enemies of the Jews who draw the wrong conclusions of history, [such as that the G’d of the Jews has lost His power. Ed]. The word אגור is the same as Deut. 1,17 where Moses told the judges לא תגורו מפני איש: ”do not be afraid of any man.” The meaning of the words פעל כל זאת refers to the שפטים, the judgments, i.e. that the enemy of the Jewish people would not credit G’d with having orchestrated these judgments on His people as a punishment for them.

לולי כעס אויב אגור, “If I had not had to fear that this would be misinterpreted by the Antisemites as their victory over My people, instead of My punishment of My people, etc.” Nachmanides writes that from this verse there is proof that in our present exile the merit of our illustrious forefathers has ceased to be a factor ameliorating our political/social position in the host countries. In this verse Moses describes a scenario in which our continued survival is not credited to G’d remembering the merits of our patriarchs, but is credited only to His concern about His own reputation among the nations of the world. It is not that G’d has a desire to display His power among the nations. There is no point to this, seeing that all these nations combined are completely impotent when compared to Him, so that there would be no contest in which one party would emerge as a victor. G’d’s concern is that seeing that He has created man to inhabit the “lower” regions of the universe, i.e. the earth, it is of importance to Him that these creatures called “man” recognise His existence, and the fact that they are His creatures and that His domain extends to the region of the earth and that man has to be obedient to Him, and that He deals with man on the basis of reward for good behaviour and retribution for rebellious behaviour. Seeing that all the other nations had denied His existence, or His right to interfere with their lifestyle and to make rules by which they have to abide, only the Jewish nation remained and had been wiling to accept His sovereignty on earth. In response G’d had demonstrated by supernatural miracles that He is the supreme authority in this universe, that His power far outranks that attributed to astrological constellations. If G’d were to allow the Jewish nation, the only one that had recognised Him, to perish, He would nullify all that He had meant to accomplish by putting a living human being on earth in the first place.

לולי כעס אויב אגור, “were it not that I dreaded the enemy’s provocation;” (if I, G–d, had not thought that the gentiles would not attribute their disappearance as an act of punishment by Me.) the word גור occurs in the sense of “fearing” in Deuteronomy 1,17: לא תגורו מפני איש, “do not be afraid of anybody.” פן ינכרו צרימו, “lest its adversaries would boast over their accomplishment” (in having wiped out the Jewish people)

For they are a people who destroy counsel, and there is no understanding among them.

כי FOR that nation גוי אבד עצות המה ואין בהם תבונה IS A NATION OF ERRING COUNSEL, NEITHER IS THERE ANY UNDERSTANDING IN THEM — for if they were wise (לו חכמו), ישכילו זאת THEY WOULD UNDERSTAND THIS viz., איכה ירדף וגו׳ HOW COULD ONE PURSUE [A THOUSAND] etc.

FOR THEY ARE A NATION VOID OF COUNSEL. [This verse and] the entire section [further on] refers to the aforementioned enemy, according to the words of Rabbi Nechemyah. And, so too, the verse, For their Rock is not as our rock is to be understood as the words of the enemy. Scripture thus states, the enemy should have considered and understood that what was done with Israel had been brought about by G-d because of their sin, and from it they should have realized their own ultimate punishment, for He would do the same to all the nations since they rebel against G-d more than does Israel. They should have been wise and said: “How should one pursue a thousand from Israel except their Rock had given them over. For their Rock is powerful and possesses the capability to help and save more than does our rock, and our enemies [i.e., the Israelites] were ‘pelilim’ (judges) over us originally to execute judgments upon us as they wished. And now, why do a thousand [of the Israelites] flee from before us at the shout of one man, except that their mighty Rock gave them over and sent a faintness into their heart and they fell when there was no pursuer.” The term ‘pelilim’ (judges) is associated with the expressions: that ‘pilalt’ (thou hast given judgment) for thy sisters; Then stood up Phinehas ‘vayephaleil’ (and wrought judgment).

"For it is a nation that has lost counsel" (ki goy oved etzot). The correct interpretation is that this nation refers to the enemies of Israel. The word oved is an adjectival form and is in construct, therefore the bet is open [i.e., unaccented]. It is well known that the word oved belongs to the intransitive verbs, but etzot (counsel) connects to oved, as in "the leaves of which wither" (novalat alehah, Isa. 1:30), and similarly, "you shall perish from the way" (va-avadtem derekh, Ps. 2:12), where it is in construct with derekh. And so the Targum was correct in saying "destroyers of counsel" (me'avdei etah).

כי גוי אובד עצות המה, Moses is quoting the gentiles’ assessment of the Jewish people at that point.

כי גוי אבד עצות המה, "for they are a people bereft of counsel;" As distinct from the Gentile neighbours, the Jews do not respond to being disciplined by their G'd and turn penitent. They are inherently unable to learn the lessons of history. ואין בהם תבונה, "and they do not possess discernment." They are unable to draw conclusions through unprejudiced observations. As Moses continues: "if they possessed wisdom they would use it intelligently." They would have understood that the outpouring of G'd's wrath upon them was not a natural disaster, a coincidence, but a warning to repent and to mend their ways. Moses elaborates on a few examples which should have demonstrated to the Israelites that G'd had been their support all along in the past.

כי גוי אובד עצות המה , “for they are a people void of counsel;” There are two opposing interpretations in the Sifri concerning who are the subject in this phrase; according to Rabbi Yehudah, the subject are the Jewish people; according to Rabbi Nechemyah, the subject are the gentile nations, who have no concept of how G-d’s ways of educational punishment works. According to RabbiNechemyah the words refer to what the gentile nations were quoted as saying in verse 27. According to Rabbi Yehudah, the Jewish people had rejected all the sound advice G-d had given them about how to live their lives by following the rules of the Torah.

כי גוי אובד, “for a nation bereft, etc.” a reference to the Gentile nations [as a group, Ed.].

כי גוי אובד עצות, the word גוי refers to the gentile nations here saying of the Jews that they are totally devoid of direction; the construction ovad is similar to mispad in מספד תמרורים in Jeremiah 6,26, where instead of misped we find mispad, just as here we find ovad instead of oved. Genesis 30,37 makal instead of makel, is another example of such a construction. The reason for the patach instead of the tzeyreh is that in each instance listed the noun is in a construct mode. A fourth example of such a construction is found in Leviticus 27,32 ma-assar bakar vatzon, instead of ma-asser bakar vatzon.

כי גוי אובד עצות המה, “for they are a nation void of sense;” this is a reference to the nation into whose hands I will deliver them. They are devoid of sense, so how could they have succeeded in wiping out My people?.

If only they were wise, they would consider this; they would reflect upon what will be at their end.

יבינו לאחריתם THEY WOULD CONSIDER THEIR LATTER END — i.e. they would set their heart to comprehend the ultimate reason for the misfortune of the Israelites...

"Would that they were wise" (lu chakhmu) — if they were wise enough to understand that Hashem did all this to Israel on account of their sin, then they would discern their end — that He will do the same to them on account of their sins.

לו חכמו ישכילו זאת, how the Israelites could have fallen into their hands, something that is completely unnatural, could only have been due as punishment for their sins. יבינו לאחריהם, if they would only examine history they would soon realise what is in store for them for their sins if this is what has befallen Israel for its sins.

לו חכמו, “if they (the Israelites) had been wise;” ישכילו זאת, “they would understand this;” Moses will elaborate on what the “this” is. יבינו לאחריתם, “they would understand that what has happened to them lately had been the natural result of their disloyalty to the covenant they had entered into with Hashem. What should have made them realise all this?

לו חכמו, “if only they had displayed wisdom (the Jewish people). ישכילו זאת, “they would have appreciated with their intelligence that G’d had orchestrated all these afflictions as retaliation for their iniquities.” Furthermore, if they would have used their intelligence they would have realized that at the time when one of the enemy put a thousand of the Israelites to flight this too had only been possible through G’d’s doing. Unless their “Rock” had sold them out and had delivered them into the hands of the pagans this could never have happened.

לו חכמו, “Had they only displayed some elementary wisdom, etc.” If the nation who hosted the Israelites and who did believe that the misfortunes of the Jewish people had been due to G’d, [either to His weakness or to His anger Ed.] had only possessed a minimum of common sense, they would have realized that what happened to G’d’s people had nothing to do with their power, but was due solely to the retribution G’d exacted from this people for their disloyalty to Him. They would have realized that at the time when one of them was able to put to flight a thousand times their number, this too had been possible only by the strength given to His people by their Creator and Protector. Now that they had abandoned His Torah, their G’d had reacted by abandoning them.

לו חכמו, if these gentile nations had possessed any real intelligence they would have said: איכה ירדוף אחד, how was it ever possible that a single one of us could successfully pursue אלף, a thousand Jews, something they used to be able to do to us. This could only be accounted for by the fact that their G’d, צורם, had sold them out. This was the result of their offending Him by their sins. The word צור as simile for G’d has already occurred in verse 4 of this chapter.

לו חכמו ישכילו זאת, “if they were wise they would understand this, i.e. they would understand that if such a disaster could have befallen a great nation like the Jewish people, one of which at one time could pursue a thousand of its enemies, how much worse would befall a relatively small nation like that which had hosted them while they were in exile.

How could one pursue a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight — unless their Mighty One had delivered them up, and Hashem had surrendered them?

איכה ירדף אחד HOW ONE MAN of the nations COULD PURSUE אלף A THOUSAND of the Israelites. אם לא כי צורם מכרם EXCEPT THAT THEIR ROCK HAD DELIVERED THEM — sold them and delivered them into our hands, 'delivrer' in old French (Eng. = deliver).

"How could one pursue" (eikha yirdof) — the meaning is: would that Israel were wise enough to understand how one of their enemies could pursue a thousand of Israel — this could only be because their Rock has abandoned them. But some say: how could one of them [Israel] originally chase a thousand [enemies], while now they have grown weak? "For their Rock has sold them" (ki tzuram mkaram) — like "He has given them," and similarly, "Hashem will sell Sisera" (Judg. 4:9); the meaning is as if He gave them as a wage for their deeds — and it is an actual sale. "Has delivered them up" (hisgiram) — like "he shuts in against a man" (yisgur al ish, Job 12:14), or like "they delivered us up" (ve-lanu hisigiru, 1 Sam. 23:12).

איכה ירדוף אחד אלף, they should have realised that if they were able to pursue the Israelites, one against 1000, that this was not something natural. אם לא כי צורם מכרם, He fought against them, neutralising their aggressiveness and turning them weak like women.

איכה ירדף אחד אלף, "How could one man pursue a thousand?" This refers to the fact that one Gentile suddenly was able to put to flight one thousand Jews. During all the normal wars between the various nations such a thing was unheard of. Not a single enemy amongst the nations possesses such superiority over his opponents. Another meaning: "How could one special nation amongst all the Gentile nations pursue one thousand Israelites? Please compare what I have written on Leviticus 26,8 on the verse: "five of you will pursue one hundred." אם לא כי צורם מכרם, "unless their Rock had sold them." The reference is to the attribute of Justice, as I have explained in connection with verse 4. Moses added וה׳ הסגירם, "and even the attribute of Mercy had delivered them." Unless both the attribute of Justice and the attribute of Mercy cooperated it is impossible to explain a decline of such dimensions in the fortunes of the Jewish people.

איכה ירדוף וגו, “how could one chase a thousand? How could a situation have changed so radically that whereas previously one Israelite could put 1000 gentiles to flight, and two Israelites could put ten thousand adversaries to flight, whereas now one gentile can put one thousand Israelites to flight, whereas by now the situation is reversed? Not only must we marvel at this fact but we must ask ourselves why something like this could have happened? Is it not obvious that this could only have happened because our “Rock” has abandoned us? Our author sites as proof that Moses was not exaggerating (Judges 20,10). רבבה, “ten thousand;” ושנים יניסו רבבה “and two men can put ten thousand of their adversaries to flight;” in other words, one can even put five thousand of the enemy to flight. When the Israelites were loyal to the Torah, the Torah described Leviticus 26,8, five as putting one hundred of the enemy to flight. When they were disloyal to the Torah the ratio of their enemies putting them to flight is multiplied; in fact when the Israelites pursue their enemies they catch them so fast that no astronomical figures have to be mentioned. The enemies fall before them like flies, do not need to be pursued for any great distance. When the Torah speaks of us fleeing, it does not mention being killed, rather it mentions that we will be so nervous that even when no pursuer is in sight we will flee. (Leviticus 26,17)

אם לא כי צורם מכרם, “unless their “Rock” (their G–d) had sold them.” The verb מכר appears in the sense in which it is used here, in Judges 4,9, when Deborah tells Barak that the glory of the victory over Siserah will not be his but that of a woman, כי ביד אשה ימכור ה' את סיסרא, “for the Lord will deliver Sisera (the enemy general) into the hands of a woman.” וה' הסגירם, “and the Lord had delivered them up?” The Lord had delivered them into our hands when we performed such deeds of valour.

For their strength is not like our Strength, and our enemies became our judges.

כי לא כצורנו צורם FOR THEIR ROCK IS NOT AS OUR ROCK — all this the enemies should have understood, — that it is the Lord who delivered them (the Israelites) into their hands, and the victory is neither theirs nor their god’s, for until now their gods could achieve nothing against our Rock, “for not as our Rock is their Rock”. — The word צור wherever it occurs in Scripture is the equivalent of סלע, rock. ואיבינו פלילים AND OUR ENEMIES ARE JUDGES — i.e. are now judges over us; it is evident therefore that our Rock must have delivered us over to them.

"For their rock is not as our Rock" (ki lo ke-tzurenu tzuram). These are the words of Moses, interpreting "for it is a nation that has lost counsel" — the meaning being: our Rock has sold us, yet they have no rock like our Rock, and they are not better than we. And similarly he says, "and our enemies are judges" — like "I have not learned wisdom" (Prov. 30:3) and so on. Some say this is so, and that our enemies themselves concede it; therefore it does not connect with "from the vine of Sodom."

כי לא כצורנו צורם, no doubt what happened was due to the difference between their deities, and our G’d. Every nation enjoys a degree of success in its undertakings as long as its specific deity, i.e. agent appointed for them by G’d, is active, or its constellation is in the ascendancy in the sky. Although their specific deity will never become their adversary, they may fall within the power, the orbit of a competing deity, one that looks out for the interests of a different nation. This occurs in tandem with a master plan worked out by G’d for such historical developments. This is why when they “fall” this does not happen until one becomes so strong that it appears as if a single member of one nation can put a thousand of the competing nation to flight. [The author’s view of the collapse of empires appears based on the fact that when a major power was replaced by another this was not the result of a gigantic power struggle in which one nation proved stronger, but that the former world power had already declined in strength so much that they had become a pushover for the aggressor challenging them. Ed.] ואויבינו, even though these nations which are enemies of the true G’d and therefore enemies of His chosen nation, as Moses mentioned already in verse 26 and again in verse 42 when he speaks of מראש פרעות אויב, “from the beginning of our people’s existence it had enemies.” פלילים. philosophers of the various nations. Ovadiah 8 refers to them as והאבדתי חכמים מאדום, “I will wipe out the wise men from Edom.”

כי לא כצורנו צורם, "For our Rock is not like their Rock, etc." Moses means that the reason that one Gentile was able to put to flight a thousand Jews was not due to G'd's lack of power but to His deliberate decision to "sell out" His people. Israel's troubles are not due to the sudden prowess of the Gentile nations. Israel's source of strength, as we pointed out in connection with the debacle of the spies, is not comparable to the short-lived source of strength of the idolators. This is the mystical dimension of Proverbs 12,19: ועד ארגיעה לשון שקר. "but a lying tongue endures only briefly." We can learn from the idolatry practiced by many nations when they worshiped the god Kemosh, a national god of the Moabites. Although, according to Rabbi Saadyah Gaon, many marvellous deeds were attributed to that deity, it did not take long before people ceased to worship it. Many other deities which enjoyed a great reputation in antiquity suffered a similar fate. Our Rock, by comparison, remains at the height of His power as even the Gentiles admit, compare Maleachi, 1,11: "for My name is great among the nations." If these nations observe the downfall of Israel they too will arrive at the conclusion that their religion is true, after all. ואיבינו פלילים, "yet our enemies judge us." The word is used in the sense it is used in Exodus 21,22 ונתן בפלילים, "he shall pay it, (the damages) by order of the judges." Whereas up until then even the nations had admitted that the power of the G'd of the Jews was in a class by itself, the demise of the Jewish people will convince them that they had been wrong.

כי לא כצורנו צורם, “for not like our Rock, is their “rock;” this is still part of the rhetorical question asked by Moses in verse 30: “how can one man pursue one thousand?” In spite of all this, our enemies still insist on sitting in judgment of us! Our erstwhile success and present failure can only be ascribed to Divine interference both then and now. It is due to their Rock having sold them because of their sins.”

כי לא כצורנו צורם, “for our “Rock” is not like their “rock.” The “rock” Moses speaks of is that of the “nations bereft of counsel” whom he previously characterized as “our enemies.” They should have realized all this, i.e. that they were not qualified to be our judges. Alternatively, the words ואויבינו פלילים may mean that “when our enemies are criminals, they think that our rock is not like their rock,” i.e. that He is inferior to their rock instead of superior to their rock. This would be a desecration of the Lord’s name.

כי לא כצורנו צורם, these words are spoken by Moses, are not what Moses attributes to the gentile nations as saying. ואויבנו פלילים, if, nonetheless it appears as if your enemies, i.e. the deities of our enemies, succeed in inflicting criminal judgments upon us, this must have been arranged by G’d on account of our sins.

כי לא כצורנו צורם, “for their Rock is not like our Rock;” besides they know that our G–d is not like any of their deities, as when the Jewish people observed the covenant they had entered into with their G–d, they had been unable to harm them in any way. Not only that; during those eras their G–d had dealt harshly with them and their so-called deities. A prime example is found in Samuel I 5,7, after the Philistines had captured the Holy Ark, first their deity Dagon was found lying on its face in front of the Holy Ark. After picking it up in its former place the same thing happened on the second morning. By that time this idol had lost its hands and its legs, only the trunk remaining intact. The citizens of Ashdod became struck with hemorrhoids, and decided to rid themselves at all costs of the Holy Ark. They attributed their problems to the G–d of Israel, and instead of enjoying their victory over the army of the Israelites considered themselves as having become the victims. They should have realised that if the Jewish G–d had punished His own people, He would deal even more harshly with those who victimised His people. From here on in Moses expounds on what will be the fate of our perennial enemies.

For like the punishment of the people of Sodom is their punishment, and their plague like the people of Gomorrah; their deeds are as evil as the heads of serpents, and the completion of their works is as their bitterness.

כי מגפן סדם גפנם FOR THEIR VINE IS OF THE VINE OF SODOM — This is to be connected with what is stated above, (v. 26, verses 27—31 being a parenthesis): “I said in My heart, I would scatter them into corners and make the remembrance of them cease…” because (כי) their doings are as the doings of Sodom and Gomorrah. שדמת denotes fields of grain, as in (Habakkuk 3:17) “and the fields (שדמות) shall yield no corn”; (II Chronicles 23:4) “in the fields (בשדמות) of Kedron”. ענבי רוש [THEIR GRAPES ARE] GRAPES OF רוש — The word denotes a bitter herb. אשכלת ממרת למו BITTER CLUSTERS SHALL BE THEIRS — i.e. a bitter drink is what they deserve: according to their actions should be their punishment. Onkelos also renders it thus: “the recompense of their actions shall be according to their bitterness”.

FOR THEIR VINE IS OF THE VINE OF SODOM. He is stating that the idolaters are void of counsel and they have not understood, neither apprehended, nor thought of anything but evil continually, for they were of evil root and they grow only evil and bitter fruit; he that eateth of them dieth. And the explanation thereof is that Israel admits, confesses, and repents in time of trouble, saying, and why has all this befallen us? But the idolater is void of counsel, he hath no counsel and no understanding, but only walks after his idol and forever denies the Glorious Name, for this is what he inherited from his fathers. Thus he is of a root that beareth gall and wormwood, and no usefulness will ever be found in them. But Israel whose root is good if it be cut down, then it will sprout again and grow good fruit.

"And from the fields" (u-mi-shadmot) — this doubles the expression, as does "clusters of bitterness" (eshkolot merurorot).

כי מגפן סדום גפנם, the reason that in this matter they do not display their customary insights is that they boast about their secure and unthreatened existence, concerning themselves exclusively with physical gratifications just as had the people of Sodom. In order to attain their maximum gratification they completely eschewed all manner of caring for the less fortunate, as testified to by Ezekiel 16,49 when the prophet said הנה זה היה עוון סדום אחותך, גאון שבעת לחם ושלות השקט היה לה ולבנותיה ויד עני ואביון לא החזיקה. “only this was the sin of your sister Sodom; arrogance! She and her daughters had plenty of bread and untroubled tranquility. Yet she did not support the poor and the needy. “ ענבימו ענבי רוש, from this vine there sprouted forth for them grapes which are poison. This is a simile for the evil deeds committed by the Jewish people which backfired. The sins singled out are those of a social rather than a theological nature, as pointed out by Ezekiel. אשכלות מרורות למו, a bitter growth in their clusters; developing of erroneous philosophies, primarily justifying one’s conduct, rationalising it, is a natural corollary of such attitudes as self-centredness. First and foremost, they convince themselves that G’d does not ”see,” i.e. does not care, [that there is no personal G’d. They totally misinterpret G’d’s patience with the sinner. Ed.]

כי מגפן סדם גפנם, "for their vine is from the vine of Sodom, etc." The Torah here provides the reason why the Jewish people have been "sold" by G'd. The reason Moses says מגפן, from the vineyard instead of simply גפן, is to remind us that everything that exists in the domain of sanctity has its counterpart in the domain of the סטרא אחרא, the spiritually negative domain. This is what we have been taught by Solomon in Kohelet 7,14: "G'd has made the one as well as the other." Israel has been compared to a vine already in Psalms 80,9: "You plucked up a vine from Egypt." The counterpart is the vine originating in Sodom. This is why Moses speaks of Israel in disgrace as representing a vine from Sodom. ענבמו ענבי רוש, "its grapes are grapes of gall." Seeing that not all Israel's branches are vines from Sodom, Moses describes them as containing such parts, i.e. מגפן instead of the whole vine, i.e. גפן. The reason Moses uses the comparison with Sodom is that just as Sodom's measure of guilt was complete before G'd destroyed it, so Israel would not be destroyed until its measure of guilt is complete. ומשדמות עמורה, "and from the fields of Gomorrah." On the branches of a holy tree, the higher the branch the more holy its character. The highest branch, due to its extreme holiness, is described in the masculine gender to reflect that this is the one which provides the input, whereas the lowest is described in the feminine gender to reflect the idea that it is the recipient of that input. Moses described Israel's attachment to an evil root. He called the first one גפן, vine, masculine, to describe the fact that it provides the input, whereas the secondary one is described as שדה, field, which is feminine in Hebrew, reflecting its passive role as the recipient of that input. The intelligent reader will understand how to transfer concepts which are familiar from sanctity to its counterpart when dealing with spiritually negative phenomena.

כי מגפן סדום גפנם, “for is then their vine of the vine of Sodom, and are then their grapes those that originate in Amora? (sister city of Sodom of old) Are all their thoughts sinful as the ones from those two cities, and is there nothing remotely sacred left in their philosophies? Did I not plant them as noble vines, etc.? (Jeremiah 2,21)

כי מגפן סדום גפנם ומשדמות עמורה, “for their vine is from the vine of Sodom and Gomorrah;” There is some repetition here, seeing that the meaning of the word שדמות is the same as גפן, “vine.” The word occurs in this sense in Isaiah 16,8: כי שדמות חשבון אומלל גפן שבמה, “for the vines of Cheshbon are withered and the vines of Sibmah.” The word also occurs in this sense in Chabakuk 3,17 ושדמות לא עשה אוכל, “and there is nothing edible on the vine.” Moses speaks of the nations whose roots are evil and bitter, so that one cannot expect the fruit to be sweet. Also the wine can only be “like the anger of dragons” (verse 33).

כי מגפן סדום גפנם, Moses now explains why it had originally been G’d’s plan to annihilate the Jewish people totally so that there would remain no mention of them in the history of mankind, had it not been for the boast of the gentile nations to have accomplished this; They should have drunk from the vine of Sodom; i.e. just as there is no vestige left of the former inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah so there should have been no trace left of them. Both Isaiah 3,9 and 1,10 have compared the sins of the Jewish people to that of the Sodomites.

כי מגפן סדום גפנם, “for their vine is of the vine of Sodom;” the cup of destruction has been poured out over them.

Behold, like the bitterness of serpents is the cup of their punishment, and like the heads of cruel vipers.

חמת תנינים יינם THEIR WINE IS THE POISON OF DRAGONS — Understand this as the Targum does: הא כמרת תניניא כס פורענותהון which means: Behold, like the gall of serpents is the cup of the drink of their punishment. וראש פתנים AND AS THE VENOM OF VIPERS is their cup — venom, which proves cruel (אכזר) to him who is bitten. The sense is: a cruel enemy will come and exact punishment from them.

"The venom" (chamat) — for the wine is like the deadly venom of serpents in its wrath. "And the cruel poison of cobras" (ve-rosh petanim) — as in "over the hole of a cobra" (al chur peten, Isa. 11:8); and if it is written with alef it is like its companions written with vav. "Cruel" (akhzar) — fierce; the alef is additional, like the alef of etzba (finger) and of ezroa (arm).

חמת תנינים יינם, their wine is the venom of asps; among the clusters mentioned in verse 32 there are also poisonous grapes, hidden and unidentifiable among the grapes. This disaster awaits them as a manifestation of the attribute of Justice they have richly deserved. Until they actually are extracting the juice from these grapes [this is all hyperbole, of course, Ed.] G’d did not convert His threat of retribution into something actual. Compare Isaiah 63,3, G’d saying that He alone squeezed out these grapes by treading on them.

חמת תנינים, they should by rights have been made to drink the venom of asps had it not been for the desecration of G’d’s holy name that would have resulted from this, for the nations would have said: “we have accomplished this.” פתנים אכזר, the word פתן means “a wicked creature;” it also occurs in Psalms 58,5 פתן חרש יאטם אזנו, “a deaf viper that stops its ears.”

חמת תנינים יינם, “their wine is the venom of serpents.” It will make them totally drunk. וראש פתנים אכזר, “and the cruel poison of asps.” Even their wine will be gall and wormwood.

Are not all their deeds revealed before Me, stored away for the day of judgment in My treasuries?

הלא הוא כמס עמדי IS NOT THIS LAID UP IN STORE WITH ME — Understand this as the Targum has it: (“Are not all their doings open before me?”) — i.e., they believe that I have forgotten their doings, but really they are all stored up and kept with Me. הלא הוא IS NOT THIS — the fruit of their vine and the produce of their fields (i.e. their doings) כמס עמדי STORED UP WITH ME?

IS NOT THIS LAID UP IN STORE WITH ME — their cruel poison of asps? I have put it in My treasures to feed them from the fruit of their deeds.

"Is this not laid up in store with Me?" (halo hu kamus imdi). Some say this refers to the divine decrees. But what is closer to me is that it refers to their wine — the venom of cobras — which is stored away until they shall drink it. The word kamus in context has a known meaning, for it has no family [of cognates]. "Sealed in My treasuries" (chatum be-otzarotai) — so that no hand may touch it; rather it is kept in store for them, to take vengeance upon them.

הלא הוא כמוס עמדי, the meaning is similar to Isaiah 63,4 כיום נקם בלבי, “as the day of vengeance which I had kept hidden in my heart.” [the sins had to accumulate beyond reprieve before G’d carried out what had been at the back of His mind for a long time. Ed.] חתום באוצרותי, sealed away securely. Compare Daniel 12,9 כי סתומים וחתומים הדברים, “the matters are sealed and safely stored.”

הלא הוא כמוס עמדי, "Is it not concealed with Me?" Moses means that on account of the reaction of Israel's enemies to its punishment, G'd has so far refrained from dispensing the justice due for the sins committed by this people. If they appeared to do well this was not proof of their innocence, nor that they would not eventually be made to suffer the punishment they were guilty of. G'd reserved the indictment in anticipation of the Day of Judgment. Concerning that day, the prophet said (Isaiah 10,3: "and what are you going to do on the Day of Judgment (punishment)?" Read up on how much even the prophet Samuel was afraid of that day when he was asked to materialise before Saul (Chagigah) 4 and he thought that he was about to face that day of Judgment. Moses repeats the statement by saying חתום באוצרותי, "sealed in My treasuries." We may compare this to Exodus 34,7 where the Torah speaks about G'd being נושא עון, "suspending punishment for sins." Once G'd reaches the point where He is no longer able to tolerate the wickedness, He seals them in His treasuries and takes His revenge on the evildoers by even removing the sun from its orbit (if need be) as we have been told in Nedarim 8, "a day on which the sun will burn like a furnace." When Moses adds לי נקם, "Mine is the vengeance," this is a reference to G'd personally exacting this punishment.

הלא הוא כמוס עמדי, “is this not laid up in store with Me?” Moses refers to the day when retribution for all their sins will come, as will be explained forthwith.

הלא הוא כמוס עמדי, “have I not carefully stored it away?” Their wine is stored away under My care until they will drink it. Sooner or later they themselves will have to drink their own poisonous wine. G’d is storing up His eventual vengeance against the people who have abused Israel. The construction is similar to Psalms 91,8: “you will witness the punishment of the wicked with your eyes.” [A reference to the words in verse 35 לי נקם ושלם, i.e. verses 34 and 35 are one unit. Ed.] לעת תמוט רגלם “at the time when their foot shall slip.” When the measure of their sins is full. The word שלם here is used by Moses in the same vein as G’d used it when explaining to Avraham in Genesis 15,16 that the Emorite people could not be driven out of the land of Canaan until its measure of guilt was full, שלם. It is also possible to explain these verses as follows: the words הלא הוא כמוס עמדי, refer to the word אחריתם, “their end” in verse 29, i.e. the eventual end of Israel’s enemies has been a carefully preserved storage in the hands of the Lord. We find a similar construction in Daniel who had asked; (Daniel 12,8) מה אחרית אלה, “what is going to be the end of these (dire predictions)?” G’d had answered him that the timing of the redemption, and therefore the timing of the retribution against the enemies of our people, was a well guarded secret with Him until the time when it would occur (Daniel 12,9). In fact, this would occur at a time which seems most unlikely at the time, a time when these nations appear to rule the world. The word למו at the end of verse 35 contains an allusion to the time of the redemption (seeing the three letters in that word are the acronym of למועד מועדים וחצי, the time described as the time of the redemption in Daniel 12,7). At that time ידין ה' עמו, “the Lord will judge His people.” May the Lord hasten the time when this will occur as He said when He spoke about circumcising our hearts (30,6).

?הא הוא כמוס עמדי, (G’d speaking) I keep careful track of the words of the wicked nations who boast, and I take My revenge for such boasts from them.

הלא הוא כמוס עמדי, “Is it not stored up with Me? (the calamity striking the gentiles)

Punishment is before Me, and I will repay in the time when they are exiled from their land; for the day of their ruin is near, and what is destined to come upon them is ready.

לי נקם ושלם means, with Me is prepared and held in readiness the punishment of vengeance, and it will recompense them according to their doings. As regards the word ושלם, it means that vengeance will pay them their recompense (וְשִׁלַּם is therefore a verb with the Vau conversive, the subject being the noun נקם which precedes it). — But some explain the word וְשִׁלַּם as a noun, having the same meaning as שִׁלּוּם “recompense”, when it would be of the same grammatical form as the noun in the phrase (Jeremiah 5:13) “And the דִּבֵּר is not in them”, where it has the meaning of דִּבּוּר, “Divine utterance”. And when will I recompense them? לעת תמוט רגלם AT THE TIME WHEN THEIR FOOT SHALL TOTTER — i.e. when the merit of their ancestors upon which they are relying (which is, as it were, their foot, their support) will become exhausted. כי קרוב יום אידם FOR THE DAY OF THEIR CALAMITY IS AT HAND — i.e. as soon as I shall desire to bring about the day of their calamity, it will be near at hand and held in readiness by Me — that I may bring it by any of the many agencies I have. וחש עתדת למו means, AND THE THINGS THAT ARE TO COME (עתידות) UPON THEM WILL COME QUICKLY (חש). וחש — The word חש has the same meaning as the verb in (Isaiah V. 19) “Let him make speed and hasten (יחישה)”. — So far Moses exhorted them with words of reproof, so that this song should be witness against them, i.e., that when the punishment would come upon them they would know (acknowledge) that I told them about this from the very beginning. From here onwards he exhorted them with a statement of the comfort that would come upon them when their punishment would have ended; this being similar to all that is stated above (30:1—2) “And it shall come to pass when [all these things] are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, … then the Lord thy God will turn they captivity, etc.”

VENGEANCE IS MINE, AND RECOMPENSE. [To Me belongs vengeance] to avenge the cause of Israel from their hands, and Mine is the recompense to pay them according to their deeds for having repudiated Me. AGAINST THE TIME WHEN THEIR FOOT SHALL SLIP — when their measure [of sin] will be full, as it is stated, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full. And Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra commented that “the meaning thereof is [in line with the verse], yea, even the wicked for the day of evil, this constituting a great secret.”

"Mine is vengeance and recompense" (li nakam ve-shalem) — this is a noun, as in "is it not the incense" (halo et ha-katar, 1 Kgs. 22:43); the meaning is: vengeance belongs to Me and recompense belongs to Me, to repay them according to their deeds. "At the time when their foot slips" (le-et tamut raglam) — meaning they will fall and not be able to stand. The meaning of "at the time" (le-et) — as in "and also the wicked for the day of evil" (Prov. 16:4); and this is a great secret. "For near is the day" — and let them not think that the vengeance will come upon their descendants only. "And their doom comes swiftly" (ve-chash atidot lamo) — and each one of them hastens what is prepared [to come upon him], as in "the daughters march forth" (Ps. 68:12); or chash [means] "the day of doom hastens." The first interpretation seems correct to me, and the word chash is [of the type with] doubled [root letters]. The meaning of "things prepared" (atidot) — the evils prepared to come upon them.

לי נקם, it is up to Me to do the avenging from My enemies. ושלם, also the repayment tit for tat is My privilege and duty. לעת תמוט רגלם, the time when this will occur will be when they are already perceived as tottering.

לי נקם ושלם, "Mine is the vengeance and the retribution." As mentioned previously and in Avodah Zarah 3, when that day arrives G'd will remove the sun from its orbit and the wicked will be burned by it whereas the righteous will experience the sun's heat as therapy and be healed by it. The sequence of the words לי נקם ושלם, means that at one and the same time what will be G'd's vengeance against the wicked will be the payment of a reward for the righteous. לעת תמוט רגלם, "at the time when their foot will falter." This is the mystical dimension of Sotah 49 of the period known as עקבות משיחא. It is a period when the feet of Samael will begin to totter as the wicked will falter. [actually that folio in Sotah only describes the breakdown of social mores during the period preceding the arrival of the Messiah. Ed.] כי קרוב יום אידם, "for the day of their disaster is near." This is the day referred to by the prophet as "the day of the Lord" (Tzefaniah 1,6). והש עתידות למו, "and the future will rush towards them." These are the words of comfort which will all be fulfilled once the wicked get their just deserts. At that time G'd will hasten to keep His promises to the righteous.

לי נקם ושלם, “vengeance is Mine and recompense;” G-d will pay back to the Jewish people for all the sins that He had to watch them indulge in. וחש עתידות למו, “and the things that are to come will make haste in arriving. This is one of the examples of masculine and feminine modes being used apparently indiscriminately. [The word עתידות is in the feminine mode, whereas the word למו, is an adjective in the masculine mode. Ed.] Other examples of such inconsistent grammatical combinations are found in: Deut, 22,23: כי יהיה נערה בתולה, when there is (masculine pronoun) “when there is a young virgin;” or in Deut. 21,3: והיה העיר הקרובה, “and the nearest city will be etc.; the word עיר is feminine, where as the pronoun והיה is in the masculine mode. The author quotes more such examples. And so in this verse: וחש is masculine and עתידות feminine. Ed.]

ושלם, the word is a noun, meaning תשלום “payment.” We find a parallel to this in Jeremiah 5,13 where the word והדבר in הדבר אין בהם also means “the Word.” Jeremiah 44,21 has another similar construction when the prophet speaks of והקטר, vehakiter, “the incense offering.” לעת תמוט רגלים, on that day when the feet of the nations will become unsteady, this is the day destined for their retribution. וחש עתידות למו, at that point in time I will hasten their retribution further. עתידות, a reference to the prophecies of Bileam and others concerning these judgments by G’d.

לי נקם ושלם, “vengeance is Mine and recompense;” it is up to Me avenge Myself on them and to repay them for the evil they have done. The root שלם does not only mean (to make) peace, but “peace” is a word which describes a circle being completed. Therefore it is appropriate when being used as punishment for evil which upset the balance in the universe when being committed. לעת תמוט רגלם, “at the time when their foot shall slip;” when the time comes around when their foot will slip (naturally), I will use that time to repay them for the evil they have committed. כי קרוב יום אידם, “for the day of their calamity is at hand;” and I stand ready to take advantage of that time. וחש עתידות למו, “and the things in store for them will make haste.” The prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah 60,22 referred to this concept when he said: בעתו אחישנה, “when its time is due, I will hasten it.” To the question when that time will arrive, Moses continues with

For Hashem will execute judgment for His people, and the punishment of His righteous servants will be exacted; for it is revealed before Him that at the time when the blow of the enemy grows strong against them, they will be wandering and abandoned.

כי ידין ה' עמו — This means, when He will sentence them to all these sufferings that are mentioned concerning them. The phrase has the same meaning as (Job 36:31) “For by them ידין nations”, i.e. He will chastise the nations. — This word כי has not the meaning of “because”, giving the reason for the preceding statements, but it is an expression (a particle) beginning a new a statement, as (Leviticus 25:2) “When (וכי) ye will come into the land” (cf. Rashi on that passage). The meaning is: When these judgment will come upon them, and the Lord will bethink Himself concerning His servants to have mercy on them again. יתנחם HE WILL REPENT — This is an expression for changing one’s mind whether for good or for evil. כי יראה כי אזלת יד WHEN HE SEETH THAT THEIR POWER IS GOING ON — i.e. when He sees that the power of the enemies is constantly becoming exceedingly stronger over them,ואפס AND THERE IS NOT among them עצור ועזוב. עצור is one who is saved by a עוצר (a “restrainer”) and ruler who would restrain them, עזוב means one saved by an עוזב. Now an עוצר is a ruler who keeps the people in check that they should not march in scattered groups when they go into war against the enemy, maintenue in old French, (Engl = maintainer). Consequently עצור (the passive) is one who is saved through the restraint of the ruler. עזוב is one who is strengthened, as (Nehemiah 3:8) “and they fortified (ויעזבו) Jerusalem unto the broad wall”; (Jer. 49:25) “How is this city of praise not helped (עזובה)!”. In old French anforcede, (English = fortified).

"For Hashem will judge His people" (ki yadin Hashem amo) — He will take up the judgment of His people against them, as in "vindicate me, O God, and champion my cause" (Ps. 43:1). "He will relent" (yitnahem) — I have explained this. "Their power is gone" (azlat yad) — the power of Israel is gone; and the tav is in place of heh, for both are signs of the feminine, and similarly, "and you returned to the prince" (va-shavt la-nasi, Ezek. 46:17). "And none remains, whether bond or free" (ve-efes atzur ve-azuv) — when the captives are many, some are taken and some are abandoned; but now nearly all have perished.

כי קרוב יום אידם וחש עתידות למו כי ידין ה' עמו, for the day when the nations will experience their judgment is near as soon as G’d will judge His own nation. We know this from Ezekiel 20,38 וברותי מכם המורדים והפושעים, “I will remove from amongst you the ones who rebel and are professional sinners.” Soon thereafter, the gentile nations will experience their own judgment. ועל עבדיו יתנחם, He will reconsider the evil times for which His people are due on account of His servants, the righteous among them, as we know from Isaiah 65,8 כן אעשה למען עבדי, לבלתי השחית הכל, “so will I do for the sake of My servants and not destroy everything.” כי יראה כי אזלת יד, the reason why G’d does something for the people on account of His servants the righteous that He had not done during all the many years of the exile, is that He sees that this time they really had come to the end of heir rope; they had reached the kind of low that makes living on a hopeless undertaking. This is what had happened in Egypt immediately before the redemption, the Exodus. The Torah spells this out even in the recital by the farmer in Deut. 26,7 “He saw our plight, our misery and our oppression.” As a result, “He brought us to this place.” (the Land of Israel) ואפס עצור ועזוב, and none remains either imprisoned or roaming free. A reference to the people having no secret stash of cash hidden in their homes or buried in the field.

כי ידין ה׳ עמו, "When the Lord will judge His people, etc." After having concluded the subject of the people who have caused G'd to become angry, the Torah now turns to Israel as a whole, assuring the people that He will not quarrel with them forever. The words כי ידין השם mean that G'd will take a look at what many righteous have endured, some of whom have been murdered, others burned, etc. G'd will comfort Himself, i.e. relent, when He observes all this. This is why Moses says ועל עבדיו יתנחם, "and on account of His servants (what happened to them) He will relent." He relents on account of those of His children who remained His loyal servants. Furthermore, when G'd sees that the Israelites do not have the strength to save themselves from exile, and their righteous do not enjoy enough authority to discipline the sinners, He relents. He is aware that there are no longer any prophets amongst the Israelites, nor the outstanding men of former years whose influence on the people had beeen considerable. Compare Michah 7,1 אין אשכול לאכול, "there is not a cluster to eat." This is an example of Moses saying: כי אזלת יד, "G'd sees their might is gone." The words אפס עצור, mean that neither what was guarded nor preserved is still left." We find a similar statement in Samuel I 9,17: זה יעצור בעמי, "He will deliver My people," [King Saul. Ed.] The literal meaning is more like "he will stop the rut of My people," or "he will stop everybody from doing what he feels like, and introduce discipline into the lives of the nation." At any rate, it is a reference to the people being in a state of disarray. ועזוב, "and it is abandoned." This is a reference to the disarray the people find themselves in and which makes them feel abandoned. At that point...

כי ידין, “for He will judge, etc.” this kind of judgment involves the sinner having to endure painful experiences on his body. An example of this is found in Job 36,31: בם ידין עמים, “by means of these things He controls people” (judges people), giving or denying them their food supply. ועל עבדיו יתנחם, “and He will repent Himself for His servants.” When His erstwhile servants who had become disloyal but had subsequently done penitence, He will repent His harsh decrees. We find confirmation of this in Jeremiah18,8. כי יראה כי אזלת יד, “when He sees that its strength is spent;” compare Isaiah 51,21: ושכורת ולא מיין, “and drunk but not from wine.”

כי ידין ה' עמו, “for the Lord will judge His people.” He will exact retribution from the wicked when Israel will observe that all their (own) power had waned and that they are either prisoners, עצורים, or forsaken in captivity, when they are almost completely lost, i.e. ואפס עצור ועזוב, “their power has shrunk to zero.”

כי ידין ה' עמו, that is the time when the nations will be made to pay by G’d for what they have done to His people. We find this vision spelled out clearly also in Psalms 110,6 ידין בגוים מלא גויות, “when He works judgment on the nations, heaping up bodies;” כי יראה כי אזלת יד, when He sees that Israel on its own is powerless and forsaken. The verb עזב is used both transitively and intransitively, the former in Exodus 23,5 where intentional refusal to assist is considered as a sinful act of commission, whereas the assistance rendered to the owner of the animal is considered fulfilling a positive commandment. In Nechemyah 3,8 it also occurs as something transitive, i.e. restoring the wall around Jerusalem.

כי ידין ה' עמו, “when the Lord will judge His people;” when G–d has reason to judge His people, He will deal with the (guilty) gentile nations at the same time. ועל עבדיו יתנחם, ”and He will relent in His attitude to His servants.” G–d will reconsider any decree which He issued as a result of the Israelites causing Him anger. ואפס עצור ועזוב, “and there is none remaining, shut up or left at large.” This is due to the fact that they have no one ready or able to come to their aid. The root עזב, occurs in this sense of assisting in Exodus 23,5: עזוב תעזו, “be sure to assist!”

And He will say: Where is their god, the mighty one in whom they trusted?

ואמר AND HE, the Omnipresent, WILL SAY with regard to them אי אלהימו WHERE ARE THEIR GODS which they served. צור חסיו בו THE ROCK IN WHOM THEY TRUSTED — i.e. the rock beneath which they sought shelter (more lit., with which they covered themselves) from the heat and the cold; that is to say, “in which they trusted” that it would protect them against evil.

AND HE SHALL SAY, WHERE ARE THEIR GODS. The enemy will say, “Where is the G-d of Israel?” as it is stated, Wherefore should the nations say: ‘Where is now their G-d?’

"And he will say" — the enemy. "The rock in whom they trusted" — as I explained.

ואמר, at that point G’d will say to Israel אי אלוהימו, where is now this god of the gentile nations upon whom you have relied, spurning Me? This is the period when all of G’d’s agents who had been assigned as protective forces for the gentile nations will be simultaneously removed from their function. Compare Isaiah 24,21.

אי אלוקימו Israel will begin to ask at such a time: "where is their G'd, the Rock that used to be its refuge?" Even though the deeds of the Israelites are not such that they qualify for G'd's intervention on its behalf, the people will come with a complaint against G'd although they observe only a small part of G'd's Torah. They do at least feel that their G'd ought to take them under His wings. They are conscious that they suffer all kinds of afflictions on account of the Lord being their G'd. They allowed themselves to die for the sake of the holy name of G'd, even. This is why they (the survivors) look to G'd hopefully, i.e. צור חסיו בו, "the Rock in whom they sought refuge."

ואמר אי אלהימו, and it is said: “where are their deities?” (a mocking question by Israel’s enemies) It makes fun of the people whom G-d had spent so much effort to redeem from Egypt, and who by now have fallen so low. All the deities they worship now in lieu of their G-d do not have the power between them to help them.

ואמר אי אלוהימו, “and when he (the enemy) will say (sarcastically) where is their god?” We know that Titus after cutting into the dividing curtain in the Temple found the Holy of Holies empty, exclaimed in this fashion, astounded that there was no image (compare Gittin 56b). This is also what the prophet Micah 7,10 referred to when he said: “when my enemy sees it, she will be covered with shame. She who taunts me with ‘where is He, the Lord your G’d?’”

?ואמר אי אלוהימו, also the gentile nations asked: “where is Israel’s G’d? Therefore, out of concern for the honour due to My name I will save them and avenge them from their enemies, for I had already said at the beginning of their history that although I should wipe them out after the sin of the golden calf, I would not carry out My intention so that the nations of the world could not take the credit for having triumphed over Me. Now, however, that their former strength had become so completely negligible that the nations take credit for having laid Israel low, and they ask mockingly: “where is their G’d now?” I will avenge them in order to sanctify My holy name which these nations have desecrated by their very mockery of Me.

Who ate the fat of their offerings and drank the wine of their libations — let them arise now and help you; let them be a shield over you.

אשר חלב זבחימו THE FAT OF WHOSE SACRIFICES THEY, i.e. these gods — used to eat, which they offered to them, and which used to drink יין נסיכם THE WINE OF THEIR DRINK OFFERING. יהי עליכם סתרה LET IT BE YOUR PROTECTION — i.e., let that rock (v. 37) be a refuge and shelter to you.

WHO ‘YOCHEILU’ (DID EAT) THE FAT OF THEIR SACRIFICES — for Israel was more constant in the service of offerings and drink-offerings than any other nation to its gods. He mentions the plural: ‘yocheilu’ (‘they’ did eat), ‘yishthu’ (‘they’ did drink), and their ‘gods’ which are in the plural [although referring to G-d Who is One] because according to the nations [whose words He is now citing] there are many deities. Therefore He turns [to Israel] and says, See now all My people, that I, even I, am He, One, and there is no god with Me to assist Me, and there is no one to oppose Me, to deliver out of My hand or object to My doing whatever I wish — to kill, to wound, to make alive and to heal.

"Who ate" (yokhlu) — [these are] the words of the enemies, who thought that burnt offerings were food for God; and similarly [the verse speaks] in the plural, as they would speak — therefore it is written afterward, "I, I am He alone; there is no god with Me." "The wine of their libations" (yein nisakhem) — as in "and they poured wine" (u-nesakhav yayin, Num. 15:10); and there would be two nouns. Some say it means the wine of their king (yein malakham), as in "princes of Midian" (nesikhei Midian, Josh. 13:21), since the [idol's] angel would give the wine of the burnt-offering. The first interpretation is closer to me. "Let them rise up and help you" (ve-ya'azrukhem) — as in "we blessed you" (berakhunukha) — and if you say it is one, let it shield you from the troubles that are coming.

יקומו ויעזרכם, “let them arise now and help you!” G’d will follow up by mockingly telling the Jewish people that now the time had come for them to appeal to the gentile nations whose lifestyles they had shared to help them against the judgment being visited upon them by the G’d, the One whom they had forsaken. They had assumed that by assimilating during their exile, these host nations as well as their gods would protect them.

יקומו ויעזרכם, "Let them arise and help you!" There are two kinds of idolatry and idolators. 1) Someone is wholly committed to serve idols for their own sake. 2) Someone who only serves idols for self-serving purposes, i.e. in order to manipulate the deity for his own purpose. G'd forbade both kinds of idolatry in Exodus 20,4. Concerning the person who only goes through the motions of serving an idol for what he expects to get out of it, G'd said here: "let the deity arise and help you, i.e. you will be sorely disappointed." Concerning the other type of idolator G'd says sarcastically: יהי עליכם סתרה, "let them be a hide-out for you!" אשר חלב זבחמו יאכלו, "the fat of whose offerings they used to eat, etc." This is G'd's response to their words. The sequence of the words here has to be read as follows: "For G'd will judge His people…and He will then relent considering all they have already suffered, taking into consideration also their present state of utter helplessness plus the fact that after all the people do turn to Him." G'd then responds that those who used to offer sacrifices and eat the fat parts themselves experienced that not therein lay their salvation יקומו. They should arise (anew) in order to finally realise that their salvation did not lie in the number of their sacrifices but that only G'd is the Saviour. This is the meaning of ראו עתה כי אני השם, "See, now, that only I am the Lord" (verse 39).

אשר חלב זבחימו יאכלו, “who did eat the fat of their sacrifices;” the sacrifices offered by the gentile nations to their respective deities. The fact is that the gentiles themselves consume the “offerings” they present to their inert deities. יקומו ויעזרכם, “let them arise now and help you!” The Israelites will say this about the deities of the gentiles when the time for their own salvation has come.

אשר חלב זבחמו יאכלו, “the ones who should have consumed the fat parts of their offerings.” This is part of the taunt of Israel’s enemies at the time of their political low point. The plural יאכלו is a reference to the ‘gods’ of Israel by its enemies, and reflects their inability to comprehend that Israel believes in a single G’d, not in a variety of competing powers in the universe. They are taunting us by suggesting that these “gods” of ours should arise and help us. When the enemy continues with יהי עליכם סתרה, “may it be for you a protection,” instead of saying יהיו in the plural i.e. “let them be a protection” [as would have been appropriate in light of what we just explained]. The nations keeping Israel captive jeer, saying: “if indeed the god whom you believe in is only one, let Him hide you from all the persecutions which you are suffering and which you are about to endure still.” Alternatively, we can understand these words as referring to G’d saying: “where is this god of the pagans to whom they offered all these sacrifices and libations of wine? This is the way Rashi understands the line. This is the basis for our sages in Avodah Zarah 29 deriving that יין נסך, wine of the pagans (normally used as a sacrificial offering to their gods), is prohibited not only to drink but to derive any benefit from. The fact that the Torah mentions this wine right next to the sacrifices of animals, זבחמו, establishes this halachic linkage between the two.

אשר חלב זבחימו יאכלו, “the fat of whose offerings they would eat, etc.” Nachmanides writes that the reason that Moses employs the plural mode is that the nations of the world are numerous, so that when the Jews ate of the offerings presented to the various deities of the nations, they ate of a whole variety of such offerings. This made their sins even worse

אשר חלב זבחימו יאכלו, the deities whom the Israelites worshipped and to whom they presented their offerings. סתרה, let these deities hide you and protect you, if they indeed possess such power. Now that you know they are unable to help you, G’d will once again take you under His protective shadow.

אשר חלב זבחמו יאכלו, “Who would consume the fat of their sacrifices?” (At the time when these would be offered in their Temple) ישתו יין נסכם, “and drink the wine of their offering?” A reference to the libations offered on the altar. יקומו ויעזרכם, “Let them rise up and help you!” (This is a sarcastic comment, including all the gentiles’ various deities.) יהי עליכם סתרה, “let him be your protection!”

See now that I — I am He, and there is no God apart from Me; I put to death and give life; I strike and I also heal; and there is none who can deliver from My hand.

ראו עתה SEE NOW — Realise now from the punishment which I have brought upon you and from which there was no one to save you, and, on the other hand, from the help which I will render you and there will be none who can prevent Me, אני אני הוא [THAT] IT IS I, EVEN I — I am He Who have the power to abase (make low) and it is I who have the power to raise, ואין אלהים עמדי AND THERE IS NO GOD WITH ME — i.e. standing against Me to prevent this. עמדי means, who is my equal and like Me. ואין מידי מציל AND THERE IS NONE WHO CAN DELIVER OUT OF MY HAND those who rebel against Me.

"I, I alone" (ani ani) — twice, as in "I, I alone" (anokhi anokhi, Isa. 43:25), or as in "for I am He, and I do not change" (Mal. 3:6) — which is correct — for with it there is no predicate: I am He who put Israel to death, and I will bring them to life. And they have not been saved, and there is none to save you from My hand — even you [shall remain] in My hand, until I execute justice against you. Many say that from this verse we learn of the life of the World to Come, the proof being that it first says "I put to death" and then says "I will restore to life" — and similarly, "Hashem puts to death and brings to life" (1 Sam. 2:6). The proof is "Hashem brings down to Sheol and raises up." Others derived it from the verse "but the blood of your souls" (Gen. 9:5), and also "it will be our righteousness" (Deut. 6:25), for it is your life in the World to Come — and "the length of your days" refers to this world, in order that it may go well with you. Now Rabbenu Hai of blessed memory said that the Scripture had no need to specify the matter of the World to Come explicitly, for it was well known by tradition. But in my opinion, the Torah was given to all, not to one alone; and the matter of the World to Come, not one in a thousand would understand it, for it is deep. The reward of the World to Come depends on the matter of the soul, and it is the recompense for the service of the heart — and that service is to contemplate the works of Hashem, for these are the ladder by which to ascend to knowledge of Hashem, which is the essential thing. And indeed the Torah has also made clear to the discerning the matter of the Tree of Life, and there is in it the power to overcome the cherubim — and "one who eats from the Tree of Life shall live forever" like the ministering angels. And similarly, in the psalm of the sons of Korah, "Hear this, all you peoples" (Ps. 49:2) — and the secret is: "but God will redeem my soul from the hand of Sheol, for He will take me" (Ps. 49:16); and similarly, "afterward you will take me in glory" (Ps. 73:24). Both of them involve "taking," as in the matter of Enoch and Elijah. And after it is said "too costly is the redemption of their soul," how can it say "He will redeem my soul"? — the discerning will understand.

ראו עתה כי אני אני הוא, realise now that it had been I Who had brought disaster in exile upon you! ואין אלוהים עמדי, I had not required the assistance of any other deity. Your misfortune was not due to any celestial forces appointed by Me. אני אמית ואחיה, only I decree death and resurrection.(compare Ezekiel 37,12) מחצתי, I have smashed, by decreeing your unsettled condition, forcing you to move from one country to another without taking permanent root in any of them. (compare Kings I 14,15) where the prophet compares the existence of the Jewish people after G’d has chastised them as similar to that of a reed which is constantly moving. ואני ארפא, and only I can bring healing, as described in Isaiah 30,26.

ראו עתה כי אני אני הוא, "See, now, that I, I am He." Moses repeats the word אני twice, once each vis-a-vis the two kinds of idolators we have just described. The word אני, emphasises "I and no one else" when applied to the first kind of idolator, whereas it means "I alone," when applied to the second kind of idolator. He continues: ואין אלוהים עמדי, "and there is no other deity with Me," that there are no intermediaries between G'd and His creatures. אני אמית ואחיה, "It is I who kill and who bring to life." This statement is addressed to the people who believe that there are two distinct forces at work in the universe, a benevolent one and a destructive one. The Torah goes on record that this is not so, but that all fateful decisions are exclusively G'd's domain. In order to emphasise that G'd intervenes even in what appear to be minutiae, G'd adds: "I strike down and I heal." ואין מידי מציל. "and there is no one who can rescue from My hand." This means that all creatures are mortal. In order to make this point clear G'd did not say ואין מציל מידי, but ואין מידי מציל.

ראו עתה כי אני אני הוא, “See now that I, even I am He;” thus says the Lord to the nations that had enslave Israel. כי אני אני הוא, “I am the One Who will not change, always remain the same;” אני אמית ואחיה, “I kill and I resurrect;” about Him it has been said: ובלע המות לנצח, “He will do away with death forever;” (Isaiah 25,8) now the time has come that I will bring to life מחצתי, “I have wounded;” a reference to what He did to the Israelites in the not too distant past; ואני ארפה, “and I heal;” from now on I will heal them to remain well permanently.

ראו עתה כי אני אני הוא, “see now, that I, I am He.” The word אני, as well as the words אתה or הוא, describe a presence, an existence of the subject. They are both nouns [as opposed to pronouns. Ed.] just as in Sukkah 48: אני והו הושיעה נא. I have already explained that verse in Exodus 15,2 when discussing the words זה א-לי ואנוהו. Moses is at the point where he sums up what he has been saying in this song. The function of these nouns (names) here is to express love and foretell that those who have been scattered will once again be gathered in and united [describing Himself in the first person as well as in the third person is G’d’s way of hinting at the fact that what had been scattered can be fused together again. Ed.] Subsequently, G’d continues with: “I kill, but I also revive.” This is an allusion to the resurrection which will follow the redemption after a relatively brief interval. He then continues, quoting the Lord, with: “I am the One Who lives forever.” (verse 40). This is an allusion to the world of the future which will follow the era of the life of the resurrected bodies. This is in accordance with the view expressed in Sanhedrin 90 that the dead who will be resurrected at the time of the resurrection will not die again. (See lengthy treatment of the subject on Deut. 30,15). These people will be transferred to a celestial region with body and soul intact, where they will continue a life which knows no death. Concerning this life, our sages always say that “people destined for it have been ‘invited’ to the world of the future.” This is the ultimate purpose of the whole system of reward and punishment, and concerning this experience even the prophet Isaiah 64,3 already said that it is beyond the powers of any prophet to describe, as none has been privileged to have been shown a vision of it. It is something reserved exclusively for G’d to show to the people so honored. To give us an even stronger hint of the concealed nature of what life in that region will be like, the word לעלם, “forever,” has been spelled without the letter ו. Our sages compare this to the first vision of G’d Moses experienced in Exodus 3,15 where G’d also used this word when He said זה שמי לעלם, “this is My Name forever.” There too our sages point to he absence of the letter ו, i.e. at the concealed elements of such a future. Whereas up until now, Moses had been speaking, at this juncture, G’d resumes speaking. Hearing the promise of a redemption from G’d directly is more reassuring than hearing it through the words of an intermediary. It convinces the listeners that the ingathering will be orchestrated by G’d Himself, not through one of His agents. If and when this occurs, all the nations will sing the praises of His people (verse 43).

See now that I, I am He. The repetition of “I am” comes to exclude the view of those who say there are two [divine] authorities, one ruling over the good and one ruling over the bad. Similarly, Hannah said, Talk no more so exceeding proudly (First Samuel 2:3), meaning do not say there are two supreme powers, rather everything comes from one source: The Lord impoverishes and enriches, the Lord kills and gives life (First Samuel 2:6). For He, blessed be He, performs all opposites. Rabbi Moses of Coucy explained at the beginning of the positive commandments in the name of Rabbenu Saadia, to answer the heretics who say there are two authorities: If each is permitted to do whatever they want, and one wanted to keep a person alive while the other wanted to kill him, then that person would need to be simultaneously dead and alive, alive and dead in an instant, in the blink of an eye, etc. Therefore, it says here I, I am He who rules over both good and bad, and there is no god beside Me. The proof of this is I kill and I make alive, and no one can deliver from My hand. If there were another [deity] beside Me, He would be able to rescue from My hand, and [the person] would be simultaneously dead and alive, alive and dead in an instant. From this you will understand and comprehend that there is no god beside Me. And our Sages of blessed memory (Pesachim 68a) learned from here about the resurrection of the dead [being sourced] from the Torah, as it says I kill and I make alive. One might think that death would be for one person and life for another person, therefore Scripture says I have wounded, and I will heal. Just as wounding and healing refer to the same person, so too death and life refer to the same person. And support for their interpretation is that death precedes life [in the verse], for every person lives before they die, but this is speaking about life that comes after death. A second proof is that it says I kill and I make alive, as the word I applies to both. But with I have wounded, He inserted I in the middle: I have wounded and I will heal, because with death and life there is room for error and to say death is for one person and life for another person. Therefore, He did not insert “I” in the middle so as not to separate between them. But with wounding and healing there is no room for error, because there is no healing without a wound, and certainly both refer to the same person.

ראו, “See!” Moses addresses the nations collectively, hence the plural mode. כי אני אני הוא, “that I, I am He;” I am unique, have no duplicate. ואין אלוהים עמדי, “and no deity is with Me.” I do not have nor need any helper. There is no one who can effectively oppose Me, and prevent Me from carrying out anything I have set My mind to do. Ibn Ezra says that the meaning of the repetition in the phrase אני אני הוא, is that G’d announces that He is constant and will not undergo any change. I am the G’d, Who, when the need arises brings death to Israel, and I am the same G’d, Who, when the situation warrants it, brings this people back to life. They will be saved, but from no other source than Myself. Many commentators say that the concept of a future world, one beyond death, is derived plainly from this verse. They prove this from G’d saying first: “I will kill,” and then “I will revive,” and not the reverse order according to which physical death is the end of the human existence. The same thought is expressed in the same sequence as מוריד שאול ויעל, ”He brings death and gives life.“ (Samuel I 2,6 Channah’s prayer of thanksgiving.)

ראו עתה כי אני אני הוא, G’d addresses the nations of the earth who have said: ”where is their G’d?,” that when they would now experience G’d’s judgment and how He avenges the injustice done to His people, that He is very much around, notwithstanding their mockery of Him.

ראו עתה כי אני אני הוא, “See, now, that I, I am He;” As to those who had mockingly asked where the Israelites’ G–d was when they were in exile and persecuted, now they would see that He is not only the G–d of the Israelites but the G–d over the whole universe and what it contains. He is about to demonstrate this. And as far as considering themselves as His junior partners, ואין אלהים עמדי, “there is no other deity beside Me.” אני אתית ואני אחיה, “I cause death, and I resurrect (exclusively).” I alone possess this power, and only I am able to resurrect the dead. מחצתי ואני ארפא, “I have wounded and I am able to heal.” I will heal them, (My people). Concerning what you gentiles have said sarcastically: יקומו ויעזרכם, “let them arise and help you,” there is no one who can help other than I who can help you. By the same token, no one can save you from Me. (if I decide your destruction).

For I have established My Shechinah's dwelling in the heavens, and I have said: I live forever.

כי אשא אל שמים ידי FOR I SHALL LIFT UP MY HAND TO HEAVEN — This means; for in My wrath I shall lift up My hand to Myself in an oath. ואמרתי חי אנכי — This is the expression of an oath: I SWEAR AS TRUE AS I LIVE [FOR EVER].

FOR I LIFT UP MY HAND TO HEAVEN. By way of the plain meaning of Scripture this is an oath by His throne. He states I lift up, for whoever takes an oath raises his hand and touches the object by which he swears. And by way of the Truth, [the mystic teachings of the Cabala], during the time of the exile He hath cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel. He, therefore states that now in an acceptable time He will lift His hand to the highest heavens, the reference being to the great hand that fights on behalf of Israel. And this is the sense of the expression, And I say: As I live forever, for I make My strong hand active when I whet the lightning of My sword and support it [My hand] to prevail for the justice of Israel [which, until then, had been cast down to the earth] and to recompense them that hate Me, for then will G-d’s Name be full and the throne perfect. The student learned in the mysteries of the Cabala will understand. Now this Song, which is our true and faithful testimony, tells us clearly all that will happen to us. It mentions first the mercy that the Holy One, blessed be He, bestowed upon us from the time He took us to be His portion. It mentions the favors that He did for us in the wilderness, and that He caused us to possess the lands of great and mighty nations, and the abundant good, wealth, and honor that He made us inherit there. Yet despite the abundance of all good, they rebelled against G-d to worship the idols, and it mentions how He was provoked by them until He visited upon them in their country pestilence, famine, the evil beast, and the sword, and then He dispersed them in every direction and corner. It is known that all this has been fulfilled, and it was so. And the Song states that ultimately He will render vengeance to His adversaries and will recompense them that hate Him. The reason [for their punishment] is that they inflicted all these evils upon us out of their hatred of the Holy One, blessed be He: because they do not hate Israel for having made idols like theirs, but only because they do not imitate their deeds. Instead they serve the Holy One, blessed be He, and observe His commandments, neither intermarrying with them nor eating of their slaughterings, and they [Israel] hold their idol in contempt and remove it from their places, similar to what [the psalmist] said, but for Thy sake are we killed all the day. If so, it is because of their hatred of the Holy One, blessed be He, that they inflict all these evils upon us; they are thus His adversaries and His enemies, and it is for Him to wreak vengeance upon them. And it is clear, that He assures [Israel] concerning the future redemption, for, during the construction of the Second Temple, the nations did not rejoice with His people, but mocked them: What are these feeble Jews doing? And their leaders were servants in the palace of the king of Babylon and all the Jews were subject to him. In those days He did not render vengeance to His adv...

"For I lift My hand to heaven" (ki essa el shamayim yadi) — [this is] an oath by something enduring; and essa ("I lift") is as in "he lifted his right hand and left hand to the heavens" (Dan. 12:7); and the word essa is after the manner of human speech, so that the listeners would understand. "As I live" (chai anokhi) — as I live, so shall I do this.

כי אשא אל שמים ידי, in order to swear an oath. This is a formulation similar to Daniel 12,7 וירם ימינו ושמאלו אל השמים,”he raised both his right hand and his left hand toward heaven.” ואמרתי חי אנכי לעולם, I used the fact that I live forever as the guarantee that I can keep My oath. This too has a parallel in Daniel 12,7.

כי אשא אל שמים ידי, "For I raise My hand towards heaven, etc." The wording is equivalent to an oath. G'd swears by the fact that He raises His hand that He will take revenge on Israel's oppressors. אם שנותי ברק חרבי, "If I sharpen My flashing sword, etc." The whole verse is an expression by the attribute of Justice. The verse may also mean that even the attribute of Mercy concurs to take vengeance on the enemies of the Lord, i.e. those who have proven themselves to be enemies of Israel. The word ולמשנאי, "and to those who make Me hated," refers to the people who seduced Israelites to give up their religion and thereby to express their hatred for G'd.

כי אשא אל שמים ידי, “for I lift up my hand to heaven;” as do human beings in order to ensure that the people present will listen to them.

כי אשא אל שמים ידי, “For I shall raise My hand to heaven, etc.;” the promise of the redemption of the future is here being confirmed and reinforced with an oath, seeing that the gesture of raising one’s hand towards heaven is typical of someone swearing an oath. We find another example of this in Daniel 12,7 where the promise of the redemption in the future is also accompanied by this gesture. David also used this formula in Psalms 10,12 when he said: “rise, O Lord, raise Your hand.” Not only the promise of the redemption of the future is accompanied by an oath, but even the promise of the redemption from Egypt was accompanied by an oath, seeing that G’d referred to this in retrospect by saying “נשאתי את ידי,“ “I had raised My hand” (Exodus 6,18). [The author quotes more examples which I will skip. Ed.] Nachmanides, under the heading דרך האמת, offers the following contribution: seeing that at the time of the exile of the Jewish people G’d had cast down the glory of Israel from heaven (compare Lamentations 2,1), He now had to mention that He would pick it up with His hand and restore it to the celestial regions once the time of goodwill towards the people of Israel returns. This is the “hand” known as the יד הגדולה which battles on behalf of the Jewish people. This is the meaning of: “I said by My eternal life I revive My strong hand when I sharpen My flashing sword. I will seize it in order to wreak judgment on those who oppose Me and Israel. That will be the time when My name will be whole and My throne will be whole” (Tanchuma Ki Tetze 11). Thus far the words of Nachmanides.

כי אשא, reinforcing what He says by an oath, as in Genesis 14,22 where the oath is used in the same sense, although the verb used by Avraham is הרימותי ידי instead of אשא ידי as here.

כי אשא אל שמים ידי, “for I raise My hand to heaven!” I swear an oath as it is in My power to carry out My vengeance on them. ואמרתי חי אנכי לעולם, “as I live forever, etc.” It is not unusual for G–d to accompany His oath with the reminder that His oath is valid as He lives forever. Compare Isaiah 49 18: חי אני נאום ה', “as surely as I am (and remain) alive, says the Lord;” as soon as I have completed My judgment of the Jewish people, I will turn My attention to all those gentiles who have infuriated Me as well as to their so called deities, and carry out My vengeance.

If twofold, like the appearance of lightning from one end of the heavens to the other end of the heavens, My sword is revealed, and My hand strengthens itself in judgment — I will return punishment upon My enemies, and upon those who hate Me I will repay.

אם שנותי ברק חרבי means, IF I SHALL WHET THE BLADE OF MY SWORD, so that it shall have a flash (ברק); splendeur in old French ותאחז במשפט ידי AND MY HAND TAKE HOLD ON JUDGMENT — i.e., on strict justice, relinquishing (i.e. withdrawing) My attribute of mercy from My enemies who have done so much evil unto you, — “I was angry only a little, but they helped to do harm” (Zechariah 1:15). — but My hand shall grasp the attribute of justice to hold fast to it in order to take vengeance. אשיב נקם וגו׳ I WILL RENDER VENGEANCE [TO MY ADVERSARIES]. — Our Rabbis derived in the Agada from the wording of the text which states, “And My hand shall hold the משפט fast”, that the nature of the Holy One, blessed be He, is not like the nature of human beings: The nature of a human being is that when he shoots an arrow he cannot bring it back (i.e., cannot check its flight); the Holy One, blessed be He, however, shoots His arrows and it is in His power to bring them back as though He is still holding them in hand, for, you see, lightning is His arrow, for it states here ברק חרבי, “Lightning is my weapon, and my hand holds fast to משפט" (Mekhilta). This משפט (i.e., משפט according to this explanation) has the meaning of punishment, in old French justicia, the execution of justice (the third definition given by Rashi on Exodus 28:15 of this word)

"If I whet" (im shonothi) — from the doubled-root verbs, as in "and grant grace to the sons of my body" (ve-chanoti li-vnei bitni, Ps. 17:14), from the root chetz shonun (a sharpened arrow, Ps. 120:4). "And My hand takes hold for justice" (ve-tochez be-mishpat yadi) — the sword of the warrior of battle. "I will return vengeance" (ashiv nakam) — the meaning of "return" is: as they did to Israel, so will I do; and similarly, "I will repay" (ashalam).

אם שנותי, even though I had sharpened the blade of My sword against the Jewish people during the time of their exile, את ברק חרבי, this was only the flashing appearance, not the פי החרב, the lethal part of the sword. ותאחז במשפט ידי, and even though I was compelled to deal with them according to the rule of law, for כי ידין ה' עמו, “G’d does judge His people,” this does not mean that their adversaries will go free, rather אשיב נקם לצרי, I will wreak vengeance on My foes, reprisals for what they have done to Israel. Compare Ezekiel 25,12 and 25,14 on this subject in detail. ולמשנאי אשלם, and I will pay back those who hate Me measure for measure, as spelled out in Ovadiah 15.

ותאחז ידי, and My hand will hold on to judgment;” holding on to the sword with one’s hand, in order to administer justice.

אם שנותי, “When I will whet My flashing blade;” the use of the past tense here when we would have expected a future tense, seeing G’d speaks about what will be, is typical of prophetic pronouncements. The meaning of the construction is that “if I whet the blade of My sword in the heaven and take hold of judgment on earth.” These words parallel those of the prophet (Isaiah 34,5: “for My sword shall be dripping (with blood) in the heaven, lo, it shall come down upon Edom.” A Midrashic approach: “If I were to whet My sword, with a flashing blade, says the Lord, I would destroy the world;” What can I do to prevent this (rhetorical question)? My hand must grasp judgment.” So far the words of the Midrash. You know already that whenever the “sword” of G’d is mentioned that this is a reference to His attribute of Justice. Examples are Isaiah 66,16: “with His sword against all flesh,” or Psalms 2,21: “save my life from the sword,” and similar verses in which the word חרב is featured. A man is supposed to constantly be conscious of the impending attack by the attribute of Justice. We have a full verse in Job 19,29 where the author cries out: “”be in fear of the sword, for your iniquity is worthy of the sword. Know there is a judgment.” The thrust of the verse is to remind people that what transpires in this universe is not accidental or coincidental, but is part of a master plan.” I have already commented on Genesis 3,24 where the flashing blade of the sword guarding the entrance to Gan Eden is mentioned, as well as on Deut. 7,24, that G’d’s sword is extremely sharp, has 16 blades. When the Torah speaks here of חרבי followed by ותאחז, this is an allusion to the 16-sided blade of G’d’s sword by which the wicked will be judged, and which even the righteous have reason to be afraid of; however, (under the appropriate circumstances) this sword is entrusted to the righteous. This is the meaning of the שיר חדש, the new song which will be sung by them in the future, as we know from Psalms 149,6: “with paeans to G’d in their throats and many-bladed swords in their hands.“ The sages amend the word בידם, “in their hands,“ to be read as בי-ה as referring to 16 blades. [The number 15 i.e. י-ה, may refer to the additional number of blades. Ed.] This song of Moses is a great source of comfort regarding the redemption of the future and the destruction of the idolaters and the avenging of Israel from its enemies, as well as concerning the atonement of Israel’s iniquities. Perhaps this is even reflected in the acrostic of the respective first letters of different sections of this song, i.e. the letters ה-ז-י-ו ל-ך, having been so divided by Ezra who arranged the reading into these sections (see beginning of verses 1-7-13-19-29-40). He had foreseen with holy spirit that by reading this portion in the appropriate stanzas there would be an additional ray of hope and an appeal to the people to engage in penitence whenever these verses are read in public, generation after generation (compare Rosh Hashanah 31). The message of the acrostic is that the radiation of the brilliance of the Shechinah will be restored to us as in former days. אשיב נקם לצרי, “I shall return vengeance upon My enemies.” In other words, I will retaliate against them for what they have done to Israel. G’d calls the adversaries of Israel: “My enemies,” whereas earlier, in verse 27, Moses called them פן ינכרו צרימו, “lest its tormentors would misinterpret.” The suffix “its” in that verse referred to Israel. The message of our verse is that anyone who is the tormentor of Israel thereby makes himself into an enemy of the Lord. You will find a similar construction during the song Moses composed after crossing the Sea of Reeds, where in Exodus 15,7 he speaks of G’d as “You will destroy those who rise against You, קמיך,” where we would have expected Moses to say קמי, “the ones who rose against me.” Moses wanted to make the point, however, that anyone attacking the Jewish people is at one and the same time attacking the G’d of the Jews. This concept is reflected in Psalms 83,3-4 where David says: “for Your enemies rage, Your foes assert themselves. The plot craftily against Your people, take counsel against Your hidden ones.” David equates the people who attack Israel with those who rage against the Lord. He refers to the Jewish people as צפונך, “the ones hidden by You,” seeing that the Lord hides them, protects them. Actually, the meaning of the word here is close to the meaning of והייתם לי סגולה, “You will be for Me something treasured.” One has a tendency of hiding one’s treasures. One does not entrust its care to agents, to subordinates.

אם שנותי, from the root שנן, to sharpen. The same root is used in connection with sharpening a sword in Psalms 64,4 אשר שננו כחרב לשונם, “who have sharpened their tongue as if it were a sword.” The double consonant in the root שנן is similar to such roots as סבב and בלל. Just as these roots sometimes drop the last consonant, compare Samuel I 22,22 סבותי בכל נפש בית אביך or in Psalms 92,11 בלותי בשמן רענן, so in our verse instead of שננתי the Torah writes שנותי.

I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword will slay among the nations — from the blood of the slain and the captives, to remove crowns from the head of the enemy and the adversary.

אשכיר חצי מדם I WILL MAKE MY ARROWS DRUNK WITH BLOOD of the enemy, וחרבי תאכל AND MY SWORD SHALL DEVOUR their FLESH. מדם חלל ושביה FROM THE BLOOD OF THE SLAIN AND THE CAPTIVE i.e., this will happen to them because of the sin of those slain in Israel (i.e., on account of their blood; מדם), and because of the captives they have made amongst them, מראש פרעות אויב — because of the sin of even the very first (ראש) breach (פרעות) made by the enemy (פרצות = פרעות); because when the Holy One, blessed be He, exacts punishment from the heathen nations for the wrongs they have inflicted upon Israel, He visits on them their own sin and the sins of their ancestors, from the very first breach they have made in Israel (Sifrei Devarim 332:5).

"From the blood of the slain" (mi-dam chalal) — this explains "I will make My arrows drunk." "And captives" (ve-shivyah) — the wounded. "From the head" (me-rosh) — this explains "My sword shall devour flesh," and the meaning of "from the head" — to cut off the head. "Long-haired heads" (par'ot) — as in "when locks were long" (bi-froa pera'ot, Judg. 5:2); and our early masters also said: "He who exacts punishment" (ha-nifra).

אשכיר חצי מדם וחרבי תאכל בשר , similar to Isaiah 66,16 כי באש ה' נשפט ובחרבו את כל בשר, “for the Lord will contend with fire, with His sword against all flesh.” מדם חלל ושביה, as in the same verse in Isaiah ורבו חללי ה' “many will be the ones slain by the Lord.”

אשכיר חצי מדם, “I will make My arrows drunk with blood.” Concerning this we read in Ezekiel 21,12: הנה באה ונהיתה נאם ה', “Behold!, it comes and has happened.” אשכיר חצי מדם, “how is it possible for arrows to become drunk with blood? The meaning is that G-d will make others drunk when they see what His arrows have accomplished. (Sifri) וחרבי תאכל בשר, “and My sword shall devour flesh.” How is it possible for a sword to devour flesh? It means that G-d will arrange for others to be fed with meat as a result of what My sword has accomplished. This can be compared to what Ezekiel wrote in Ezekiel 39,17: בן אדם אמור לצפור כל כנף ולכל חית השדה האספו מסביב על זבחי, “Now you, Ben Adam, says My Lord, Hashem, say to every winged bird and to the beasts in the field: ‘gather around Me, and take part in My feast,’ etc.” Our author quotes several more verses from Scripture containing a similar message; (Ezekiel 39,18, 39,19, including the use of the word “becoming drunk.”) This is the interpretation given by Sifri. מדם חלל ושביה, “from the blood of the slain and the captives (wounded?)” from what My arrows have done to the slain and the wounded of My people מראש פרעות אויב, “from the longhaired head of the enemy.” This verse has been truncated; it should read: מפרעות ראש אויב, “from the long haired enemy chiefs.” Rabbi Nechemyah interprets the whole sequence commencing with verse 27: 27.דינו רמה וגו' פן יאמרו, completely differently, understanding it as being addressed to the nations of the world. 28. כי גוי אובד עצות המה, “for any of the gentile nations are each a nation completely deprived of counsel, seeing that they do not even observe the seven basic laws given by the Lord to all of mankind, and they do not practice them. 29. לו חכמו, “had they possessed any wisdom;” if they had possessed any wisdom they would have understood that if one man could have put a thousand of the enemy to flight, this could never have been possible by natural means, but only because this one man had been supported by a superior heavenly force, i.e. the G-d Who had taken the Jewish people out of Egypt. Similarly, if now one of their enemies could frighten a thousand of them, this could also only have been possible because their G-d had abandoned them at that point. יבינו לאחריתם, they would have realised that something similar or worse would happen to them for having enslaved the Jewish people, G-d’s people, as we know from verse 35 וחש עתידות למו, “this will come to pass speedily.” 30. אם לא כי צורם מכרם, “unless their Rock had sold them.” This is the only reason why a single gentile had been able to put a thousand of them to flight. All of this the gentile nations should have understood. 31. כי לא כצורנו צורם, “for their Rock is not like our rock, i.e. weak.” This is also why our enemies, the Jewish people, in the past had been able to lord it over us. 32. כי מגפן סדום גפנם, “why did their Rock sell them? Because they acted as if their origin had been the vines of Sodom, and because they behaved at if they had been planted in Amorah. We have proof of this from the writings of Isaiah 3,9: “they avow their sins like Sodom and they do not conceal them.” None of them are good, they have all become confirmed sinners, but for the longest time due to G-d’s patience He had not demanded an accounting from them. 34. הלא הוא כמוס עמדי, “what the gentile nations have been saying about My people, i.e. that they originated in Sodom and Amorah, is quite untrue; in fact I, the Lord have planted them as a noble plant.” (Jeremiah 2,21) 35. לי נקם ושלם, “vengeance is Mine and the right to pay back the gentile nations;”לעת תמוט רגלם, “at the time when their feet shall slip.” (that of the gentile nations) כי קרוב ים אידם, “for the day of their calamity is near.” 36. כי ידין, “for He will judge (those nations);” כי יראה, “when He sees;” Why will He choose that time to exact vengeance? because these nations had taken advantage of the Jewish people when these had been at a low point in their fortunes. 37. The gentile nations had called out with glee: “where is their famous G-d now?” 38. אשר חלב זבחימו יאכלו, “the G-d of Israel will consume the fate of its offerings;” יקומו ויעזרכם, “may they (these deities) arise and help you.” Seeing that the gentiles have blasphemed in such a manner the G-d of Israel will duly punish them. 39. ראו עתה כי אני הוא, the reader is referred to the author’s commentary on this verse above. ואין מידי מציל, “and no one can save them from My hand.” This is G-d’s reply to the sarcastic words of the gentiles in verse 38.

פרעות, as in Leviticus 13,45 וראשו יהיה פרוע, “and the hair of his head shall grow wildly, untrimmed.” Basically, the word פרוע, describes something in disarray, undisciplined.

מראש פרעות אויב, “from the long-haired heads of the enemy;” The chiefs I have used to punish the enemy with.

Praise, O nations, His people! For the punishment of His righteous servants will be exacted, and punishment will be brought upon His enemies; and He will make atonement for His land and for His people.

הרנינו גוים עמו SING ALOUD, O YE NATIONS, OF HIS PEOPLE — At that time (when I shall take vengeance on them) the nations will praise Israel (Sifrei Devarim 333:2): “See, how praiseworthy is this people, — that they have cleaved to the Holy One, blessed be He, amidst all the troubles which have passed over them, and have not forsaken Him, for they had constantly experienced His goodness and His excellence”. כי דם עבדיו יקם FOR HE WILL AVENGE THE BLOOD OF HIS SERVANTS — i.e., the shedding of their blood, as the phrase usually implies. ונקם ישיב לצריו AND HE WILL RENDER VENGEANCE TO HIS ADVERSARIES for their robbery and their violence, just as it is stated, (Joel 4:19) “Egypt shall be a desolation and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah …”, and it states in another passage (Obadiah 10) “For the violence against thy brother Jacob [shame shall cover thee]” (cf. Sifrei Devarim 333:3). וכפר אדמתו עמו means, and He will appease His land and His people for the miseries that have passed over them and for that which the enemy has caused them. וכפר is an expression denoting appeasing and calming, as e.g. (Genesis 32:21) אכפרה פניו which is rendered in the Targum by “I will appease his anger” (cf. Rashi on that verse). וכפר אדמתו AND HE WILL PROPITIATE HIS LAND — and what is His land? עמו HIS PEOPLE — when His people receives comfort His land, too, receives comfort, and so, too, it states, (Psalms 85:2) “Thou hast been favourable, O Lord, unto Thy land” — whereby hast Thou been favourable unto Thy land? The words that follow in the text give the answer: “Thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob” (Thy people). — In a different manner is it (the section from v. 26 onwards) expounded in Sifrei, and there is a difference of opinion regarding it between R. Judah and R. Nehemiah. R. Judah expounds the whole of it as having reference to Israel, whilst R. Nehemiah refers the whole of it as referring to the other nations (Sifrei Devarim 327). R. Judah explains it as referring to Israel as follows: (26) אמרתי אפאיהם in the same manner as I have explained it, up to (27) כי גוי אבד עצות המה (28) .ולא ה' פעל כל זאת FOR THEY ARE A NATION LOSING COUNSEL, i.e., they have lost My Torah, which was a fitting counsel for them, ואין בהם תבונה AND THERE IS NO UNDERSTANDING IN THEM to consider,# (30) איכה ירדף אחד HOW ONE MAN of the nations COULD PURSUE אלף A THOUSAND of them, אם לא כי צורם מכרם EXCEPT THAT THEIR ROCK HAD DELIVERED THEM into their power.# (31) כי לא כצורנו צורם — all as I have explained, right up to the end. — R. Nehemiah expounds it as referring to the other nations as follows: (28) כי גוי אבד עצות המה — This he explains as I have explained it at first up to (31): ואיבינו פלילים — (32) כי מגפן סדם גפנם FOR AS THE VINE OF SODOM IS THEIR VINE — i.e. the vine of the other nations. ומשדמת עמרה AND OF THE FIELDS OF GOMORRAH etc., — and they do not set their mind to attribute the greatness to Me. ענבמו ענבי רוש TH...

But in my opinion, the plain-sense meaning is that the people will make atonement for the land, for we find 'stones worn down by water' (Job 14:19) — and we also find kipper without the word al ('over'), as in 'anoint it and atone for it' (ve-chet oto ve-kipparto, Ezek. 43:20) — the meaning being that Israel will take vengeance upon the nations, and they will atone for the land of Israel for the blood that was shed in it, as in 'and the land cannot be atoned for the blood' (Num. 35:33). Or the meaning of 'He will purge' (ve-kipper) is like 'He will cleanse,' and so Ezekiel said concerning the end of the wars: 'and they shall purify the land' (Ezek. 39:12), meaning Israel will purify it.

הרנינו גויים, “you who are the arrows of the Lord and His sword make the nations acclaim, sing aloud! So that they will realise that G’d is fair and does not commit any injustice. Compare Psalms 67,5 ישמחו וירננו לאומים כי תשפוט עמים מישור,”nations will exult and shout for joy, for You rule the peoples with equity” עמו, His people shall give thanks with shouts of joy and music, כי דם עבדיו יקום ונקם ישיב לצריו, for He does avenge the blood of His servants. G’d punishes the nations by avenging what they have done to the Jewish people. וכפר אדמתו, for the soil of the Land of Israel having been desolate and barren while its people were in exile and for what had occurred on that soil in the interval. עמו, His people will also have to atone for all the wrongs they did during the long years they had been in exile. The purpose of this dual atonement by both the soil and the people is to bring back the Shechinah, G’d’s benevolent presence to the Land of Israel, as envisioned in Isaiah 52,8 כי עין בעין יראו בשוב ה' ציון,”for every eye will see when G’d returns to Zion.”

הרנינו גוים עמו, "O nations, sing the praises of His people, etc." Moses means that when the time comes that G'd exacts retribution from the nations, from the enemies of the Jewish people, the other nations will praise the Israelites and jubilate and elevate them, as we know from Psalms 144,19: "Hail to the people who experience this." כי דם עבדיו יקום, "for He will avenge the blood of His servants." The verse tells us that G'd will not only avenge the blood Israel's enemies have shed but also the other afflictions they have caused the Jewish people. G'd will even avenge evil intentions against the Jewish people which have not been carried out as indicated in Psalms 7,17: ישוב עמלו בראשו, "His mischief will recoil upon his own head." [The Psalmist had previously spoken about people who dug a pit intended for a third party to fall into (verse 16). Ed.] וכפר אדמתו עמו, "Any residual sins of His people, its land will atone for." The desolation of ארץ ישראל for many many years was part of the atonement process for its people.

הרנינו גוים עמו “sing aloud o you nations!” this is not a song of joy but a lament, similar to what we read in Lamentations 2,19: קומי רני בלילה, “arise cry out in the night!” These words are addressed to the nations which have enslaved the Jewish people. Why are these nations now to sing songs of mourning? Because G-d is avenging the innocent blood of Jews that has been spilled by them. An alternate interpretation of the words הרניו, etc.; “sing a song of praise nations, before the Lord!” Who are the “nations” that are supposed to sing this song of praise? The Israelites His people, seeing that He has avenged their blood. A third interpretation of this line: all the nations are urged to sing of praise of G-d’s people, the Jewish people. He has avenged their oppressors, i.e. the blood of His servants. וכפר, “and make expiation;” the word is used as one indicating pacification, appeasement. Compare Genesis 32,21, when Yaakov sends costly gifts to his brother Esau in order to make him forget that he had once taken his blessing The word by which he described this was אכפרה פניו, “I wish to appease him.” אדמתו עמו, “for the land of His people.” In classical Hebrew we find words where the letter ו is missing at the beginning of the word, such as Leviticus 21,14 וחללה זונה where we would have expected a connective letter ו at the beginning of the word זונה. Another example of that letter being missing is found in Chabakuk 3,11: ,שמש ירח עמד זבולה, “sun (and) moon stand still on high,” where the connective letter ו is missing before the word ירח, “moon.” In our verse also the letter ו is missing at the beginning of the word עמו, His people. G-d wishes to appease the earth of the Holy Land for having burdened it with absorbing blood shed of innocent Jews, by taking His revenge from the antisemites.

הרנינו גוים עמו, “O nations, sing the praises of His people!” When the Jewish people are loyal to their traditions, to the Torah, then the nations of the world sing their praises. They admire the fact that even when exiled, the Jewish people hold fast to their beliefs and do not try to assimilate themselves (compare Rashi). Alternatively, the word הרנינו is derived from רנה in the sense of “proclamation,” i.e. the nations everywhere will proclaim about this people that the Lord has avenged their blood. The word would be used here in the same manner as in Kings I 22,36 ויעבור הרנה, “a shout went through (the camp).” כי דם עבדיו יקום, “for He will avenge the blood of His people.” Moses prophesied in these verses about the troubles which would befall the Jewish people during our exile and all the bloodshed that the people would become victims of at the hands of their host nations. They would lose their money through violence, both physical and through discriminatory legislation. These events have been specifically forecast by Ovadiah 10 as being perpetrated by Yaakov’s brother Esau (the Edomites) when he wrote: “for the outrage (violence perpetrated) to your brother Yaakov, disgrace shall engulf you and you shall perish forever.” In anticipation of this retribution, Moses says “He will avenge the blood of His people.” וכפר אדמתו עמו, “and He will appease His land and His people.” According to both Onkelos, Ibn Ezra, and Rashi, the words אדמתו עמו are to be understood as אדמתו ועמו, “His land and His people.” The Midrash (Sifri on our verse) understands the words as if the Torah had written וכפר אדמתו על עמו, “its land will be atonement for its people.” According to Ketuvot 111 the meaning is that if a Jew is buried in the land of Israel, his sins will be transferred to the soil, i.e. the land of Israel will act as a Mikveh, a ritual bath, cleansing him from his impurities. The wording there is “that being buried in the land of Israel is equivalent to being buried beneath the Holy Altar.” This is an extension of the verse “You shall build an altar of earth for me” (Exodus 20,24). This is also understood to be the meaning of the sages’ comment that the reason G’d created Adam out of earth was that the place which would serve as the means of his atonement was his origin. [by making him out of earth, G’d facilitated his eventual atonement when he would return to earth. Ed.] This is the advantage of ארץ ישראל, that it is the palace of the King (G’d) and therefore is also known as ארץ ה', (Joshua 22,19). It is also known as נחלת ה', “the Lord’s heritage.” Anything outside the boundaries of the land of Israel is always referred to as something “outside, external.” The Scriptures refer to such countries as חוצות, (compare Proverbs 8,26 where the word ארץ and חוצות appear side by side to make this distinction and is even called אהלי רשע “tents of the wicked,” in Psalms 84,11). In the parlance of our sages in Gittin 8, any land outside the land of Israel is referred to as ארץ העמים. To make the distinction crystal clear, the sages decreed ritual impurity on any produce imported from these countries and even its airspace was considered as ritually impure, so that by having traversed it one needs to purify oneself. The only exception to this ruling was Syria because it adjoins the land of Israel. I have already mentioned this in connection with 31,16 אלוהי נכר הארץ. וכפר אדמתו עמו; this means that the Jewish people will purify their land of the corpses of the enemies (Ibn Ezra). The word וכפר therefore has to be understood in the sense of וטהר, “and it purifies.” The word also appears in that sense in Ezekiel 39,16 וחטאת אותו וכפרתהו. Ezekiel speaks specifically of וטהרו הארץ, “they (the Israelites) will cleanse the earth” (of these bodies of the slain pagans who were killed during the final confrontation with Gog and Magog preceding the messianic age). ואין אלוהים עמדי, “and there is no other deity with Me.” (verse 39). G’d says this versus the pagans who had taunted the Israelites to ask their deities to help them. Seeing the nations had spoken of deities in the plural, G’d had to emphasize the uniqueness of His being in the singular, having no assistants or junior partners. When G’d said: “I kill and I revive,” He specifically referred to the Jews whom He had killed, (allowed to be killed) pointing out that He would revive them. [since that is so, even their “death” was not a regular death. Ed.] Our sages in Sanhedrin 91 claim that here we have incontrovertible proof from the Torah that there will be a resurrection. They said further that just as when the Torah speaks about G’d being a Healer, this is demonstrated by someone who had first been afflicted with disease or injury, so describing Himself as someone who brings to life also implies that the person brought to life had first died. This is made plain in Samuel I, 2,6 where Chanah speaks about G’d being ממית ומחיה, מוריד שאול ויעל, “killing and reviving,”’ consigning to the grave (nether regions), and to raise up again. The reason that the sages felt called upon to spell out that the Torah speaks about one and the same person being killed and revived, is that from the words מחצתי ואני ארפא, “I have struck with injury and I will heal,” (32,38) the impression could have been formed that G’d speaks about two different individuals; the sages wanted to make clear that this is not the case. Seeing that G’d employs the past tense in that verse, it is clear that He speaks about the same person He had first struck down being healed again. There are many people who are wondering why such an important concept as that of the resurrection has not been spelled out in the written Torah in detail. Seeing that the Torah has spelled out in detail many less important concepts, sometimes repeating them several times, the failure to spell out the concept of resurrection of the dead is considered especially puzzling. The fact is that Torah addresses first and foremost terrestrial matters of concern to us. When you recall the Torah’s report of the creation you will note that the description of the creation of light on the first day was condensed to a minimum, seeing that this light was not significant in terrestrial terms. When the Torah returns to that subject on the fourth day of creation, it goes into greater detail seeing that this light, the sun’s and the moon’s, is of concern to our life on earth. Similarly, even on the third day, the Torah explained details about the coming into existence of vegetation as it grows in areas of our human habitat. David follows a similar pattern when he describes the original light as merely עוטה אור כשלמה, “something G’d draped over His universe, much like a mantle” (Psalms 104,2). He also gives short shrift to the מים העליונים, “the waters in the celestial regions,” contenting himself with writing המקרה מים עליותיו, “Who sets the rafters of His lofts in the waters,” (Psalms 104,3) whereas he becomes far more specific when discussing the waters in our globe. Compare verse 6 in the same psalm: “You made the deep cover it as a garment, the waters stood above the mountains, They fled Your blast; You set bounds they must not pass so that they never again cover the earth.” The עליות which David speaks of are the universes we call outer space, whereas the psalmist elaborates on waters which exist in our terrestrial universe. Hence, in verse 6 of that same psalm, David was so much more specific. There are numeous more verses of that nature. All the targets described by Moses in the Torah are primarily of interest to our physical existence on earth. These targets man can attest to, i.e. see if G’d’s promises were fulfilled provided he (the people) acted in accordance with the Torah’s laws, or if the nation fell victim to the dire threats if they did not. When people realise that these targets have been met and realised, they will be more likely to accept on faith promises which by their very nature cannot be proven while they are one earth. For the reasons mentioned, the Torah understandably was very brief in its allusions to matters whose fulfillment lies beyond our present life on earth. The life of disembodied souls in the celestial regions while awaiting the resurrection, has similarly been alluded to only in the vaguest manner. The average reader may not even notice these allusions whereas the elite may notice their significance. The truth is that the written Torah was given to and for the multitude who do not concern themselves overly with abstract matters, matters of interest primarily to the intellect rather than to the senses. If you will take an analytical look at the words, or rather the letters in the words (verse 39) סתרה ראו עתה כי, you will find that the respective final letters in these four words spelled backwards spell out the tetragrammaton. We have stated repeatedly that whenever this name appears backwards, it is an allusion to the attribute of Justice also contained in that name. In this instance, it is a hint of the retribution in store for the Gentile nations at the time of the redemption. Immediately after this allusion (verse 41), Moses refers directly to ותאחז במשפט ידי אשיב נקם לצרי , “I shall sharpen My flashing sword and My hand grasps judgment. I shall wreak vengeance upon My enemies.” You will find a total of 18 sequences in the written Torah in which the tetragrammaton has been spelled either forward or backward either in the last letters of the words or the first letters of the words of a sequence of four words, such as the ones we showed you in verse 39. Seeing that our verse (39) is the last of these 18 examples, I have used the opportunity to list all of them and to elaborate a little about them. The following is the sequence in which these 18 groups of four words each appear in the Torah; I am listing first four examples in which the first letters of the respective words read forward spell the tetragram 1) (Genesis 1,31) יום הששי ויכולו השמים. 2) (Genesis 38,24-25) יהודה הוציאוה ותשרף היא. 3) )Exodus 4,14) ידבר הוא וגם המה. 4) (Deut. 11,2) ידו החזקה וזרועו הנטויה. These are the four examples in which the letters of the tetragram appear in the proper sequence, i.e. right to left and as the first letters in each of the words. The next 4 examples refer to the last letters of the four words respectively, but they too are read from right to left. They are: 5) Genesis 19,13) .פנ'י ה-' וישלחה-ו ה-'. 6) (Ex. 3,13) ל-י מ-ה שמ-ו מ-ה. 7) (Deut. 24,8) נק-י יהי-ה לבית-ו שנ-ה. 8* מ-י יעל-ה לנ-ו השמימ-ה, (Deut. 30,12). The next 10 examples all feature the sequence of the letters of the tetragram from left to right, i.e. backward. (sometimes these letters are at the beginning of the words in question, sometimes at the end, such as in our example in the verse above). In all these examples the allusion is to the attribute of Justice. You can figure these out for yourselves by looking at: 9) Genesis 11,9 ו-משם ה-פיצם י'-ה;ה-ארץ it is clear from the context that the attribute of Justice had been poised to strike at all these people at that time. The same is true of 10) (Genesis 44, 3-4) ה-מה ו-חמוריהם ה-ם י-צאו. The Torah already alludes to the impending crisis when the goblet will be found in Binyamin’s sack. [I am only pointing to the verses now without elaborating. Ed.] Exodus 4,15; Exodus 4,14; Exodus 4,3; Exodus 16,7; Exodus 26, 21-22; Numbers 1,51 (compare commentary by author). Numbers 5,18 (compare commentary by author). Numbers 14,24-25 (compare commentary by author). Numbers 14,43. Finally, there is our verse here completing the ten occasions when he Torah provides allusions that the attribute of Justice, as an appendix of the tetragram, was invoked by G’d. By way of contrast, the eight examples we quoted first, in which the respective letters of the tetragram appear in their usual order, i.e. from right to left, are indications that the subject matter is the attribute of Mercy. Seeing that between them we have a total of 18 such 4-word sequences, the easy way to remember this is by reference to the short line חי ה'.

וכפר אדמתו עמו, “He will grant atonement to His land and for His people.” According to some commentators mentioned by Ibn Ezra, the word עמו should really have the letter ו in front of it, so that the meaning of the phrase would be: “He will provide atonement for its land and for its people.” An allegorical approach taken by the Midrash is that the land is seen as atoning of behalf of its people. [The idea is that the land, for many years neglected, serves as the scapegoat for the Jewish people who had neglected to observe the laws of sh’mittah. Ed.] Ibn Ezra personally, understands the phrase as a promise that in due course, the gentiles who had shed so much innocent Jewish blood on that land, will at that time atone for all this when the Jews will take their vengeance on them. The retribution for innocent blood spilled must be undertaken by the victimized party or their offspring, (their blood avengers), whose blood had been shed, so that in the war preceding the redemption, Jews will kill their adversaries, the ones who had contaminated the soil of the Holy Land in former years. Ibn Ezra quotes Job 14,19 and Ezekiel 43,20 as verses in which such concepts also appear. Yet another interpretation of our phrase understands the word as meaning the same as וטהר, “it will purify, cleanse.” Israel, when the time comes, will cleanse its soil from all kinds of contaminations it had been exposed to in the interval since its people went into exile.

הרנינו גוים (על) עמו, similar in meaning to the word הללו in Psalms 117,1 הללו את ה' כל גוים, “praise the Lord all you nations, etc.” Just as the psalmist calls upon the nations to acknowledge G’d, to praise Him and exalt Him for the loving kindness He has shown His creatures, so Moses concludes here with a similar call addressed to these same nations at the time of the redemption of mankind, or those who deserve it, to praise the Lord because they have finally seen what He has done for His people. By addressing them already now, Moses implies that G’d would relate to them similarly if they would take all these lessons to heart as of now (and convert to Judaism). וכפר אדמתו עמו, He will cleanse the blood of His people which has been spilled and been absorbed by the earth, by spilling the blood of their enemies, as the Torah’s recipe for cleansing the holy soil of the Land of Israel from innocently spilled blood (Numbers 35,33).

הרנינו גוים עמו, sing aloud, o you nations;” then the nations of the universe will break out in a song of jubilation, praising the Jewish people for whom G–d has taken vengeance, as will be spelled out forthwith. כי דם עבדיו יקום ונקם ישיב לצוריו, “for He avenges the blood of His servants, and renders vengeance to His adversaries.” He will spill the blood of the gentile adversaries of Israel just as they had done to the Israelites. This is what David spoke of in Psalms 110,6 when he said: ידין בגוים מלא גויות, “He works judgment on the nations, heaping up bodies;” In the future when the Almighty will ask the gentiles why they spilled the blood of His people, and they will deny it, He will show them “His garments;” (if I understand correctly, the ones G–d saved up) as full of blood stains and use this as evidence. Authors of poetic poems in our liturgy have repeatedly alluded to this illustration of how G–d has preserved evidence of the murder committed against His people. They referred to the victims as קדושים, “holy martyrs.” וכפר אדמתו עמו, “His people Israel will serve as atonement for G–d’s ‘Holy Land;’ as is written in Numbers 35,33: ולארץ לא יכופר אשר שופך-בה כי אם בדם שופכו, “for no expiation can be made for the blood that is shed therein but by the blood of him who has shed it.” The Israelites, in due course, will spill the blood of the nations who had been guilty of spilling their blood. Compare also on this subject Ezekiel 25,14: ונתתי את נקמתי באדום ביד עמי ישראל, “I will wreak My vengeance on Edom through My people Israel, and they shall take action against Edom.”

And Moses came and recited all the words of this song before the people — he and Hoshea son of Nun.

הוא והושע בן נון HE AND HOSHEA THE SON OF NUN — It was the Sabbath of transmission of office (lit., “of two pairs” of judges): authority was taken from one and given to the other (Sotah 13b). Moses appointed a Meturgeman for Joshua that he (Joshua) should hold in public an Halachic discourse during his (Moses') lifetime in order that the Israelites should not say to him, “During your teacher’s lifetime you did not dare to raise your head!” — And why does it (Scripture) here call him Hosea (since his name had long since been changed to that of Joshua — cf. Numbers 13:16)? In order to indicate that he did not become haughty, for although this dignity had been conferred upon him, he assumed a humble bearing as at the commencement of his career (cf. Sifrei Devarim 334:3).

"And Moses came" — to indicate that after he went to each and every tribe and commanded them, upon returning to the Tent of Meeting where all the children of Israel had assembled to him, he then spoke this song. "He and Hoshea son of Nun" — as in "then Moses and the children of Israel sang" (Exod. 15:1); and this too serves to magnify the standing of Joshua in the eyes of all. The Scripture called him Hoshea by the name all Israel knew him by — for who would have known that his name had been changed by Moses to Joshua, except the members of the inner circle alone. The midrashic interpretation is well known.

הוא והושע בן נון, "he and Joshua son of Nun." Although Joshua stood beside Moses, G'd's word came only to Moses, as is plain from the words וידבר ה׳ אל משה in verse 48. Although Moses had added the letter י to Joshua's name in Numbers 13,16, this was in order to lend him prestige vis-a-vis Israel. When G'd mentions Joshua's name, it remained unchanged as it was not appropriate to make him look prestigious vis-a-vis his teacher (Compare Isaiah 10, 15: "Is the axe going to boast in the presence of the wood cutter?").

ויבא משה וידבר, “Moses came and spoke, etc.” this is a reference to what we read in Deut: 31,30: “Moses spoke in the ears of the people, etc.;” הוא והושע בן נון, “he and Joshua son of Nun;” They had both been commanded by G-d in chapter 31,14: “present yourselves in the Tent of Meeting and I will issue a command.” There is also another occasion when G-d commands Moses and Joshua simultaneously, to write down Moses’ parting song/poem for the people (in verse 19 chapter 31.) Why does the Torah here call Joshua by his birth name Hoshea? It is the custom of kings to instruct their servants in this manner Compare Joseph in Genesis 41,45, or Daniel and Chananiah, Mishael, and Azaryah being commanded by the king to change their Hebrew names (Daniel 1,7). In this instance, now that Joshua has become the King of the Israelites, he is addressed again by his original name of Hosea. Nonetheless, seeing the people had been used to his name Joshua already, this name is used in Scripture in most instances.

הוא והושע בן נון, “he (Calev) and Joshua son of Nun.” At this point the Torah refers to Joshua by his original name Hoshea; we know that Moses had changed his name from Hoshea to Joshua before he went out on the mission with the spies (Numbers 13,16). The moral lesson we learn from this is that although Moses had changed Joshua’s name, i.e. added a letter to it to show his eminence, and although he had already been appointed as Moses’ successor, this promotion did not go to his head, did not make him arrogant, but he was content to function as השע בן נון.

He and Hoshea son of Nun. Since he was only called Joshua because of [the prayer] “May God save you from the counsel of the spies,” and as long as one of that generation was alive he was called by the name Joshua. But when that entire generation had ended, there was no longer a place for this prayer, and he reverted to calling him Hoshea.

הוא והושע בן נון, “he and Hoshea son of Nun.” Ibn Ezra explains the reason why Moses at this point calls Joshua by his original name Hoshea, to make sure that the Israelites would all know who he was speaking about, since some of the people may not have been aware that his name had been changed. Only the top echelon of the people had been aware of the name change. The allegorical explanation of our verse is familiar to all my readers. [For the readers of Ibn Ezra not familiar with the meaning of the name change from הושע to יהושע that we learned about in Numbers 13,16 the Midrash says that Moses added the letter י symbolizing G’d’s name so as to provide him with a spiritual assist when the time would come to take a stand against the other ten spies. Ed.]

הוא והושע בן נון, for G’d commanded both of them, as we read in Deut. 31,14 והתייצבו באוהל מועד ואצונו, ”and stand at attention (plural mode) in the Tent of Testimony, and I will command, etc.”

And Moses finished speaking all these words with all Israel.

And he said to them: Set your hearts to all the words that I am testifying among you today, that you shall command your children to observe and to do all the words of this Torah.

שימו לבבכם SET YOUR HEARTS [UNTO ALL THE WORDS WHICH I TESTIFY AGAINST YOU THIS DAY] — Indeed, it is necessary for a man that his eyes, his heart and his ears, should all be attentively directed to the words of the Torah, for so it states, (Ezekiel 40:4) “Son of man, behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart [upon all that I shall show thee]” (viz., the plan of the Temple). If in the case of the model of the Temple, which was being made visible to the eyes and was being measured by a rod, it was necessary for a man, according to Scripture, that his eyes, his ears and his heart be attentive, then in order to understand the words of the Torah which are like mountains suspended on a hair (i.e., numerous laws are derived from a single word of the Torah), how much the more is this necessary!

אשר אנכי מעיד בכם היום, in the song of Haazinu which I use to make Israel be witness to my admonitions. The principal message is that just as while the Jewish people observe the commandments G’d arranges for their livelihood to be attained with ease and without much sweat, so, He will destroy them if they do not, because they thwart His plans for mankind as a whole. אשר תצוום את בניכם, near the end of your respective lives command your children to observe the matters which I have spoken to you about. It is a matter of life and death for them. לשמור לעשות, you have to observe all these matters in order that as their role model, your children will do so also.

שימו לבבכם לכל הדברים אשר אנכי מעיד בכם היום, “apply your hearts to all the words that I testify against you this day;” this is not part of the testimony but is simply a form of warning, just as was Exodus 19,21 when G’d told Moses: רד העד בעם, “descend and warn the people.” We have a similar occurrence of the verb העד as “warning” in Exodus 19,23 כי אתה העדות בנו, “for You have warned us.” In this verse Moses warns the people that everyone should pay careful attention to the words of the Torah; this is why he speaks of לבבכם instead of לבכם. He urges people to serve the Lord with both parts of our hearts, the good urge as well as the evil urge, יצר הרע. This is why the sages said in Kidushin 30, quoting G’d: “I did create an evil urge, but I also created the Torah as its antidote.”