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text: Rashbam on Deuteronomy
  רשב"ם על דברים
  Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash
  
  
  Rashbam on Deuteronomy
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Verse 1
  
  אלו הדברים, according to the plain meaning of the text the names mentioned in this verse all are names of locations, as we find that it is customary for the text of the Torah to give detail followed by further detail of the places whose exact location the Torah wishes to elaborate on in greater detail. For instance, in Genesis 12,8 when describing Avraham as pitching his tent in some place, it refers first to Beyt El, and then elaborates by saying that the he found himself with Beyt El on his east and Ai on the west. In Exodus 14,2, the Israelites are described as making a turnabout before a place described as Pi Hachirot, elaborating by saying that this Pi Hachirot is between Migdol and the sea to the north of Baal Yzefon. In Judges 21,19 an annual festival was observed at Shiloh which is described as situated north of Beyt El, east of the highway which runs from Beyt El to Shechem and south of Levonah. If locations which did not have the distinction of serving as places where parts of the Torah were revealed to the Jewish people were described in such detail, it is not surprising that places where such parts of the Torah were revealed are described in detail. (compare Numbers 9,1, Exodus 12,1-2, Leviticus 25,1 Numbers 33,3) Here too, the locations are described with detail upon detail; they are the places that served Moses to explain the laws of the Torah, the ceremonial laws, the statutes, and the social laws. (compare 4,45-46, as well as verse 5 in our chapter.)
  בעבר הירדן, followed by which side of the Jordan this took place on, i.e.
  במדבר, on the bank of the Jordan facing the desert in which the Israelites had spent the last 40 years, which is know as עבר הירדן, “the far bank of the Jordan” to the people residing west of it. It did not refer to what would be called עבר הירדן near Jerusalem that is also referred to as the far bank of the Jordan by people traveling in the desert through which the Israelites had been traveling all these years.
  בערבה, a narrower definition of where precisely in the desert. The location is narrowed to the Aravah of Moav
  מול סוף, the Sea of Reeds begins somewhere to the east of the land of Israel as we know from Exodus 23,31 where it is described as bordering the land of the Philistines, the eastern border being the Dead Sea, described as south-east in Numbers 34,3. We have a repetition of these data in Deuteronomy 4,49, where it is clear that what is called ים סוף is the Sea of Reeds facing the Aravah of Moav.
  בין פארן ובין תופל, a description paralleling that in Genesis 13,3, i.e. בין בית אל ובין העי. 
  ולבן, וחצרות, ודי זהב. All these are names of locations, according to the simple meaning of the text.
  ודי זהב, an expression similar to בת מי זהב in Genesis 36,39 which is also the name of a location.
  
  
  Verse 2
  
  'אחד עשר יום מחורב וגו, who is wise enough to understand these words [that after 40 years the Israelites found themselves only 11 days from Mount Chorev? Ed] We must understand that the reason why Moses inserted this verse here is that in verse 19 we are told: “we set out from Chorev and traveled the great and terrible wilderness that you saw, along the road to the hill country of the Emorites and we came as far as Kadesh Barnea (which is close to the land of Israel and from where the spies were sent out.) As a result, we remained in this desert for forty years. This was due to our sin as recorded in Deuteronomy 2,1-7. Moses is simply contrasting the fact that the journey from the Sea of Reeds to the borders of the Holy Land was a distance of 11 days’ travel and had been covered in that amount of time [after deducting the encampments, especially the eleven and a half months at that mountain Ed.] whereas the rest of the journey, on account of the sin of the spies, took all these years.
  
  Verse 3
  
  
  
  Verse 4
  
  
  
  Verse 5
  
  
  
  Verse 6
  
  
  
  Verse 7
  
  
  
  Verse 8
  
  
  
  Verse 9
  
  
  
  Verse 10
  
  
  
  Verse 11
  
  
  
  Verse 12
  
  
  
  Verse 13
  
  
  
  Verse 14
  
  
  
  Verse 15
  
  
  
  Verse 16
  
  
  
  Verse 17
  
  
  
  Verse 18
  
  
  
  Verse 19
  
  
  
  Verse 20
  
  
  
  Verse 21
  
  
  
  Verse 22
  
  
  
  Verse 23
  
  
  
  Verse 24
  
  
  
  Verse 25
  
  
  
  Verse 26
  
  
  
  Verse 27
  
  ותרגנו, the word is derived from the same root as Proverbs 18,8 דברי נרגן כמתלהמים, “the words of a quarrelsome man are like afflictions.”
  
  Verse 28
  
  
  
  Verse 29
  
  
  
  Verse 30
  
  
  
  Verse 31
  
  
  
  Verse 32
  
  
  
  Verse 33
  
  
  
  Verse 34
  
  
  
  Verse 35
  
  
  
  Verse 36
  
  
  
  Verse 37
  
  
  
  Verse 38
  
  
  
  Verse 39
  
  
  
  Verse 40
  
  
  
  Verse 41
  
  ותהינו, meaning הננו, “we are ready, prepared;” the people at that point were willing to ascend. (Numbers 14,40)
  
  Verse 42
  
  
  
  Verse 43
  
  
  
  Verse 44
  
  
  
  Verse 45
  
  
  
  Verse 46
  
  כימים אשר ישבתם, another way of saying: “as you are well aware.”
  
  
  
  
  
  Verse 1
  
  
  
  Verse 2
  
  
  
  Verse 3
  
  צפונה, in the direction of the land of Israel, seeing that they were at its southern tip at the time.
  
  Verse 4
  
  היושבים בשעיר, these were not the same Edomites who had come out with drawn swords when the Israelites had wanted to traverse their territory (Numbers 20). The Edomites mentioned in verse 29 of our chapter had at least sold food and drink to the Israelites.
  וייראו מכם, the construction of this word follows the pattern we know from וישבו, veyeshvu, וידעו, veyedu, and ויאמרו, veyomru, as opposed to ויראו veyaru  Deut.31,12, and וידעו, veyadu (Jeremiah 16,21) which follow the pattern of ואמרו, veamru, and והלכו, vehalchu All of the examples cited are in the future tense.
  
  
  Verse 5
  
  כי לא אתן לכם מארצם, similar warnings had been issued in respect pf the Moabites and their land the Ammonites and their land (compare verses 9 and 19). Moses had to mention all these warnings now so that the people would not become fainthearted and say that if G’d had wanted to give their land to us and He had been able to, why did He not first let us conquer the lands which were in our path instead of making us detour around these countries? Moses told the people that G’d did not want that these peoples be deprived of their lands.
  כי ירושה לעשו נתתי את הר שעיר, whereas Har Se-ir had been assigned as ancestral land to the descendants of Esau, the  Ammonites and Moabites had been assigned their land as a courtesy to Avraham to whom they were related biologically. Moses also wanted the people to understand that seeing that G’d was so concerned with distant relatives of Avraham, how much more concerned would He be about the direct descendants of Avraham, Yitzchok and Yaakov, i.e. the Israelites! He would most certainly keep a promise made to these patriarchs in the form of an oath.
  
  
  Verse 6
  
  
  
  Verse 7
  
  לא חסרת דבר, even in regions in which there was no opportunity to buy any food, drink, or other necessities, you never lacked anything and you obtained it without even having to pay for it. When it was possible to purchase things G’d allowed you to do so.
  
  Verse 8
  
  
  
  Verse 9
  
  
  
  Verse 10
  
  
  
  Verse 11
  
  
  
  Verse 12
  
  
  
  Verse 13
  
  
  
  Verse 14
  
  והימים אשר הלכנו מקדש ברנע, from the place from which the spies had been sent out, 38 years had elapsed, seeing that the spies had been sent out in the second year after the Exodus.
  אנשי המלחמה, the over 20 year old males who were called to do army service when the occasion arose. [There is a note in some manuscript of the author explaining that the letter ה at the beginning of the word המלחמה refers only to the men who had ignored Moses’ warning after the debacle with the spies and had attempted to invade the land of Canaan without Divine support, suffering casualties as detailed in Numbers 14,44.  When the general male population over 20 is referred to, the Torah calls them אנשי מלחמה. Ed.]
  
  
  Verse 15
  
  
  
  Verse 16
  
  
  
  Verse 17
  
  
  
  Verse 18
  
  
  
  Verse 19
  
  כי לבני לוט, on account of his having been Avraham’s nephew.
  
  Verse 20
  
  ארץ רפאים תחשב גם הוא, as the land of the Refaim which G’d had promised to Avraham at the covenant between the pieces. (Genesis 15,20) Even though these Refaim had been dispossessed; if the descendants of Lot could dispossess the Refaim of old, it would certainly not be a problem for the Jewish people to dispossess people who had come by this land not by ancestral right but by conquest. 
  תחשב, although it is considered as “the land of the Refaim, it is not officially called thus, but is part of the Kingdom of Og the king of Bashan. This is spelled out in detail in 3,13. In that verse the Refaim referred to are the ones mentioned by G’d to Avraham in Genesis 15. This is why the Israelites inherited these lands.
  
  
  Verse 21
  
  
  
  Verse 22
  
  
  
  Verse 23
  
  
  כפתורים היוצאים מכפתור השמידם וישבו תחתם. Knowing history you will know that G’d will give you the land that He has sworn to your ancestors.
  
  Verse 24
  
  והתגר בו, as if the Torah had written והתגרה,”provoke it.”
  
  Verse 25
  
  
  
  Verse 26
  
  
  
  Verse 27
  
  
  
  Verse 28
  
  
  
  Verse 29
  
  והמואבים היושבים בער, these were not the other Moabites, of whom the Torah had written that they failed to welcome you with bread and water. (Deut. 23,5) The same is true of different sections of the descendants of Esau as I explained on verse 4. The Israelites detoured around the militant Edomites as reported in 2,1. It took a long time to make this detour.
  
  
  
  
  
  Verse 1
  
  
  
  Verse 2
  
  
  
  Verse 3
  
  
  
  Verse 4
  
  ארגוב, the meaning of this word depends on the context in which the word appears.
  
  Verse 5
  
  
  
  Verse 6
  
  
  
  Verse 7
  
  
  
  Verse 8
  
  
  
  Verse 9
  
  
  
  Verse 10
  
  
  
  Verse 11
  
  'כי רק עוג מלך הבשן וגו, because he had survived from the time when giants walked the earth, G’d told Moses not to be afraid of him. (verse 2)
  הנה ערשו, his crib when he was still growing up;
  ערש ברזל, he was already so strong when he was still quite young that when he stretched out his bed frame would collapse. As a result, they made an iron bedstead for him. An adult would not have needed this as he would have known how to move around in it without breaking it.
  הלה היא ברבת עמון, it has still been preserved on the site where he had grown up in order for anyone seeing it to be amazed by it. One does not make a spectacle of the bedstead of an adult in one location as adults move around and sleep in many different beds at different times.
  באמת איש, of a fully grown man. [the אמה is the length from one’s elbow to the fingertips. Naturally, this differed in length at different times in one’s adolescence. Ed.]
  
  Verse 12
  
  
  
  Verse 13
  
  ההוא יקרא ארץ רפאים. A tribe mentioned to Avraham at the time of the covenant between the pieces. (Genesis chapter 15). I have already commented on the significance of this verse on 2,20
  
  Verse 14
  
  
  
  Verse 15
  
  
  
  Verse 16
  
  
  
  Verse 17
  
  
  
  Verse 18
  
  
  
  Verse 19
  
  
  
  Verse 20
  
  
  
  Verse 21
  
  
  
  Verse 22
  
  
  
  Verse 23
  
  
  
  Verse 24
  
  החלות, as mentioned earlier in 2,25 היום הזה אחל תת פחדך, “from this day on I begin to place the fear of you, etc.” The letter ח in the word החלות is the reason why the letter ה preceding it has the vowel patach underneath it. Similar vowel patterns are observed when the letter ה precedes the letter ע, as in Isaiah 41,25 העיירתי מצפון, “I have roused him from the north.” We have the same pattern in Deuteronomy 30,19 when Moses says העידותי בכם היום, “I call as witness against you this day, etc.” Isaiah 9,3 is another example of this anomaly. When the letter following the letter ה does not belong to the group known as אחה"ע we would generally find a chataf patach under the letter ה.
  
  
  Verse 25
  
  
  
  Verse 26
  
  
  
  Verse 27
  
  
  
  Verse 28
  
  
  
  Verse 29
  
  ונשב בגיא, until now when we find ourselves facing the Beyt Peor in the Arvot Moav. What you have seen happen there should serve as a lesson to you; the details are described in 4,3-4.
  
  
  
  
  
  Verse 1
  
  
  
  Verse 2
  
  
  
  Verse 3
  
  
  
  Verse 4
  
  
  
  Verse 5
  
  
  
  Verse 6
  
  
  
  Verse 7
  
  בכל קראנו אליו. Moses refers to matters which have been documented in Exodus 2,24 וישמע אלוקים את נאקתם, “G’d heard their moaning,” and Exodus 14,10 ופרעה הקריב ויצעקו בני ישראל אל ה', “when Pharaoh (in his pursuit) drew near, the Children of Israel cried out to the Lord.” Similar appeals were made before G’d gave them the manna, the quails, and the traveling well. (compare Exodus 16,12 and 17,6)
  
  Verse 8
  
  
  
  Verse 9
  
  
  
  Verse 10
  
  
  
  Verse 11
  
  'ותקרבון ותעמדון תחת ההר וגו. Moses refers to Exodus 19,17 ויוצא משה את העם לקראת האלוקים מן המחנה ויתיצבו בתחתית ההר,”Moses led the people out of the encampment in order to meet G’d. They remained standing at attention near the bottom of the mountain.” Anything which is higher than that which is lower by comparison to it is referred to by the preposition על, whereas the place which is lower is referred to with the preposition תחת. [the author warns against understanding both of these prepositions literally as “above” and “below.” Ed.] Thus Genesis 18,1-2 where we find Avraham’s guests (the angels, before he knew they were angels) described as נצבים עליו does not mean that “they were standing above him,” but that when standing beside him they were taller. The wordsתחת ההר in our verse are therefore also not to be understood as “beneath” the mountain, but the preposition is used on account of the people being lower than any mountain, they are automatically תחת in relation to it. The reason why the entire verse had to be written is because in 5,21 Moses related how at the time the people had been afraid that the fire enveloping the mountain would cause their death. Had we not been informed of where these people had been standing at the time we would have had difficulty in accounting for their fear.
  
  Verse 12
  
  
  
  Verse 13
  
  
  
  Verse 14
  
   ואותי צוה, in addition to the Ten Commandments.
  
  Verse 15
  
  
  
  Verse 16
  
  סמל; a symbol of something, as in Ezekiel 8,3 סמל הקנאה המקנא, “a likeness, a symbol, of the jealousy which provokes jealousy. (an ancient idol)
  
  Verse 17
  
  
  
  Verse 18
  
  
  
  Verse 19
  
  אשר חלק, in order to provide light. According to the principal meaning of the text the meaning is that these celestial bodies were put at the disposal of all nations to serve them. By doing so G’d wanted to show that He is not concerned about their competition as influences that could override His authority in the universe.
  
  Verse 20
  
  
  
  Verse 21
  
  
  
  Verse 22
  
  
  
  Verse 23
  
  
  
  Verse 24
  
  
  
  Verse 25
  
  
  
  Verse 26
  
  את השמים ואת הארץ, as spelled out in 11,17 where it is described that these “witnesses” would withhold the harvests the people depend on if they failed to observe the laws of the Torah.
  
  Verse 27
  
  
  
  Verse 28
  
  ועבדתם שם, as per Onkelos, i.e. you will be servants of idolaters
  ולא יריחון, as spelled out in Psalms 135,17 אשר אין רוח בהם, “these idols are not even alive, cannot even breathe.”
  
  
  Verse 29
  
  
  
  Verse 30
  
  
  
  Verse 31
  
  
  
  Verse 32
  
  
  
  Verse 33
  
  
  
  Verse 34
  
  
  
  Verse 35
  
  
  
  Verse 36
  
  
  
  Verse 37
  
  ויוציאך בפניו, as documented in Exodus 12,12 and 23,21.
  
  Verse 38
  
  כיום הזה, when you have already commenced the conquest by occupying the lands formerly owned by Sichon and Og.
  
  Verse 39
  
  
  
  Verse 40
  
  
  
  Verse 41
  
  אז יבדיל משה, Why did the Torah interrupt Moses’ speech which were coherent, sequential and continuous, and it now introduced another subject in the form of a narrative? Actually, Moses had dwelled at length on the past and the time had come to do what the Torah had said at the outset, i.e. to elaborate on aspects of the Torah on which Moses had either not elaborated previously, or had not presented to the people at all, or felt that it was essential to repeat the legislation in question to prevent problems after he was no longer on the scene to deal with them. The subject of the cities of refuge is of concern to the judges and the whole system of the judiciary introduced by Moses as the first subject of legislation which he reviews. Already in chapter one, Moses addressed primarily the judges on whom rests the responsibility of ensuring a functioning government. In chapter 19,2 the Torah commands the setting aside of 3 such cities of refuge each on the west bank and on the east bank of Jordan (verse 9). Since it did not mention the three cities Moses had already established on the east bank of the Jordan this had to be added here, to show that the numbers given in the Torah are flexible, i.e. that as the territory of the Jewish people expands the need to add more such cities may arise. The command issued in Numbers 35,14 was not to be effective immediately as the Israelites had not yet crossed the Jordan. Moses had nonetheless set aside such cities although they did not yet function as such.
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  Verse 2
  
  
  
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  Verse 4
  
  
  
  Verse 5
  
  לאמר, this refers to verse 4 in which Moses referred to the פנים אל פנים “face to face” encounter when G’d addressed the Jewish people directly at the revelation on Mount Sinai commencing the Decalogue with the words “I am the Lord your G’d, etc.”
  
  Verse 6
  
  
  
  Verse 7
  
  על פני. I believe that G’d’s point is that even if you believe in Him absolutely and exclusively, you must not make any tangible symbol, anything that you would use as a charm, such as Bileam who did believe in G’d but used charms to help him establish communication with G’d, much as mediums use techniques involving bodily contact. Lavan even called such tangible symbols as his teraphim: “e-lohay,” (Genesis 31,30)
  The prohibition in Exodus 20,22 not to make “gods of silver or gold,” is not intended to suggest that Jews would consider such man made objects as being divine, but they are a form of establishing indirect rather than direct contact with G’d, contact without resorting to anything physical tangible. G’d made the same point repeatedly, such as in Exodus 22,19.
  
  Verse 8
  
  
  
  Verse 9
  
  
  
  Verse 10
  
  
  
  Verse 11
  
  
  
  Verse 12
  
  שמור את יום השבת, I have already explained in Exodus 20 why this time the expression שמור is used instead of the expression זכור which the Torah used there.
  כאשר צוך ה' אלוקיך, a reference to G’d having explained the rationale for Sabbath observance in the paragraph dealing with it both in Parshat Yitro (Exodus 20,10) as well as in Parshat Ki Tissa, and Parshat Vayakhel. The expression כאשר צוך used in connection with a positive commandment means that failure to observe it is simultaneously the violation of a negative commandment. We do not find individual negative commandments accompanied by a warning: “which the Lord your G’d has commanded you not to do.”
  
  
  Verse 13
  
  
  
  Verse 14
  
  
  
  Verse 15
  
  
  
  Verse 16
  
  
  
  Verse 17
  
  
  
  Verse 18
  
  
  
  Verse 19
  
  ולא יסף, according to the plain meaning of the text there was never again such an overpowering sound in the history of mankind. Whenever the word יסף appears it represents an addition of something. (compare Deut. 5,21, Psalms 73,19, and Genesis 18,23, the expression האף תספה, where the latter word is from the same root as יסף.)
  
  Verse 20
  
  
  
  Verse 21
  
  
  
  Verse 22
  
  
  
  Verse 23
  
  
  
  Verse 24
  
  
  
  Verse 25
  
  
  
  Verse 26
  
  
  
  Verse 27
  
  
  
  Verse 28
  
  'ואתה עמוד פה עמדי ואדברה אליך ...ועשו בארץ וגוthis is a reference to when Moses had said in 4,14 “G’d commanded me at that time to teach you to perform the commandments applicable in the Holy Land.”
  
  
  
  
  
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  ה' אלוקימו, Hashem alone is elokeynu, there is no other kind of divinity which is a partner to Him. We find a similar formulation in Chronicles II 3,10 ואנחנו ה' אלוקינו ולא עזבנוהו, meaning: “although you have golden calves, as far as we are concerned we believe only in Hashem who is our only G’d, and we have not abandoned Him as did Jerobam.”
  ה' אחד. He alone, and Him we will serve without resorting to any man-made intermediary such as charms, etc.” (see our commentary on 5,6)
  
  
  Verse 5
  
  ובכל נפשך, according to the plain meaning of the text “even if it will cost your life.” It must mean this: seeing that the Torah had already covered all the other bases when it wrote בכל ללבך, “with all your heart,” the meaning is that while alive you are to love G’d with all your heart, if your faith and love for G’d is put to the test of your having to choose it over your very survival, you must choose the former.
  
  Verse 6
  
  
  
  Verse 7
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Verse 1
  
  ונשל, he threw. If one uproots, or separates anything its position where it was firmly attached is described in such terms. Compare Deuteronomy 28,40 כי ישל זיתיך, “for your olives will drop off.” Compare also Deut. 19,5 ונשל הברזל מן העץ, “the iron (axe) will fall off the handle.”
  
  Verse 2
  
  
  
  Verse 3
  
  
  
  Verse 4
  
  
  
  Verse 5
  
  כי אם כה תעשו להם, “rather, this is what you shall do to them, etc.” תגדעון, the root גדע is used whenever something long is being cut down or felled; compare Psalms 75,11 וכל קרני רשעים אגדע, “and I will cut down all the horns of the wicked.”
  
  
  Verse 6
  
  
  
  Verse 7
  
  לא מרובכם מכל העמים, intelligent people cannot conceal their surprise that Moses should have thought that the Israelites considered themselves as the most numerous nation so that Moses had to tell them that they were not. Furthermore, not only does G’d make the point that quantity does not determine whom He loves or prefers by adding חשק ה' בכם, but the meaning of the verse is as follows: In verse one the Torah had spoken of the many nations which G’d will dispossess on account of the Jewish people, seven powerful nations. These people had been described both as more numerous and as more powerful than the Israelites in that same verse. It was therefore possible that the Israelites might consider themselves as more numerous than those people and as militarily more powerful so that they could conquer the land of Canaan due to their military prowess and numerical superiority. Moses disabuses them of such thinking by saying that G’d would not like them on account of their being numerous even if that were true. The fact is that they were less numerous than any of these seven tribes. But, there is an irrational reason for what G’d does, i.e. He loves the Jewish people. 2.) He has to make good on an oath sworn to the forefathers of the Jewish people concerning their future.
  
  
  Verse 8
  
  
  
  Verse 9
  
  וידעת כי ה' אלוקיך הוא האלוקים, in the event that you might says: “seeing that G’d has to keep His oath to our patriarchs, why do we have to bother to keep His commandments, seeing that he has to give us this land under any circumstances? Moses answers such a theoretical question before it is even mouthed by telling the people that G’d does not have  to let them have the land as an heritage, Although, He has sworn to give the land to Avraham’s and Yaakov’s descendants, He would not violate His oath if this generation of Jews were not to take possession of this land forthwith. It is one of G’d’s attributes that He sometimes lets a long time elapse before carrying out anything He has said which was not tied to a date. Just as He remembers loving kindness performed by His creatures for 1000 generations, so, not lapsing any reward due to the descendants of a deserving ancestor, so He may decide that you are the generation which will be the beneficiary of the promise and oath mentioned. Moses promises that the people whom he addresses will indeed become these beneficiaries with the proviso that they keep G’d’s commandments.
  
  
  Verse 10
  
  ומשלם לשונאיו. retribution for its sins.
  אל פניו, during their lifetime, not that of their children or children’s children. לא יאחר, either in his lifetime, or latest to the fourth generation. This is the plain meaning of the text. This is virtuous act, as Rashi says, that by letting the sinner die for sins (prematurely) it preserves his afterlife if the guilty party had repented his errors. G’d does not enact retribution for sins committed more that four generations ago. On the other hand, reward is paid even many generations later than merely four generations after the good deed had been performed. Even if the intervening generations had been sinful, this does not cancel out a reward G’d had not paid for the good deeds of the ancestor. If, eventually, a righteous person emerges from a sinful family, such a righteous person will become the beneficiary of merits accumulate by his ancestor who G’d had not yet repaid for this.
  
  
  Verse 11
  
  ושמרת, as I have explained on verse 9; G’d describes here the reason for otherwise perplexing sounding statements.
  
  Verse 12
  
  ושמר ה' אלוקיך לך, G’d keeps His covenant, i.e. the assurances He gave to the patriarchs concerning their descendants, with any generation which is fit, loyal and deserving. If the descendants do not keep His commandments then the covenant is valid for subsequent generations which do observe the terms of the covenant.
  
  Verse 13
  
  
  
  Verse 14
  
  עקר, with two vowels kametz. Other examples of such constructions are חכם as opposed to אשה חכמה,  (Samuel II 14,2) or שפל as opposed to ושפלה איננה in Leviticus 13,21. I have found that all the texts published in Spain follow this vowel pattern. [remember that our author was Ashkenazi. Ed.]
  
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  והמם מהומה גדולה, the construction of והמם, i.e. the vowel pattern of two successive letters מ and the two vowels kametz in succession is clearly parallel to וסבב בית אל in Samuel I 7,16 with the two letters ב, or as in Lamentations 5,18 שמם from שממה.  The meaning of the phrase is that G’d made these people hear such powerful and earsplitting noise during the battle that this contributed greatly to their destruction. If we were to assume that the second letter מ is a pronoun ending meaning אותם, “them,” the vowel pattern should have been vehamaman. Seeing that the root of the word is המה as in יהמה לבי (Jeremiah 48,36) “my heart moans, etc.”, the Torah wrote vehamam, i.e. “He made them moan.” We find a line with similar meaning in Isaiah 48,5 עצבי עשם, “my carved images were the cause of this,” the word עשם being derived from the root עשה, or Genesis 29,10 כאשר ראה יעקב something which is referred to later in Genesis 32,3 as כאשר ראם, “when he saw them.” The root המה determines the construction here. If you were to say that the final letter ם was a sign of the pronoun “them,” as in the examples from Isaiah and Lamentations we have quoted, this is impossible, as the expression המיון, which implies something that is part of the human body, as in Isaiah 16,11 and Jeremiah 48,36, or in Psalms 46,4 יהמו יחמרו מימיו, “its waters rage and foam;” i.e. this is self-generated, not the result of action by outsiders. If the word were in the transitive mode, hiphil, the vowel pattern would have had to be vehimah, just as in the root כלה, for instance, the vowel pattern if it appeared in the transitive mode, hiphil, the vowel pattern would have to be kilah. Or it would have to be כלם, kilam as the case would be if the final letter ם were used as the pronoun ending for “them,” as in Lamentations 2,22 or 4,11. When used transitively, the root שנה meaning changing, exchanging, such as clothes, would be שנא, shina, in the plain past tense, as in Kings II 25,29, or וישניה, vayehshaneha, in the past tense introduced by the letter ו changing a future mode to a past mode, as in Esther 2,9.
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  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.
  
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  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.
  
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  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.
  
  
  
  
  
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  והאבדתם מהר, all the battles you will fight will result in your speedy victory, without your having to exert yourself, nor will you have to lay siege for a long period. In spite of all this, you will not be able to drive out all the inhabitants of the land in short order as the result would be a vacuum and the free roaming beasts would take over the part of the land which you could not populate immediately. (compare Deut. 7,22) This is the reason why I will not let you conduct wars immediately against all the Canaanite tribes. The words לא תוכל, are in the nature of a warning, just as in Deuteronomy 17,15 where the Torah warns against appointing a king who is not born of Jewish parents, or as in Deuteronomy 12,17 לא תוכל לאכול בשעריך, where the Torah forbids the eating in your homes instead of in Jerusalem of certain gifts vowed to G’d by you.
  
  
  Verse 4
  
  אל תאמר בלבבך, when G’d chases out ה' אלוקיך אותם מלפניך, that there are two reasons which resulted in my inheriting this land. 1) the wickedness of the former inhabitants which led to  G’d expelling them, so that 2) my righteousness
  'בצדקתי הביאני ה gave me the edge over other nations desirous of taking over that land so that G’d brought me here instead of them. The fact is that ברשעת הגוים האלה ה' מורישם, G’d dispossessed these nations on account of their wickedness, but לא בצדקתך וביושר לבבך, definitely not on account of your righteousness and your upright hearts. For I want you to remember 'זכור אל תשכח את אשר הקצפת וגו, and not forget how you have angered G’d, etc. However, one of the two factors you cited is correct, namely the wickedness of these nations. The reason that you replaced them (and not someone else) is למען הקים לך את השבועה, in order to fulfill by means of you the oath G’d swore to your forefathers.
  
  Verse 5
  
  לא בצדקתך וביושר לבבך, definitely not on account of your righteousness and your upright hearts. For I want you to remember 'זכור אל תשכח את אשר הקצפת וגו, and not forget how you have angered G’d, etc. However, one of the two factors you cited is correct, namely the wickedness of these nations. The reason that you replaced them (and not someone else) is  למען הקים לך את השבועה, in order to fulfill by means of you the oath G’d swore to your forefathers.
  
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  ואשברם, for I had run out of strength to hold on to them. I have explained this on Exodus 32,19.
  
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  גם בפעם ההיא, in addition to the numerous other occasions when I prayed on your behalf.
  
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  'ואתנפל לפני ה' את ארבעים היום וגו' ואתפלל אל ה ואומר וגו', who is wise enough to understand and explain why Moses had to repeat that he had to fall on his face for forty days? Is it then the custom for the Torah to keep repeating things like ואתנפל אשר התנפלתי?. We would have expected the words ואתפלל, “I prayed,” to immediately follow the words ואתנפל, “I prostrated myself! However, there is a profound wisdom in the sequence of the words the Torah quotes Moses as saying, one that contains an admonition to his people. Moses is using the way he phrases his report of what he did during those 40 days and how he did it, by pre-empting an argument by the Jewish people that just as his prayers had been helpful when they were in the desert, similar prayers would be equally helpful once the people were in the Holy Land and they committed a major sin. The prophets in such days, they would argue, would surely be able to act as their interlocutors then just as Moses had done while he was alive. The point Moses is making here is that at this time their atonement was only in order for G’d not to be perceived as being unable to fulfill His oath of bringing Avraham’s descendants to take over the land of Canaan. In other words, Israel’s pardon was for the sake of not desecrating G’d’s Holy name. Once G’d had demonstrated that He had kept His promise, and that the people concerned had been settled in the Holy Land, as promised, His Holy name would never again be in danger of being desecrated by someone citing the arguments Moses had been able to cite while the people were still in the desert. This is why Moses repeats again the wording of his prayer. He is telling the people that if his prayer had been heard, it was only on account of an irrefutable argument he had been able to advance, namely how the Egyptians and other nations would react to the Jewish people’s annihilation. It follows, that if, G’d forbid the Jewish people, once settled in the Holy Land, would become guilty of similar misdemeanours as had the Canaanites, they would face both death and expulsion. On the contrary, if that were to happen, the gentile nations would not point to G’d’s inability to keep them there as the cause of their misfortune, but they would correctly point to the disloyalty this people had demonstrated by eschewing the laws given to them by their G’d, the One who had driven out the Canaanites. We find this all spelled out in Deuteronomy 29,23-27.
  
  
  
  
  
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  'ובני ישראל נסעו מבארות בני יעקן וגו, if you were to say to me that I told you that you prayed also on behalf of Aaron (Deut. 9.20) concerning what had happened in the first year of our wanderings, and in the meantime Aaron has died, so what good are your prayers? To such an argument Moses answered that Aaron did not die in the first year when, due to his participation in the golden calf, G’d had meant to kill him, but he only died at the end of these long years at Hor Hahar, at the time when we journeyed from Beerot Bney Yaakon. We had arrived there coming from Mosserot as mentioned in Numbers 33,31 from which we proceeded to Hor Hahar. שם מת אהרן, and not in connection with the people whom G’d killed as an aftermath of the sin of the golden calf.
  ויכהן אלעזר בנו תחתיו, by donning his father’s decorative priestly garments; he died in a manner which is dignified and even inspiring, at the command of G’d. This is the plain meaning of our verse, seeing that the Torah did not write “ובני ישראל נסעו מבארות בני יעקן ויחנו במוסרה. I explained these nuances in my commentary on Numbers 11,35 where the expression ויחנו is also absent after the line נסעו העם חצרות. Beerot Beney Yaakon is very close to Chatzerot. [in other words we have been given two points of reference for בני יעקן. Ed.].
  
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  בעת ההיא הבדיל ה' את שבט הלוי, the time Moses refers to is that of the sin of the golden calf when the latter had found grace in the eyes of the Lord.  (compare Exodus 32,26)
  ולברך בשמו  this refers only to the priests who are to bless the rest of the Israelites.
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  את מוסר, disciplinary measures as described in Deut.8,5 “as a father disciplines his son, so the Lord your G’d disciplines you.”
  
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  כי עיניכם, for your own eyes have seen this.
  
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  כי הארץ אשר אתה בא שמה לרשתה לא כארץ מצרים היא,  This is part of the structure of these portions of the Torah, i.e. you need to observe the commandments of the Lord your G’d for the land of Israel cannot be compared to the land of Egypt, being superior in quality to the land of Egypt for the people who observe G’d’s laws. At the same time, it will prove inferior to the land of Egypt for people who do not observe G’d’s laws. Proof of this can be seen already in the fact that the land of Egypt enjoys constant irrigation from the river Nile, does not need rain, whereas the land of Israel is totally dependent on rainfall at the proper time of the year. The Egyptians enjoy their irrigation regardless of their being G’d fearing or not. Their staple foods are assured. The land of Israel, on the other hand, seeing that 
  עיני ה' אלוקיך בה, being constantly under the detailed scrutiny of the Lord your G’d, מרשית שנה ועד אחרית השנה, to ensure that you will have the necessary rainfall at the right time in the right amount, makes you aware of the need to conduct yourself so that He approves of you.
  
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  והיה אם שמוע תשמעון...ונתתי מטר, so that you will be able to eat without being subjected to strenuous work. If you do not observe the commandments,
  ועצר את השמים ולא יהיה מטר, He will lock the gates of heaven and there will not be any rain.
  
  
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  כימי השמים על הארץ, meaning: “when I provide rain from the heavens, the earth will yield its produce.”
  
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  אשר תדרך כף  רגלכם, to make war against the seven Canaanite tribes,
   from the desert in the south,
   to the river Euphrates in the north,
   as far as the Mediterranean Sea in the west.
  
  Verse 25
  
  לא יתיצב איש, within the regions just described.
  
  
  Verse 26
  
  ראה אנכי נותן לפניכם היום, the commandments
  ברכה וקללה, as explained later in verse 29, that the “blessing” would be recited toward the tribes standing on Mount Gerizim, whereas the curse would be addressed to the tribes standing on Mount Eyvol. (compare author on 27,12-14)
  
  
  Verse 27
  
  את הברכה, which would be on Mount Gerizim on condition that 'אשר תשמעו אל מצות ה', וגו, that you will listen, etc.
  
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  אחרי דרך, it looks as if we encounter two successive vowel patterns both pashta, both tone-signs employed as separators, something most unusual. However, if we look closely we will find that the word דרך is accented on the first syllable, so that this results in the word אחרי sounding like an שופר הפוך, a term used in Hebrew grammar for a connecting tone-sign. [Minchas Shay suggests that when reading this line the reader should briefly pause after the word אחרי, in order to achieve the same result. Heidenheim, explaining Rashi, also states that Rashi understands the word אחרי as not belonging to the word דרך following it. Ed.] 
  מבא השמש, where the sun sets, i.e. in the west.
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  אשר עבדו שם הגויים, where the former inhabitants worshipped their deities.
  
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  לא תעשון כן לה' אלוקיכם, to offer sacrifices in every place of your choosing instead of in the Tabernacle.
  
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  איש כל הישר בעיניו, in every location in the desert where we put up the Tabernacle after making camp we offer our sacrifices.
  
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  בכל אות נפשך, in parts of the country where the Temple does not stand, where it is not acceptable to G’d for us to offer sacrifices. In such locations meat may be eaten without first having become an offering on the altar.
  
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  כל ימיך על אדמתך, for all the years that you dwell in your land.
  
  Verse 20
  
  כי ירחיב, and as a result you find yourself physically a great distance from the Temple.
  
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  רק חזק לבלתי אכול הדם, seeing that the blood is scattered and embedded in all parts of the flesh it requires special effort to extract it all before eating the meat.
  
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  כי יכרית ה' אלוקיך את הגויים, the word מפניך still belongs to these initial words of the verse.
  
  Verse 30
  
  פן תנקש, as in Psalms 109,11 ינקש נושה, “the creditor will seize,” or as in Daniel 5,6 דא לדא נקשן, “knocked against one another.” (the knees) You are not to move in order to follow them (spiritually).
  
  
  
  
  
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  ובא האות והמופת, these false prophets came by their knowledge by means of their dealings with the necromancers, etc., people whom we are supposed to put to death.
  
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  'כי מנסה ה' וגו, the only reason G’d allowed such people to possess what sounds like supernatural knowledge, is to test our faith, to see if we will heed the prohibition against using such sources of information and of tolerating such people as part of our culture. By choosing not to resort to the knowledge of such people of the future, etc., we accumulate merits in G’d’s books (compare Deut. 18,10-13). Refusing to believe such false prophets is in itself a good deed. Believing them is equivalent to believing in idolatry.
  
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  יסיתך, every advice the end result of which leads to disaster is called הסתה; examples of such meanings of the word הסתה occur in Job 2,3 ותסיתני לבלעו חנם, You have incited me against him for no reason.” Or, Kings I 21,25 אשר הסתה אותו איזבל אשתו, “at the instigation of his wife Izzevel.” Or, Chronicles II 18,2 ויסיתהו לעלות אל רמות גלעד, “he incited him to march against Ramot Gilead’ (a campaign which failed and cost Achav’s life)
  
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  כי הרג תהרגנו, the word כי means אלא, but, i.e. but be sure to execute him.
  
  
  
  
  
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  לא תתגודדו, as described in Kings I 18,28 ויתגודדו כמשפטם בחרבות וברמחים, “they gashed themselves with swords and daggers.” The word is also used for cutting down trees (Sanhedrin 110)
  
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  למען תלמד ליראה, when you are an eyewitness to the priests performing their service in the Temple, etc., the site at which G’d’s presence manifests itself.
  
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  והלוי אשר בשעריך לא תעזבנו, but let him share in your joy so that G’d in turn will have reason to be good to you.
  
  Verse 28
  
  מקצה שלש שנים, the year in which the tithe for the poor is due.
  
  
  
  
  
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  'כי קרא שמיטה לה, in other words: the time has come which we know as sh’mittah from Leviticus 23,2. Proclaiming this period as such is similar to proclaiming all the festivals in advance, hence the expression קרא, as in מקראי קודש. Even fast days are proclaimed in advance as we know from Lamentations 1,15, or Jeremiah 36,9.
  
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  אפס כי לא יהיה בך אביון, if you observe the sh’mittah regulations meticulously, G’d will recompense you.
  
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  אם שמוע תשמע...והעבטת, you will collect pawns as collaterals for the loans you extend to the gentile nations.
  
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   כי פתוח תפתח את ידך, but
  
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  השמר לך פן יהיה עם לבבך דבר בליעל, meaning something evil, unworthy. We encounter this word also in Psalms 41,9 דבר בליעל יצוק בו “something baneful has settled in him,” there the meaning is similar to here, i.e. a good deed reluctantly performed, the donor not really believing that the recipient of his tithes is entitled to handouts.
  
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  כי לא יחדל אביון מקרב הארץ, for it is basically unrealistic to assume that society is 100 per cent righteous, deserving, something which even Psalms 7,20 considered as an impossibility in this life.
  
  Verse 12
  
  אחיך העברי, on account of his inability to make restitution for what he had stolen.
  או העברייה, whose father had sold her as a maid while she was a minor, and after a maximum of six years when the sh’mittah year arrives before she had become pubescent. (when she would be freed if her master or his son had not married her).
  
  
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  כי עבד היית, and He took you out with great wealth.
  
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  ואף לאמתך תעשה כן, to grant her a financial stake to establish herself.
  
  Verse 18
  
  לא יקשה בעיניך, when you dismiss her from your service having given him money, etc. משנה, double שכר שכיר, the wages paid to a hired hand, (the Torah knows that you paid him 6 years’ wages in advance, and with what you are giving when he leaves he has in effect received twice what a hired hand would have received.) In recognition of how you have treated him, G’d will bless you in all your undertakings. The meaning of this paragraph is similar to the admonition of the Torah in verse 10 and the use of the term רע בעיניך occurs also in such a sense in Deut. 28,56 when the reaction of even a mother and wife to the pressures of famine are described. רועת עין, describes envy and jealousy in matters financial. The same is true of the expression קשיות הלב, being hard-hearted. Both expressions refer to the feelings of a person when he has to give of his money to others who he does not feel have a claim on his money, on his generosity. Those commentators who understand our verse as speaking of the employer feeling put out at having to release their worker and the Torah telling the employer that he had no cause for the worker had worked diligently for six years are in error. The master knew in advance that after six years the contract was complete and the worker would be free to go. What possible reason could the employer have of being jealous of that arrangement? Furthermore, the Torah should not have written משנה שכר שכיר, but merely משנה שכיר. Some commentators take the view that the words משנה שכיר refer to the six years, seeing that the average period for which a labourer was hired used to be 3 years, so that the word משנה would refer to the fact that this labourer worked for twice that period. The idea that the standard period was three years is reflected in Isaiah 16,14 This is also senseless, seeing that in Isaiah 21,16 we are told that the average period of hire was precisely a year, no longer. It follows that the words כשני שכיר (as the years of a hired hand) mean precisely 3 years just as when he is hired for a year it means precisely a year.
  
  
  Verse 19
  
  תקדיש לה' אלוקיך, this means that you are to treat it as if sacred, i.e. not to shear its wool, not to use it to perform labour, etc. I have already explained the meaning of the words לא יקדיש איש אותו in Leviticus 27,26 as meaning that it cannot be designated as an offering for the altar.
  
  
  
  
  
  Verse 1
  
  
  
  Verse 2
  
  צאן ובקר, our sages explain this according to the plain meaning of the text, i.e. from the farmer’s flocks and herds, seeing that the voluntary vows, etc., which have to be presented on the altar have already been referred to in Numbers 29,39 as well as in Leviticus 23,38 as being due on these pilgrimage festivals.
  
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  Verse 7
  
  ובשלת, not in water but by roasting on a spit. (compare Rashi) 
  ופנית בבקר, you do not need to remain in Jerusalem all the seven days of the Passover festival.
  
  
  Verse 8
  
  
  
  Verse 9
  
  מהחל חרמש, as per Onkelos, for the Omer is known as the beginning of the harvest season. (Leviticus 23,10)
  
  Verse 10
  
  מסת, sufficient and commensurate 
  נדבת ידך, according to the economic blessing you have received from G’d.
  
  
  Verse 11
  
  
  
  Verse 12
  
  
  
  Verse 13
  
  באספך מגרנך ומיקבך, I have already explained the connection between the word באספך and חג האסיף etc., in my commentary on Leviticus 23,43.
  
  Verse 14
  
  
  
  Verse 15
  
  
  
  Verse 16
  
  
  
  Verse 17
  
  
  
  Verse 18
  
  ושוטרים, the judges issue orders to the enforcers (Shotrim) to see that recalcitrant convicted persons will obey the judgments handed down by the judges.
  
  Verse 19
  
  
  
  Verse 20
  
  
  
  Verse 21
  
  אצל מזבח, for this is where they usually planted these asherot. We are told in Judges 6,25 that G’d told Gideon in a dream to destroy the asherah next to the altar of the Baal belonging to his father. Jeremiah 17,2 laments the fact that his own people had taken to planting such asherot  near every green tree.
  לא תטע לך אשרה, כל עץ, no tree must be planted in the courtyard of the Temple as its proximity to the altar was liable to lead the people to perform some kind of worshipful gesture as they were familiar with having observed the Canaanites do so.
  
  
  Verse 22
  
  ולא תקים לך מצבה, even in honour of G’d, to offer incense upon it at a time when private altars had already been banned. This prohibition went into effect after the Israelites had settled in the country and a permanent altar had been established to serve the whole nation such as in Shiloh, which served for over 300 years before the Temple of Solomon. (compare also what is written in Deut. 12,8) [Sadly, the commandment to do away with private altars was not even enforceable during the reign of Torah-observant Kings of Yehudah with the exception of King Yoshiyahu. Compare Kings II chapter 23. These altars had been used only to sacrifice to G’d, not to idols. Ed.]
  
  
  
  
  
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   אשר לא צויתי, to serve them.
  
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  Verse 6
  
  
  
  Verse 7
  
  
  
  Verse 8
  
  בין דם לדם, according to the plain meaning, between one kind of murder and another kind of murder. [either knowing if the killing had been deliberate or not, or, killing a terminally sick person in great pain, for instance, and killing a terrorist without trial, both deliberate acts, of course. Ed.]
  בין דין לדין, financial litigation,
  נגע, skin afflictions described in Leviticus chapter 13.
  
  
  Verse 9
  
  
  
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   איש נכרי, who is to lead you in battle;
  אשר לא אחיך הוא, for he may seduce you to serve idols.
  
  Verse 16
  
  
  
  Verse 17
  
  
  
  Verse 18
  
  משנה התורה, my grandfather Rashi, explained this as meaning two separate Torah scrolls, [in line with the traditional interpretation of our sages in Sanhedrin 21, as distinct from Onkelos who derives the word משנה as related to שנן, (Deut. 6,7) to delve into the deeper meaning. Therefore,] Onkelos renders the word as פתשגן, a clearly worded interpretation, translation. [The king would have to have a version of the Torah at hand which a layman can understand without difficulty.]
  
  
  
  
  
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  Verse 6
  
  וכי יבא הלוי, a priest who does not belong to the roster of priests performing Temple service on that day in the courtyard of the Temple in Jerusalem
  
  Verse 7
  
  
  
  Verse 8
  
  לבד ממכריו על האבות, according to the plain meaning: “like one of his personal acquaintances if he has such among the priests serving in the Temple, who is willing to appoint him to offer his personal sacrifice on his behalf so  that he will be able to eat some of the sacrificial meat with him, and the restriction of his not being part of the day’s roster would be waived.” (compare Sukkah 56)
  
  Verse 9
  
  
  
  Verse 10
  
  
  
  Verse 11
  
  וחובר חבר, the tone-sign is on the letter ח just as it is in the word חרב, cherev, both in Jeremiah 21,2 and in Samuel II 11,25, this is proven by the plural mode in Psalms 56,8 being חברים, chavarim, with the emphasis on the letter ר just as in melech- melachim, and the vowel kametz, instead of tzeyreh.. If the  emphasis were on the letter ב, i.e. on the last syllable as in חבר, (friend) in Psalms 119,63 Genesis 32,26 ירך as well as in the words גדר, gader in Numbers 22,24 where the emphasis is on the letter ד, then the plural mode would not have the vowel kametz under the second consonant in Psalms 56,8 but would have the vowel tzeyreh.
  
  Verse 12
  
  מוריש אותם, for they did not bother to consult G’d and the true prophets about their impending future. Instead, they relied on their respective idols, all abominations in the eyes of the Lord, so that by their perishing the impotence of their deities to protect their believers had to be demonstrated.
  
  Verse 13
  
  'תמים תהיה וגו, and you are only to consult Him, not the dead. Seeing that the existence of necromancers is a form of G’d’s testing the faith of the people in Him, He enabled the spiritually negative elements in this world, the demons to possess some apparent powers to reveal the future. (compare author on 13,4 and on Exodus 32,4)
  
  Verse 14
  
  
  
  Verse 15
  
  נביא מקרבך מאחיך כמוני, such prophets establish the authentic nature of their mission by commanding you to observe the laws of the Torah, not like false prophets or dreamers purporting to have been told that you should practice some idolatrous rites. When the Torah wrote in Deut. 34,10 that there never again arose a prophet of the stature of Moses, what is meant is the manner in which Moses was familiar with G’d on an unprecedented level, speaking to Him at any time, and being addressed by Him without introductory formalities, i.e. פנים אל פנים, “face to face,” as the informal nature of two friends speaking with one another. The verse does not mean that subsequent prophets would have less faith in G’d than Moses had had. Concerning that aspect of Moses as a prophet, he told the people that prophets after him would display similar faith in the Lord, i.e. כמוני. They too would faithfully deliver messages from G’d, neither withholding part nor adding something of their own and passing it off as a Divine message.
  
  
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  Verse 22
  
  ולא יהיה הדבר ולא יבא, assuming that repentance and good deeds did not persuade G’d to postpone the decree as He did in response to the repentance and entreaty of Chizkiyah, King of Yehudah whose prayer resulted in his death, announced by the prophet Isaiah, being put on hold for 15 years. (Kings II 20,1-6, as well as Jonah’s prediction that Nineveh was doomed which was rescinded completely, as per Jonah 3,10)
  
  
  
  
  
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  ונשל הברזל, the actual axe is called here ברזל, iron, by the Torah, as distinct from its wooden handle. We find the word ברזל used in the same sense in Kohelet 10,10 ואם קהה הברזל, “if the axe is blunt.” The scenario described by our verse is that the axe while hitting the wood it splits sends a piece of that wood sailing through the air, with fatal consequences for the victim it hits. This is clearly something that was entirely unplanned by the person swinging the axe.
  
  
  Verse 6
  
  פן ירדוף, these words refer back to the need to establish three such cities as outlined in verse 2. If there were to be only one such city of refuge, the avenger in his pursuit would be more likely to succeed.
  
  Verse 7
  
  
  
  Verse 8
  
  ואם ירחיב ה' אלוקיך את גבולך, this paragraph speaks of future events, a time when G’d would give the Israelites also the territory of the remaining three Canaanite tribes mentioned in the covenant at the pieces in Genesis, 15, the first covenant made between G’d and Avraham.
  
  Verse 9
  
  
  
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  Verse 14
  
  לא תסיג, the word is similar in meaning to Isaiah 42,17 נסוגו אחור, “they retreat backwards.” Our verse describes someone who adjusts his neighbour’s boundary backwards in order to increase the size of his own land. 
  
  
  
  
  
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  ילך וישוב לביתו. If he is afraid that his mazzal is poor
  and he would die in battle, seeing that G’d made him worry that he might not live to consecrate his new home, wed his bride, or eat from the fruit of his vineyard, he had assumed that if he was now required to participate in this war it was apparently ordained to prevent him for realising his objectives on earth. The Torah selected three examples of what would inspire such fear, concern over one’s house, one’s wife, and one’s vineyard. Having first named these specific concerns and declared them as legitimate under the circumstances, the Torah proceeds to include all other kinds of concerns which inspire fear for his impending death in the heart of a person. (verse 8). This pattern is not as unusual as it strikes us at first glance, seeing that Solomon employs it in Kohelet 1,3-9. He begins by listing examples of things he considers futile in this life, such as 1) a generation goes, another takes its place, a constant change, nothing remaining whereas the “dead” earth remains forever. 2) The sun rises and the suns sets; 3) the rivers all end up in the ocean but the ocean never flows over. Solomon tires of listing all the phenomena that recur constantly since the days of creation, all except man, because no new generation is exactly like the generation preceding it. The result is that the generation that has died is not remembered as it has never been replaced. This is why Solomon considers death the most futile phenomenon, seeing it wipes out what there was without replacing it. By the time Solomon reaches verse 9 he comes to the conclusion that seeing that there is nothing new in this life on earth which has not happened before, everything is remembered by reason of that very fact. However, just because one generation is not at all like a previous generation, man’s existence is apt to be forgotten, precisely because there is no one around anymore to duplicate what previous generations have done. There is therefore nothing by which to remember the existence of previous generations. (verse 11 there)
  
  
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  לא תחיה כל נשמה. When you confront them in battle do not offer them peace and expulsion as in the case of other hostile nations that are not Canaanites, a procedure I (Moses) have already explained in verse 10. However, if they make the first move in approaching you, and express their willingness to become your slaves before the battle is joined you are allowed to let them live.
  
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  Verse 19
  
  כי תצור אל עיר ימים רבים, and you find it necessary to cut down the surrounding trees to erect ramparts from which to launch missiles, etc.
  כי ממנו תאכל, for you will again be in need of these trees to eat of their fruit after the war is over and you have captured the city in question.
  ואותו לא תכרת, this fruit bearing tree which does not serve as support for the inhabitants of the beleaguered city such as the more distant ones, you must not cut down,
  כי האדם עץ השדה לבא מפניך במצור, every time we find the word כי in the Torah after the word לא it must be understood as meaning “but, however.” Therefore, the meaning of the verse is: “only those trees of the field which can be used by man to hide behind, and therefore interfere with your pursuit of your war, these you may cut down.” They are generally the trees that are very close to the outer perimeter of the city under siege that serve as hideouts for the enemy and represent a potential danger to your soldiers in addition to giving shelter to enemy soldiers seeking to flee. (compare Kings II 24,10 
  כי האדם עץ השדה, for man is the tree of the field, i.e. man uses the trees of the field to necessitate the enemy to lay siege to a town instead of assaulting it frontally.
  
  
  Verse 20
  
  'רק עץ אשר תדע וגו, a tree which never bore fruit, whether close to the city under siege or distant from it, you may cut down to help you construct the ramparts from which to launch missiles; but a fruit bearing tree that is far enough removed from the city not to afford shelter to your enemy you must not cut down.
  אשר תדע, which you recognise as such.
  עד רדתה, until you have broken down the city’s wall and other fortifications. (compare 28,52)
  
  
  
  
  
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  ונגשו הכהנים בני לוי וענו ואמרו כפר לעמך ישראל, in order to facilitate our understanding of these 4 verses the author summarises the principal parts of the verses in question without including what is only in parenthesis.
  
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  והסירה את שמלת שביה, in order to make her appear less attractive.
  
  Verse 14
  
  לא תתעמר, an expression used to describe slave trade, trade in human beings. (Compare 24,7)
  אשר עניתה, according to the plain meaning this refers to sexual intercourse for the purpose of marriage.
  
  
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  Verse 17
  
  כי את הבכור, the word כי means אלא, but. כי הוא ראשית אונו, for he is entitled to inherit the first of his father’s money. We find that the word און appears in this sense in Hoseah 12,9 מצאתי און לי, [clearly it cannot mean “I have  found my virility there”, as it does in Genesis 49,3. Ed.] The word און also occurs in the sense of money in Job 20,10 וידיו תשיבנה אונו, “his own hands must give back his wealth.”
  
  
  Verse 18
  
  מורה, obstinate, vexing. The word occurs in this sense in Lamentations 1,20 מרה, מריתי, “I kept disobeying.”
  זולל וסובא, as in Proverbs 23,21 “guzzlers of wine and gluttons of meat.”
  
  
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  Verse 23
  
  כי קללת אלוקים תלוי, when passers by view the corpse of a person who has been hanged they are in the habit of cursing the judge who decreed this penalty, or the relatives of the victim curse the judges accusing them of handing down a harsh verdict for a “minor” offence, such as the collecting of kindling on the Sabbath. (Numbers 15,33) If the Torah considered it asr necessary to warn the people against cursing their judges, (אלוהים לא תקלל, Exodus 22,27) it did so because it is familiar with people’s psyches, more so than people themselves. Therefore, to counteract such violation of the law not to curse judges, לא תלין נבלתו, “his corpse is not to spend the night unburied,” but כי קבור תקברנו...ולא תטמא את אדמתך, “you must proceed forthwith to bury him, for as long as he stays unburied people may contract severe ritual impurity through contact with that body, or through being under the same roof as the corpse.”
  
  
  
  
  
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  לא יהיה כלי גבר על אשה, in order to walk among males and seduce them.
  
  Verse 6
  
  כי יקרא קן צפור, when one chances across this without having planned it.
  לא תקח האם על הבנים, I have already elaborated on this verse in connection with the prohibition to boil the young in the milk of its mother (Exodus 23,19) Similar considerations are valid in connection with the prohibition of אותו ואת בנו. The practices, if carried out, look as if the person carrying it out is insensitive, cruel by nature, and is so anxious to satisfy his palate that all considerations of feelings of others are of no concern to him.
  
  
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  מעקה, this word is unique in Scripture, constructed from עקה just as מעשה, a deed, action, is constructed from the root עשה, and מראה, from ראה. However, similar sounding words in Psalms 55,4, מפני עקת רשע, “because of the oppression of the wicked; as well as in Amos 2,13 מעיק תחתיכם, “I will slow you down by force,” follow the pattern of such roots as שב and קם.
  
  Verse 9
  
  תקדש, is prohibited just as קדשים, sacred things are prohibited to most people.
  
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  גדילים, tzitzit, fringes, their threads have to be intertwined.
  
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  את בתולי, according to the plain meaning this refers to the blood lost when the bride’s hymen was broken, a residue of which is on the sheet of the bed.
  
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  לזנות בית אביה, there were witnesses that she had sexual intercourse after being betrothed.
  
  
  
  
  
  Verse 1
  
  לא יקח איש את אשת אביו, this law has been repeated here to inform us that anyone born from such a union falls under the category of mamzer, “bastard.”
  
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  פצוע דכא, an example of people who are unable to produce offspring, just like castrated people.
  
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   ויד תהיה לך, as per Onkelos, a site, location.
  
  Verse 14
  
  על אזניך, in addition to your other equipment.
  
  Verse 15
  
  מתהלך, for also the Holy Ark containing a copy of the Torah went out to war with the army, as is written: וכלי הקודש וחצוצרות התרועה בידו, ”with the holy vessels and the trumpets in his hand (Numbers 31,6) [Pinchas accompanying the 12.000 men on the punitive expedition against Midian. Ed.]
  
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  קדשה, a harlot; an unmarried woman engaging in adultery (with a married man)
  קדש, a male sleeping promiscuously with women without bothering to marry them. Since the women in question do not sleep with him exclusively they are not even concubines.
  
  
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  לא תשיך, according to the plain meaning the Torah speaks of the lender.
  
  
  
  
  
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  כי נפש הוא חובל, as per Onkelos, you would deprive the debtor of his source of legitimate income. 
  
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  השמר בנגע הצרעת לשמור מאד ולעשות, even if the person smitten with this disease is a king, as Uzziah, King of Yehudah, he will not be given preferential treatment and has to be ostracised and isolated just as any commoner afflicted with the same disease.
  ככל אשר יורו אתכם, for you are to remember what happened to Miriam, certainly a highly placed person, who, in spite of being a prophetess, and the leader of all the Israelite women, and Moses’ own sister, was not accorded preferential treatment in this regard. She was segregated for seven days, as we know from Numbers 12,14.
  
  Verse 9
  
  בדרך בצאתכם ממצרים, even though segregating her at that time meant that the whole nation would have to remain in an inhospitable desert for an extra seven days, the people did not complain about this. Other, less distinguished people, will certainly not be treated better than was Miriam if they should become afflicted in a similar manner.
  
  
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  לא תשכב בעבוטו, you must no lie down to sleep while still retaining his indispensable (for him) pawn.
  
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  ואליו הוא נושא את נפשו, for his very soul is in dire need of it (so that he can buy food to sustain himself). He had put himself at risk working (instead of begging) in order to receive his wages. We find a verse with a similar message in Hoseah 4,8 חטאת עמי יאכלו ואל עונם ישאו (נפשם). “The priests are dependent on the meat from the sin offerings, so that they actually hope for the people to sin so that they will be provided with such meat by being instrumental in obtaining expiation for the sinners.”
  
  Verse 16
  
  ובנים לא יומתו על אבות. By the courts. This was spelled out in Kings II 14,6 ואת בני המכים לא המית ככתוב לא יומתו וגו', ”But he did not put to death the children of the assassins, in accordance with what is written in Deuteronomy 24,16.” While it is forbidden for human authorities to kill children on account of the sins of their father, G’d reserves the right for Himself to do so, as we know from Exodus 20,4 פוקד אבות על בנים, He requites the sins of the fathers to the children, if they continue in the evil footsteps of their fathers whose punishment G’d had suspended while hoping for their children to redeem their fathers by their exemplary conduct. This principle has been spelled out even more clearly in Ezekiel 18,2 where the prophet had been challenged by the exiles with the question: ‘if the parents ate unripe grapes, why should their children suffer from the resulting diarrhoea?’ They meant that seeing they had been exiled, rejected by their master, G’d,  the laws of the Jewish religion should no longer apply to them. The thrust of our verse here is that the court does not have the right to use an innocent child as hostage for the crimes of his father in absentia..
  
  
  
  
  
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  יקום הבן על שם אחיו, he will arise in the name of his brother (deceased). This is the plain meaning. 
  
  Verse 7
  
  
  
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  Verse 9
  
  וחלצה נעלו, in order thereby to acquire the inheritance of his deceased brother, as we know from the situation of Boaz (Ruth 4,7-8) [according to the view of Levi in Baba Metzia 47 that chattels of the party transferring the property, מקנה, are used for that purpose. This is not the halachically accepted view. Ed.]
  
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  גדולה וקטנה, the vendor make himself two weights each marked as representing the same measure, but one being smaller than the other. When using both simultaneously, i.e. filling each next to the other, the total quantity is correct, but one represents more than half, the other less. It is therefore easy to deceive a customer who has once observed that when the two are used together they give the correct measure. This is why the Torah demands that “each” measure must be true in quantity of weight, i.e. אבן שלמה, “a true weight, etc.,” instead of “true weights.”
  
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  Verse 15
  
  שלמה וצדק, one single chunk, (not composites)  true and fair.
  
  Verse 16
  
  
  
  Verse 17
  
  
  
  Verse 18
  
  אשר קרך בדרך, meaning “accidentally,” unforeseen. The construction קרך from the root קרה is parallel to the construction עשך from the root עשה, Deut. 32,6 הוא עשך ויכוננך, “He has shaped you and made you durable.”
  
  
  
  
  
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  ארמי אובד אבי, as if the Torah had written” my father Avraham was an Aramite, lost, and exiled from his birthplace Aram.” G’d had told him in Genesis 12,1 “go forth for yourself from your homeland, etc.” Later on, Avraham himself relates to Avimelech the king of the Philistines, (Genesis 20,13) that G’d had made him wander, away from his father’s house, etc. The meaning of the word אובד here is similar to תועה, the root Avraham used to describe wandering without specific objective, almost like walking because one is lost. The word occurs clearly in that sense in Psalms 119,176 תעיתי כשה אובד בקש עבדך, “I have strayed like a lost sheep; search for Your servant, etc.!” We also find the word in this connotation in Jeremiah 50,6 עמי רועיהם התעום, “My people were lost sheep; their shepherd led them astray.” In other words, the recital by the farmer goes back to the Jewish people’s origin, the farmer saying: ‘our forefathers came to this land from an alien country and now G’d has given it to us. 
  
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  As a result, now I have brought ראשית פרי האדמה אשר נתתה לי, for all of this wealth is not my own achievement but I merited it due to Your loving kindness.’ This is also the style in which Joshua called the Jewish people to order when he began his parting speech with the words: 'בעבר הנהר ישבו אבותיכם מעולם, תרח אבי אברהם וגו, “your ancestors used to reside across the river Euphrates; Terach the father of Avraham, etc. etc.” Joshua concludes his brief summary of Jewish history with verse 13, with the arrival of the Israelites in the Land of Israel and their being settled there. (Joshua 24,2-13)
  
  
  Verse 11
  
  concerning the words “נותן לך ושמת בטנא,” (from verse 2) the vowel kametz under the letter ל of the word לך was justified as it represented the end of the speech. When the word לך has the vowel kametz under the letter ך, this indicates that it belongs to what came before.
  
  Verse 12
  
  
  
  Verse 13
  
  ואמרת לפני ה' אלוקיך, this is what the Lord your G’d commanded in order that you not become tardy and hold back your tithes making a liar out of yourself in the presence of your G’d.
  
  Verse 14
  
  לא אכלתי באוני ממנו, the word און is used here in the same sense as in Job 20,10 ידיו תשבנה אונו, where it refers to the proceeds of a robbery, i.e. “his own hands must give back his wealth.” We also find it used in this sense in Hoseah 12,9 מצאתי און לי, “I have become rich.” (the riches derive from robbery) This is the plain meaning of the line.
  
  Verse 15
  
  
  
  Verse 16
  
  
  
  Verse 17
  
  את ה' האמרת היום, you have become as if betrothed to G’d Who had said “I will be your G’d,” for this is something which depends primarily on Him. He will be your Saviour as a result of your observing His commandments which you accepted. 
  
  Verse 18
  
  He also האמירך, contributed His part in your becoming willing to become His people (and all that this entails). Moses refers to all the miracles G’d had performed for this people before they agreed to become His people. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  'וכתבת על האבנים את כל דברי וגו, for when they were now sworn at Mount Gerizim and Mount Eyval the Torah was present before them in written format, and they were sworn to keep its commandments.
  
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  'אלה יעמדו לברך וגו, according to the plain meaning the tribes mentioned forthwith were to confirm what the Levites said by answering Amen. The Levites, when pronouncing the respective blessings or curses, would face Mount Gerizim when intoning the blessings, and Mount Eyval when intoning the curses. (Sotah 32)
  
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  ושם בסתר, there are a total of 12 “curses” corresponding to the 12 tribes, all of the sins mentioned in them being of the type that one commits in private, when one is unobserved and no witnesses are present. I will explain all of them. There are only two of these which are sometimes committed in private and sometimes in public. These are idolatry and striking one’s fellow Jew. This is the reason that the Torah mentions the word בסתר specifically in connection with thee two sins that are listed here. The reason is that for sins committed in public there is no need to utter a curse as people sinning in public are not frightened of the curses either. Not only that, the court has a chance to deal with crimes/sins committed in public. This is the message in 29,28 הנגלות לנו ולבנינו עד עולם, we are forever obligated to deal with publicly committed offenses. Only when crimes are committed in secret do we leave punishment of the sinners to G’d, i.e. הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו, “secretly committed sins are left to G’d to avenge.” (same verse) This includes the whole range of punishments to which the sinner had made himself liable, not only for sins carrying the death penalty. You will note that the Torah does not write ארור שוכב עם אשת רעהו, as normally when one enters another’s house this does not go unobserved. Sleeping with one’s mother-in-law, however, is different, as both parties usually dwell in the same house. (verse  23). Insulting father or mother (verse 16) is something normally done in one’s parents’ home, where strangers are not present. The same is true of someone moving boundaries in the field; (verse 17) it is done at night away from prying eyes. If the one doing it were to do it in full view of his neighbour, surely he would be challenged. The same applies to misdirecting the blind, (verse 18) or someone sleeping with a beast (verse 21). Naturally, all forbidden sexual unions are naturally performed by consenting adults, each one making sure he or she is unobserved. Verse 20 speaking of someone sleeping with his father’s wife (former, not his mother) is also something which normally occurs in the male’s home, the place he grew up in, where he is not an intruder. Intercourse with animals clearly occurs in the privacy of the home or the animal’s pen, no one wanting to take a chance at being found out in such depraved behaviour. All other incestuous couplings are presumed to take place at home and with consent of the second party.
  
  
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  ארור אשר לא יקים, this is a blanket curse applying to all sins committed in private, the sinner making sure he is not observed.
  
  
  
  
  
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  טנאך, which will be filled with fruit.
  ומשארתך, the bowls the dough is placed in while waiting to rise.
  
  
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  באסמיך, in your storage chambers which will be bursting full with different kinds of grain, grapes, and olives. This is described graphically in Proverbs 3,10 וימלאו אסמיך שבע,”and your barns will be filled with food, your vats will burst with new wine.”
  
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  נקרא עליך, He will demonstrate by fulfilling your desires that you are His people.
  
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  המהומה, by means of the sound of thunder and hail, as in Samuel I 7,10 וירעם בקול גדול על פלשתים ויהמם, “the Lord thundered mightily against the Philistines that day and threw them into confusion.”
  המגערת, a kind of rebuke. Compare Maleachi 2,2-3 הנני גוער לכם את הזרע וארותי את ברכותיכם, “Here I will put your seed under a ban and turn your blessings into curses.”
  
  
  Verse 21
  
  
  
  Verse 22
  
  בשחפת, with consumption; all the words in this verse refer to a variety of diseases.
  קדחת,ודלקת, וחרחור, different kinds of fever.
  
  
  Verse 23
  
  והיו שמיך אשר על ראשך נחשת, so that no rain can fall upon the earth from the sky. 
  יתן ה' את מטר ארצך אבק ועפר, instead, what used to be known as “the rain of your land,” will turn into dust and earth. The wind will act instead as harbinger of rain, as harbinger of clouds of dust, blowing down from the arid and parched earth of the mountains.
  
  
  Verse 24
  
  מטר ארצך, an expression describing anything descending from the sky, as in Genesis 19,24 when Sodom and Gomorrha were showered with sulfur and fire. Psalms 11,6 also uses the word מטר in that sense.
  
  
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  ואין מחריד; no one will chase away the vultures from consuming the dead bodies as there is no one left to bury them.
  
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  ולשנינה, a kind of byword, as in Deut. 6,7 ושננתם, “you will make them a byword, not to be forgotten.”
  
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  Verse 40
  
  ישל, from the root נשל as in Deut. 7,1 ונשל גויים, “He will dislodge,” the construction is parallel to that of ימל קצירו in Job 18,16 compared to Genesis 17,11 ונמלתם, you shall circumcise.” The root נשך also becomes ישך in the future tense.
  
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  Verse 46
  
  לאות, that the one cursing his enemy wishes the cursed to be like himself. Furthermore, being accursed is also a sign that the victim did not serve His G’d.
  
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  תרע עינה באיש חיקה ובבנה ובבתה, the adults, not wanting to share any food with them,
   including even her afterbirth as well as her babies which she will give birth to secretly without offering to share, seeing there is such a famine. She will begrudge even her closest family the smallest share of this “food.”
  
  Verse 57
  
  שליתה, according to the Talmud Niddah 24, literally her afterbirth. The Talmud, in this case quotes the peshat, plain meaning. 
  
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   לב רגז, a fearful heart.
  
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  Verse 67
  
  מי יתן ערב, according to the plain meaning this refers to the following evening; this is the way the sick people react to their condition, assuming that they will start to get better by then.
  
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  בחורב, the admonitions listed in Leviticus chapter 26,14-46. which were delivered shortly before the Israelites began to move away from that Mountain. (Sinai)
  
  
  
  
  
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  עד היום הזה, even though you have witnessed all His great deeds.
  
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  אתם נצבים היום כולכם, as we know from verse 1:'ויקרא משה את כל ישראל וגו 
  
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  למען ספות הרוה, the deliberate sinner, whose motivation is that seeing he is so well off, he does not worry about possible consequences for himself
  הצמאה, because of the urgings of his desire. He does not sin in order to make a statement against G’d asserting his freedom to do as he pleases and thereby rejecting G’d as the world’s Master. He is merely unable to resist his urges. 
   כי בשרירות לבי, only because of assertion of self, of ego.
  
  
  Verse 19
  
  כי אז יעשן, G’d is not willing to forgive such a person, but considering his attitude, His anger will “smoke.”
  
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  על אשר עזבו, because, contrary to previous occasions, G’d’s anger could not be tempered by the consideration that the gentiles would consider G’d’s killing His people as proof that He was unable to keep His promise to the. I already explained on Deut. 9,28 that after the people had crossed the river Jordan such excuses could not longer be cited in their defense.
  
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  הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו, I have already explained this on Deut. 26,15 in connection with the curses pronounced at Mount Gerizim and Mount Eyval. It is precisely because sins committed in secret cannot be dealt with by the courts, that the Torah has to go on record that the sinner will still not get away with his sin.
  לנו ולבנינו עד עולם, it is up to us to administer the penalties prescribed by the Torah subject to the offender being convicted on the basis of reliable witnesses.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  השירה, the entire book of Deuteronomy is called שירה, “Song, Poem.”
  הזאת, the portion Haazinu, which testifies concerning the impending disasters if the people were to abandon the path of Torah. If and when this would come to pass, they would know exactly to what to ascribe their misfortune.
  
  
  
  
  
  Verse 1
  
  האזינו השמים, to repay Israel in the event they sin deliberately, as mentioned in Deuteronomy 11,17 where G’d had threatened to withhold the rain, i.e. the blessings that originate in heaven.
  
  Verse 2
  
  יערוף כמטר, if you will be mindful of my words of admonition they will prove as useful for you as rain.
  
  Verse 3
  
  כי שם ה' אקרא, when I will tell you about the great and wonderful things G’d has done for you, as well as that He is righteous in what He will do for you in the future, you too will want to render Him homage, proclaim His greatness, by proclaiming Him as our G’d. This will not be flattery, but recognition of what is a truth.
  
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  הצור תמים פעלו, this poem envisages the entire future; this is why it deals primarily with the holocaust the Israelites will experience as retribution for their sinfulness. Moses’ point is that no matter what terrible times the Jewish people experience, none of it is a reflection on the perfection of its G’d, the Rock of the universe; He remains perfect throughout in whatever He does.
  צדיק וישר הוא, as he will explain forthwith when he lists  how G’d has dealt Israel by heaping acts of loving kindness upon them. However, they responded with וישמן ישורון ויבעט, becoming fat and instead of showing gratitude they “kicked” i.e. resented having to obey His commandments. (verse 15)
  
  
  Verse 5
  
  שחת לו, Israel induced its own corruption as the prophet Hoseah said in Hoseah 13,9 שחתך ישראל כי בי בעזרך, “You have caused yourself all your own injuries, corruption, for from Me you had received only help, assistance.”
  לא, no one else is to blame;
  בניו מומם, the word מומם is an alternate for שחת ישראל, i.e. a repetition of the same thought, their corruption. Similarly, the wordבניו  is an alternate for ישראל, in other words, G’d’s children are themselves to blame for their having become corrupt. If we needed further proof for the meaning of the word שחת, we find it in Leviticus 22,25 כי משחתם בהם מום בם “for their mutilation, defectiveness is inherent in them etc.”
  
  
  Verse 6
  
  ?תגמלו זאת, Moses asks rhetorically, if one repays G’d for His kindness by worshipping idols? Besides,
  קנך, He is your owner; He acquired you when He liberated you from bondage to the Egyptians
  
  Verse 7
  
  זכור ימות עולם, before you were even born G’d had already prepared your ancestral land for you.
  
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  בהנחל עליון גוים, when He assigned to them ancestral lands
  בהפרידו בני אדם, after the death of Noach and the time of Avraham about which  the Torah wrote (Genesis 10,5)  “from this point on they separated, branched out by their respective lands, each with its language, etc.” יצב גבולות עמים, twelve descendants of Canaan (Genesis 10,6) mentioned in that context in that chapter of Genesis, corresponding to the eventual 12 tribes of Israel. Canaan and his 11 sons amounted to twelve. (Genesis 10,15-18) The Torah describes the boundaries of the Canaanites as extending from Tzidon in the north to Gerar, near Gaza in the south, and Sodom in the east. This entire region became the land of Israel during the conquest commencing in the days of Joshua, except for the coastal plains inhabited by the Philistines which was conquered many hundreds of years later, and Jerusalem which was captured by David. The Torah does not give details of the boundaries of the territories of any of the other sons of Noach. למספר בני ישראל, matching the number of the Children of Israel.
  
  
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  ימצאהו, as when the Torah had written in Numbers 11,22 ומצא להם, the reference is to G’d being the “supplier,” i.e. “finding” their needs for them.
  יסובבנהו, with His protective angels, as mentioned in Psalms 34,8 “the angel of the Lord camps around those who fear Him.” We also have a liturgical poem recited on the second Day of Rosh Hashanah which revolves around this theme. [the poem is attributed to Rabbi Shimon bar Yitzchok. Ed.] According to the plain meaning of the text the function of the heavenly cloud was only to provide a barrier in front of the people. It would therefore be erroneous to understand Moses as saying that this cloud enveloped the camp of the Israelites. This had been spelled out quite clearly in Exodus 13,21. Furthermore, the word יצרנהו is basically a repetition, i.e. reinforcement of the word יסובבנהו,
  כאישון עינו, the cloud, i.e. as G’d’s agent had performed for the Jewish people at the time what the eyelid does for the eye, (pupil ) i.e. it provided a protective cover. The reason it is called אישון, suggesting something dark, is that when the eyelid covers the eye the eye becomes inoperative, its owner remains in darkness. Or, the very fact that the pupil looks black is enough reason for it to be called אישון. We find the word used in Psalms 17,8 where the psalmist implores G’d to protect him as one would the “apple” (אישון) of one’s eye. In Zecharyah 2,12 it is referred to as בבת עין, the part of the eye with which we see. 
  
  Verse 11
  
  יעיר קנו, who awakens his nestlings and moves them from its nest in order to carry them on its wings; ישאהו על אברתו, the expression יעיר  for rousing also occurs in Isaiah 41,25 הערותי מצפון ויאת, “I have roused him from the north and he has come;” it also occurs in Isaiah 13,17הנני מעיר עליכם, “here I am about to stir up against you, etc.” Transferring someone or something from one location to another is called הערה, “pouring out,” in modern parlance. Awakening the one to be transported is a precondition to the transfer.
  
  
  Verse 12
  
  ה' בדד, He alone took the Jewish people out of Egypt and led them to the Land of Israel.
  
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  על במתי ארץ, as if the Torah had written במתי ארץ (without the letter ו after the letter מ). The land of Israel is perceived as the highest on the globe. [I have explained once that if one considers Jerusalem as the center, the globe sloping off in all directions from this pinnacle, this is easy to understand and does not conflict with scientific measurements which relate only to height above sea level. Ed.[
  דבש, made from dates; 
  the word שמן refers to oil from olives, olive trees growing primarily in mountainous regions.
  
  
  Verse 14
  
  חמאת בקר, according to the plain meaning of the text Moses describes the land in terms of it flowing with milk and honey and providing an abundance of meat for its owners.
  חלב כרים, rams that had grazed in the desert, having stuffed (fattened) themselves with excellent pasture. The expression is used in this sense both in Isaiah 30,23 and in Psalms 65,14. The author quotes more verses from Scripture on this subject; the message of Moses is clear beyond doubt. he extols the excellent physical properties of the Land of Israel.
  ואילים בני בשן, ordinary animals that had grazed in Bashan (the land conquered from Og) were known to be excellent specimen; כרים, both in Bashan and special ones elsewhere, had a  tendency to grow fat, something  which was in high demand. The rams of Bashan were therefore the very finest anywhere.
  עם חלב כליות חטה, the choicest fat of the wheat kernels. [The word כליות can obviously not refer to kidneys, seeing that wheat does not have kidneys. The author therefore searches for other pertinent meanings which can be applied to Moses’ hyperbole here. Ed.] In Samuel II 13,39 we find the line ותכל דוד המלך לצאת אל אבשלום, which the author understands as “King David now pined, had an overpowering desire for Avshalom,” since he had by now gotten over the death of his son Amnon (whom Avshalom had murdered). In Psalms 84,3 we read כלתה נפשי, “my soul yearns for….” In other words, the root כלה, from which the wordכליות  is derived can mean “to have a craving.” People can develop a craving for this kind of wheat once they have tasted its excellence. In Psalms 73,26 כלה שארי, the word may also describe a craving of one’s body. As to the letter י in the word כליות in our verse, which appears to contradict the claim that the root is כלה, consider the relationship between שבה and שביה, shivyah, where we also suddenly discover a letter י that appears unaccounted for. Another such example occurs with the root בנה and הבניה in Ezekiel 41,13, where the י in הבניה appears unaccounted for. The fact is, that when roots ending with the letter ה such as בנה and שבה experience the semi-vowel sheva abbreviating the syllable, the letter י is substituted for the original letter ה.
  
  
  Verse 15
  
  עבית, related to the expression במעבה האדמה, “in earthen moulds” where the root letters עב have also been reversed, the normal order being עב. (Kings I 7,46) The disappearance of the third root letter ה is similar to such disappearances in ראית, “you saw,” from the root ראה, and עשית, “you have done,” from the root עשה. The construction מעבה in the verse from Kings we quoted parallels the word מראה from the root ראה. Similarly, the noun מעשה parallels the root עשה.
  
  Verse 16
  
  
  
  Verse 17
  
  ולא שערום, related to the demons known as שעירים, of whom we heard in Leviticus 17,7 that the Israelites whored after, as possessing some divine powers, capable of foretelling the future.
  
  Verse 18
  
  ילדך, as in Genesis 10.26 when the Torah writes ויקטן ילד את אלמודד, where the verb ילד though it appears in the kal-mode, is to be understood in the transitive hiphil-mode, as הוליד, “he sired.”
  תשי, from the root נשה, to be weakened, the construction teshi parallels אל תט אל דרכיה from the root נטה, to deviate, turn away. The letter י at the end of the word תשי, parallels the word תמחי instead of תמחה in Jeremiah 18,23. It means the same as if it had been spelled with the letter ה at the end instead of the letter י.
  
  
  Verse 19
  
  בניו ובנותיו, בנים לא אמון בם. We explained this already on verse 5 where we understood it as a reference to Israel’s character flaw of disloyalty.
  
  Verse 20
  
  
  
  Verse 21
  
  
  
  Verse 22
  
  
  
  Verse 23
  
  אספה עלימו רעות חצי אכלה בם. It is customary for Scripture to repeat the same thing in different words. Here the purpose is to inform the reader that the victim will be struck by a whole variety of disasters. G’d will use most of the ammunition at His disposal to punish the guilty.
  
  Verse 24
  
  מזי רעב. This word has different meanings in different contexts. When it appears in the Talmud as in Chulin 45 it means ((נתמזמז being emptied of vital content.
  ולחומי רשף, mixture of hail and fire from the sky. The word occurs in this context in Song of Songs 8,6 רשפי אש. If it has the meaning used in the Talmud it describes breaking out of rashes on the skin as in Job 5,7 בני רשף יגביהו עוף, caused by celestial sources such as sparks (in the spiritual sense) and not something that originates on earth. It refers to fiery arrows when used in Psalms 76,5, and in a similar sense in Psalms 91,5 מחץ יעוף יומם, “from arrows flying by day.” Basically, we are dealing here with destructive phenomena which do not have their origin on earth.
  וקטב מרירי, stabbed and cut up (mutilated) by robbers who make a point of killing people cruelly. The construction of the word מרירי is similar to the construction of the word פלילי, criminal, from ונתן בפלילים, (Exodus 2,22) describing judges who deal with criminal matters. The judges incriminate the guilty, (transitively), similarly, מרירי is transitive, describes not what the victim suffers, endures, but the force which make the life of the victim intolerable. The word ישוד, from שוד, in Psalms 91,6 מקטב ישוד צהרים, also refers transitively to the forces perpetrating the robbery. “the scourge which is ravaging around noon.” Both Jeremiah 15,8 and Tzefaniah 2,4 use this word in a similar sense.
  
  
  Verse 25
  
  
  
  Verse 26
  
  אמרתי אפאיהם, I had originally said that I would remove them from the world had it not been for My fear of becoming annoyed when the gentile nations would credit their own power with annihilating the Jewish people. [I am paraphrasing some of this. Ed.] 
  
  Verse 27
  
  
  
  Verse 28
  
  כי גוי אובד עצות, the word גוי refers to the gentile nations here saying of the Jews that they are totally devoid of direction;
   the construction ovad is similar to mispad in מספד תמרורים in Jeremiah 6,26, where instead of misped we find mispad, just as here we find ovad instead of oved. Genesis 30,37 makal instead of makel, is another example of such a construction. The reason for the patach instead of the tzeyreh is that in each instance listed the noun is in a construct mode. A fourth example of such a construction is found in Leviticus 27,32 ma-assar bakar vatzon, instead of ma-asser bakar vatzon. 
  
  Verse 29
  
  לו חכמו, if these gentile nations had possessed any real intelligence they would have said: איכה ירדוף אחד, how was it ever possible that a single one of us could successfully pursue אלף, a thousand Jews, something they used to be able to do to us. This could only be accounted for by the fact that their G’d, צורם, had sold them out. This was the result of their offending Him by their sins. The word צור as simile for G’d has already occurred in verse 4 of this chapter.
  
  
  Verse 30
  
  
  
  Verse 31
  
  כי לא כצורנו צורם, these words are spoken by Moses, are not what Moses attributes to the gentile nations as saying. ואויבנו פלילים, if, nonetheless it appears as if your enemies, i.e. the deities of our enemies, succeed in inflicting criminal judgments upon us, this must have been arranged by G’d on account of our sins.
  
  
  Verse 32
  
  כי מגפן סדום גפנם, Moses now explains why it had originally been G’d’s plan to annihilate the Jewish people totally so that there would remain no mention of them in the history of mankind, had it not been for the boast of the gentile nations to have accomplished this; They should have drunk from the vine of Sodom; i.e. just as there is no vestige left of the former inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah so there should have been no trace left of them. Both Isaiah 3,9 and 1,10 have compared the sins of the Jewish people to that of the Sodomites.
  
  
  Verse 33
  
  חמת תנינים, they should by rights have been made to drink the venom of asps had it not been for the desecration of G’d’s holy name that would have resulted from this, for the nations would have said: “we have accomplished this.”
  פתנים אכזר, the word פתן means “a wicked creature;” it also occurs in Psalms 58,5 פתן חרש יאטם אזנו, “a deaf viper that stops its ears.”
  
  
  Verse 34
  
  ?הא הוא כמוס עמדי, (G’d speaking) I keep careful track of the words of the wicked nations who boast, and I take My revenge for such boasts from them.
  
  Verse 35
  
  ושלם, the word is a noun, meaning תשלום “payment.” We find a parallel to this in Jeremiah 5,13 where the word והדבר in הדבר אין בהם also means “the Word.” Jeremiah 44,21 has another similar construction when the prophet speaks of והקטר, vehakiter, “the incense offering.” 
  לעת תמוט רגלים, on that day when the feet of the nations will become unsteady, this is the day destined for their retribution.
  וחש עתידות למו, at that point in time I will hasten their retribution further.
  עתידות, a reference to the prophecies of Bileam and others concerning these judgments by G’d.
  
  
  Verse 36
  
  כי ידין ה' עמו, that is the time when the nations will be made to pay by G’d for what they have done to His people. We find this vision spelled out clearly also in Psalms 110,6 ידין בגוים מלא גויות, “when He works judgment on the nations, heaping up bodies;”
  כי יראה כי אזלת יד, when He sees that 
   Israel
  on its own is powerless and forsaken. The verb עזב is used both transitively and intransitively, the former in Exodus 23,5 where intentional refusal to assist is considered as a sinful act of commission, whereas the assistance rendered to the owner of the animal is considered fulfilling a positive commandment. In Nechemyah 3,8 it also occurs as something transitive, i.e. restoring the wall around Jerusalem.
  
  Verse 37
  
  ?ואמר אי אלוהימו, also the gentile nations asked: “where is Israel’s G’d? Therefore, out of concern for the honour due to My name I will save them and avenge them from their enemies, for I had already said at the beginning of their history that although I should wipe them out after the sin of the golden calf, I would not carry out My intention so that the nations of the world could not take the credit for having triumphed over Me. Now, however, that their former strength had become so completely negligible that the nations take credit for having laid Israel low, and they ask mockingly: “where is their G’d now?” I will avenge them in order to sanctify My holy name which these nations have desecrated by their very mockery of Me.
  
  Verse 38
  
  אשר חלב זבחימו יאכלו, the deities whom the Israelites worshipped and to whom they presented their offerings.
  סתרה, let these deities hide you and protect you, if they indeed possess such power. Now that you know they are unable to help you, G’d will once again take you under His protective shadow.
  
  
  Verse 39
  
  ראו עתה כי אני אני הוא, G’d addresses the nations of the earth who have said: ”where is their G’d?,” that when they would now experience G’d’s judgment and how He avenges the injustice done to His people, that He is very much around, notwithstanding their mockery of Him.
  
  Verse 40
  
  כי אשא, reinforcing what He says by an oath, as in Genesis 14,22 where the oath is used in the same sense, although the verb used by Avraham is הרימותי ידי instead of אשא ידי as here.
  
  Verse 41
  
  אם שנותי, from the root שנן, to sharpen. The same root is used in connection with sharpening a sword in Psalms 64,4 אשר שננו כחרב לשונם, “who have sharpened their tongue as if it were a sword.” The double consonant in the root שנן is similar to such roots as סבב and בלל. Just as these roots sometimes drop the last consonant, compare Samuel I 22,22 סבותי בכל נפש בית אביך or in Psalms 92,11 בלותי בשמן רענן, so in our verse instead of שננתי the Torah writes שנותי.
  
  Verse 42
  
  פרעות, as in Leviticus 13,45 וראשו יהיה פרוע, “and the hair of his head shall grow wildly, untrimmed.” Basically, the word פרוע, describes something in disarray, undisciplined.
  
  Verse 43
  
  הרנינו גוים (על) עמו, similar in meaning to the word הללו in Psalms 117,1 הללו את ה' כל גוים, “praise the Lord all you nations, etc.” Just as the psalmist calls upon the nations to acknowledge G’d, to praise Him and exalt Him for the loving kindness He has shown His creatures, so Moses concludes here with a similar call addressed to these same nations at the time of the redemption of mankind, or those who deserve it, to praise the Lord because they have finally seen what He has done for His people. By addressing them already now, Moses implies that G’d would relate to them similarly if they would take all these lessons to heart as of now (and convert to Judaism).
  וכפר אדמתו עמו, He will cleanse the blood of His people which has been spilled and been absorbed by the earth, by spilling the blood of their enemies, as the Torah’s recipe for cleansing the holy soil of the Land of Israel from innocently spilled blood (Numbers 35,33).
  
  
  Verse 44
  
  הוא והושע בן נון, for G’d commanded both of them, as we read in Deut. 31,14 והתייצבו באוהל מועד ואצונו, ”and stand at attention (plural mode) in the Tent of Testimony, and I will command, etc.”
  
  
  
  
  
  Verse 1
  
  וזאת הברכה, the Torah picks up the narrative interrupted in 31,30-32,1 by Moses’ parting poem/song.
  The portion begins with the words וזאת הברכה, “this is the blessing,” to indicate that Moses had finished with the admonitions to which he had devoted so much space. Before ascending the mountain where he was to die, he wanted to deliver his blessings to each of the tribes, not unlike Yaakov who had done so shortly before his death. Whereas the chapter before this is known as the שירה, song/poem, this chapter is known as the ברכה, blessing.
  
  
  Verse 2
  
  ה' מסיני בא, and there He manifested Himself to the Children of Israel and gave them His Torah.
  וזרח, its light shone
   from Se-ir and Paran. How was that possible? שאתה מרבבות קודש, from all the four sides (exposures) of Mount Sinai the light accompanied the angels on the way from Se-ir and Paran until it arrived at Sinai. From the right side of Mount Sinai G’d gave the Torah to the Jewish people out of the fire, for He had been speaking to the people out of the fire. We have been told this explicitly in Deut. 4,33 השמע עם קול אלוקים מדבר מתוך האש כאשר שמעת אתה ויחי?, “for has any nation ever heard the sound of G’d’s voice speak to it out of the fire as you heard it and has survived such an experience? We also find this confirmed in Psalms 68,18 רכב אלוקים רבותים אלפי שנאן ה' בם סיני בקודש, “G’d’s chariots are myriads upon myriads, thousands upon thousands; the Lord is among them as in Sinai in holiness.” The same thought is repeated in his own words by Chabakuk 3,3 when he said: אלו-ה מתימן יבוא וקדוש מהר פארן סלה כסה שמים הודו ותהלתו מלאה הארץ, “G’d is coming from Teyman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. His majesty covers the skies, His splendour fills the earth, is a brilliant light.” In the victory song of Devorah (Judges 5,4) we also find a reference to this great happening; she wrote: ה' בצאתך משעיר בצעדך משדה אדום, ”O Lord when You came forth from Se-ir, advanced from the country of Edom; etc.”
  הופיע מהר פארן, He shone forth from Mount Paran.
  
  Verse 3
  
  אף חובב עמים, also members of the gentile nations, such as the mixed multitude whom Moses had accepted as converts at the time of the Exodus, and who had done so in order to receive the Torah, G’d became fond of and accepted them so that they too were included in the camp which His shechinah, benevolent presence, rested over the people. We have more direct confirmation of this in Psalms 68,4. “but the righteous shall rejoice, etc.” 
  
  Verse 4
  
  
  
  Verse 5
  
  
  
  Verse 6
  
  
  
  Verse 7
  
  
  
  Verse 8
  
  
  
  Verse 9
  
  
  
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  Verse 11
  
  
  
  Verse 12
  
  
  
  Verse 13
  
  
  
  Verse 14
  
  
  
  Verse 15
  
  
  
  Verse 16
  
  
  
  Verse 17
  
  
  
  Verse 18
  
   שמח זבולון בצאתך, to the sea to engage in trade.
  
  Verse 19
  
  
  
  Verse 20
  
  
  
  Verse 21
  
  
  
  Verse 22
  
  
  
  Verse 23
  
  
  
  Verse 24
  
  ברוך מבנים אשר, the Israelites blessed him as he waded in oil, (they benefited from his abundance of olive oil.)[It is not clear whether the comments by Rash’bam quoted on verses 18 and 24 are indeed attributable to him. Ed.]