Deuteronomy · Chapter 8

Every commandment that I am commanding you today you shall take care to perform, so that you may live and multiply, and come and possess the land that Hashem swore to your forefathers.

כל המצוה — Explain this in its plain sense: EVERY COMMANDMENT. — And a Midrashic explanation is (taking it to mean, “the whole of the commandment … shall ye be heedful to do”): If thou hast once made a beginning with a meritorious deed, carry it out to the end, because it bears the name only of him (it is attributed only to him) who does the last part of it, as it is said, (Joshua 24:32) "And the bones of Joseph which the children of Israel brought up from Egypt they buried in Shechem”. But did not Moses alone busy himself with them to bring them up (cf. Exodus 13:19)? But because he had no opportunity to complete this (to inter them), the children of Israel completed it, it was called by their name (Midrash Tanchuma, Eikev 6).

ALL THE COMMANDMENT. The purport of it is to state: “Although I have admonished you [specifically] with respect to the ordinances, all the [other] commandments shall ye observe to do also, for in observing all of them [the ordinances and the commandments] you will live and be fruitful in the fruit of the body, the fruit of the cattle, and the fruit of the ground,” all as mentioned above.

"All the commandment" — the meaning is: if you desired to observe the commandments so that you may live, remember the way.

כל המצוה אשר אנכי מצוך היום תשמרון לעשות, the objective of people worshipping idols is nothing other than their obsession with transient values which consist mostly of three categories, having children, living to a ripe old age, and success in amassing money or its equivalent. The Torah promises that by observing G’d’s commandments as spelled out in the Torah one may achieve all these three objectives. This is meant by the Torah writing: למען תחיון, when commanding the laws of the Torah G’d did not only mean to guarantee you eternal life in the hereafter, but He had in mind also successful, rewarding life on earth. ורביתם, you will multiply by having numerous children. ובאתם וירשתם, attaining wealth and honour by inheriting the land.

כל המצוה, "All the commandment which I command you this day, etc." Precisely which commandment is Moses talking about? Besides, had he not already spoken about the need to perform all the commandments in verse 12 of the last chapter? What reason was there to repeat the same thing again at this point? Moses was a clever psychologist, familiar with the workings of the human mind and psyche. He realised that there is a built-in tendency in us to become progressively more lax in our observance, especially if we have performed a number of commandments meticulously and have chosen to perform one or two commandments with special attention to all its details. Once one has done this one is apt to look upon oneself as a pretty good Jew and one tends to be less punctilious with the performance of other commandments. People who are preoccupied with Torah study have a tendency to pat themselves on the back and to disregard some of the commandments which they view as being of minor significance. Such neglect is bound to result in such people suffering various kinds of afflictions; they may experience that others do not show them the respect which they feel is their due, etc. Moses therefore admonishes each and everyone of us not to forget to perform the whole (range) of G'd's commandments. The only effective way Moses found to bring this point across to us was by describing all of the 613 commandments as one single Commandment, i.e. כל המצוה. He resorted to a way of illustrating his point which is incontrovertible, based on the Zohar volume one page 170. Acccording to the Zohar man has 248 bones and 365 sinews. G'd commanded us 365 negative commandments and 248 positive commandments, one each to correspond to each of these parts of our body. If one suffers a pain or hurt in one of his bones or sinews he should examine which one of the commandments he had neglected so that the pain in question might be due to such neglect. A man will not be satisfied if in response to his cries of pain caused by the afflicted bone he is told by his doctor that seeing that 247 of his bones do not hurt him he should not really be complaining but count his blessings. Similarly, we must relate to each one of the 613 commandments. We cannot pride ourselves merely on the commandments we do observe but must be keenly aware of the damaging effect on our spiritual health of any commandment which we fail to observe when we have the opportunity. All of these considerations are included in Moses' reference to the need for us to observe the whole commandment, both the negative part and the positive part. The reason for this is למען תחיון, "so that you will live and multiply and come and inherit the land." Inheritance of the land of Israel is conditional on מצוה observance, which in turn is the guarantee of our spiritual and physical wellbeing. You may query that in the parable we presented the example does not match the subject matter of the Torah, i.e. אין המשל דומה לנמשל. In the parabl...

כל המצוה, ”Every commandment,” Moses refers especially to the commandment not to covet the gold of the idolatries mentioned in verse 25 of the previous chapter.

כל המצוה אשר אנכי מצוך היום, “the whole (set) of commandments which I command you this day, etc.;” The placing in apposition of the words כל המצוה, to the paragraph teaching us how we are to relate to paganism is meant to convey that he who takes the instructions of the previous chapter to heart is considered as if he had fulfilled כל המצוה, “all the commandments.” Our sages reinforced this when they said anyone who denies paganism is as if he had expressly acknowledged the entire Torah; conversely, if someone acknowledges any aspect of idolatry as true he is considered as if he had denied the totality of Torah and Judaism. We find the following comment in Devarim Rabbah (Lieberman edition Nitzavim page 14): the words כל המצוה are to be understood as “fulfill the commandment to its nth degree, completely;” the author means that if you have commenced to fulfill a certain commandment make every effort to complete that commandment. Do not content yourself with half-measures. (compare also Tanchuma Eykev 6) where the Midrash states that the credit for fulfilling a commandment goes to the person who completes it. Although for 40 years only Moses was preoccupied with transporting the remains of Joseph through the desert as we know from Exodus 13,19, the Book of Joshua 24,32 credits the Children of Israel who reburied Joseph’s remains in Shechem with that mitzvah. This is because Moses had not been able to complete carrying out the entire mitzvah and it was completed by the Children of Israel.

“Every commandment which I command you, etc.” He started in singular form and ended in plural form: you shall observe to do so that you may live and multiply. This is because a righteous person is the foundation of the world, and even an individual who performs a single commandment — fortunate is he for he has tipped himself and the entire world to the side of merit, etc. Similarly, an individual who repents — forgiveness is granted to him and to the entire world. Therefore it says which I command you [in singular form to the individual], you shall observe to do so that you may live [in plural form], because the observance of an individual is as if many have observed the commandments, and the benefit reaches everyone. And it uses the word commandment in singular form to tell you that even the proper observance of a single commandment causes that you may live, according to the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda in Sanhedrin (111) who interpreted the verse and she opened her mouth without measure (Isaiah 5:14) to refer to one who did not observe even a single statute. But if one observed even just one statute, he is saved from Gehenna, because one commandment leads to another commandment, as explained in the portion of Shelach Lecha (15:38). And what is written, “in order to afflict you, to test you, to know what is in your heart, etc.” This is the language of “raising a banner” [nes], from the phrase Raise upon us the light of Your countenance, O Lord (Psalms 4:7), as if your heart was placed on a high banner and set at the crossroads where all can see it. Similarly, He wanted to make known what is in your heart to all the nations of the earth, for to know is like so that all the peoples of the earth may know, and He wanted to show them whether you would keep His commandments or not. For either way, if you keep His commandments and the Lord gives you success exceeding all other nations, they would have reason to question and say, “Why has He not done so for every nation, for Ishmael and Esau who are also descendants of Abraham?” The Holy One, blessed be He, would answer them, “For what nation would withstand such a test as they did, walking after the Lord in an unsown land?” And likewise, conversely, if, God forbid, they sin and the Lord sends calamity upon them, all the nations would say, “Why has the Lord done thus to this land?” And He would answer them that it was because they were not wholehearted with the Lord. This is what is meant by to test you. Similarly, God tested Abraham is explained in this way, and the evidence for this is what it says here, whether you would keep His commandments or not,implying that the test was to show all nations what was in his heart, whether he would keep His commandments or not.

כל המצוה, “The entire commandment, etc.” Although I have already warned you concerning how the category of commandments known as משפטים are to be observed, similar instructions apply to the performance of the other commandments of the Torah as your successful life in your own land including your enjoying children and increasing amounts of livestock as well as bountiful harvests will depend on this, as mentioned earlier.

כל המצוה, “All the instruction, etc.” our author understands the word כל in our verse not so much as “all,” i.e. each and every, but as “the whole commandment.” Once you have begun to fulfill a commandment you must complete what you have undertaken. This rule has been spelled out specifically in the Jerusalem Talmud, tractate Rosh Hashanah, chapter 1, halachah 8. The text is: when someone has commenced to perform a commandment he is told to complete it. If someone has commenced to perform a commandment and it is completed by someone else, the last person gets the credit for having performed it. The source of this ruling is traced to Moses who had commenced the commandment of transferring Joseph’s remains to the land of Israel, (Exodus 13,19) but who could not complete it as he never crossed the Jordan. The credit for burying his remains in the land of Israel is therefore given to the Jewish people, as we know from Joshua 24,32: “and the Children of Israel buried Joseph’s remains which they had brought with them from Egypt, and they were interred in the city of Sh’chem on a plot of land which his father Yaakov had acquired for the price of 1000 kessito as spelled out in Genesis 37,27. This plot became an ancestral heritage to the tribe of Joseph.” (Compare Babylonian Talmud, tractate Sotah) folio 13. Rabbi Sh’muel bar Nachmani is quoted in the Talmud, tractate Sotah folio 13, as saying that if someone commences to fulfill a commandment but fails to complete it (not by circumstances beyond his control), he will wind up burying his wife and his children. He adds that we know this from Yehudah (Yaakov’s son) compare Genesis 37,26, who said: “what profit is there in killing our brother Joseph.” Yehudah, of course buried both his wife and two of his sons, as we read in Genesis 38, 7-12. Some scholars add that this was why the brothers demoted him as we know from the beginning of that chapter. Instead of saving Joseph, the brothers sat down to eat their meal, and in the interval Joseph was taken out of the pit by Ishmaelites and sold as a slave. Yehudah said that they could not pronounce benedictions of G–d while planning to commit murder of their brother. They therefore interrupted, and sold Joseph, before they sat down again to eat. Yehudah is perceived as having begun to save Joseph from death but not having brought him back safely to his father. The Torah had testified that the brothers listened to him, so that it could be assumed that they would also have agreed to bring him back to his father. At any rate, this is the meaning of Moses referring to כל מצוה, “the whole commandment.”

And you shall remember all the way that Hashem your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to afflict you, to test you, to know what is in your heart — whether you would keep His commandments or not.

התשמר מצותו [THAT HE MIGHT KNOW WHAT WAS IN THY HEART] WHETHER THOU WOULDST KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS — viz., the commandment that ye should not put Him to the test, and that you should not doubt Him (i.e. His ways).

AND THOU SHALT REMEMBER ALL THE WAY WHICH THE ETERNAL THY G-D HATH LED THEE etc. He is stating that you can realize that in the observance of the commandments is entailed the perfect good and there will not be the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread, for G-d supported you in the wilderness with the performance of a great miracle because you followed after His commandments. I have already explained in the section of the manna [the verse before us], that He might afflict thee, to try thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments, or no, for [the manna itself] was a great trial to them. They did not know what counsel to adopt for themselves when they entered the great wilderness, a place of no food, and they had none of the manna [in reserve because it could not be stored from day to day] but each day’s portion came down on its day, and as the sun waxed hot, it melted, although they hungered mightily after it. All this they did to keep the commandment of G-d, to follow as He commanded. Now G-d could have led them through the [populated] cities that were around them, but instead He brought them into this trial [of never having any food in reserve] for He knew that as a result [of this experience] they would keep His commandments forever.

"In order to afflict you, to test you, to know" — I have already explained this.

וזכרת את כל הדרך, during which He gave you bread to eat, clothes to wear, by supernatural means. לנסותך, to test you if, seeing that you did not have to work hard for a livelihood, you would in return carry out His will. לדעת את אשר בלבבך, so that what you had in your mind will come to light, so that every angel will know that you had a justified claim to a higher rank in the universe than even the ministering angels.

וזכרת את כל הדרך, “you will remember the whole trek;” if your heart urges you to covet the gold and silver which are part of the idols of these nations, I remind you of the last 40 years in the desert when you had no need for, nor even use for gold and silver; למען ענותך, “in order to test you to see if you would revolt. התשמור מצותיו אם לא “if you would observe His commandments or not.” Actually the term נסיין in the sense of a “test,” that could be passed or failed, does not exist in G-d’s vocabulary, seeing that He knows the result of the “test” in advance, being omniscient. G-d employs such “tests” in order to demonstrate to the attribute of justice as well as to the attribute of mercy the true nature of the Jewish people, as I have explained in my commentary on Exodus 16,4.

לדעת את אשר בלבבך, “to know what is in your heart.” The word לדעת is to be understood as if the Torah had written להודיע, “to make known to others.” The author attributes the comment to Rabbeinu Saadyah Gaon. [It is clear that the meaning cannot be “to know,” as G’d does not have to find out what goes on in our hearts. Ed.] We find a similar meaning of the word לדעת in Exodus 31,13: לדעת כי אני ה’ מקדשכם, where the translation “to know that I the Lord am sanctifying you,” would not do justice to the text. [The text discusses the fact that the Sabbath is something called אות, a symbol, a declaration vis-a-vis others; clearly then the word לדעת must have a transitive meaning. Ed.] In both our verses the message is to be radiated to the nations of the world. In order for the Torah to make plain that service of the Lord is the principal reason G’d bothered to create the universe, G’d had to use the appropriate educational tools. It is possible to understand the words וירעיבך, “He starved you,” as a reference to the excellence of the manna. Anyone eating it would understand the meaning of מצות המושכלות, “the deeper meaning of the commandments which are accessible to our intelligence.” This is possible only after the traces of physical food have departed from the body. This is also how our sages explained the need for Moses to be wrapped in cloud before reaching the top of Mount Sinai (Yuma 4 based on Exodus 24,16). During those six days the last traces of conventional food Moses had eaten prior to his ascent left his body. In other words, the word: “he starved you,” is not to be understood objectively, but He ensured that prior to eating manna your bodies were cleansed of any excrement remaining from conventional food. When that had occurred it was possible to become a receptacle for receiving certain commandments and to cleave to the Shechinah.

וזכרת את כל הדרך,” you will remember the entire route, etc.” Nachmanides explains here that Moses reminds the people that they had first hand experience that by keeping G’d’s commandments, they, who had come this far, had enjoyed G’d’s miracles throughout their trek in the desert only because they did keep the commandments. למען ענותך לנסותך, “in order to afflict you by testing you;” Entering a desert that did not offer means of survival was indeed a great trial for you, and you were totally dependent daily on manna from heaven, never knowing if it would materialize on the following day. G’d did all this in order to train you to observe His commandments and to follow His instructions, where to go, when to rest, etc. He could have led you on a highway leading through cities, but He did not, as He wanted you to know that you could survive by means of His largesse alone. This experience taught you that following His commandments is the fountain of life.

למען ענותך, this is the kind of affliction endured by people who have nothing to eat. Their lives hang by a thread each and every day.

וזכרת את כל הדרך, “you will remember the whole way, etc.” This refers to Moses having told the people not to lust after silver and gold, (Deut. 7.25) as they had managed without any of that for forty years in the desert. [It is not silver and gold that keeps us alive. Ed.]

He afflicted you and made you hungry, and fed you the manna that you had not known and your forefathers had not known, in order to make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every utterance of the Word of Hashem does man live.

AND HE FED THEE WITH MANNA, WHICH THOU KNOWEST NOT, NEITHER DID THY FATHERS KNOW. The purport thereof is that you did not know about the manna that you could live by it for many years, nor did such a tradition reach you from your fathers. Or he [Moses] may be saying that He has done with you this great kindness which your holy fathers [i.e., the patriarchs] did not obtain, for, although they walked after Him wherever He commanded them, as is stated, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, yet their eminence did not suffice that He should support them with the corn of heaven as He did for you. And so the Rabbis have said in the Midrash Bamidbar Sinai Rabbah: “Because of the merit of Moses you ate the manna that your holy fathers did not see, as it is said, neither did thy fathers know.” And he explained that He did this in order to inform them that it is He Who preserves man with whatever He decrees, and if so observe His commandments, and live. It is possible to explain that the expressions And He afflicted thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna refer to different subjects. He is stating that He afflicted you when you travelled in the wilderness for forty years, similar to the verse, He afflicted my strength in the way, [meaning that travel drains the strength]. And He suffered thee to hunger, at the beginning [of the journey in the wilderness] as the people said, to kill this whole assembly with hunger, and afterwards He fed you with the manna to make you aware that by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Eternal doth man live. So also, Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, telling them of the miracle that was done to them. And the expression that He might afflict thee [further in Verse 16] reverts to that which he said [in the preceding Verse 15], Who led thee through the great and dreadful wilderness, wherein were serpents, fiery serpents, and scorpions, and draught etc. But that which He said in the section of the manna, that I may, try them, whether they will walk in My law or not means that I will provide them their needs and fulfill their request and [then] see if they will hearken to Me when goods increase. This is in consonance with the plain meaning of Scripture, but the first interpretation is true and correct.

"And He afflicted you" — on the journey. "And He caused you to hunger" — either before the manna came, or through the manna itself, because it sat lightly upon their hearts; but this latter explanation is not compelling. It is more plausible [that the hunger refers to] other cravings. "They shall know" — [the word is written] with a nun [יֵדְעוּן], and likewise [we find] "a whispered prayer" [צְקוֹן לָחַשׁ], and also "and they camped" [וַיַּחֲנוּן] beyond the Arnon. "He made known to you" — [the word הוֹדִיעֲךָ is] a verbal noun [שֵׁם הַפֹּעַל]. "The bread" — that which a person habitually subsists on. "What issues from the mouth of Hashem" — like something decreed, as in 'the word went forth from the mouth of the king.' The meaning is: man does not live by bread alone, but rather by the power, or together with the power, that comes from the Supernal Beings through the commandments of Hashem — that is the meaning of 'what issues from the mouth of Hashem.' The proof is that you ate no bread yet you lived.

ויענך וירעבך, "He afflicted you and made you suffer hunger, etc." Why did Moses link the afflictions to G'd feeding the Israelites the manna? Does this not project the idea that manna was something of low rank, its only function being to save the Israelites from the pangs of hunger? How can we reconcile this with the many complimentary descriptions the Torah makes about the manna extolling its superiority as heavenly food? The Sifri in its commentary on Numbers 11,7 insists that the reason for that whole verse was to extol the virtues of the manna! Moreover, we are told in Yuma 75 that manna is the food of the angels based on לחם אבירים אכל כל איש, "each man ate the bread of heroes" (Psalms 78,25). I believe that here too Moses spoke of the excellence of the manna. There are two kinds of foods. Some foods are absorbed without negative side-effects by both healthy and sick people. The reason is that these foods do not contain any harmful impurities (additives). The entire food is capable of being digested by our system and is absorbed by our various organs. Such food reinforces our health. There are other kinds of food which, while good for the healthy person, pose a danger for the sick and may even cause his death. This is the reason our verse speaks of ויענך וירעבך ויאכלך, "He afflicted you, He starved you, and He fed you." The afflictions Moses speaks of refer to the tedium of the journey through the desert. The words "He starved you," refer to the absence of food; it is a well known fact that as a result of the discomfort experienced while wandering in the desert bodily functions such as those of the digestive tract are impaired. If, under such circumstances, a person consumes the kind of food which is difficult to digest it will certainly harm him. Even if such a person eats such food only because he is very hungry it is liable to make him sick. We know from daily experience that when a person suffers afflictions he detests the thought of food even if according to his regular meal times he should be very hungry. Moses therefore speaks of G'd feeding the Israelites the manna, the kind of food which even people who suffer from afflictions can eat without danger to their health. This is something quite independent of the fact that manna tasted pleasantly, "like wafers with honey."

ויענך “He afflicted you,” on the way, as in Psalms 102,24: ענה בדרך כחי, “He drained my strength while I was on the way.” וירעבך, “He starved you;” by not giving you more manna than enough for one day at a time. We have a principle that it is not possible to compare the state of mind of people who have a supply of food in their travel bag with those who, even though not hungry, do not have such a supply to fall back on.(Talmud, tractate Yuma folio 74) An alternate interpretation of the last phrase: וירעיבך, if G-d would have provided you with manna while you still had supplies of regular food which you took out of Egypt with you, you would not even have bothered to taste it in order to see if you liked it. This is why He waited until you were hungry, after having exhausted your supplies. You then had no option but to eat what G-d had provided for you. Seeing that this was something totally unknown to you or to your forefathers, G-d had to “starve” you in order to have you accept His food. [We know how often the people treated the manna as something lacking substance, and they even dubbed it as לחם הקלקל,” (Numbers 21,5). Ed,]

ויענך וירעיבך, “He afflicted you and let you go hungry.” The word “He afflicted you,” refers to the tedium of the journey, compare Palms 102,24: “He drained my strength on the way.” The word “He let you go hungry,” refers to denial of the kind of conventional food eaten by the other nations. ויאכילך את המן, “He fed you the manna.” This is celestial food, not terrestrial food. ולא ידעון אבותיך, “and which your forefathers had not known.” It is possible that these words are a reference to the patriarchs Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, in which case our verse would describe that the generation of Israelites journeying in the desert enjoyed manifestations of miracles not granted to their illustrious forbears. The reason for this is that the patriarchs had not been granted a proper appreciation of the attribute Hashem as had their descendants. The great and awesome miracles are usually performed by that attribute, and G’d had not needed to invoke this attribute during the lives of the patriarchs. He had contented Himself with the kind of miracles performed within the boundaries of nature, miracles orchestrated by the attribute Shaddai. לא על הלחם לבדו, “not on bread alone, etc.,” the bread that people normally eat does not possess the power by itself to keep man alive but it must contain also ingredients enabling it to grow, to be assimilated by the body through a digestive process. These ingredients are usually referred to as the power and mazzal of bread. The Torah here reflects a well known statement by our sages (Bereshit Rabbah 10,7) that there is not a blade of grass in this world which does not have its own mazzal, i.e. properties which enable it to accomplish the purpose of its Creator in calling it into existence. This mazzal tells the blade of grass: “grow!” We know all this from Job 38,33: “do you know the laws of heaven or impose its authority on earth? Can you send up an order to the clouds for an abundance of water to cover you?” Each of these powers reposing in any of the phenomena G’d created contains within it an adjacent power, all of which combined amount to what we call the laws of nature, the symphony of instruments which combine to keep this universe on track. Moses sums it all up as the מוצא פי ה', “the utterances of the Lord’s mouth.” Just as historic decisions are attributed to הדבר יצא מפי המלך, “the word had emerged from the mouth of the king,” (Esther 7,8) so Moses uses an idiom understandable to us human beings when describing G’d’s activities. The principal message Moses teaches us here is that contrary to appearances, the power to keep us alive does not reside in the purely physical properties of bread, or any other food for that matter, but in the potential G’d has placed within that physical food to sustain and make grow the people who consume it. Bread was chosen as the example seeing that in order for man to even produce it so many steps are necessary that one could have thought that the finished product reflects man’s accomplishment more than it does G’d’s. The closer we are to direct divine input and reduced reliance on intermediaries such as the eleven stages needed to convert a kernel of wheat into bread, the closer we are to the true life-giving forces of heaven. This is the meaning of Exodus 24,11: “they ‘saw’ G’d and they ate and drank.” The ability of the nobles of Israel described in that verse to have a vision of G’d is what gave them the energy they normally thought they derived by eating and drinking physical, conventional food. Rabbi Yochanan in expounding this verse in Vayikra Rabbah 20,7 said: אכילה ודאית. This sounds as if he meant that the people described ate regular food after or in spite of having been granted such a vision of G’d. I do not believe that this is what Rabbi Yochanan had in mind. If that had been his meaning he need not have commented at all, as the matter is self-evident. I believe that Rabbi Yochanan meant that the effect of the vision described in the Torah was the same as the effect of consuming regular terrestrial food. Even though all the phenomena in the world are in the last analysis “intermediaries” having originated with G’d, i.e. are מוצא פי ה’, as we know from the very word כל, “everything,” the manna came more directly from G’d more than any other kinds of food. This is why G’d described it as לחם מן השמים, “bread from heaven” in Exodus 16,4. The complete meaning of the verse then is: “man lives by means of all the various divine sources of food and energy. Seeing that this is so the words מוצא פי ה’ mean that this food, the manna is even superior to the other foods which come from G’d only indirectly.

אשר לא ידעת ולא ידעו אבותיך, “you had no idea that one could subsist adequately on an exclusive diet of manna, nor did your forefathers know this.” Another way of understanding this verse is not the new dimension of the people‘s knowledge, but Moses wants the people to appreciate the extent of G’d’s loving kindness. Their forefathers, who had been loyal followers of G’d at all times, and had not rebelled time and again, had not been provided for by G’d as they had done, having their needs presented to them on a platter, so to speak. They had had to earn their livelihood by hard work, in particular their founding father Yaakov. There is yet another way in which we can understand our verse, i.e. that the words ויענך, וירעיבך, ויאכילך את המן are each something different, a subject by itself. The word ויענך, “He afflicted you,” refers to the trial of having to wander through a barren desert. The word וירעיבך, “He let you starve,” refers to the period until the manna fell, some 30 days after the Exodus, the time when the people had complained to Moses that he had taken them out of Egypt only in order to kill them in the desert. Finally, the words ויאכילך את המן, they were taught the great lesson that man does not live by bread alone, but by every utterance that emanates from Hashem. In Yuma 74 the Talmud uses our verse to establish the principle that there is a basic difference between the outlook of people “who have bread in their basket, and those who do not.” Although, G’d provided on a daily basis, the people, as opposed to shoppers in a supermarket, could not feel at ease until after the new supply had arrived and was seen to have arrived. The ongoing miraculous nature is what is stressed here and what distinguishes a Jewish people in the desert from Jews before and after who also had to put their trust in G’d. The words למען ענותך refer to the statementאשר הוליכך במדבר.ארבעים שנה, “Who has led you through the desert for 40 years,” as this is all part of the ongoing miracle, whereas the words למען אנסנו הילך בתורתי in Exodus 16,4 where the manna appears for the first time, does not refer to the manna as daily miraculous food, but refers to G’d in general providing the people’s needs. There, G’d uses this as a test to see whether the people are grateful for G’d’s largesse. The latter is the way to understand the verse before us at its face value. However, the commentary given previously is more in keeping with the moral/ethical values Moses is trying to convey throughout the Book of Deuteronomy.

ויענך, “He afflicted you, etc.” a reference to the tedium of the journey. Compare Psalms 102,24: ענה בדרך כוחי קצר ימי, “He drained my strength while on the way; He shortened my days.” וירעיבך, “He starved you;” by giving you only enough food for the same day. This is the meaning of the term רעבון; our sages formulated it thus: “one cannot compare a person with bread in his pocket to a person who has nothing in his pocket.” [One can’t have more than one day’s supply in one’s pocket. Ed.] (Compare Talmud tractate Yuma folio 74.) למען הודיעך כי לא על הלחם לבדו יחיה האדם, “in order to make you realise that man does not live by bread alone.” כי על כל מוצא פי ה' יחיה האדם, “but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord, does man live.” All His decrees and commandments emanating from Him are what enable man to live. They enable you to live on earth and in your afterlife.

Your garment did not wear out upon you, and your sandals did not become worn these forty years.

שמלתך לא בלתה THY RAIMENT DID NOT WEAR OUT — the clouds of Divine Glory used to rub the dirt off their clothes and bleach them so that they looked like new white articles, and also, their children, as they grew, their clothes grew with them, just like the clothes (shell) of a snail which grows with it (cf. Shir HaShirim Rabbah 4:11; Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 850). לא בצקה This means: [AND THY FOOT] DID NOT SWELL like dough (בצק), as is usual with those who walk barefoot — that their feet become swollen.

THY RAIMENT WAXED NOT OLD UPON THEE. “The clouds of [Divine] Glory brushed their garments and pressed them so that they looked like freshly ironed articles; and so it was with their children, as they grew their garments grew with them.” This is Rashi’s language and also are the words of Agadah. But Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra wrote: “Other scholars say that they took many garments out [of Egypt]. And it is possible that it was not in the nature of the manna to produce perspiration [thus enabling their garments to last so long]. And so also he stated that neither did thy feet swell, meaning that He gave them strength or that He led them slowly.” But his [Ibn Ezra’s] words are not correct, for Moses mentions this to them in order to say that upon observing the commandment [of G-d] they will have food and raiment, and renew [their] strength, even as they lived by the manna forty years and they had garments, and the way with their feet they treadeth not. All of this was miraculous, for by every thing that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Eternal doth man live and becomes supported. And if you were to cover a rafter with a new cloth it would wear out in forty years even though there is no perspiration, how much less man, that is a worm.

"Your garment" — some say this was a miraculous sign; others say they took out many garments from Egypt. It is also plausible that it is not in the nature of the manna to produce perspiration. "Did not swell" — from the root of "and they baked the dough" [וַיֹּאפוּ אֶת הַבָּצֵק], for it is the normal way that the foot of a traveler who has walked a long road on foot becomes swollen. It is also possible that Hashem gave them strength, or that He led them at a gentle pace.

שמלתך לא בלתה, “your garments did not wear out;” this is relevant to chapter 7 verse 25, where matters you should not covet have been discussed. Although you have travelled a long distance in the desert, for almost forty years, G-d has made certain that your clothing did not need replacing. When you observe G-d’s commandments, you will not need all the things that ordinary people require in order to live on this earth comfortably. If He was able to look after you in an uninhabitable desert, how much more so can He look after you in habitable areas of the earth.

שמלתך לא בלתה מעליך, “your garment did not wear out from you.” This was a great miracle involving suspension of the rules of nature. It is normal for clothes to wear out, to disintegrate after much use. The garments worn by the people of this generation remained as new for 40 years. They resisted the acidity generated by human sweat which normally has a very corrosive effect. A Midrashic approach based on Midrash Tehillim 23: Rabbi Eliezer asked Rabbi Shimon where the Israelites got all their clothing during the forty years in the desert. Rabbi Shimon answered that their clothing came from the same source as that of the ministering angels. He based this on Ezekiel 16,10: “I clothed you in embroidered garments.” Concerning the meaning of the word רקמה, “embroidered,” used by the prophet, Rabbi Simai said that it is a kind of mantle. To the question: “did they not wear out?” Rabbi Shimon replied: “Did you not ever read the text of the Torah? The Torah tells you that the clothing did not wear out!” To this Rabbi Rabbi Simai retorted: ”did then the clothing grow with the children?” He was told to take his cue from the lizard whose skin (compared to clothing because it is shed) also grows with it. To this came the question: “did this clothing not ever need laundering?” He was answered that the cloud would both wash it and iron it. The questioner then wanted to know if these clothes did not ever burn, catch fire? He was told to observe a certain category of animal called Sitin (salamander) which are “sort of dry-cleaning themselves” in fire without suffering burns. The questioner now wanted to know if the people wearing the same clothing for forty years did not ever experience attacks by vermin such as lice, etc.? Thereupon the questioner was told that if the bodies of these people were not subject to attacks by worms, they would certainly not be vicitimized by vermin while they were alive. The next question concerned the foul smell that must have emanated from people who wore the same clothes year in year out without change. The answer given was that the traveling well produced fragrant smells which neutralised any stench emitted by the clothing of the people. This is why they did not have to change their garments at all. In fact, according to our tradition this well made all kinds of herbs grow, herbs the fragrance of which could be inhaled from one end of the earth to the other. The people would waft these herbs to and fro; this is what David referred to in Psalms 23,2 בנאות דשא ירביצני, “He makes me lie down in green pastures.” Solomon also referred to this phenomenon in Song of Songs 4,11 when he said: “and the scent of your robes is like the scent of Lebanon”. Thus far Midrash Tehillim on Psalms 23. The meaning of the word sittim is “garment;” a garment the size of a זרת, the span between the two outermost fingers of the hand, is called sit. According to Shabbat 105b (The source "Pirkei Rabi Eliezer" quoted by the author may refer to the chapters in Tractate Shabbat which are entitled 'Rabi Eliezer Omer' - Chavell) the full width of a double sit is the distance between the forefinger and the middle finger. (This contradicts what was stated above that a single sit equals this distance - Chavell).. It is also reputed to be one of the 72 names of the Lord and if manipulated in the appropriate manner in order to demonstrate the power of G’d against a pagan who challenges it will result in the death of that pagan. ורגלך לא בצקה, “and your foot did not swell;” the word is derived from בצק, dough, i.e. a mass which swells and expands in size. It is observed frequently that people who spend a lot of time walking experience swelling of their feet. It is also possible that this remark of Moses addresses the Levites who had to carry the Holy Ark on their shoulders while walking barefoot. Even though it is actually the law that the Holy Ark is to be carried by the priests, seeing that at that time there were only so few priests, the Levites assumed this function until the priests increased in number (compare Maimonides Sefer Hamitzvot, positive commandment number 34). Onkelos simply understands the words to mean that not only did the clothing of the people not wear out, but neither did their sandals.

“Your garment did not wear out from upon you, etc.” It does not say “upon you” [alecha] but rather from upon you [me’alecha]. Some say this refers to the sweat common to travelers, and sweat wears out clothes; therefore it says from upon you, from the thing that is upon you. And consequently it is connected to and your foot did not swell, because traveling is the cause of both. And Rashi explained that the Clouds of Glory would polish their clothing, and without doubt in the place where the Clouds of Glory were, in which was God’s glory, all harmful things were pushed away, for they are not found in the presence of the Divine. Therefore it says that they did not suffer damage to their clothing and feet, similar to what our Sages said in Tractate Berachot (6a): “These clothes of the rabbis that wear out, it is from [the demons’] rubbing [them]; these legs that are bruised, it is from [the demons].”

שמלתך לא בלתה, “your garment did not wear out on you.” Rashi [based on Pessikta de Rav Kahane. Ed.], explains the phenomenon as G’d’s clouds of glory that traveled with the Israelites everywhere, dripping moisture on their garments so that not only did they look as if freshly laundered and pressed, but the children’s clothing grew as the children grew. Ibn Ezra, quoting other scholars, claims that the Israelites had taken a vast variety of clothing out of Egypt with them. He himself considers it possible that one of the properties of the manna was that it did not cause perspiration in the people who ate it. He explains the phenomenon of the feet not experiencing swelling during all these years as also due to the qualities contained in the manna. Alternately, the slow pace at which the people moved was the reason that their feet did not swell. [Considering that in a period of 40 years the people traveled lass than 700 miles, it is hard to see anything miraculous in their feet not swelling. Ed.] Nachmanides disagrees with Ibn Ezra, seeing that Moses was at pains to explain to the people that observing the commandments had been the reason for their phenomenal success during the last 40 years. Moses simply points to the immediate past being an allusion to the future when, if they continue on the right path, G’d will continue to make life easy for them. It would be counterproductive to explain what Moses said here as being natural phenomena, when the whole point of Moses’ recalling the past is to encourage the people so that they would continue to qualify for the kind of miracles they experienced in the past. The basic lesson Moses is trying to get across is that man lives on everything that emanates from G’d, not just from what grows out of the earth and the oceans. New clothes are no insurance against moths, or other destructive agents of nature, so that a degree of G’d’s supervision is needed regardless of how secure one feels with what one owns.

And you shall know in your heart that just as a man instructs his son, so Hashem your God instructs you.

AND THOU SHALT CONSIDER IN THY HEART, THAT, AS A MAN CHASTENETH HIS SON, placing upon him the yoke of instruction for his benefit, as it is said, Chasten thy son, for there is hope; but set not thy heart on his destruction — SO THE ETERNAL THY G-D CHASTENETH THEE, at first with the affliction of the wilderness and the trial with the manna so that the goodness of the Land and its fruits should be pleasing to you. Therefore walk after Him, for the Eternal thy G-d bringeth thee into a good Land.

"And you shall know in your heart" — that one should know in the faithful trust of his heart, which is the essential thing. And because you obey God who chastens you — and even though He caused you to hunger to discipline you, and afflicted you on the way with thirst — your reward is that He will bring you to the good land.

מיסרך; along with the commandments He has given you, He gives you a superior moral/ethical challenge to help you achieve perfection as seen from His perspective.

וידעת עם לבבך, "You shall know in your heart, etc." This verse reminds a person to reflect that generally speaking no one makes a point of admonishing and disciplining anyone except his own son, as he is not nearly as interested in the education of others as he is in educating his own son. When a person observes his friend's son commit a wrong he is not as much concerned about this as when the wrong is committed by his own son. When we observe G'd disciplining a Jew this is proof that G'd relates to such a Jew as a father relates to a son. When G'd observes the Gentile nations commit all kinds of abominations, He does not react in the same way as He reacts to sins committed by the Jewish people because He does not relate to the Gentiles in the same way, i.e. as a father. He has not associated His name in an exclusive manner with the Gentiles as He has done with us. This is why He demonstrates His concern every time we depart from the norms of behaviour laid down for us.

ה' אלוקיך מיסרך, “the Lord your G-d chastens you. By not providing you with a food supply sufficient for a week or even longer, so that you will be afraid to rebel against Him for fear He might withhold your food, He has succeeded in making you a chastened nation.” Only the feeling that one can exist independently of G-d results in one’s rebelling against the Torah laws. He has taught you to be dependent on His largesse daily.

ה’ אלו-היך מיסרך, “the Lord your G’d is disciplining you.” Moses means that the denial of regular food and the strain imposed on the people by their journeying are examples of how the Lord subjected them to discipline, to tests of obedience and faith. The principal virtue of a Torah-true Jew is his faith in the Lord. The two examples of “afflictions” mentioned by Moses were designed to test this faith.

כי כאשר ייסר איש את בנו, “for just as a father from time to time chastises his son, etc.;” when a father does so, he does it for his son’s benefit; similarly our father in heaven employs such means for our benefit seeing we are His children. כן ה' אלוקיך מיסרך, “so is the Lord your G’d disciplining you.” The temporary afflictions experienced by the Israelites in the desert are examples of G’d’s using educational tools at His disposal. Solomon in Proverbs 29,17 phrases it thus: יסר בנך ויניחך, “Discipline your son and he will give you rest;” he continues with “ויתן מעדנים לנפשך, “and he will be a cause of delight to your soul.” By first disciplining one’s son, the goodies the father will provide will be so much more appreciated.

And you shall keep the commandments of Hashem your God, to walk in the ways that are upright before Him, and to fear Him.

For Hashem your God is bringing you into a good land — a land that flows with streams of water, springs and depths issuing forth in valleys and in mountains.

A LAND OF BROOKS OF WATER. The meaning thereof is that it is like a watered garden, and it is not necessary to irrigate it by foot as the land of Egypt, as it will yet be stated, for it drinketh water as the rain of heaven cometh down. Now he explained [here] that fountains and depths, come out in deep valleys and mountains, and from there the brooks flow in the Land, the purport of the verse being “fountains and the fountains of the depths, ” like: when the ‘fountains of the deep’ showed their might; the fountains of the great deep. The reason [for referring to both sources: fountains, and fountains of the deep] is that there are some fountains that flow from the very moisture of the mountains which has been absorbed by them from the rains, or from the clouds that ascend upon them, these being called “fountains” [or “springs”] as it is said, unto all the springs of water, the flint [He turned] into a fountain of waters. There are other kinds of fountains which come forth from the interior of the depth, these being called “deep waters” that is to say, the fountains of the depths. The verse is thus stating that both [kinds of fountains] come out in deep valleys and mountains.

אל ארץ טובה, a land which is the confluence of numerous good, desirable qualities not found together in other districts of the globe. These qualities are the following, the Torah prefacing each with the word ארץ again. 1) ארץ נחלי מים עינות ותהומות, not the waters from polluted rivers or static ponds, waters described as evil waters in Kings II 2,19. 2) ארץ חטה ושעורה , crops which are basic as food. 3) ארץ זית שמן ודבש, products fit for the palate of a king. 4) ארץ אשר לא במסכנות תאכל בה לחם, a land in which money can be found cheaply, a land full of treasures as per Isaiah 2,7 “the land is full of silver and gold and there is no end to the treasures it hides.” Dearth of money is more serious than shortage of the products which can be bought with it, as we know from the Talmud Taanit 19 which declares that whereas the blowing of the shofar in supplication to G’d on account of a shortage of foodstuffs does not have to be arranged immediately, shortage of money, i.e. people not having the money to buy the available food products gives rise to immediate supplication to Gd including the sounding of the shofar at public prayer meetings. 5) ארץ אשר אבניה ברזל, a land whose stones contain iron, i.e. a useful metal, or whose stones are strong as iron, providing excellent building materials.

כי ה׳ אלוקיך מביאך, “for the Lord your G-d is about to bring you to a good land;” seeing it provides your needs in abundance, there is a danger that you might forget Him and imagine that you can manage on your own. יוצאים בבקעה ובהר, “springing forth both in the valleys and in the mountainous regions.” This makes it unnecessary for the people dwelling in the mountainous regions to have to descend to the valleys in order to secure their needs, i.e. their water supply.

כי ה’ אלו-היך מביאך אל ארץ טובה ארץ נחלי מים, “for the Lord your G’d is bringing you to a good land, a land of many rivers full of water, etc.” Moses contrasts the land of Israel with the desert the people find themselves in at this time. We find something similar in verse 6 where Moses emphasizes what grows in the land of Canaan. The products mentioned there including the honey from dates and pomegranates are supposed to account for the growth of blood in our bodies. In our verses Moses mentions only the three principal sources of nutrition. The word ארץ occurs six times in the three verses 7-8-9. The word occurs twice in verse 7, and again twice in each of the next two verses. In the fourth verse the word is הארץ when the Torah speaks about the commandment to say grace after meals, a prayer in which the excellence of the land of Israel is mentioned. The reason that the word ארץ occurs 6 times in the first three verses is that the land of Israel is the source of 6 different climatic zones which spread out from this land and which draw on its qualities. Concerning the seventh climactic zone, the Torah uses the expression הארץ הטובה, with the letter ה marking the one and only country boasting these advantages. When our sages in Avot d'Rabbi Natan speak about 7 regions, they refer to seven different climates which exist in our globe. David praised the seventh of these climates when he said in Psalms 48,3 concerning Mount Zion that it is situated in the most beautiful region, both climate and landscape-wise. The words יפה נוף used by the psalmist refer to the climate of Jerusalem. The word נוף meaning climate occurs in Joshua 17,11 in connection with the division of the Holy land to the tribes. The difference between different “climates” is determined by the proximity of the area in question to the sun. It is a well known fact that when people leave one climatic region to settle in another they are liable to suffer disease and sickness as a result. However, Jerusalem enjoys such a good climate that anyone moving there will not experience any problems but will be healthy and never get sick (based on R' David Kimchi). This is the reason that David calls it משוש כל הארץ, ‘the best climate on earth.”

כי ה' אלוקיך מביאך אל ארץ טובה אל ארץ נחלי מים, “for the Lord your G’dd brings you to a good land, a land containing streams of water, etc.” The whole land is like an irrigated garden for it contains many natural fountains as well as underground reservoirs of water. The latter irrigate the lowlands, the former the hilly regions. From there they run down as rivulets. The point Moses is making is that some of the springs are fed by accumulated rain that has been absorbed beneath the surface of the mountains, other sources of fresh water are the excess remaining from the nightly dew some of which rises after sunup and penetrates as mist into the surface of the mountainside. Moses refers to the latter as מעיינות, springs. Other springs simply emerge from deep in the earth, released from the subterranean aquifer. Moses refers to them as תהומות, “the depths (of the earth)”. Sources of fresh water are readily available both in the mountains and in the plains.

כי ה' אלוקיך מביאך אל ארץ טובה, so that in the end, you will become proud and forget the source of your wealth (verse 14). In order to forestall such a development I command you to remember the path that led you to these achievements and who it was who supplied all this directly from the celestial regions. Knowing this will help you realise that man’s achievements are not due to his own resources.

ארץ נחלי מים, “a land of brooks and water.” The word ארץ appears no fewer than seven times in this verse. It refers to the seven Canaanite nations that the Israelites would inherit as their ancestral land.

A land of wheat and barley, of vines and figs and pomegranates; a land whose olives produce oil, and which itself produces honey.

זית שמן (lit., the olive of oil) means, olives that produce oil (i.e. good olives, not hard fruits that give no oil).

"A land of wheat" — He mentions those that generate blood. "And honey" — I have already explained this.

ארץ חטה ושעורה, “a land producing wheat and barley, etc.” Seeing the land corresponds to the tenth emanation, it is praised as possessing ten qualities. Five of these qualities are the types of grain that can be grown in the land of Israel successfully. Moses mentions only the two principal varieties, i.e. wheat and barley as he considers the other three as sub-categories, i.e. oats, spelt, and rye. The five types of fruit mentioned make up the number ten. On other occasions the blessings of the land of Israel are summarized under the heading of “a land flowing with milk and honey.” This hints that G’d’s goodwill results in an abundance of products reminding us both of His attribute of Mercy (the white, milk) and His attribute of Justice, (the red color of the honey from dates). [The author commented on Genesis 36,39 that the abundance of material blessings when abused such as by the descendants of Esau may result in the attribute of Justice being activated. Ed.].

a land producing wheat and barley, and growing vines from which cometh out wine sweet and ripe, and a land which yieldeth figs and pomegranates, a land whose olive trees make oil, and whose palms give honey;.

A land in which you shall eat bread without scarcity; you shall lack nothing in it — a land whose stones are iron, and from whose mountains you shall hew copper.

A LAND WHOSE STONES ARE IRON. The meaning thereof is that in the place where you expect stones, you will find iron, for it will be mined from the dust thereof. He thus brought them the joyful message that in the Land of Israel there is a quarry of copper and iron which are a great necessity for the inhabitants of the Land, and thou shalt not lack any thing in it. But [the absence of] a source of silver and gold is no deficiency in a land. And in the Targum Yerushalmi I have seen it rendered: “a Land whose stones are as bright as iron,” meaning to say that Scripture is praising the Land because in it there will be found quarries of great stones, costly stones, hewn stones with which to build houses, walls, and towers, unlike the land of Egypt and many lands where people dwell in houses of clay and their houses may become their graves [from excessive rains].

"In poverty" [בְּמִסְכֵּנוּת] — in indigence and want, and so [likewise] "a poor child who is wise" [יֶלֶד מִסְכֵּן וְחָכָם].

תחצוב נחושת, you will mine copper; the Torah’s definition of “good” iron, material that is excellent for either building material, or raw material for a variety of vessels.

ארץ אשר לא במסכנות תאכל בה לחם, "a land in which you will not eat bread out of scarceness;" Moses mentions this as there are people, even wealthy people, who always practice the lifestyle of poor people. They may be motivated by one of two reasons. 1) They are afraid they may lose their wealth and find themselves impoverished, forced to curtail their lifestyle. They prefer not to live in accordance with their wealth so that any eventual forced adjustment would be easy for them as they had never indulged themselves in the first place. 2) They do not want to appear wealthy and arouse envy. Moses says אשר לא במסכנות, "where there is no scarceness," to teach the Israelites that both of the reasons mentioned for adopting the lifestyle of the poor do not apply in ארץ ישראל. The two considerations we mentioned were based on the assumption that the society is divided into "haves" and "have nots." This will not be the case in ארץ ישראל because לא תחסר כל בה, "no one will lack anything therein." If our wealth would derive from sources outside the land of Israel there would be a reason for the considerations we mentioned. Some people would make an effort to get rich, others would not. Accordingly, there would be class distinctions after a while. Seeing the source of wealth is the land of Israel itself, everyone has equal access to it and there is no need to fear becoming impoverished or to attract the envy of the less fortunate. Moses says: כל בה, "it contains all (that anyone desires)." Moses singles out two examples of the earth's natural wealth which the land of Israel is blessed with, i.e. iron and copper. The reason Moses singles out these two examples is because they are basic to everybody's needs. After this (verse 10) Moses mentions that people would eat and be satisfied, etc. The reason Moses had to mention this cardinal fact was that the perfection of the land does not merely consist of its fruit, its harvests, but the land must also provide basic materials to enable its people to build their shelters and to generally provide the possibility of life in the city. Many successful farmers in various countries who employ outside labour, etc., nonetheless are forced to sell all their produce in order to acquire building materials, clothing and tools. To teach us that the land of Israel would not lack natural resources Moses adds the words לא תחסר כל בה, that nothing essential would be scarce in this land after he had described the seven most valuable foods and fruit the land would produce.

לא תחסר כל בה, “you shall not lack for anything in it.” Whatever grows in that land will grow in abundance.

ארץ אשר לא במסכנות תאכל בה לחם, “a land where you will not eat bread in poverty.” A land in which all the good things of earth can be found such as the land of Egypt which the Torah compared to “a garden of the Lord,” nonetheless lacks certain ingredients found elsewhere so that people eat bread in such a land of plenty in poverty, not enjoying the affluence around them. This is why the Torah praises the Holy Land by comparison to the land of Egypt seeing it offers the same advantages without the accompanying drawbacks. None of the food products found anywhere in the world are not also available in the land of Israel. There are, however, agricultural products which are exclusive to the land of Israel and cannot be grown successfully elsewhere. This is the meaning of the words לא תחסר כל בה, “nothing is lacking in it (the land of Israel).” It is possible that the expression: “you will not eat bread in poverty in that land,” refers to something spiritual, i.e. that the word לחם, “bread,” does not refer to physical food. This would not be the first time that Torah has been compared to לחם. Compare Proverbs 9,5 where Solomon, quoting the Torah called “Wisdom,” says: “come eat my bread”. Seeing that it is impossible to acquire Torah and wisdom in the full sense of the word without proper preparation designed to facilitate its study, Moses may indicate here that the ideal such preparation is residence in the land of Israel, which possesses the physical conditions such as ideal climate to enable people to study Torah successfully. Scholars studying Torah in that land do not suffer from the handicaps which scholars in other countries suffer from. Those scholars belong to the category of people known as eating לחם העצבים, “the bread of troubles” (Psalms 127,2), in contrast to the people in Israel. The true wealth of the people in Israel is the quality of their Torah knowledge which was acquired with the help of the superior climate and therefore food produced in the Land of Israel. This is why Moses underlines this thought by adding לא תחסר כל בה, “nothing is lacking in that land.” The blessing is anchored in the word בכל; compare Genesis 24,1 “and the Lord had blessed Avraham בכל.” The reason Moses adds that the stones of the Land of Israel yield iron, is to tell us that in places where one expects to encounter only stone one will be surprised to find iron. A similar surprise awaits those who see nothing more than high piles of rock in the mountains of that land. These mountains are filled with copper. Seeing that copper and iron are used as raw materials for most of man’s utensils, a land which yields such raw material can aptly be described as “lacking nothing.” A people who have to import all these raw materials are at a serious disadvantage, aware of real shortcomings in their land. If the earth of a land does not yield silver or gold this is at best considered a minor shortcoming. Moses praised the availability of those ores which are needed daily in people’s lives. Moses includes this kind of blessing once more at the end of the last portion of Deuteronomy when he praises the soil of Asher’s section of Eretz Yisrael (33,25). Our sages in Taanit 4 take a Midrashic approach to the words ארץ אשר אבניה ברזל by suggesting that instead of reading אבניה, “its stones,” we might read this as בוניה, “its builders,” i.e. the Torah scholars are possessed of a faith as strong as iron.

“A land in which you will not eat bread in poverty, etc.” Our Sages interpreted (Taanit 4a): A land whose stones are iron — do not read it as stones [avaneha] but as “builders” [boneha]. These are the Torah scholars who engage in building the world, and they sharpen each other like iron. What prompted them to interpret this verse about Torah learners instead of its literal meaning? It seems they found it difficult because this verse begins with matters of eating bread, and afterward it says and you shall eat and be satisfied. How could there be a gap between these connected ideas, interrupted by talk of iron? Rather, certainly this all speaks of the conduct of Torah learners, for such is the way of Torah: bread with salt shall you eat (Avot 6:4). The explanation is that in this land, you will not eat bread in poverty and destitution as it is, for you shall not lack anything in it. Rather, because it is a land whose stones/builders are iron — they sharpen each other in halakhic discussion, and they will have such desire for Torah that they will not demand “where are the sacrifices, slaughter sheep and cattle,” but will be satisfied with bread alone. And do not say that because of this their strength will diminish; on the contrary, they will be strong as iron, for the Torah will increase their strength. Regarding the interpretation of avaneha [its stones] as “boneha” [its builders], this explanation is not necessary, because it is common in Scripture to refer to distinguished people as stones, as in the stone that the builders rejected (Psalms 118:22), the stones of a crown, lifted up as a banner (Zechariah 9:16), the cornerstone (Zechariah 4:7), and many others. And of them it says, and you shall eat and be satisfied, for the righteous person eats to satisfy his soul, whether he eats little or much. And similarly, what it says and from its mountains refers to distinguished people who are called by the name of mountains, as it is said Hear, O mountains, the Lord’s contention (Micah 6:2). From them you will mine copper [nechoshet], for their bite is the bite of a serpent [neshichatan neshichat nachash] (Avot 2:15), and the wordplay is fitting. And adjacently, he warned about excesses and said, “Lest you eat and be satisfied.” He should have said “lest you eat and become satisfied,” but he means to say: lest you seek after excesses and eat after you are already satisfied, and “build good houses” even though you have already settled and already have a dwelling sufficient for your needs; and you will not be content with necessities but build more without need. And in this way, we can say that also in this verse it mentions eating and houses, as it says, a land where you will not eat bread in poverty, that is, the necessary sufficiency for eating as mentioned, a land whose stones, meaning its builders, are iron, because one who builds according to his needs creates a structure as strong as iron, which endures forever. Not so those who build ruins for themselves, for from building excesses it will certainly become a ruin and be desolate without inhabitants, as is the way with most of the courtyards of nobles, fulfilling through them and desolation shall strike the gate (Isaiah 24:12). Another explanation: “miskenut” [means] treasuries, from the phrase and he built storage cities for Pharaoh (Exodus 1:11). [This means] that they would not need to make storehouses for grain in the land due to fear of the ravages of famine or war, because when they do the will of God, blessed be He, their hearts are firmly secure in the Lord who guards them and saves them. Some say that since it is the way of the poor person to eat bread as it is, but the wealthy person does not eat it without an accompaniment, therefore it says that the bread of the Land of Israel will be so clean and white as snow that even the wealthy person will eat it as it is without an accompaniment. For this reason it states not in poverty will you eat bread in it. And regarding what is written, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land. This hints at the six times “land” is mentioned, as they are the source of blessings, as our Sages said (Sotah 38b): “A cup of blessing is given only to one who is generous, as it is stated (Proverbs 22:9): One who is generous will be blessed.” Read it as “will bless” [rather than “will be blessed”]. And the addition of the letter vav [in the word “blessed” — “yivorach”] hints at the source of blessings, for one who gives a coin to a poor person is blessed with six blessings, etc. (Bava Batra 9b). And the missing vav in [the name] Ephron, who was stingy, proves this. Therefore, specifically the generous one will bless and be blessed with the addition of vav, with the six blessings mentioned in the six times “land” is mentioned here. Therefore it says and you shall bless, etc. for the land, and this is a correct hint.

אשר אבניה ברזל, “whose stones yield iron, etc.” The place you choose to look for stones will surprise you by harbouring iron. According to the Jerusalem Targum, the meaning is that the stones in the Land of Israel will prove to be as strong as iron. In other words, the land is full of quarries from which valuable building stones can be hewn. These stones will be useful in the construction of walls and fortifications. The reason why Moses did not praise the land for the silver and gold one might find there, is that the stones he mentioned would prove more useful than the silver and gold, which are only luxuries, not necessities.

אשר לא במסכנות תאכל בה לחם, you will not eat dry bread like poor people, for in addition to the wheat and barley which the land produces, you will also enjoy vineyards and their products, and pomegranates, as well as honey derived from dates which are sweet.

And you shall eat and be satisfied, and you shall bless Hashem your God for the good land that He has given you.

AND THOU SHALT EAT AND BE SATISFIED, AND BLESS THE ETERNAL THY G-D FOR THE GOOD LAND. He is stating that when you remember the bondage in Egypt and the affliction in the wilderness, and you will eat and be satisfied in the good Land, you will bless G-d for it. And our Rabbis have received by tradition that this is a positive commandment, its meaning thus being, “and you shall bless the Eternal your G-d.” Similarly, then thou shalt make a parapet for thy roof; and thou shalt keep the Passover; and thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the ground, and so also many similar verses [which appear to be mere optional, but are, nevertheless, interpreted as positive commandments]. The meaning of the expression for the good Land is “and for the good Land;” that is, He commands that you are to bless Him at all times for the food you eat to satisfaction, and for the Land that He gave you in order that you might have it forever as an inheritance and be satisfied with its goodness. Thus the obligatory nature of this commandment is in all places [i.e., even outside of the Land of Israel, since the commandment to bless Him for the food we eat is independent of the duty to bless Him for the Land He has given us].

וברכת את ה' אלוקיך, the reason why the Lord blesses you in such a fashion is so that you will remember that only from Him could you have been given a land with such an abundance of advantages.

ואכלת ושבעת וגו׳, “you will eat and be satisfied;” this verse is the one from which the sages derived the first three blessings in the prayer known as ברכת המזון, saying grace after meals. The three pertinent words are: ואכלת ושבעת וברכת “when you have eaten and been satisfied you are to say grace.” The first blessing concludes with the words: הזן את הכל. “He Who gives food to all.” The word את in the line: את ה׳ אלוקיך; this is a reference to the owner of the house in which you have consumed this food, i.e. your host. על הארץ, “for the land; this is a reference to the paragraph in our grace which commences with the words: נודה לך, “let us give thanks to You.” הטובה אשר נתן לך, “the good one that He gave to you.” This is a reference to the third paragraph in which we ask G-d to rebuild Jerusalem, compare Talmud tractate Sotah folio 5. After a person has sated himself, and is revolted by seeing more food, he is obligated to pronounce these benedictions. If this is so, it follows automatically, without having to be spelled out, that when he is hungry and sits down to a meal that he will bless the Lord Who has provided it directly or indirectly. He does so by reciting the blessing concluding with the words: המוציא לחם מן הארץ, “Who has caused the earth to produce “bread,” i.e. food. ואכלת ושבעת וברכת, “these words are also a hint that when three people share a meal, they add an additional blessing to Hashem, זימון.

וברכת את ה’ אלו-היך, “you will bless the Lord your G’d.” According to the plain meaning of the text Moses means that when you reflect on the painful periods of your history, the sufferings you experienced in the land of Egypt, and you also look back on the discomforts experienced during your long trek through the desert, you will be inspired to bless the Lord as soon as you will enjoy eating the produce of this land. You will include the food of the land in your blessing of the Lord. An approach to these words by our halachic authorities based on Berachot 21: our verse is the positive commandment to recite grace after one’s meal. The commandment is similar in force and meaning to: “you shall make a fence around the roof of your house” (Deut. 22,8), i.e. if you have a house (with a flat roof) you must protect the edges against the danger of someone falling from it. When you ate and were satisfied you have to bless the Lord your G’d for the food He has provided. The meaning of the word על הארץ הטובה in our verse is the same as if the Torah had written ועל הארץ הטובה, “and for the good land, etc.” This verse contains a clue to the whole mystical dimension of the concept that man “blesses” the Lord. The whole idea of the creature blessing the Creator instead of vice versa is somewhat strange. We do not find any other place in the whole Torah except here where G’d commands us to “bless” His name. This is the verse which prompted David to say in Psalms 145,1 “and I will bless Your Name.” He also said הודו לו ברכו שמו, “give thanks to Him, bless His Name” (Psalms 100,4). We find many similar quotes in the Book of Psalms. According to the plain meaning of this legislation we must appreciate that we are not dealing with the needs of the Lord but with the needs of man. Seeing that G’d is the source of all blessings and all the blessings devolve on His creatures from heaven it is clearly an impossibility for any of His creatures to bless Him adequately. Seeing that He, G’d, is the original Being in this universe having “invented” all the others, there is really no existence worthy of the name. His Existence is so self-sufficient that it has no need of anyone or anything beside Him. Therefore, even if we were to bless Him all day long and all night long what would we accomplish by this? How would we thereby enhance His existence either qualitatively or quantitatively? Job 35,7 makes this point when he says: “if you are righteous what do you give Him? What does He receive from your hand?” Any usefulness of blessing G’d is one-sided, i.e. affects our well-being not His, addresses our needs, not His. When we bless G’d for what we have received and enjoyed we testify that we acknowledge His השגחה, His benevolent and ongoing interest in all His creatures. The merit we accumulate for ourselves by such an act of “blessing” G’d ensures that He will continue to favour us with His benevolent largesse. The produce, the fruit, etc., will continue to be blessed by Him seeing we acknowledge Him as the provider. This is the reverse side of what the sages said in Berachot 35 that if someone enjoys the good things of this world without reciting a benediction of thanks it is as if he had robbed both G’d and the כנסת ישראל seeing that Solomon said: (Proverbs 28,24) “He who robs his father and his mother and says: ‘it is no offense,’ is a companion to vandals.” Failure to bless the Lord for His generosity in providing for us will result in a reduction of this abundance of good food, etc., and the individual -even the one who was not guilty of not reciting such benedictions- will suffer the fate of the majority seeing that in matters of livelihood the world as well as the individual is judged according to its or his respective preponderance of merits versus demerits (Kidushin 40). Seeing that this is so we can never be sure whether our next action does not place us in the minus column with all the dreadful consequences this may entail. We must therefore always behave as if our fate was in the balance and depended on our next action. A kabbalistic approach: the commandment “you shall bless the Lord your G’d,” means that this blessing is neither exclusively for the benefit of the person reciting it, nor is it exclusively an expression of gratitude; rather it is a formula depicting something additional, natural increase, etc., as we know from Exodus 23,25 וברך את לחמך ואת מימיך, “and He will bless your bread and your water.” [The assumption being that G’d will provide additional food and water. Ed.] You must properly understand what the sages said in Baba Metzia 114 concerning a debtor on the verse in Deut. 24,13 that when the debtor who had to give the lender a blanket as a pawn is allowed by the lender to have it back so he can cover himself with it by night, that G’d will bless the lender who is so considerate even if the debtor will not. The Talmud says that the subject of the word וברכך in that verse is the one in need of a blessing, i.e. only human beings are in need of blessings as opposed to the Temple Treasury which is not in need of blessings. The Talmud there counters: how can you say that הקדש i.e. the Temple Treasury or any property belonging to the Temple does not qualify for blessings in view of our verse that after eating and being sated one must bless G’d the provider? The Talmud answers that the reason pawns owned by the Temple Treasury do not have to be restored at night is that the verse ends “and it will be considered a charitable act on your part (if you give it back). Seeing the Temple Treasury is not in need of charity there is no need to return the pawn at night. It is evident from that passage in the Talmud that whereas the Temple Treasury is in need of blessings it is not in need of charity. The reason is that all charities emanate from G’d (the owner of the Temple treasury). We have a still more direct proof of the fact that blessings do apply to G’d from the Talmud Berachot 7, where Acatriel, a high ranking angel asked Rabbi Yishmael to bless him, i.e. such blessings are applicable to G’d? We also find in Shabbat 89 that G’d reprimanded Moses for not “assisting Him.” Clearly, man’s blessing or assistance is of value even to G’d? The assistance meant there was a blessing. When we express a blessing for the Lord we add a dimension of Holy Spirit in the universe. Our blessing will become the cause of more of G’d’s creatures receiving His blessing. The sages said also that G’d is desirous of the prayer of the righteous. If the meaning of the word blessing and prayer only referred to man thanking the Lord, why would G’d be interested specifically in the prayers of the relatively few righteous people instead of His desiring everybody’s prayer? Do we not have a principle that the glory of the king is expressed by the adulation of multitudes (Proverbs 14,28)? Clearly the very word ברכה implies that the one bestowing it adds an additional dimension to the recipient of the blessing. This is why in our prayers we mention the words תתברך ותתרומם, “be blessed and (as a result) be elevated, our King, etc.” This is also the reason for the wording in the Kaddish: יתברך וישתבח ויתפאר ויתרומם ויתנשא, “Blessed and praised, glorified, exalted, extolled, proclaimed in His majesty, etc.” In addition we find that the word ברך, knee, describes the One before Whom each knee bends, i.e. the word ברכה, blessing is directly related to a motion with his knees by the one proclaiming the blessing (compare Sefer Habahir item 4).

ואכלת ושבעת וברכת, “you will eat, be sated, and bless the Lord.” This is the verse from which we derive the positive commandment to bless Hashem. על הארץ הטובה אשר נתן לך, “for the good land that He has given you.” At all times, and in every location whenever you will feel sated, you are to bless Him in acknowledgment of both the nourishing food and the land on which it grows. You are to especially express gratitude that the land is ours as an inheritance to be passed on to your children. This commandment is not dependent on our owning or living in the land during any particular period.

Take heed for yourself, lest you forget the fear of Hashem your God, by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes that I am commanding you today.

השמר לך פן תשכח את ה' אלו-היך לבלתי שמר מצותיו ומשפטיו וחקותיו, “Be very much on guard against yourself not to forget the Lord your G’d and to not observe His commandments, His social laws and His statutes.”You are aware already that throughout the Book of Deuteronomy Moses constantly speaks of the combined attributes ה' אלו-הינו, the ones we invoke each time we recite one of the blessings mentioning that we perform one of His commandments. The mystical dimension in that formula is that we address G’d both directly i.e. ברוך אתה, as well as indirectly 'אשר קדשנו וגו.

Lest you eat and be satisfied, and build fine houses and dwell in them.

And your cattle and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold increase, and everything that belongs to you multiplies.

"יִרְבְּיֻן" — the yod replaces a he [i.e., it is a variant spelling for יִרְבּוּ]. This is not the view of Rabbi Moshe ha-Kohen the Spaniard.

And your heart becomes haughty and you forget the fear of Hashem your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

"And your heart becomes haughty" — and you forget that you were a slave in lowliness of heart, and you forget the affliction, the hunger, and the thirst that you experienced in the wilderness; and yet even so, Hashem sustained you throughout.

ורם לבבך ושכחת, “and your heart feels superior, as a result of which you will forget” (the Lord and His largesse). Moses had warned against such a phenomenon already in verse 11. The phenomenon of becoming haughty is tragically all too common.

ורם לבבך ושכחת את ה' אלו-היך, “and your heart will be arrogant and you will forget the Lord your G’d;” pride is the principal cause of forgetting essentials. Due to the abundance of affluence, peace, tranquillity, etc., a person’s heart becomes haughty, smug, and his evil urge finds it easy to provoke him to follow the dictates of his heart without restraint. When that happens, heaven’s concerns become marginal for him. This is why Solomon felt prompted to say (Kohelet 10,4) “if the spirit of a ruler flares up against you, do not leave your place, for deference appeases great offenses.” Solomon referred to the power of the planet Mars as a “ruler,” seeing it is the instigator of all the troubles and unpleasant occurrences on earth; the evil urge derives from that constellation. Solomon calls it רוח, spirit, seeing it personifies the spirit of impurity. The meaning of the whole verse is: “if this spirit of impurity wants to assert itself over you, do not prove agreeable, do not listen to it to put aside the concerns of the Lord in order to follow its call. Do not leave “your place,” seeing G’d is “the place” of the universe.”

Who led you through the great and awesome wilderness — a place of fiery serpents and scorpions and a place of drought, a place where there was no water — who brought out water for you from the hard rock.

"In the wilderness" — [the word] draws itself and what follows along with it [i.e., it governs the phrases that come after], and so too: "in the great wilderness." "That is long and wide" — "and the fearsome" — for it is a wilderness of the fiery serpent [שָׂרָף]. "The flint" [הַחַלָּמִישׁ] — the hard rock.

ומצור החלמיש, which was turned into water for your benefit. Compare Psalms 114,8: “Who has turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint stone into a fountain of water.”

Who fed you manna in the wilderness, which your forefathers had not known, in order to afflict you and in order to test you, to do good to you in your end.

למען ענותך, so that you will keep His commandments out of a sense of poverty, as do people who have no bread in their baskets (which would give them a feeling of confidence). ולמען נסותך, to see if He will give you your livelihood without your having to perform back breaking labour if you perform His will as written in the Torah להיטיבך, more so even than to the ministering angels, who, in spite of their devoted service are in a state of panicky flight before Him.

למען ענותך ולמען נסותך להיטיבך באחריתך, “in order to afflict you and in order to test you, to do good for you in the end.” All the tedium the people experienced during their trek in the desert was designed to subject them to a test to get them used to deal with such phenomena and to strengthen their faith when they would emerge from these tests each time. Faith in the Lord had to be instilled in them until it became their second nature (actually “first” nature). This is what David prayed for when he said in Psalms 25,5: “guide me in Your true way and teach me.” The word למדני, “teach me,” must be understood as similar to Jeremiah 2,24: פרא למוד במדבר, “a wild ass used to the desert” (trained in the desert). [The wild ass would not be wild if it had indeed been trained. The meaning is that it was unbridled and reflected the norms applicable in the desert. G’d used the Israelites’ desert experience to train them to cope with adversity by relying on their G’d in heaven. Ed.]. Hoseah 10,11 using the example of a heifer, makes a similar point. David asked for G’d’s assistance in training him to do His will until it would become his nature to do so, until it required little effort. We find the same wish expressed in Deut. 14,23 where the commandments of tithing and making pilgrimages to Jerusalem annually are used as prime examples of getting the Jewish people to “learn” to revere the Lord our G’d. The reason why the Torah describes a people being fed manna from heaven as suffering, enduring an “affliction” in doing so is to teach that when someone does not have a food supply for a number of days ahead he is considered as enduring an “affliction.” The fact that the supply of manna was only sufficient for one day at a time and the people had to depend on G’d’s goodwill on a daily basis was an ענוי, a serious discomfort. Even the eating of such a limited food supply makes one conscious that there is nothing left when one has concluded one’s meal, a fact which lessens’ one’s enjoyment. Psychologically, this is similar to the blind who cannot see what they eat and therefore do not enjoy it. Peace of mind, and therefore enjoyment of what one has in storage depends largely on one’s ability to see and reassure oneself that one has no immediate worries. Scriptural proof for this is found in Kohelet 6,9 טוב מראה עינים מהלך נפש, “better what the eyes see than what the mind (only) imagines.”

And you say in your heart: 'My strength and the might of my hand have acquired these possessions for me.'

"This wealth" [הַחַיִל הַזֶּה] — property; and so likewise "and they leave their wealth to others" [וְעָזְבוּ לַאֲחֵרִים חֵילָם]. The meaning is: their toil and their strength.

ואמרת בלבך כחי ועוצם ידי, “and you will say in your heart: “My strength and the power of My hand, etc.” Moses says that possibly your arrogance will become such that you ascribe your affluence to your horoscope. The word כחי would refer to influences from outer space, astrological in nature, the word עצם ידי would refer to sub-terrestrial influences, demons resident below earth.

And you shall remember Hashem your God, for it is He who gives you counsel to acquire possessions, in order to uphold His covenant that He swore to your forefathers, as it is this day.

AND THOU SHALT REMEMBER THE ETERNAL THY G-D, FOR IT IS HE WHO GIVETH THEE POWER TO GET WEALTH. It is known that Israelites are mighty men, valiant men for the war because they were likened to lions and to a ravenous wolf, and they vanquished the Canaanite kings in battle. Therefore he said, “If you should think, ‘my power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth,’ you should remember G-d Who brought you forth from Egypt where you had no power or might of hand at all. You should further remember that He provided all your needs for you in the wilderness, where you had nought in the power of thy hand to survive. If so [concerning] this wealth which you have won by your strength as well, [you should bear in mind that] it is G-d Who gave you the power [that was necessary for you] to accumulate the wealth; and if you forget G-d He will consume thy flesh and thy body and you will perish, just as [the nations before you] perished, for all that forsake the Eternal shall be consumed. And then Moses reverted to bring yet another proof that you should not think ‘my power and the might of my hand etc.,’ and he said Hear, O Israel a true word from my mouth, that these nations are greater and mightier than thyself, and how will you vanquish them in battle? Besides, they have cities great and fortified up to the high heavens, and how will you capture them? Moreover, there is a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom thou knowest from the spies who saw them, and of whom thou hast heard from days of yore that no man can stand up against them. And when all this becomes clear to you, you should realize and believe from this day on that you will be unable to go over [the Jordan to do battle] before them at all until you know in your heart that the Eternal thy G-d is He Who goeth over before thee as a devouring fire, and He will destroy them, and He will bring them down. It is not the power and the might of hand He gave you, but the hand of G-d that did this to the mighty ones among them. This is an allusion to what is stated, and the Eternal cast down great stones from heaven upon them, and similarly it is said there, And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Eternal hearkened unto the voice of a man; for the Eternal fought for Israel. The reference to the fortified cities he mentioned here is an allusion to the wall of Jericho that fell before the ark. This is what David said, For not by their own sword did they get the Land in possession, neither did their own arm save them; but Thy right hand, and Thine arm, and the light of Thy countenance, because Thou wast favorable unto them — the right hand of G-d and His [left] arm fought against their mighty ones, and the light of His countenance that was favorable unto them [the Israelites] gave them power over those who were slain in battle. Scripture refers to this in saying further, And I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and...

"And you shall remember" — the meaning is: if the thought arises in your heart to say, 'My power and the might of my hand [produced this wealth],' remember the One who gives you the strength.

וזכרת את ה׳ אלוקיך, "You shall remember the Lord your G'd, etc." Moses means that we must remember that the source of all the good we will experience is G'd and we must never forget it. If He had not imbued us with strength we could never have achieved what we imagine we have achieved with our own power. Whenever people turn away from religion, if ever so slightly, it is because they forget that their achievements are not truly their own. Such a path leads to a person's eventual destruction. This may be the reason this verse is immediately followed in the next paragraph by the dire warnings about what will happen when Israel "forgets" its G'd deliberately. Once you forget that G'd is the source of all the good you experience, you will eventually forget that you have a very exclusive G'd altogether. Once that happens, you will seek out other deities. Not only will you contemplate idol worship but you will engage in it actively. Not only will this be some kind of loosely defined service, but you will even prostrate yourself in front of such images. Sanhedrin 60 teaches that if one prostrates oneself in front of the idol Markolies one is guilty of idolatry even though this is not an accepted form of worship for that idol.

וזכרת את ה', “You shall remember the Lord your G’d.” He alone is the source of your good fortune because He has given you the strength to perform deeds of valour. In other words: “He handed over to you the power to overcome negative horoscopic influences, influences which G’d had created to perform His will in the terrestrial regions. None of these constellations have any power or influence over you and your fate. This is what our sages meant when they said אין מזל לישראל, “Israel is not subject to horoscopic influences” (Shabbat 156). This is also meaning of the end of our verse: “in order to maintain His covenant which He swore to your forefathers as of this day.” G’d, in His first appearance to Avraham, had positioned him above the stars, making him look down at the stars to teach him that his descendants’ fate would not be governed by such stellar constellations. (Compare Genesis 15,5 and Bereshit Rabbah 44,14 on that verse). The expression הבט in that verse always implies “looking down on something.” Although, technically, the wording there is in the singular, whatever G’d said to Avraham at the time was intended to cover the Jewish people as a whole not just the individual fate of Avraham. Our paragraph also commences with the singular but continues by using the plural אשר תשמרון לעשות. You might argue that Moses addressed every single Israelite making his message relevant for all future generations and this accounts for the address in the singular, and the meaning of the verse would be: ‘’if you will say in your heart that the wealth and affluence have been decreed from heaven for each Israelite individually rather than for the people collectively.” You would base this on the saying that: “there are no horoscopic forces which determine the fate of the Israelites collectively, though there are such forces at work determining the individual fate of the nation.” You might cite the statement that “economic success, the ability to have children, and the control over life and death do not depend on individual merit but on mazzal” (Moed Katan 28). This consideration might prompt you to ascribe your success to כחי “my personal mazzal.” In fact you would ascribe your success to a combination of the forces at work in outer space and those beneath the earth; Moses tells you here that you must not commit such an error but you must “individually remember (וזכרת את ה' אלו-היך), the Lord your G’d,” i.e. He gave you individually the strength to accomplish what you thought was decreed for you by the stars. Whereas G’d may have used intermediaries to channel success your way, were it not for the power He personally equipped you with, all the stars in the world would not have the power to influence your well being by one iota. This is what Solomon had in mind when he said in Proverbs 22,2: “Rich man and poor man meet; the Lord made them both.” He meant that success and failure are occurrences; they encounter each other due to the motions of the planets in orbit, not because the people who appear to possess it have acquired it due to their superior intelligence or have failed to acquire it due to their inferior intelligence. Neither is the reason for acquisition of wealth due to more sustained effort by one party than the other. Having assimilated this lesson you might say that seeing that success is not due to effort why make any effort at all? It is all the doing of the horoscopic constellations!” To ensure that you do not reason in this fashion Solomon added: “the Lord makes them both.” Everything is the result of Divine decree, even if it sometimes appears as if it is accidental or due to independent power residing in stellar forces.

וזכרת את ה' אלוקיך כי הוא הנותן לך כח, “you are to remember the Lord your G’d, for it is He Who gives you strength, etc.” Nachmanides explains that it was a well known fact that the Israelites counted among them men of outstanding bravery, experts in martial skills, and others of sheer physical strength, for had not their founding father Yaakov compared some of his sons to lions, wolves, etc.? Had they not defeated the most powerful Canaanite Kings in war? Therefore Moses takes pains to remind the people that such strength had been granted to these individuals by Hashem; they are not to credit their achievements in any sphere of activity to כחי ועוצם ידי, “to my own strength and the power of my hand,” but they are to remain mindful of the fact that without the active support of Hashem they could not have achieved any of this. Moses repeats once more his clarion call: שמע ישראל in chapter 9 reminding the people that the nations in the land of Canaan, on a man for man basis, are far more powerful than the individual Israelites, and they are more numerous, and it is only due to Hashem’s intervention on their behalf that past and future victories are possible. Those people even number giants as part of their population. If you were to leave everything to natural causes, you would never achieve your aspirations to subdue them. You must therefore constantly remain conscious of the fact that you have Hashem, Who is your commander-in-chief, and with such a commander-in-chief how could you fail?

And it shall come to pass that if you forget — yes, forget — the fear of Hashem your God, and walk after the idols of the nations and serve them and bow down to them, I call witness against you this day that you shall surely perish.

והיה אם שכוח תשכח, this will happen if you attribute your success to your own efforts instead of giving credit to G’d and thanking Him for it by blessing Him. תאבדון, you will be lost both in the terrestrial world and will forfeit your claim to eternal life after you depart from this earth.

אבד תאבדון כגוים, "you will most certainly perish, just as the nations, etc." Why did Moses repeat the word אבד תאבדון? Besides, why did Moses have to illustrate this by a comparison to other nations? Moreover, why did he repeat himself another time at the end of verse 20 with the words כן תאבדון, "so you will perish?" I believe the verse is best understood in light of the Jerusalem Talmud Chagigah 1,7 that the reason Jerusalem was destroyed was because they "cancelled" Le. deliberately failed to teach their children words of the Torah. The Talmud means that even though many people worshiped idols and committed other cardinal sins, this in itself would not have resulted in the destruction of the Temple and the city had they not openly shown their disdain for the Torah. Such a statement is apt to make some people feel that they could get away with idolatry as long as they deceive G'd and study His Torah at the same time, expecting their Torah study to serve as a protective shield for them. Moses therefore warns that idolatry will lead to destruction of the people and their expulsion from the land of Israel. He reinforces his warning with the words העידותי בכם "I forewarn you this day, etc." The repetition of the word תאבדון refers to two stages of this "perishing." Initially, you will become like Gentiles who have no Torah and who therefore forget that there is a G'd. Once you have become like the Gentiles whom G'd makes perish from time to time, you will be treated in the same maner, i.e. you will perish altogether instead of merely being reduced to the status of Gentiles. According to this interpretation the word כגוים at the beginning of verse 20 is part of verse 19. The word suggests that the first word תאבדון "you will perish" in verse 19 means that you will perish as Jews and be like Gentiles. The same word as part of verse 20 then does "double duty" and refers to the way G'd makes the Gentiles perish; Moses threatens that as stage two of this process the Jews, who have by then declined to be no better than the Gentiles, will also perish bodily, just as many of the Gentiles have done already. Moses continues saying עקב לא תשמעון to teach that where there is no Torah there is not a single element in their favour which could delay their destruction. This is why he added the words בקול ה׳ אלוקיכם, "to the voice of the Lord your G'd." I have already mentioned repeatedly that wherever we encounter the expression the "voice of G'd," this is a reference to the Torah. The sequence of the words כגויס..כן תאבדון may also mean that in addition to the expression אבוד תאבדון in verse 19 they will face another disaster, i.e. that those Jews who have survived the disaster will end up as Gentiles. Moses means that these Jewish survivors will be deprived of prophecy and the Holy Spirit. This threat will make the people tremble as there is no greater curse in the world than this threat. Woe to the generations of Jews who have experienced this bitter existe...

Like the nations that Hashem is destroying from before you, so shall you perish — because you did not obey the Word of Hashem your God.

"Recompense" [עֵקֶב] — reward at the end, whether for good or for ill.

BECAUSE YOU DID NOT HEED. This is the conclusion of the entire beginning of the parasha. V'HAYAH EKEV TISH'M'UN [If you do obey], you will come to own the land; V'EKEV LO TISH'M'UN [Because you did not heed], you shall perish from it.