meta: {"file": "/data/tomer/Sefaria-Export/txt/Tanakh/Torah/Deuteronomy/English/Torah Yesharah, translated and edited by Chas. Kahane. New York, 1963.txt"}
text: Deuteronomy
  דברים
  Torah Yesharah, translated and edited by Chas. Kahane. New York, 1963
  
  
  Deuteronomy
  
  
  
  
  
  These are the exhortations which Moses addressed to the entire young generation of Israel along the eastern side of the Jordan River. He told them of the sin of their fathers in the wilderness and their provoking the Eternal on the plain of Moab by worshipping the idol Peor; their murmuring against the Eternal at the Red Sea, and their transgression in Paran when they followed the discouraging words of the spies sent to explore the land of Canaan. He further reminded them of the disgraceful words they spoke against the Manna in Libnah and how they angered Him by demanding flesh in Hazeroth and by making the golden calf.(יונתן.)
  The entire distance of the wildernes from Mount Horeb (Sinai) along the road from Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea, the end of the wilderness, could have been crossed in eleven days; but because they provoked the Eternal, it took them forty years.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  At the end of the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses addressed the younger generation of Israel who were about to enter the land, and told them all that the Eternal had commanded them.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  After he had defeated Sihon, the King of the Amorites, who had made his capital in the Moabite city of Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan, who had made his capital at Edrei, which was situated at the foot of Ashtaroth,(רש"י, א"ע.)
  when Israel had gained some territory on the eastern side of the Jordan near the land of Moab and thereby could have a more settled life, Moses then began to expound this Torah to those who were born in the wilderness. First he reviewed the experiences in the wilderness for the past forty years:(רש"י, א"ע.)
  “The Eternal our Almighty spoke to us in Horeb-Sinai: You have tarried enough at this mountain;(רש"י, א"ע.)
  leave this place! March, go to the hill country of the Amorites and its neighboring countries. Go by the plain, in the mountains, in the lowland and the Negev, by the seashore until you reach the land of the Canaanites and Lebanon which is as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  Mark! I am giving over the inhabitants of the land to you. You are commanded to occupy the land, for the Eternal promised your forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that He would give it to them and to their descendants after them.”(רש"י, א"ע.)
  At that time I, Moses, said to you: I am not able to lead you myself alone.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  The Eternal, your Almighty has fulfilled His promise to the Patriarchs and has increased you, so that today you are as many and enduring as the stars in heaven.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  I bestow my blessing upon you: May the Eternal the Almighty of your fathers, multiply you a thousand times, and bless you as He promised you.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  How can I single-handedly bear your tribal quarrels, the burden of providing food and water for you, and your financial strifes?(רש"י, א"ע.)
  Propose men from each one of your tribes, wise men, people of understanding, and popular persons, and I shall appoint them as chiefs over you."(רש"י, א"ע.)
  You answered me by saying: It is a good suggestion which you have proposed.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  So I took the names of the heads of your tribes, wise and popular men, and I appointed these chiefs over you as captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, captains of fifties and captains of tens, and officers to enforce the verdict of the judges, and these were the representatives for each tribe.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  I cautioned your judges at that time, thusly: Listen not only in part, but to the entire cause of both parties of your fellow men, and execute justice between a man and his neighbor, and between landlord and tenant.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  You must not show any partiality to any person in court cases; to minor cases must you give the same earnest attention as to major cases; you must not fear any personality, for the Eternal requires that justice be executed; but the case that is top difficult for you to handle, you will bring to me, and I will hear it.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  I myself instructed you at that time in all the Torah teachings which you must practice.(רמב"ן.)
  We marched from Sinai-Horeb through all that vast and fearful wilderness which you saw that it was infested with serpents and scorpions, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, just as the Eternal our Almighty directed us, and we arrived at Kadesh-Barnea.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  When you came to the hill-country of the Amorites, which the Eternal our Almighty had given us, I said to you:
  Look! The Eternal your Almighty has set the land before you; arise occupy it, as the Eternal the Almighty has told you. Have no fear, neither be terrified, for none will stand up against you.'(יונתן.)
  But all of you approached me in a disorderly manner, and pleaded: 'Let us send men ahead of us to explore the land for us, bring back a report of the suitable route for our invasion of the land, and of the cities which should be attacked first.'(רש"י, א"ע.)
  This unanimous demand pleased me, so I selected twelve of your men, one man for every tribe.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  They left, went up into the mountains, and came to the valley of Eshkol and explored it.
  They took some fruit of the land with them, brought it down to us with their report, stating: 'The land which the Eternal our Almighty has given us is a good land.'
  But you refused to go up; you rebelled against the promise of the Eternal your Almighty.
  In your tents, you incited your wives and children against the Eternal by saying: 'Because the Eternal hated us for worshipping Egyptian idols, He brought us out of Egypt to destroy us by delivering us into the hands of the Amorites.(יונתן.)
  Why should we go up? Our brethren have broken the courage of our heart by telling us that the people are greater and taller than we and the cities are larger and fortified up to heaven. Moreover, the Anakim giants are seen there.'(אונקלוס.)
  Then I pleaded with you: ‘Be not discouraged and be not afraid of them,
  The Eternal your Almighty who goes before you, He will fight for you, just as He did before your eyes in Egypt;
  and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Eternal your Almighty carried you as a father carries his son, throughout the way that you went until you arrived at this place.'
  Yet despite the experience of His protection, on this occasion you did not trust in the Eternal your Almighty,(רש"י, א"ע.)
  who went before you on the way, to seek out a place for your encampment. He leads you by a pillar of fire by night to show you which way to go, and in a column of cloud by day.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  When the Eternal heard the harsh sounds of your words, He was angry and decided:(רש"י, א"ע.)
  None of these men — not the entire evil generation — will see the good land which I promised to give your fathers —(רש"י, א"ע.)
  except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh; he will see it, and I will give the territory of Hebron upon which he trod, to him and his children for he has followed the will of the Eternal."(רש"י, א"ע.)
  Because you tarried so long in the wilderness and sinned at Meribah, the Eternal was angry with me too, saying: Neither will you enter there.(רמב"ן.)
  Joshua the son of Nun, who ministers to you, will go there. Encourage him to leadership for he will allot it to Israel.
  Moreover, your little ones whom you said would be plunder — your children who are not old enough this day to distinguish between good and evil — they will go there, and I will give the land to them; they will occupy it.
  But as for you, turn back and march through the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.'(רש"י.)
  You answered me: 'We have sinned against the Eternal. We ourselves, not our children, will go up and fight as the Eternal our Almighty commanded us.' Each armed himself with weapons of war and ventured up to the hill-country.(רמב"ן.)
  But the Eternal said to me: 'Warn them. Do not go up or fight, for I am not among you and you will be defeated by your enemies.'
  So I spoke to you and you did not obey; but you rebelled against the warning of the Eternal, acted wantonly, and went up toward the hill-country.
  Then the Amorites who lived in the hill-country came out to meet you as fiercely as do the bees. They chased you down to Seir where they crushed you.(אחד מלשון מיוחד, מפרשים.)
  You returned and wept before the Eternal; but the Eternal did not accept your repentance because it was not sincere and because it was only from fear. He was not attentive to you.(עפ"י א"ע.)
  So you stayed in Kadesh forty years as a punishment for the forty days, which the explorers spent in exploring the land.(עפ"י א"ע.)
  
  
  
  We then turned back, and marched through the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea, as the Eternal told me to do; and we circled mount Seir a long while.
  The Eternal said to me:(עפ"י יונתן ורש"י.)
  You have gone around this mountain long enough; turn toward Canaan, northward.(עפ"י מדרש.)
  And instruct the people as follows: 'You are to pass through the border of your kinsmen, the Children of Esau, who dwell in Seir; they will be afraid of you, but you be careful —(יונתן.)
  not to make offensive war against them, for I will not give you of their land. Nor may you even pass through their land without permission on foot because I have given mount Seir to Esau as an inheritance from his grandfather Abraham.(רש"י.)
  Do you have to buy food from them, with money, that you may eat? Or do you have to buy water from them, with money, that you may drink?
  No, for the Eternal Your Almighty has blessed you in all your actions; He has supplied all your necessities during your march through this vast wilderness; these forty years the Eternal Your Almighty has been with you, you have lacked nothing.'(רש"י בפסוק הקודם, אונקלוס.)
  So we by-passed our kinsmen, the Children of Esau, who dwell in Seir. We took the route of the Arabah, Elath, and Etzion-gober, then turned and passed by way of the wilderness of Moab.
  The Eternal said to me: 'You may intimidate Moab, but neither besiege nor start war against them; for I will not give you any part of their land as a possession, because I have given the territory of Or to the descendants of Lot, as an inheritance.'(עפ"י רש"י.)
  The original inhabitants of the territory were the Emim, a great, manifold and tall people as were the Anakim —(עפ"י מדרש.)
  they, too, were considered as Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim.
  Seir was originally inhabited by the Horites, but the children of Esau succeeded them by destroying them, and dwelt there in their stead just as Israel is doing to the land of his inheritance, which the Eternal has given them. Therefore their territory must be respected by Israel, for it is the fulfilment of His promise to Abraham.(רמב"ן.)
  Now, arise and pass the brook of Zered!’ So we passed the brook of Zered.
  The time from when we started marching from Kadesh-Barnea, until we passed the brook of Zered, was thirty eight years, during which all that generation of military age expired from among the camp just as the Eternal had decided.
  The Eternal's blow was added to hasten their annihilation from among the camp, till they expired, thus enabling their children to enter the Promised Land.
  When all the military-aged men among the people had expired —
  The Eternal spoke to me:(ספורנו.)
  You are about to pass, now, the border of Moab-the territory of Or;(מדרש.)
  so when you come toward the Children of Ammon, do not besiege them, nor start war against them; for I will not give you any of the land of the children of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the descendants of Lot as a possession.’
  That, also, is considered the land of the Rephaim. It was originally settled by the Rephaim, whom the Ammonites call Zamzummim,
  a people great, manifold, and tall as the giants. But the Eternal destroyed them for the sake of the Ammonites, and they succeeded them, and inhabited their land,
  as He did for the children of Esau who occupied Seir when He destroyed the Horites from before them, and they succeeded them and inhabited their land to this day.
  But the Avvim who dwelt in open towns near Gaza, the Cretans who came forth out of Crete destroyed them and occupied their land. They were not descendants of Abraham, and had no claim to Canaanite territory. Therefore it is not forbidden to Israel to start an offensive war against them.(רמב"ן.)
  Arise, march on, and pass over the brook of Arnom. Mark! It was ordained by Me that Sihon wage war against you, but I have given Sihon the king of Heshbon, the Amorite, and his land into your hand. Begin to occupy! Challenge him to war.(רמב"ן.)
  From today on I shall spread your dread and fear upon all the people that are under the whole heaven. Whoever hears of your fame will tremble and be in anguish because of you.'
  I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon the king of Heshbon, peaceful messages, saying as follows:
  Let me pass through your land, I will go along by the appointed roads, I will not turn either right or left.
  You will sell me food for money, that I may eat, and give me water for money, that I may drink, only let me pass through in my march -
  as the children of Esau who dwell in Seir, and the Moabites who dwell in Or, did sell me food and water — so that I may pass the Jordan into the land which the Eternal our Almighty gives us.'(רש"י.)
  But Sihon, the King of Heshbon, refused to let us pass through him; for the Eternal your Almighty hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate to wage war against us, in order that He might deliver him into your hand, as you see it today.(ספורנו.)
  The Eternal said to me: 'Mark! I have begun to hand over Sihon and his land to you; begin the occupation; take possession of his land!
  Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to wage war in Jahaz,
  and the Eternal our Almighty delivered him to us, and we have defeated him, his sons, and all his people.
  When we had conquered his cities at that time, we exterminated in every town, the men, the women and the children; we left no survivors because they refused to make peace with us.
  Only the cattle did we take for booty, together with the other spoil of the cities which we had conquered.
  From Aroer, which is on the edge of the brook of Arnon, and the capital city which was built on the brook, up to Gilead, there was not a city too strong for us; the Eternal our Almighty rendered everything to us.(יונתן, רש"י.)
  Only against the land of the Children of Ammon have you not waged war, all along the river Jabbok and the cities of the hill-country, and all the places which the Eternal our Almighty has commanded us not to conquer.(יונתן, רש"י.)
  
  
  
  We turned, going norward through Bashan, and Og, king of Bashan, came out against us without warning — he and all his people — to fight us at Edrei.(עפ"י יונתן, רשב"ם, בעלי תוספות.)
  But the Eternal said to me: "Do not be afraid of him, I will deliver him; all his people, and his land into your hand, and you will do to him as you have done to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon."(ד"ע עפ"י הפסיק אחר "הבכור".)
  So the Eternal our Almighty also gave Og, king of Bashan, and all his people into our hand; we defeated him until no survivor was left.
  We conquered all his towns at that time. There was not a city which we had not taken from them: sixty towns, all the provinces in the kingdom of Og in Bashan.(עפ"י ספורנו.)
  All these were fortified cities with high walls, gates, and bolts, apart from the very many open towns.(מפרשי אחרונים.)
  We exterminated them as we had done to Sihon king of Heshbon,  exterminating every town — the men, the women, and the children — for attacking us without warning.(אונקלוס, רש"י.)
  But all the cattle, and the spoil of the towns we retained for ourselves.(אונקלוס, רש"י.)
  We took the land at that time out of the domain of the two Amorite kings, who were in the eastern Jordan, from the brook of Arnon to Mount Hermon.(אונקלוס, רש"י.)
  The Sidonians call Hermon Syria, and the Amorites call it Senir, meaning: "Snow,” as snow is constantly on that mountain.(אונקלוס, רש"י.)
  We took all the cities of the plain, the entire Gilead and the entire Bashan, even Salcah and Edrei, the capital of Og in Bashan.(ראה פסוק יב.)
  Only Og, king of Bashan, remained of the remnant of the giant-like Rephaim, and for this reason the Eternal had to assure me not to fear him. His bed, an iron bed, is still preserved in the museum in Rabbath-Ammon; its length is eighteen feet, and its width eight feet, by the cubic measurement of an adult.(רשב"ם, יונתן.)
  The land which we occupied at that time — from Aroer, which is on the brook of Arnon, and the half of the hill-country of Gilead and its towns. I gave to the Reubenites and to the Gadites.(ראה רש"י שמות ה' ו', ורש"י כאן.)
  The rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og, indeed, all the royal provinces of Bashan — which is called Rephaim land — I gave to the half tribe of Manasseh.(א"ע ספורנו.)
  Jair the son of Manasseh received all the capital royal provinces of Bashan, as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maacahthites, and named them after himself: Havath Jair to this day.
  To Machir I gave part of Gilead.
  And that which I gave to the Reubenites and to the Gadites, was from Gilead to the brook of Arnon, the midstream to be the boundary, to the river Jabbok, which is the border of the Children of Ammon;
  the Arabah also — the Jordan being the border — from the Lake of Galilee to the sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea, under the Spring of Pisgah eastward.
  I commanded you, tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half tribe of Manaaseh, at that time, as follows: “The Eternal our Almighty gave you this land for a possession. All your warriors must pass as a vanguard before your brethren the Children of Israel.(יונתן, רש"י, א"ע.)
  Only your wives, your children, and your cattle — of which I know you have in abundance — will stay in your cities which I have given you.
  Until the Eternal makes your brethren settle down as you and they too occupy the land which the Eternal your Almighty is giving them on the West side of the Jordan, then may you return, everyone of you, to his possession which I have given you.'
  I also instructed Joshua at that time: 'You have actually seen with your own eyes all that the Eternal Your Almighty has done to these two kings; so will the Eternal do to all the kingdoms through which you are passing.
  You must not be afraid of them, for it is the Eternal your Almighty Who will fight for you."
  “Having conquered the eastern side of the Jordan, I begged at that time the Eternal for grace, as follows:(א"ע, רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  “O Merciful Eternal! You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness, and Your mighty power. There is no other power, either in heaven or on earth, who can perform such wonders as You, and so mighty as Your might.
  Let me, please, cross over and see the good land which is in the western part of the Jordan, the goodly mountain land and the Lebanon."
  But the Eternal, Who was furious with me on your account, did not accept my prayer, and the Eternal said to me: “Enough of your importuning! Do not pray anymore to Me about this matter.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  Ascend the top of the mountain peak, and direct youf eyes westward, northward, southward, and eastward, and see it with your eyes, but you can not cross over this Jordan.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  However, instruct Joshua, strengthen him, and encourage him that he has Divine assurance of success—for he will pass before this people. He will allot them the land which you may see.”(רש"י, א"ע.)
  So we stayed on in the valley, across Beth-Peor, and from there we marched to the Plains of Moab.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  
  
  
  And now, O Israel, after having heard the disastrous consequences which your fathers experienced — they could not enter the land promised to their forefathers — I appeal to you: Obey the decrees and the judgments which I teach you. Follow them so that you may live, and enter, and occupy the land which the Almighty of your fathers is giving you on the condition that you remain faithful to Him and obey His Torah.(עפ"י רמב"ן.)
  You must not add to the words which I command you, although permission is given to the sages in various generations to make fences around the judgments of the Torah in order to assure their keeping; neither may you diminish from it, but the sages have the power to temporarily dispense with some acts in the Torah under exceptional circumstances, in order to preserve the commandments of the Eternal your Almighty which I instruct you.(רמב"ן, רמב"ם הלכות ממרים, פ"ב הל' ג-ד.)
  You have seen with your own eyes what the Eternal did in the case of the idol Baal-Peor; for all the people among you who followed the idol Baal-Peor, the Eternal your Almighty annihilated,
  but you, who cleaved to the Eternal your Almighty are alive, everyone of you, today.
  Mark! The decrees and judgments which I taught you were not my own, but only what the Eternal my Almighty commanded me, for you to observe in the land which you enter to inherit.(א"ע.)
  Observe them, study them, and practice them, for by practicing the Torah you will be respected in the eyes of the people of the world as a wise and understanding nation, who on hearing of all these decrees will say: ‘Surely this great nation is also a wise and understanding people.’(רמב"ן.)
  For who is considered a great nation? Only Israel, who does not require any intermediary to pray for him other than his Almighty, Who is near to him; a Merciful Eternal Almighty Who answers his prayers whenever he calls upon Him.(רמב"ן.)
  Or what nation has ethical and righteous decrees and humane laws, such as you find in all the Torah which I set before you to-day?(רמב"ן.)
  Be careful and guard well your life that you never forget the happenings which your eyes have seen, and let them not depart from your memory throughout your life time. Transmit to your Children and their descendants,
  the reverential event of that day when you stood before the Eternal your Almighty in Horeb-Sinai; when the Eternal said to me: "Assemble the people to Me, and I will communicate My Words to them so that they learn how to revere Me, as long as they live upon the earth, and they, in turn, shall transmit them to their children.”
  You gathered and stood at the foot of the mountain. The mountain burned with fire in the midst of heaven, amid darkness, cloud, and mist.
  The Eternal spoke to you out of the midst of fire. You heard the Voice of Words, but you saw no bodily form, only a voice. Therefore bear in mind that the Eternal — and not a mediator — directly revealed His Torah to you; and no seer or dreamer can ever change the commandments of the Torah.(רמב"ן בפסוק ט.)
  He declared to you His conditional covenant when He commanded you to observe the Ten Commandments, and they were inscribed on two tablets, of stone.(עפ"י מלבי"ם.)
  Apart from the Ten Commandments, the Eternal instructed me to teach you additional decrees and judgments, and the oral laws, so as to make of you — through them — a civilized nation in the land which you are crossing to inherit.(רמב"ן, בפסוק יב.)
  Be, therefore, very careful for your lives-since you have not seen any manner of form on the day that the Eternal spoke to you on Horeb-Sinai from amidst the fire —
  that you do not act destructively by making for yourselves a graven image or a statue of any figure, the pattern being male or female,(עפ"י רמב"ן ורש"י.)
  the pattern of any beast which is on the earth, the pattern of any winged fowl which flies upward,(יונתן, רש"י, א"ע.)
  the pattern of anything that creeps on the ground, the pattern of any fish which is in the water under the earth.(יונתן, רש"י, א"ע.)
  And when you direct your eyes toward heaven, and see the sun, the moon, and the stars — all heavenly bodies — be careful not to be drawn away to worship them or to serve them, for the Eternal has allotted them only to shine for all the people under all the heavens, and not to be worshipped.(יונתן, רש"י, א"ע.)
  The Eternal had chosen you for His service when He brought you out of the iron furnace of bitter bondage in Egypt; to be to Him a chosen people as you are on this day.(אונקלוס, רש"י.)
  Now, the Eternal was angry with me because of your murmuring at the Waters of Meribah, and affirmed that I should not pass the Jordan and not enter the good land which the Eternal your Almighty is giving as a heritage.(רש"י.)
  For I must die in the land, and even my bones will not be transported through the Jordan; but you will pass over, and inherit this good land.(רש"י.)
  Be careful, then, not to forget the covenant which the Eternal your Almighty made with you and make for yourselves any graven image which the Eternal your Almighty commanded you not to make.(ספורנו.)
  For the Eternal your Almighty is as a consuming fire, an exacting Judge.(א"ע, מלבי"ם ביתרו.)
  When you rear children and grandchildren in the land where you are well established, so that you imagine through the long period of prosperity and security that you may deny His authority, and you corrupt your ways by making a graven image of any kind of form, or do any other kind of evil in the sight of the Eternal your Almighty such as murder and immorality — which would provoke Him,(רמב"ן, א"ע.)
  I call upon heaven and earth — which are everlasting — to be witness against you this day that you utterly perish from the land where you cross the Jordan to possess it. You will not remain long in it, but will soon be destroyed.(אונקלוס.)
  The Eternal will disperse you among foreign people, and you will be left a minority among the nations, to where the Eternal will drive you into captivity.(רמב"ן.)
  There you will serve the nations who worship idols — the work of man’s hands — of wood and stones, which neither see, nor hear the prayer of their worshippers, nor eat, nor breathe.(רמב"ן.)
  But from there you will pray to the Eternal your Almighty and you will find His Mercy, if you pray to Him with all your heart and with all your soul,(רמב"ן.)
  when you are in distress because all these things happens to you; in the end of the days, you will indeed return to the Eternal your Almighty and observe His commandments.
  For the Eternal your Almighty is also merciful in His Might. He will not withdraw His power from upholding you; neither will He allow your destruction, nor forget the covenant He affirmed to your forefathers.(רש"י.)
  For study the history of ancient times, of the nations who were before you — since the day that the Almighty created man upon the earth, and from one end of heaven to the other — and see whether there has been such a grand thing as this, or if there has been heard the like of it.
  Did ever a people hear the voice of the Eternal speaking out of the midst of fire, as you have heard and survived?
  Or has the Almighty ever performed miracles by revealing Himself, to redeem for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by miracles, by signs, and wonders, by war at the Red Sea, and by mighty power, and by outstretched arm, and by great terror, all the things which the Eternal your Almighty has done against the Egyptians before your very eyes?(אונקלוס, א"ע.)
  You have been shown all these miracles, in order that you will be convinced that the Merciful Eternal is also the Almighty. There is none beside Him.
  Out of heaven He made you hear His commandments to discipline you through His teachings; upon the earth He has shown you His great fire; and you have heard His Words out of the midst of fire.(יונתן.)
  And because He loved your fathers, Abraham and Isaac and chose His beloved son Jacob, therefore He has brought you out, for their sake, with His great might from Egypt,(יונתן.)
  to drive out before you, greater and mightier nations than you are; to bring you there and give you their land for an inheritance, as by this day you have already conquered the eastern side of the Jordan.(יונתן.)
  Be conscientious today, and be it impressed upon the tablets of your hearts, that the Merciful Eternal is also the Almighty in heaven above and upon the earth beneath; there is no other.(יונתן.)
  Observe His decrees and His commandments which I instruct you today, so that He will bestow kindness upon you and your children after you, and that you may endure a long time upon the land which the Eternal your Almighty is giving you for ever.”(יונתן.)
  At that time when he urged the people to be faithful to the Covenant, Moses took the opportunity of carrying out the Torah's commandments. He set aside three of the six Cities of Shelter in the eastern side of the Jordan, where the sun rises,(א"ע, רמב"ן.)
  so that the manslayer might escape there. Only he who murders his fellowman unintentionally, one who was not his enemy in the past may escape to one of these cities where he might be safe from the avenger.
  The three cities of shelter were: Bezer in the wilderness, in the flat land, which belonged to the Reubenite tribe, Ramoth in Gilead, which belonged to the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashon, which belonged to the Manaaseh tribe.
  The following is the Torah-teaching which Moses proclaimed before the Children of Israel;(רש"י.)
  This Torah teaching consists of the solemn declarations, the decrees, and the judgments which Moses told the Children of Israel when they came out from Egypt,(רש"י.)
  and which were repeated to the new generation in the eastern side of the Jordan in the valley over against Beth-Peor—in the land of Sihon, the king of the Ammorites who had his capital in Heshbon and whom Moses and the Children of Israel defeated after they had left Egypt.(רש"י.)
  They have occupied his land and the land of Og, the king of Bashon, the two kings of the Ammorites which are in the side of the Jordan where the sun rises,(עפ"י א"ע.)
  from Aroer on the bank of the brook of Arnon, as far as mount Sion, which is also called Hermon —
  and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan, eastward as far as to the sea of the Arabah, under the springs of Pisgoh. When the people gained this territory and could lead a settled life, Moses told them to practice this teaching.(ספורנו.)
  
  
  
  There Moses called out to all Israel, and said to them: 'Hear, O Israel, the decrees and the judgments which I speak before you to-day, that you may study them and observe to practice them.(אונקלוס.)
  The Eternal our Almighty entered into a covenant with us in Horeb-Sinai.(רש"י.)
  Not with our fathers alone did the Eternal enter this covenant, but with us also; yes, we are here to-day, we who are all alive.(אונקלוס.)
  Directly, without an intermediary, did the Eternal speak to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire.(א"ע, רש"י.)
  But you were afraid of the fire and did not go up on the mountain, so you heard directly from the Almighty only the first two of the Ten Comrtiandmeiits; then I stood between the Eternal and you, at that time to declare to you the rest of the Eternal's Commandments. The Words were as follow:(רמב"ן, א"ע, רש"י.)
  “I, the Merciful Eternal, am also Your Almighty as you have witnessed when I took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thus, you must acknowledge the sovereignty of the Eternal as your benefactor and Redeemer.(רש"י, אונקלוס, א"ע.)
  You shall not possess any deity beside Me, not even such made by someone else.(ראה פרשת יתרו.)
  You shall not make for yourself, for the purpose of worship, any sculpture, nor any image of anything that is in heaven above, such as angels and heavenly bodies, or that which is on the earth beneath the heaven, as human beings or animals, or that which is in the water under the earth, as the bottom of the ocean and what dwells there.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  You shall not worship them, nor offer sacrifices to them; for I, the Eternal your Almighty, am an exacting Judge, taking into consideration the guilty influence of wicked fathers upon their children, even upon the third and fourth generation, if the children hate me,(רש"י, א"ע.)
  and showing kindness indefinitely to those who influence their children to love Me and keep My commandments.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  You shall not swear by the Name of the Eternal your Almighty in vain, to affirm something that is evident; especially will the Eternal not leave unpunished him who falsely swears by His Name.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  Observe the Sabbath day, by hallowing it through prayer and study as the Eternal your Almighty commanded you, in the station of Marah, even before giving the Torah.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  Six days you labor in the field, or do all your work for your physical needs,(ש"ר הירש, רש"י.)
  but the seventh day must be set aside as a Sabbath to the Eternal your Almighty. On that day you shall not do or produce any work, not you, the adult, nor your minor son, minor daughter, your man-servant, maid-servant whether they be Israelites or not, nor your ox, your donkey, nor any of your household, so that even your slaves shall rest as you are resting.(רש"י.)
  For you must remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Eternal your Almighty has brought you out from there with mighty power and with an outstretched arm, therefore the Eternal your Almighty commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.(רש"י.)
  After the duty to your Creator, you owe a duty to your parents. Therefore honor your father and your mother, by giving them respect, obedience and love, both while they are alive, and after their death, as the Eternal your Almighty commanded you. Your reward will be long life in this earth which the Eternal your Almighty gave you, as well as in the world to come.(א"ע.)
  The Eternal has created man in His image. Therefore you shall not destroy His handiwork by murdering any human beings. There shall be no illicit relations between the sexes. Therefore you shall not profane the sacred covenant of marriage. You shall not steal, cheat, embezzle, forge, or deceive. You shall not accept an offer to be a false witness against your fellow-man, nor slander, defame, or misrepresent evidence.(א"ע, רש"י, אונקלוס.)
  Do not act upon your impulse to covet your fellowman’s wife; neither act to execute your wrongful desire to take away the house of your fellowman, his field, or his servant, or his maid-servant, his ox, or his donkey, nor anything which belongs to your fellowman.'(יונתן, רש"י.)
  These Words the Eternal spoke to all your assembly at the mount - amidst fire, cloud, and mist with a mighty voice, that did not pause. They were written on two tablets of stone and given to me.(אונקלוס.)
  When you heard the Voice out of the midst of darkness, while the mountain burned in fire, all the heads of your tribes and leaders approached me,
  and said: “The Eternal our Almighty has shown us His Glory by the revelation of fire and His magnificent thunder and lightning; and we have heard His voice proclaiming the commandments through the fire; we have seen today a phenomenal vision; that a mortal can survive though the Almighty has spoken to him.(יונתן, מלבי"ם, רש"י.)
  Yet, we are still afraid that we may die, for this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the Eternal our Almighty any longer, then we shall die.(רש"י, יונתן.)
  For who is there among mortals who has heard the Voice of the Almighty — the Source of all life — speaking from the midst of fire as we have, and survived?(רש"י, יונתן.)
  You go closer and listen to what the Eternal our Almighty may say, then you will communicate to us all which the Eternal our Almighty has spoken to you, and we shall obey and practice.'(רש"י, יונתן.)
  The Eternal accepted your plea what you spoke to me, and the Eternal said to me: “The request of this people that they have asked of you came before Me. All they have spoken is agreeable.(רמב"ן.)
  Oh, that they had such a will as this all the time, to revere Me and keep My commandments, so that all be well for them and for their children forever.(עיין ויקרא ב, ב.)
  Go, tell them that they may return to their tents.(רמב"ן.)
  But you stay here with Me, and I will speak to you all the commandments, the decrees, and the judgments which you will teach them, how they will practice them in the land which I give them to possess.'(יונתן, רש"י.)
  Now observe to practice as the Eternal your Almighty has commanded you. Do not turn aside to the right or left,(יונתן, רש"י.)
  follow only the way that the Eternal your Almighty directed you, so that you may survive and all the good things He promised you may be fulfilled, and you will remain in the land which you will possess for all times.(יונתן, רש"י.)
  
  
  
  Now, these are the instructions, the decrees, and the judgments in addition to the Ten Commandments which the Eternal your Almighty commanded me to teach you, in order that you may become a civilized nation in the land into which vou are crossing, to inherit.(עפ"י רמב"ן.)
  Through them you will revere the Eternal your Almighty by observing all His decrees, and His commandments, which I instruct you, your son, and your grandson, all the days of your life, and this also will assure you long and settled life in the land of your fathers.(עפ"י רמב"ן.)
  Follow therefore, O Israel, and observe and obey to practice it; so that He may treat you kindly, and increase you greatly in the land which the Eternal the Almighty of your forefathers has promised to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey.(רש"י, יונתן.)
  Hear, O Israel: The Eternal of Mercy, who is also our Almighty, will in the future, be acknowledged also by the whole world as the One and only Eternal of Mercy.(עפ"י רש"י.)
  Not from fear of punishment shall you serve Him, but you shall love the Eternal your Almighty by subordinating to Him all the desires of your heart, and all your life, and all your possessions.(עפ"י רש"י.)
  These words which I instruct you shall always be engraved on the tablets of your heart, as ever-new as you have received them to-day.(עפ"י מס' ברכות נד, א.)
  Teach them diligently to your children; speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you travel on the road. You shall recite these words in the evening, the time when you retire to bed, and in the morning, the time when you rise from sleep.(עפ"י א"ע.)
  Put them into the Tefilin on your arm, and keep them in the Tefilin on your head toward your eyes.
  You shall write them upon the Mezuzoth on the door posts of your houses and your gates.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  When the Eternal your Almighty brings you to the land which He promised to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give to you spacious and prosperous cities which you have not built;(רש"י, א"ע.)
  houses full of all good things which you have not filled, cisterns cut from rocks, which you have not hewed, vineyards and olive trees which you have not planted, and you eat and be satiated.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  Beware, that you be not spoiled by the wealth which you have so easily acquired. Do not forget the Eternal Who took you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  Revere the Eternal your Almighty; Him shall you serve and only then may you mention His name by swearing in truth when you are required to take an oath.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  Do not follow the idols, especially the idols of the nations that surround you, tempting you to emulate them.(רש"י.)
  For the Eternal your Almighty, Who is in your midst, is an exacting Judge. Let not the anger of the Eternal your Almighty burn against you, so that He wipe you off the face of the earth.(רש"י.)
  Do not test the Eternal your Almighty by questioning His protection, as you tested Him in Massah—where you were lacking water, and you asked: 'Is the Eternal among us?’(רש"י.)
  Keep always the commandments of the Eternal your Almighty, as well as His moral declarations and His decrees, which He commanded you.(רש"י.)
  Do what is right and good in the sight of the Eternal, even beyond the letter of the law, so that He be pleased to treat you well when you come and inherit the good land which the Eternal your Almighty promised to your forefathers,(רש"י.)
  when He will thrust out all your enemies from before you, as the Eternal had spoken.
  When, in the future, your son asks you: ‘What is the meaning of the laws of the Sabbath, holidays and Tefilin observances, the decrees, and the judgments, which the Eternal our Almighty instructed you before I was born?'(עפ"י רמב"ן, בעלי תוס'.)
  You shall explain to your son: ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Eternal brought us forth from Egypt with mighty power;
  The Eternal meted out great and sorrowful punishments through extra-ordinary signs, and through supernatural wonders—upon the Egyptians, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, in our presence, and taught us by all these signs that He is the sole Ruler over the forces of nature. Therefore, we observe even such laws and decrees which appear irrational to the human mind.(רמב"ן.)
  He brought us out from there, in order to bring us in and give us the land which He affirmed to our forefathers.(עפ"י יונתן, ספרי.)
  The Eternal commanded us to practice all these decrees by which we revere the Eternal our Almighty even though our mind may not grasp their reason. But their purpose is to bring happiness for us always, and to preserve us as we are on this day.(עפ"י יונתן, ספרי.)
  We consider it a privilege for us when we observe to practice all these commandments before the Eternal our Almighty as He commanded us.'(עפ"י יונתן, ספרי.)
  
  
  
  When the Eternal your Almighty will bring you into the land which you come to possess, and will help you to cast out many nations — to make place for you — the Hittites, and the Gergoshites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizites, and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven greater and mightier nations than you are —(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  and the Eternal your Almighty delivers them before you, and you defeat them. You must proscribe those who answered your call for peace, and agreed not to worship the idols, and therefore were allowed to remain in the land; you shall not conclude a treaty with them, neither shall you sell them any land, nor exchange gifts with them.(רש"י, רשב"ם.)
  You shall not intermarry with them, your daughter must you not give in marriage to his son, nor may you take his daughter for your son,
  for the Canaanite who marries your daughter will turn away your grandson from following Me, and they will worship idols. Thus will the anger of the Eternal burn against you, and He will destroy you quickly.(רש"י.)
  But thus shall you deal with them: Demolish their altars, break down their monuments. Their Ashera trees, planted as symbols for the idols, shall you cut down, and their graven images shall you burn in fire.
  For you are holy people to the Eternal your Almighty, therefore must you not defile yourself by marrying women who will bear you unholy children. The Eternal your Almighty has chosen you out of all nations of the earth to be His beloved people.(ספורנו, אונקלוס.)
  Do not say that you will intermarry in order to become a large nation to Him. For the Eternal does not look for great numbers. The Eternal did not attach you nor choose you because you were numerous, for you are indeed the smallest of peoples.(אונקלוס.)
  The reason He chose you is because He found you to be worthy of His love, and because He kept the oath He made to your fathers. Therefore, the Eternal freed you with mighty power and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.(רש"י, פ"ט עפ"י א"ע.)
  Know, therefore, that the Eternal your Almighty is a powerful and a faithful Judge. He keeps the merciful covenant with mighty power for His beloved righteous, and for them who keep His commandments, indefinitely.(רש"י, פ"ט עפ"י א"ע.)
  He also rewards His wicked enemies — who have some good to their credit, or have meritorious parents, in their lifetime in order to destroy them from the hereafter; He does not defer reward for His enemy, He rewards him immediately.(רש"י, רמב"ן, ספורנו.)
  Therefore keep in this world the commandments, the decrees, and the judgments which I instruct you to do, and the reward will come to you in this world and in the hereafter.(רש"י, רמב"ן, ספורנו.)
  If you follow these judgments, keep and practice them, the Eternal your Almighty will in exchange retain for your generation the merciful covenant which He confirmed to your forefathers. But if you reject His laws, the fulfillment of the promise to your forefathers will be deferred to a later generation.(רמב"ן, רשב"ם.)
  The fulfillment of the covenant with your forefathers will be that He will bestow His love upon you, bless you with riches, and increase you. He will also bless your children and the products of your land: your corn and your wine, your oil, your cowherds, and your sheepherds in the land which He affirmed to your forefathers to give you.(ספורנו, יונתן.)
  You will be blessed above all people; there will be neither male nor female childlessness among man or among your animals.
  The Eternal will remove from you any ordinary sickness; He will put upon you none of the supernaturally evil diseases with which He afflicted the Egyptians of which you know, but will inflict them upon all your enemies.(א"ע.)
  You will annihilate all the nations which the Eternal your Almighty gives you; (if they refuse the offer of peace and are unwilling to give up idolatry) you will not spare them, neither shall you serve their idols, for that would be a snare to you.(ראה רמב"ן כ', יז.)
  You may perhaps think to yourselves: “These nations are too many for me; how can I dispossess them?”
  You need not be afraid of them. Remember well what the Eternal your Almighty did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt that though they were more numerous, He destroyed them,(ספורנו.)
  and the great miracles which your eyes have witnessed, and the signs, and the supernatural wonders, and the pestilence He sent upon them with a mighty force, and the outstretched arm, when the firstborn died, whereby the Eternal your Almighty brought you out; so will the Eternal your Almighty do to all the nations whom you fear.(אונקלוס, רש"י.)
  The Eternal, your Almighty, will also send against them the plague of poisonous hornets, so that the remainder who hide themselves in the caves will perish.(אונקלוס, רש"י.)
  You must not be terrified by them, but instead render admiration to Him; for the Eternal your Almighty in your midst is a great and awe-inspiring Almighty.(א"ע.)
  The Eternal your Almighty will help you to cast out those nations little by little; you may not destroy them at one time, lest the wild beasts multiply against you in the desolated land.(עפ"י רמב"ן.)
  The Eternal your Almighty will deliver them up before you, and will rout them in a crushing defeat, until they be annihilated.(עפ"י רמב"ן.)
  He will deliver their kings in your hand, and you will renounce their fame from under heaven, so that outsiders will not ally with them against you; no one will dare stand up against you until you annihilate them.(עפ"י רמב"ן.)
  The graven images of their idols will you burn in fire, the ornaments of gold and silver on the idols should not tempt you to take' them for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by them, and thus attribute your fortunes to the power of the idols; for it is abhorrent to the Eternal your Almighty.(יונתן, ספורנו.)
  You must not bring abominations into your house, that you might be destroyed like them; you must utterly detest them, and utterly abhor them; for they are such things which bring a curse.(יונתן, ספורנו.)
  
  
  
  You shall observe every commandment which I instruct you to-day, that you may live, multiply, come and possess the land which the Eternal affirmed to your forefathers.(רש"י.)
  Remember the long way which the Eternal your Almighty has led you in the wilderness these forty years, providing for your needs in a supernatural way. He dealt harshly with you in order to test you, to know what was in your heart, and whether you would observe His commandments in'more favorable circumstances, or not.(רש"י.)
  He afflicted you with the long journey in the wilderness, and He famished you and then fed you with manna, a food which neither you, nor your forefathers knew, in order to impress upon you that man does not exist by physical food alone, but man's existence also needs the emanation of Divine power.(רש"י.)
  The clothes upon your bodies did not wear out not did you walk barefoot these forty years.
  By this you will be convinced that as u man disciplines his son through hardships and trials so did the Eternal your Almighty discipline you.(רמב"ן, רש"י, יונתן.)
  You shall therefore observe the commandments of the Eternal your Almighty: follow in His way and revere Him.(תנחומא, רש"י.)
  For the Eternal your Almighty is bringing you into a land of plenty, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and underground wells, springing forth from valleys and hills;(רש"י, יונתן.)
  a land of wheat and barley, of vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; soil yielding delicacies such as olive trees that produce oil, and palm trees that produce honey;(רש"י, א"ע.)
  a land in which you will eat bread without scrimping for you will lack nothing in it; a land where the stones contain iron, and from whose hills you can dig copper.
  When you have eaten and are satisfied, give thanks to the Eternal your Almighty for the good land which He has given you, in contrast to the days of poverty. (רמב"ן.)
  Beware lest you forget the Eternal your Almighty, by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His decrees which I instruct you to-day.
  When you have eaten and are satisfied, and build comfortable homes in which you will dwell,(א"ע.)
  and your herds and flocks multiply, and your gold and silver is increased and all that you have becomes numerous;(רשב"ם.)
  you might become haughty and forget the Eternal your Almighty Who brought you forth from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery;(עפ"י א"ע.)
  Who led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions, a dry land with no water in it, Who brought forth for you water from a rocky flint;
  Who fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers had not known, in order to test you by affliction, so that it might be well with you in the end.(עפ"י ספורנו.)
  Be careful not to say to yourselves: 'My strength and the might of my own hand gathered for me all this wealth.'(א"ע.)
  Remember the Eternal your Almighty, for it is He, — the Source of all Power — Who gives you strength to accumulate wealth that He may fulfill His covenant which He affirmed to your forefathers, as it is today.
  If you consider your prosperity the result of your own effort, and you forget the Eternal your Almighty, and follow idols, serve them and worship them — I forewarn you that you will surely perish;(עפ"י ש"ר הירש, רש"י.)
  like the nations that the Eternal will destroy before you, so will you be destroyed, because you have not accepted the words of the Eternal your Almighty.
  
  
  
  Understand, O Israel: Success can not be attributed only to power, but to the aid of the Almighty, for you cross the Jordan at this time, entering to dispossess greater and mightier nations than you are, to conquer great cities fortified up to the sky;(רמב"ן, א"ע.)
  great and tall people, the descendants of the Anakim-giants, of whom you have known and of whom you have heard said: 'Who can stand up against the descendants of the Anok giants?'(רש"י.)
  Know then this day that it is the Eternal your Almighty, it is He who goes before you as a devouring fire. He will destroy them and he will subdue them before you, that you drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Eternal has promised you.(רש"י.)
  And when the Eternal your Almighty has thrust them from before you, do not say to yourselves: "The Eternal has brought me to this land because of my meritorious deeds, and He has driven them out because of the wickedness of these nations.”
  No, while it is true that the Eternal your Almighty drives them out because of the wickedness of these nations. You, however, do not come to possess their land for your meritorious deeds or for your uprightness. It is rather to fulfill the promise that the Eternal made to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.(רשב"ם, רמב"ן.)
  Recognize the fact that it is not for your meritorious deeds that the Eternal your Almighty has given you this good land to possess. Though you are a disobedient people, yet He will not annul the promise made to your forefathers.(א"ע, רש"י.)
  Remember, do not forget, how you have provoked the Eternal your Almighty in the wilderness; from the day you left the land of Egypt, until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Eternal.(ספורנו.)
  Even after receiving the Torah in Horeb you provoked the Eternal and the Eternal was angered with you to the point of destroying you.(רמב"ן.)
  I went up into the mount to take the tablets of stone — the Tablets of the Covenant which the Eternal concluded with you — and I tarried on the mount forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread, nor did I drink water.
  And the Eternal gave me the two tablets of stone, written by the directions of the Almighty. They contained all the words, which the Eternal had spoken to you on the mount from amidst the fire on the day of the Assembly.(עיין פסחים צג, ע"ב.)
  It was at the end of the forty days and forty nights that the Eternal gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.
  And the Eternal said to me: 'Arise, descend quickly from here, for your people, the mixed multitude whom you have brought forth from Egypt, have corrupted Israel; they have quickly turned away from the way which I commanded them; they have made themselves a molten image.'
  The Eternal said to me further, "It was revealed from before Me, that this is a disobedient people.(אונקלוס.)
  Refrain from praying for them, let Me destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven, and I will make of you a mightier and greater nation then they are.”(ראה שמות לב, יב.)
  I turned and came down the mount. While the mount was still burning with fire at His Revelation, you had sinned. I held the two tablets of the covenant in my two hands.(רמב"ן.)
  I saw how you had sinned against the Eternal your Almighty: you had made yourselves a molten calf; you had turned away quickly from the way which the Eternal had commanded you.
  So I seized the two tablets, and cast them out of my two hands, breaking them in pieces before your eyes.
  I prostrated myself in prayer before the Eternal the same amout of time as before, forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread, nor did I drink water, to atone for all your sins which you have committed, in acting badly before the Eternal, provoking Him.(עפ"י א"ע.)
  For I dreaded the anger and the fury which the Eternal raged against you to destroy you. And the Eternal accepted my prayer that time also as on previous occasions.(עפ"י רמב"ן, ספורנו.)
  The Eternal also raged against Aaron, to have him destroyed, for complying with your demands to form the molten calf; so I also prayed for the sake of Aaron at that time.(ספורנו.)
  I took your idol — the calf which you had made — and burned it in fire, and crushed it, pounding it very small, until it was reduced to thin powder; then I cast its dust into the brook that descended from the mountain.
  You also provoked the Eternal at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-Hattaavah.
  And when the Eternal sent you a message from Kadesh-Barnea: ‘Go up and possess the land which I am giving you,' you rebelled against the message of the Eternal; neither did you trust Him in your heart, nor have you followed His command in action.(א"ע.)
  You have been rebellious against the Eternal since the day I have known you.
  When I prostrated in prayer before the Eternal — those forty days and forty nights — for the Eternal planned to destroy you,(רש"י.)
  I prayed to the Eternal, as follows: ‘O Master Almighty, do not wipe out Your people, and Your inheritance, whom, You have redeemed through Your greatness and whom You have brought out from Egypt with mighty power.
  Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, turn not Your attention to the stubbornness of this people, its wickedness, and its sinfulness,
  lest the inhabitants of the land from which You have brought them out will say: ‘It was because the Eternal was not able to bring them into the land which He promised them, and because He hated them, that He brought them out to slay them in the wilderness, where there would be no trace of them.'(אונקלוס, רמב"ן.)
  Yet they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out from slavery by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm.”
  
  
  
  At that time, after the Eternal had accepted my forty days of prayer, the Eternal said to me: ‘Hew two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to Me on the mount; and make for you a temporary wooden ark to hold the tablets.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you have broken, and you will put them in the ark.'(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  So I made an ark of acacia wood, hewed two tablets of stone like the former ones, and I ascended the mount holding the two tablets in my hand.(רש"י.)
  And He directed the writing on the tablets, according to the first writing — the Ten Commandments which the Eternal spoke to you on the mount from the midst of the fire, on the day of the Assembly and the. Eternal gave them to me.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  When I turned and came down from the mount, I put the tablets into the ark that I had made, and they remained there, until they were transferred into the golden Ark when the Tent of the Assembly was constructed, as the Eternal had commanded me.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  The Children of Israel, your fathers, retraced their march (out of fear of a Canaanite foe), from Beeroth-Benejakon to Mosseroh. In that area Aaron died, and there he was buried; so Eleazar took his place as High kohen.(רמב"ן.)
  From there they marched to Gudgod, and from Gudgod to Jotbah, an area rich in brooks of water.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  At that time, when the Israelites worshiped the golden calf, the tribe of Levi did not join them in the sin, and the Eternal set apart the tribe of Levi, some to carry the Ark of the covenant of the Eternal during the wandering in the wilderness and some to be Kolienites to stand before the Eternal to minister before Him by offering sacrifices, and bless the community in His name, even to this day.(רש"י.)
  Therefore the Levites have no part and no allotment with their brethren in the land, since their whole time was required for the work of the Sanctuary, and they were not free to attend to the soil. The portion of the sacrifices which the people offer to the Eternal, this will be their allotment, as the Eternal your Almighty has spoken concerning them.(ספרי, אונקלוס.)
  Now I had stayed on the mount, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights; and the Eternal accepted my prayer once again; the Eternal consented not to destroy you.(יונתן.)
  And the Eternal said to me: ‘Arise, lead the march of the people, let them enter and possess the land which I promised to their forefathers to give them.'
  And now, O Israel, what does the Eternal your Almighty require of you? It is to revere the Eternal your Almighty to follow in all His ways, to love him, and to serve the Eternal your Almighty with all your heart and with all your soul,
  to keep the commandments of the Eternal, and His decrees which I instruct you to-day. And this He requires not for His benefit, but for your welfare.(עפ"י רש"י.)
  Mark! To the Eternal your Almighty belongs the heaven and that which is above the heaven, the earth and all that is there; and He has no need of your obedience and worship.(ראה רמב"ן.)
  It is only because of your forefathers, whom the Eternal loved, that He chose you, from among their other descendants, and from among all the nations, to be the custodian of His law, for all times.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  Remove therefore the covering that surrounds your heart; make it so that the Divine truth will be allowed to penetrate into it, and be not disobedient any longer.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  For the Eternal your Almighty is the Supreme Judge, Master of all rulers; the great, mighty, and awe-inspiring Almighty, Who is never partial in the strife between the mighty and the weak, and is never appeased by bribery,(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  He executes justice for the defenseless orphans and the widow, and loves the alien, providing him with the essential needs of man-food and raiment.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  Love therefore the unprotected alien as the Almighty loves him; for you were aliens in the land of Egypt, and from this bitter experience you will learn to sympathize with the alien in your land.
  You must revere the Eternal your Almighty; only Him will you serve, and to His good deeds will you cleave, and His Name will you worship.(א"ע.)
  He is your glory and He is your Almighty, Who has done for you these great and marvelous things which you have witnessed.(רש"י.)
  Your forefathers went down to Egypt seventy persons only, and now the Eternal your Almighty has made you as numerous as the stars in heaven.
  
  
  
  Love, therefore, the Eternal your Almighty, keep His observances, His decrees, His civil judgments and His commandments — always.(רשב"ם, אונקלוס.)
  Take note to-day, that these wondrous events are not a promise to come true in the time of your children, who have not known and who have not witnessed the discipline of the Eternal your Almighty, His greatness, His mighty force, and His outstretched arms,(עיין רמב"ן.)
  His signs, His actions which He performed in the midst of Egypt, against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, andr all his land;(א"ע.)
  what He did to the Egyptian army, its horses, and chariots; how He made the waters of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued you, and how the Eternal destroyed them to this day;(רש"י.)
  what He had performed for you in the wilderness, by providing you with the manna food, until you came to this place;(בעלי תוספות.)
  and how He punished Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, of the tribe of Reuben; how the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, together with their families, their tents, and all their possessions which belonged to them, from the midst of all Israel.—(ש"ר הירש.)
  So all these miracles are not meant as a fulfilment to the future generation, but your own eyes have seen all the great work of the Eternal which He performed.(רש"י.)
  Keep, therefore, all the commandments which I instruct you today, that you may be strong, morally and physically by the aid of the Divine, and you will come and possess the land which you are about to cross into, to possess it;(אונקלוס, א"ע, רשב"ם.)
  and that you may live long in the land which the Eternal promised to your forefathers to give to them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.(א"ע, הירש.)
  For the land which you enter to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, with its rivers for irrigation which, when you planted your seeds, you had to water them with a wheel by foot as you artificially irrigate the vegetable garden.(א"ע, הירש.)
  But the land into which you cross to possess, is a land of hills and valleys whose fertility depends upon the rain from heaven;(ספורנו, הירש.)
  a land from whose inhabitants the Eternal your Almighty requests obedience. The attention of the Eternal your Almighty is directed on her always — from the beginning of the year to its end — sending or withdrawing rain, according to whether the inhabitants are good or evil.(אונקלוס.)
  If, then, you will carefully follow my instructions which I instruct you today, to love the Eternal your Almighty, and serve Him by praying with all your heart and with all your soul;(רש"י.)
  then will come true His promise of: 'I will give the rain for your land in its season; the early rain in the time of sowing, and the latter rain before the harvest, that you may gather in your corn, your wine and your oil.(רמב"ן.)
  And I will provide grass in your fields for your cattle; you will eat and be satisfied.'(יונתן, ספורנו, בעלי תוספות.)
  Take good care, especially in time of prosperity, lest your evil inclination entice you, and you reject the Torah, leading to the serving of idols, and worshipping them.(יונתן, מדרש, רש"י.)
  For the anger of the Eternal will burn against you, and He will close up the heaven so that there will be no rain, and the ground will not yield its products; and you will perish quickly from the good land which the Eternal is giving you.(יונתן, א"ע, ועפ"י הירש.)
  Meditate in these words whole heartedly and obey them with full determination, put them inside the Tefilin on your arms, and keep them in the Tefilin on your head, toward your eyes.(רש"י.)
  Teach them to your children that they may talk of them as soon as the child can speak, recite them when you sit in your house, and when you travel on the road, in the evening—the time of retiring to bed, and in the morning—the time when you rise from sleep.
  Write them in the Mezuzoth on the door posts of your houses and your gates.(אונקלוס.)
  So that your years, and the years of your children, may be extended in the land which the Eternal promised to your fathers to give to them, as long as the heaven endures on the earth, everlastingly.(רמב"ן.)
  If you carefully keep all these instructions that I instruct you and practice them: to love the Eternal your Almighty, to follow all His ways, and to cleave to His deeds of mercy and kindness,(יונתן.)
  the Eternal will come to your aid to drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than you.(רמב"ן.)
  Every part of territory on which the sole of your foot treads will be yours; from the wilderness in the south to the Lebanon in the north, from the river—the river Euphrates—in the north ,to the mediterranean—will be your border.(הירש.)
  No man will be able to stand against you; The Eternal will put panic and the fear of you on all the inhabitants of the land on which you will tread, as He promised you.(ספרי.)
  Said Moses: ‘Mark! I set before you today a blessing and its reverse.(א"ע, מפרשי אחרונים.)
  You will be endowed with the blessing if you observe the commandments of the Eternal your Almighty which I instruct you 'to-day,(א"ע, מפרשי אחרונים.)
  and its reverse, if you do not observe the commandments of the Eternal your Almighty, but turn away from the path which I direct you to-day and serve idols which you have not known.
  When the Eternal your Almighty brings you into the land which you go to possess, you will place the Levites to pronounce the blessing — while they turn their faces toward Mount Gerizim, and the pronounce the curse, while turning their faces toward Mount Ebol.(רמב"ן.)
  These mountains are in the west side of the Jordan, toward the setting sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the plain opposite Gilgal, near Shechem where Abraham encamped at the turpentine tree of Moreh.(רש"י.)
  For you are crossing the Jordan, coming to possess the land which the Eternal your Almighty is giving you. When you possess it and dwell in it,
  you must keep practicing all these decrees and the civil judgments which I set before you.
  
  
  
  These are the decrees and the civil judgments which you must keep, in the land. If they are such precepts that pertain to the soil or its produce, as tithes or the Sabbathical year, you practice them only in the land which the Eternal, the Almighty of your fathers has given you to possess; but the precepts which are personal obligations, as the Tephilin, etc., must be observed both within and without the land, all the years that you are on the earth.(ספרי.)
  You must utterly eradicate, until no trace is left, all the places in which the nations you are to dispossess, served their idols—on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every leafy tree.(עפ"י הירש.)
  Tear down their altars, break down their monuments, and burn in fire their ashera trees which they worship; cut down the graven images of their idols; so that all memory of them will be eradicated from that place.(רמב"ן.)
  However, you must not do as the Canaanites do. Offer not your sacrifices to the Eternal your Almighty on the high mountains or hills,(רמב"ן.)
  but offer them, at the central place where the Eternal your Almighty allows His Divinity to abide. And for the abode of the Divine Presence, you must consult a prophet where to erect it, and you will go there to appear before Him.(רש"י.)
  There you will bring your burnt-offerings, your festival sacrifices, tithes, your first fruit, your vows and voluntary offerings, and the firstlings of your herd and flock.(עפ"י אונקלוס.)
  And there in the holy place the Kohen and the Levite, together with you, will eat before the Eternal your Almighty, then will you enjoy all your undertakings— you together with your families, with which the Eternal your Almighty, blessed you.(עפ"י תרגום ירושלמי.)
  You must not do at all as we are doing here at the present time, when everyone sacrifices on private altars wherever it pleases him,(עפ"י א"ע ומפרשים.)
  for you have not yet reached the resting place and the inheritance, which the Eternal your Almighty is giving you.(עפ"י הירש.)
  But when you cross the Jordan and settle in the land which the Eternal your Almighty gives you to inherit, and He grants you tranquility from all your enemies around you, so that you dwell in safety;(עפ"י הירש.)
  then at the place in which the Eternal your Almighty chooses to allow His Divinity to abide, there will you bring all that I commanded you: your burnt-offerings, and your festival sacrifices, your tithes and your first fruit, and all the choice animals which you vow to the Eternal.(עפ"י הירש.)
  You will rejoice in the holy habitation before the Eternal your Almighty you, and your sons, and your daughters, your men-servants, and maid-servants — together with the Levite, who is within your gates, because he has no portion nor allotment with you in the land.(עפ"י הירש.)
  Be careful not to sacrifice your burnt-offerings and other sacrifices in every place which you deem suitable;(עפ"י הירש, אונקלוס.)
  but only in the place which the Eternal will choose, through a prophet, in one of the cities of your tribes; there will you sacrifice your burnt-offerings, and there will you offer your other sacrifices all as I instructed you.(אונקלוס.)
  Only when the consecrated animal has become defective, and can not be offered on the altar, you must redeem it and it may be eaten within all your gates. You may eat its. flesh, according to the blessing which the Eternal your Almighty granted you. The ritually impure and pure may partake of it, as of the gazelle and the deer, because it is not flesh of sacrifices.(רש"י.)
  But the blood of any animal must you not eat; you will pour it out upon the ground like water.(רש"י.)
  You are not allowed to eat within your gates the tithe of your corn, your wine and your oil, or the firstlings of your herd and flock, nor any of your vows which you vowed, nor your voluntary offerings, nor the offerings of your first fruit;
  but you may eat them within the boundaries of the Holy City before the Eternal your Almighty, in the place which the Eternal your Almighty will choose— you, your son, your daughter, your man-servant, and your maid-servant, together with the Levite who is within your gates; and you will rejoice before the Eternal your Almighty in all your undertakings.(רש"י.)
  Be careful not to forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land, because he is landless.(רש"י.)
  When the Eternal your Almighty enlarges your territory, as He has promised you, and you say: 'I want to eat meat,' because your appetite desires to eat meat, you do not have to offer the animal as a peace sacrifice and slaughter it at the Sanctuary, but you may eat the meat anywhere you want,(רמב"ן.)
  for the place in which the Eternal your Almighty will choose to allow His Divinity to abide, will be too far for you. But you must perform the ritual slaughtering of your oxen and sheep, according to all the methods of Shechita61<i class="footnote">See Glossary in the end of Leviticus.</i> which I commanded you orally on Sinai. Then, you may eat them anywhere you wish.(רש"י.)
  You may then, eat even as the gazelle and deer — that are not acceptable as an offering on the altar — are eaten; the ritually impure may eat together with the ritually pure.
  But take every care not to eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and it is absorbed in all limbs; therefore make every effort to remove it. Neither may you eat meat cut from a living animal.(רש"י, רשב"ם.)
  You must not eat even that blood which remains in the animal after the flow of blood has ceased; pour it out on the ground as water.(רש"י, רשב"ם.)
  Because eating blood has a demoralizing effect upon the moral and physical nature and passes on to the descendants, therefore must you not eat it, in order that you enjoy good health — you, and your children after you. When you abstain from eating it, have in mind that you fulfill that which is right before the Eternal.(א"ע, ספורנו.)
  But your consecrated animals and your vow-sacrifices you must take and go to the place which the Eternal will choose;
  You will offer your burnt-offering, the flesh and the blood on the altar of the Eternal your Almighty: The blood of your peace-offering is to be poured on the altar of the Eternal your Almighty, and the greatest part of the flesh may be eaten.(רש"י.)
  Observe and follow all these words which I instruct you, in order that you may enjoy happiness — you and your descendants after you — everlastingly, for you will practice that which is good and right before the Eternal your Almighty; whether in relationship with the Divinity or with ntan.(רש"י.)
  After the Eternal your Almighty cuts down before you the nations whom you go to dispossess, and after you dispossess them and you dwell in their land,
  be careful not to be ensnared by following them after they have been destroyed from before you. You must not inquire after their idolatrous cult, saying: 'In the way that these nations conducted the worship of their idols, in that same manner will I conduct the worship to the true Divinity’.(רמב"ן, א"ע.)
  You must not act thus toward the Eternal your Almighty, for every hated abominable thing to the Eternal have they practiced in the worship of their idols; they even offered up their sons and their daughters in fire to their idols.
  
  
  
  All these words which I instruct you, you must observe to practice; you must not add to them, nor must you diminish from them.62<i class="footnote">See Chapter 4, verse 2.</i>(יונתן מפרש "פתגמיא" בלשון רבים, ראה בואתחנן ד, ב.)
  If one among you arises, claiming that he is a prophet and the Eternal gave him a message while he was awake, or he appeared to him in a dream,—and he gives you a sign, through prediction of a natural incident, or a wonder of a supernatural event.(עפ"י רמב"ן.)
  Even if this sign or wonder which he predicted to you were to come true, if he tells you: 'Let us follow the idols, which you do not know, and let us worship them';(רש"י.)
  you must not listen to this supposed prophet, or to the dreamer of dreams. For these signs and wonders come true because the Eternal your Almighty puts you to the test, to reveal whether you really love the Eternal your Almighty with all your heart and with all your soul.(רש"י.)
  No sign or wonder must convince you to turn away from Him, but after the Eternal your Almighty must you walk, Him - must you revere, His commandments must you keep, His voice that comes through a true prophet must you obey, Him must you worship, and to His Merciful attributes must you cleave.(רש"י.)
  And that false prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, will be put to death, because he spoke rebelliously against the Eternal your Almighty, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery — to sidetrack you from the path which the Eternal your Almighty commanded to walk. You must remove the evil doer from your midst.(רש"י.)
  Even if your own brother, the son of your father, or the son of your mother, or your son, or daughter, or the wife of your covenant, or your friend whom you love like yourself, entices you secretely saying: 'Let us go and worship idols,' of which you do not know, neither you, nor your fathers;(רש"י.)
  from among the idols of the people around you, either near or far away from you, even as far from one end of the world to the other end of the world,(רש"י.)
  do not consent, nor accept his words to follow him. You must not spare him, nor pity him, neither must you protect him by withholding evidence against him,(רש"י.)
  but you 'must put him to death by the court. Let your hand be first to put him to death, and afterward the hand of the people.(רש"י.)
  Stone him to death, because he attempted to draw you away from the Eternal your Almighty, Who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery.(רש"י.)
  Thus all Israel will hear and fear, and will not do any more wickedness, such as this, in your midst.(רש"י.)
  If you should hear tell, that in one of the towns that the Eternal your Almighty is giving you to dwell in,(רש"י.)
  some scoundrels have come out from among you and enticed the inhabitants of their town saying. ‘Let us go and worship idols,' which you have not known;(רש"י.)
  you must inquire and search and thoroughly investigate. If it be true and the thing is substantiated, that such abomination was done in your midst,(רש"י.)
  you must surely inflict punishment on the inhabitants of that town by the sharp sword. Destroy it utterly — the men and the women but not the children — and all that is in there even its cattle, by the sharp sword.(רש"י.)
  Gather all its spoil in the midst of the market place, and bum in fire the city and all its spoil; burn it for the glorification of the Eternal your Almighty, and it must remain a heap for ever, never to be rebuilt.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  Nothing must remain in your possession of the condemned city, in order that the Eternal may turn from the fierceness of His anger, and grant you mercy, have compassion upon you, and multiply you as He has promised your forefathers,(רשב"ם.)
  for you will follow the voice of the Eternal your Almighty to keep all His commandments which I instruct you to-day, to practice what is right before the Eternal your Almighty.
  
  
  
  You are children of the Eternal your Almighty. You, therefore, must not cut your flesh nor make any baldness on your head between your eyes, when you mourn for the dead, as the heathen do.(מס' תענית כט.)
  Because you are a consecrated people and the Eternal has chosen you from all the people that are upon the earth to be His treasure,(רש"י, א"ע.)
  therefore must you not eat anything declared by the Eternal to be abominable, which defiles the purity of the soul.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  These are the animals that you may eat: the ox, the sheep and the goat;
  the gazelle the deer, the roebuck, the wild goat, the antelope, the wild-ox and the mountain-sheep,(הירש.)
  and every animal whose hoofs are split, completely cleft in two, and ruminating, such kind of animal and everything that is in it, even the living embryo, you may eat.
  But do not eat those that only ruminate, or only have split hoofs. The camel, the hare, and the rabbit although they muminate, their hoofs are not split, and they are ritually unclean for you.(רמב"ן.)
  Also the swine, although its hoofs are split, but he does not ruminate, he is ritually unclean for you; you must not eat of their flesh, and their carcasses will you not touch.
  Of all the following things which are in water, may you eat: whatever has fins and scales, you may eat;(כלי יקר.)
  But whatever has no fins and scales you must not eat; it is ritually unclean for you.(רש"י.)
  Of all ritually clean birds you may eat.(רש"י.)
  These are the ritually unclean which you must not eat: the eagle, the vulture, and the ospray,(רש"י.)
  the glede, the falcon and the kite of their species,(עפ"י יונתן.)
  every raven of its species;(עפ"י יונתן.)
  the ostrich, the night-hawk, the sea-gull, and the hawk with all their species;(עפ"י יונתן.)
  the little owl, the great owl, and the white owl;(עפ"י יונתן.)
  the pelican, the carrion-vulture, and the cormorant;
  the stork, the heron with all their species, the hoopoe, and the bat.(לקוטים ממפרשים שונים.)
  All winged swarming things as flies and bees, are ritually unclean for you; they must not be eaten.(רשב"ם בויקרא יא, כ.)
  Of all clean winged things you may eat.63<i class="footnote">See Leviticus Chapter 2.</i>(בעלי תוספות.)
  You must not eat anything that died by itself or was not ritually slaughtered; you may give it to the resident alien who is within your gates, or sell it to a non-Israelite of a foreign country — for you are a consecrated people to the Eternal your Almighty. You must not eat, or cook, or sell meat mixed with milk.(יונתן, בעלי תוספות.)
  Besides the tithe that you give to the Levites, you must set aside the second tithe in the second Sabbathical year, from all the produce of your seed, which 'is brought out in the field in the current year.(רשב"ם, אונקלוס.)
  You will eat the tithe of your grain and wine and oil, and the firstling of your oxen and sheep, in the Holy city of the Eternal your Almighty, in the place which He will choose His Divine Presence to be there, in order that you become accustomed to revere the Eternal your Almighty always, even in time of affluence.(עפ"י רמב"ן.)
  If the distance be too long for you so that you are not able to carry it, because the place which the Eternal your Almighty has chosen for His Divine Presence to be there will be far from you, because the Eternal your Almighty has blessed you with much produce, heavy to carry,(רש"י.)
  you may exchange the tithe for money, take the money with you, and go to the place which the Eternal your Almighty will choose,(רש"י.)
  and there in the Holy city you may spend the money for whatever your appetite wishes — for meat of oxen, or of sheep, new or old wine, and of all kinds of fruit your heart desires. And you may eat it there in the holy city of the Eternal your Almighty, and enjoy it, you and your family.(ש"ר הירש.)
  But you must not forsake giving the first tithe to the Lcvite who resides within your gates, for he has no portion nor allotment in the land with you.(ש"ר הירש.)
  If you failed to give your tithe the first and the second years, then at the end of the third Sabbathical year you must remove the tithes of your produce of those years, and leave it at the disposal of the Levites and the poor in your gates.(ש"ר הירש.)
  The Levite, who has no portion nor allotment in the land with you, will come and receive the first tithe; the alien, the orphan, and the widow who are within your gates will receive the tithe which they must get every third Sabbathical year. Give them enough that they may eat and be satisfied, so that the Eternal your Almighty may bless you in all your transactions which you undertake.(ש"ר הירש.)
  
  
  
  At the end of every seven years you will arrange a cancellation of debts.(ראה רמב"ן באריכות.)
  This is the manner of the cancellation: every creditor will cancel the debt of his neighbor; he must not press his neighbor who is his fellow Israelite for payment, because a cancellation has been proclaimed in honor of the Eternal Who gave the creditor wealth to be able to make loans.(רמב"ן.)
  You may press the foreigner to collect ydur debt, but whatever credit note of your fellow Israelite is in your possession—is cancelled; however, if it is not in your possession, but you gave it to the court for collection—it is not cancelled.(ספרי.)
  However, this law of cancellation of debts might not be applicable to you, for there will be no needy among you, because the Eternal will surely bless you in the land which the Eternal your Almighty is giving you for an inheritance to possess.
  If only you wholeheartedly accept the commandments of the Eternal your Almighty, to keep and to practice all these commandments" which I instruct you to-day.(מפרשי אחרונים.)
  For the Eternal your Almighty will bless you as He has promised you; you will lend to many nations, but you will not have to borrow; you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.(יונתן, רש"י, א"ע.)
  If, however, you do not follow the commandments of the Torah, and there be a needy man, one of your kinsmen in one of your city gates in your land which the Eternal your Almighty is giving you, do not harden your heait by not encouraging him with kind words, nor must you withhold a helping hand from your needy brother;(אונקלוס.)
  but you must continuously extend your helping hand to him. If he refuses charity, lend him, on a pledge, sufficient for whatever he needs.
  Be careful not to have a base thought in your mind, saying: 'The seventh year, the year of debt cancellation, is approaching'; so that the loan will not be refunded, and your eye be mean against your needy brother, refusing to assist him. If he will cry against you to the Eternal, you will be punished.(ר' סעדי'.)
  You must surely give to him and your spirit must not be troubled by giving to him, because for this very thing the Eternal your Almighty will bless you in all your transactions and in all your undertakings.
  If you will not follow the commandment of the Torah, needy men will not be lacking in the midst of your land. Therefore, I am instructing you, as follows: You must surely open a helping hand to your poor relatives, to your poor neighbors, and to the needy of your land.(יונתן.)
  If your Hebrew fellowman be sold to you as a servant by the court, because he could not repay the theft he had stolen, or when a father sells you his minor daughter for a maid-servant, they may serve you six years, and in the seventh year you must set them free.(רש"י.)
  When you set them free, do not let them go empty handed:
  Supply them with a bonus from your flock, and the products of your threshing-floor, and of the oil and wine of your vat, with which the Eternal your Almighty blessed you.(עיין א"ע והירש.)
  Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Eternal your Almighty redeemed you; therefore I instruct you this thing to-day to grant your free servant generous gifts, for you, too, were granted by the Almighty much spoil when you were liberated from bondage.(עיין א"ע והירש.)
  However, if he tells you 'I do not want to go out from you, for I love you and your household,' because he is happy with you;
  then you take an awl, and pierce his ear at the door of the court, and he will be your servant till the jubilee year. Your maid-servant shall also receive a bonus like your man-servant.(ראה קידושין כב, א"ע פרשת משפטים, רש"י כאן.)
  You must not begrudge him the gifts he receives when you send him free from you, for, having worked six years — day and night — he accomplished double the task of the hired day-laborer; and the Eternal your Almighty will bless you in all that you do.(פרושי עפ"י רש'י.)
  All the firstling males that are born in your herd and in your flock must be, consecrated to the Eternal your Almighty: you must not do any work with the firstlings of your ox, nor shear off the wool of the firstlings of your sheep.
  The kohen must eat them annually in the holy city of the Eternal your Almighty, in the place which the Eternal will choose for you and your family.(ספרי, רש"י, מפרשי אחרונים.)
  But if it has a defect, lameness, or blindness, or any other serious defect which cannot be removed, you must not sacrifice it to the Eternal your Almighty.(בכורות דף כז ובשו"ע סימן שכב.)
  You may eat it within your city gates; the ritually impure, together with the ritually pure may eat it, as the gazelle and the deer.(עפ"י רמב"ן.)
  Only you must not eat its blood; you must pour it on the ground like water.(ספרי.)
  
  
  
  Take precaution that the month of Nissan fall in the Spring season through the making of a leap year, so that the solar and lunar years will be equal, and make the Passover to the Eternal your Almighty in that month, for in the month of the Spring Season at night the Eternal your Almighty brought you out from Egypt.(עפ"י רמב"ן.)
  You will offer the Passover sacrifice to the Eternal your Almighty from the sheep, and the festival sacrifices, from the oxen, in the place where the Eternal chooses His Divine Presence to abide.(ספורנו.)
  You must not eat leavened bread on the fourteenth of Nissan, from the time you offer the Paschal lamb. For seven days64<i class="footnote">Eight days outside of the Holy Land.</i> shall you eat Matzoth, the bread which will remind you of the affliction in Egypt, for the Egyptians urged you to leave, and in haste did you leave Egypt. You must remember the day of your departure from Egypt all the days of your life.(א"ע.)
  No food of fermentation, belonging to you shall be seen within your territory for seven days, and none of the flesh of the Paschal sacrifice which you offer on the eve of the first day of the seven day festival, shall be left over till the morning.(רשב"ם.)
  You may not slaughter the Paschal sacrifice within any of your city gates that the Eternal your Almighty is giving you;(רש"י.)
  but at the place where the Eternal your Almighty chooses His Divine Presence to abide, there will you slaughter the Paschal sacrifice toward evening — at sunset — and you may eat it only till the middle of the night at the time when you were redeemed from Egypt,(יונתן.)
  you will roast it and eat it in the place which the Eternal your Almighty will choose; and on the second day of Passover, in the morning, may you return to your homes.(עפ"י רש"י, רשב"ם.)
  After you leave the holy city you shall continue to eat Matzo for six days, and on the seventh day of the festival there must be a solemn assembly for the Eternal your Almighty, you must not do any work on it.(מלבי"ם.)
  965<i class="footnote">See Leviticus, chapter 23, verses 9-16.</i>. Each Israelite shall count Sephira for seven weeks. From the second day of Pessach, when the first barley was reaped and an Omer offering was brought to the Sanctuary will you begin to count seven weeks,(א"ע.)
  then you will celebrate the Feast of Shovous, Feast of Weeks, for the sake of the Eternal your Almighty. The First Ripened Fruit which you bring to the kohen has no fixed measuring, give enough according to what the Eternal your Almighty blessed you.(אור החיים.)
  You will rejoice in the holy city of the Eternal your Almighty, at the place where the Eternal your Almighty will choose His Divine Presence to abide: you, your son, your daughter, your man-servant and your maid-servant; but do not forsake the poor, the Levite who is in your city gates, and the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, who are in your midst.(יונתן, רש"י, א"ע.)
  In the midst of opulence you must remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you must observe the practice these decrees.(מס' מועד קטן טז ע"א, רשב"ם.)
  After you gather in the produce from your threshing floor and your vat, you celebrate the Festival of Succoth (Booths) for seven days.(רמב"ן.)
  You shall rejoice in your feast — you, your son, your daughter, your manservant, and your maid-servant, together with the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow who are in your city gates.(רשב"ם, א"ע.)
  Make it not a mere agricultural festival, but celebrate it a full seven days for the sake of the Eternal your Almighty, by offering sacrifices in the place which the Eternal will choose, for it is the Eternal your Almighty who blesses all your crops and all your undertakings. Only when you celebrate it in such a manner you will be happy.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  Three times a year must all your men appear in the house of the Eternal your Almighty at the place which He will choose: On the feast of Matzoth (Passover), on the feast of Shovuoth (Weeks), and on the feast of Succoth (Booths); and they must not appear empty handed in the house of the Eternal, without sacrifices,(א"ע, רש"י.)
  but each man must give as much as he can afford, according to the blessing the Eternal your Almighty has given you.
  Judges and officers, to execute their verdicts, must you set for yourselves in each of your city gates which the Eternal your Almighty is giving you, as well as in each of your tribes, and they must judge the people with righteous justice.(רש"י.)
  You must not deny justice, neither must you show regard to personalities, but treat both litigants alike; you must not take a bribe, for bribery blinds the eyes of the wise and distorts the case of the just.(רמב"ן.)
  Both judge and litigant must follow justice, so that you may live and then bequeath to your children the land which the Eternal your Almighty is giving you.(רמב"ן, א"ע.)
  You must not plant any tree beside the altar of the Eternal your Almighty, as the heathen plant ashera trees near their temples,(רמב"ן, רש"י, א"ע.)
  Nor may you put up an idolatrous monument which the Eternal your Almighty detests.(יונתן, רשב"ם, הירש.)
  
  
  
  You must not offer to the Eternal your Almighty any ox or lamb which has a blemish or any form of defect, for that is abhorrent to the Eternal your Almighty.(יונתן, א"ע, רשב"ם.)
  If there be found among you, in one of your city gates which the Eternal your Almighty is giving you, a man or a women who does that which is evil before the Eternal your Almighty, in breaking His covenant,(יונתן, א"ע, רשב"ם.)
  following the evil inclination by serving idols made by man, and worships them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the planets of heaven, which I have not permitted you to worship,(עפ"י רמב"ן.)
  and your hear it; when it be reported to you secretly you must make a thorough inquiry; and if it is true, and the thing is established by corroborating witnesses that such an abhorrent thing had been done in Israel,(א"ע.)
  you must bring forth that man or that woman who has done this evil thing to your city gates where the man or the woman worshipped the idol, and stone them to death.(רש"י.)
  By the testimony of two or more witnesses will the condemned die; he may not be put to death by the testimony of one witness.(אונקלוס, רמב"ן, בעלי תוס', ראה רש"י בפסוק יב.)
  The hand of the witnesses will be first against him to throw the stone, and afterward the hands of the rest of the people. So must you remove the evil from your midst.(יונתן.)
  If a local judge be uncertain about a case, as to whether an act of bloodshed should be considered an intentional murder or not, or disputed cases regarding property, or regarding bodily injury, or any matters of controversy among the local judges within your city gates; then you must get up and ascend to the central place which the Eternal your Almighty will choose,(א"ע.)
  and appear before the kohenites of the Levite tribe, or whoever is the supreme judge in those days, and inquire from them. When they will announce to you the decision of the judicial case,(רש"י.)
  you must act according to the sentence which they announced to you from that place which the Eternal will choose, and you must obey, to act in whatever manner they direct you.(אונקלוס, א"ע.)
  Whether it is a Torah law or a court case, according to what they direct you and whatever they tell you, must you do; you must not deviate from the sentence which they announce to you, neither to the right nor to the left.(א"ע, רשב"ם.)
  The judge who acts in defiance — refusing to follow the decision of the High Kohen who stands to minister there before the Eternal your Almighty, or to the supreme judge, that man will be put to death. You must remove the evil from Israel.(ספרי, וראה מלבי"ם שם.)
  All the people will hear and fear, and act defiantly no more.
  When you enter the land which the Eternal your Almighty is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say: 'I will set a king over me, as do all the nations around me.
  You surely may set a king over you, one whom the Eternal your Almighty will select through a prophet. Of your fellow Israelites must you set a king over you; you must not assign over you a foreigner who is not your fellow Israelite.(א"ע.)
  Only he must not acquire many horses, as much as to send the people back to Egypt, the market for horses, to get horses for him, since the Eternal has said to you: ‘You will not again return that way.'(א"ע, רמב"ן.)
  Neither may he have many wives so that they do not turn his heart - to sensual passion; nor may he hoard much gold and silver.(א"ע, רמב"ן.)
  At the beginning of his reign, as soon as he ascends the throne of his kingdom, he must have written for himself the text of this Torah in a book with the interpretation of the kohenites of the tribe of Levi.(אונקלוס, יונתן.)
  The teaching of the Torah will influence him when he reads in it all his lifetime, so that he will be accustomed to revere the Eternal his Almighty by all the words of this Torah, and he will practice the decrees:(אונקלוס.)
  that he may not be haughty over his subjects who are his brethren, and that he may not turn away from the commandment to the right or the left. Only then will he establish his kingdom for a long time, he and his descendants, in the midst of Israel.(רשב"ם, הירש.)
  
  
  
  The Levitic kohenites and the whole tribe of Levi, will have no portion nor allotment with Israel in the land; they will be compensated by eating the altar sacrifices of the Eternal, and His allotment of the grain offerings.(רש"י, א"ע, ספורנו.)
  Even when He enlarges your border, they will not have allotments among their brethren; what the Eternal gives them of His sacrifice will be their allotment, as He promised them.(רש"י, א"ע, ספורנו.)
  Besides what they receive from the Sanctuary sacrifices, the following, too, will be the kohenite’s due from the people; from them who slaughter an animal, whether an ox or a lamb — they must give to the kohen the shoulder, the two cheeks, and the stomach.(רש"י, א"ע, ספורנו.)
  The first product of your grain, your oil, and your wine; and the first of the fleece of your sheep must you give to them.(רש"י, א"ע, ספורנו.)
  For the Eternal your Almighty has chosen the tribe of Levi out of all your tribes, to stand and to minister in the name of the Eternal, he and his descendants forever. Since he has dedicated his life to His service, it is your duty to provide him with his needs.(רש"י, א"ע, ספורנו.)
  And if the Levitic kohenite comes from any of your city gates; from any place in Israel, where he lives; with all his aspiration will he come to the holy city, to the place which the Eternal will choose,(רש"י.)
  he may minister to offer sacrifices in the Sanctuary for the sake of the Eternal his Almighty, together with all his brethren — the Levitic-kohenites who are officiating there before the Eternal, during their weekly rotation.(רמב"ן, ועיין במס' יומא כד.)
  He may receive a share and eat of the festival sacrifices. Only of the Sabbath sacrifices he may not receive, as it was instituted by the kohenite Fathers.(ספורנו.)
  When you enter the land which the Eternal your Almighty is giving you, you must not emulate the profanity of those nations.(עפ"י רש"י.)
  There must not be found among you anyone who sacrifices his son or daughter in fire, or one who misguides people by superstition of objects, or superstition of time, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer;(עפ"י רש"י.)
  or a charmer of snakes, or one who consults a posed ventriloquist, or a wizard, or an inquirer of the dead.(עפ"י רש"י.)
  For anyone who does such things is abhorrent to the Eternal, and it is because of these abhorrent things that the Eternal your Almighty is driving them out before you.(עפ"י רש"י.)
  Have perfect trust in the faith of the Eternal your Almighty, and you will not have to follow magicians.(עפ"י אונקלוס, רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  For these nations which you are about to dispossess are deluded by sorcery and magic, but the Eternal your Almighty has not permited you to act in this way.(ראה בויקרא כז, כח.)
  In each generation, the Eternal your Almighty will place His spirit on a prophet from your midst, one of your brethren, an Israelite such as I, you must consult him and follow his advice,(א"ע, יונתן.)
  For it was all this that you asked of the Eternal your Almighty in Horeb-Sinai, on the day when the people assembled to receive the Torah; as you said; 'Let me not hear again the direct Voice of the Eternal my Almighty; neither let me see this great fire anymore, so that I shall not die.'(עפ"י רמב"ן.)
  And the Eternal said to me: 'They have said well in what they have requested:(עפ"י רמב"ן.)
  I will raise up a prophet for them, one from among their brethren, an Israelite such as you are; I will endow him with My inspiration so that he will speak what I will command him; and if you asked for a prophet, you must therefore, follow his prophecy,(רש"י.)
  and whoever does not accept the prophecy which he speaks in My name, I will punish him.(רש"י.)
  But if a false prophet dares to speak a prophecy in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or he who prophesies in the name of the idols, these false prophets must be put to death by the court.'(רש"י, אור החיים.)
  And if you ask: ‘How shall we know whether the prophecy is not what the Eternal spoke?'(רש"י.)
  If the prophet predicts something in the name of the Eternal, and the event does not happen, nor does it come about, that is the thing which the Eternal has not spoken; the false prophet has spoken in wicked daring, be not afraid to convict him.(רש"י.)
  
  
  
  When the Eternal your Almighty has annihilated the nations whose land the Eternal your Almighty is giving you, and you have dispossessed them and dwell in their cities and houses,
  you must designate three cities in the midst of your land, which the Eternal your Almighty give you to possess.(א"ע, רמב"ן, רש"י, אור החיים.)
  You will set up sign-posts, with the word "Shelter" — to direct the road to these cities, and divide into three parts the territory which the Eternal your Almighty bequeathed to you, so that it be an equal distance from one city to the other; these cities will serve for every unintentional manslaycr to find shelter there.(יונתן, רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  This is the rule for the manslayer who may flee there and live: one who kills his fellowman unintentionally, and was not his enemy in the past.(א"ע, רש"י.)
  For example, a man who goes into the forest with his fellow-man to chop wood, and as his hand drives the ax to cut the wood, the iron slips off the wooden handle, and it strikes his fellowman so that he dies; he may escape to one of these cities and stay alive.(א"ע, רש"י.)
  For if the distance is too far, the kinsman of the dead man, who is the avenger of blood, may pursue the manslayer, while his anger is still hot, reach him and kill him, yet there is no death sentence against him, since he was not his enemy in the past.(א"ע, רש"י.)
  Therefore I instruct you emphatically: you must designate three cities for yourselves.(א"ע, רש"י.)
  And when the Eternal your Almighty enlarges your territory, as He promised to your forefathers, and gives you all the land as He had said to your forefathers —(א"ע, רש"י.)
  if you observe this entire commandment, by practicing that which I instruct you today, to love the Eternal your Almighty, and to ever walk in His ways — then must you set aside three cities in addition those three.(א"ע, רש"י.)
  Thus innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land, which the Eternal your Almighty gives you for an inheritance; otherwise, there will be the guilt of blood upon you.(א"ע, רש"י.)
  But if any enemy to his fellowman hides in ambush, and then arises and deals him a mortal blow so that he dies from it, and he escapes to one of these cities;(יונתן, רש"י.)
  the judges of his city must send to take him out from there, and hand him over to the nearest kin who is the avenger of blood, that he may die.(רש"י, רשב"ם.)
  You must not spare him; in that way you will remove the shedding of innocent blood in Israel, which will be a blessing to your land.(רש"י, רשב"ם.)
  Since most strifes occur because of land differences, you are therefore commanded not to remove your neighbor's landmark which those of a former age have marked in your allotment, and which you will inherit in the land that the Eternal your Almighty gives you to possess.(רש"י, רשב"ם.)
  The testimony of one witness may not be established against a man for any guilt, or any monetary debt, or any sin which he commits; only on the direct testimony of two or more witnesses will a case be decided.(רש"י, רשב"ם.)
  If malicious witnesses stand up against a man, to testify wrongly against him,(עפ"י מפרשים.)
  the two parties, the witnesses and the litigants, who are involved in the litigation, must stand before the kohenite or the judges who will be in those days, with the same reverence with which they stand before the Eternal,(עפ"י מפרשים.)
  and the judges must make a thorough inquiry of the counter-witnesses, who claim that the testimony of the first witnesses was false, since they could not have seen the crime, as they were with them in another city, and thus have testified falsely against their fellow-man: If the accused man was not yet executed,(א"ע.)
  you must execute upon the false witnesses the same punishment as they have plotted against their fellowman, and you will remove the evil from your midst.(רמב"ן, יונתן.)
  You must publicly proclaim their penalty, so that others hear and fear and repeat no more the doing of this evil thing in your midst.(יונתן, רש"י, א"ע.)
  You must not spare the false witnesses; life for life, also a man must pay the money-value of an eye for an eye, the money-value of a tooth for a tooth, the money-value of a hand for a hand, the money-value of a foot for a foot.(הפירוש הזה בא לתרץ קושית הא"ע והרמב"ן שהכתוב מכפיל אזהרה וחיוב זה בפסוק יג, והיא עפ"י ירושלמי נזיר פ"ז ה"ד, ועיין במס' פרה פרק יא ח' ובתפארת ישראל.)
  
  
  
  When you are plunged into war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots, an army greater than yours, you must not be afraid of them; for the Eternal your Almighty, Who brought you forth from the land of Egypt, is with you in time of distress.(רש"י, יונתן, א"ע.)
  When you near the border of the battle front, the kohen, specially anointed for the army, will come forward and speak to the people.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  He will call out to them: ‘Hear O Israel. You approach today the war against your merciless enemies. Be courageous! Your enemies desire to strike terror into your hearts, therefore be riot faint-hearted; fear not when they trample the ground heavily with their horses, nor be alarmed when they shout their war cries, neither tremble when they blow their trumpets,(רש"י, א"ע.)
  for the Eternal your Almighty, His Divine Presence leads you to battle against your enemies, to bring you victory.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  Then the officers will speak to the army, as follows: ‘Any man who has built a new home and has not yet begun to dwell in it, let him go and return to his home, for his heart will be set upon the house, feeling that he may die on the battle front and another man will dwell in it, and he may therefore flee and cause others to retreat.(יונתן.)
  Any man who has planted a vineyard, and has not reached the fourth year of being permitted to convert the fruit into money and spend it in the holy city, may go and return home; for his mind might be set on his vineyard, thinking that he may die on the battle front and another man will redeem and eat the fruit.(עיין יט, לא.)
  If there is anyone who has found himself a woman to marry, he may go and return home; for his mind may be set on his bride, thinking that he might die on the battle front and another man might marry her.'66<i class="footnote">Concerning the law of an engaged woman see Glossaries in Leviticus.</i>(ספורנו.)
  The officers will speak further to the army, and call out: ‘Any man who is cowardly and faint hearted, may go and return to his home, and let him not cause his fellow soldiers to tremble as he does.'(ספורנו.)
  When the officers have finished speaking to the army, captains will be appointed as heads for each detachment of the peoples' army.(יונתן.)
  When you approach to attack a city, outside of the land of Canaan, you must first offer it peace terms.(יונתן.)
  In the event they accept your peace offer, and open the gates of the city for you, all the people who are found there will become tribute to you and serve you.(יונתן.)
  If they do not accept your peace offer, but make war against you, then you will besiege it,(מיוסד על דברי הילקוט תשס"ג ומתורץ בזה קושית המפרשים: מפני מה נענשו משה ואהרן על חטא קטן כזה. אמנם זה לא היה בתורת עונש, רק לא התאימו לנהג הדור החדש. ראה כלי יקר.)
  and when the Eternal your Almighty delivers it into your hand, you will slay all her males by the edge of the sword.
  But the women, the children, the cattle, yes, all the spoil that is there — you may take as booty for you, and you may enjoy the booty which the Eternal your Almighty has given you.
  Thus will you act in regard to all the cities that are very far off from you, which are not of the cities that belong to the seven nations of Canaan.(א"ע.)
  However, as for the cities of those people which the Eternal your Almighty gives you for an inheritance, you must first offer them peace. If they accept the peace offer, then, besides becoming tributary to you, they must abandon idolatry and accept the elementary laws of humanity, the seven commandments given to the sons of Noah. If they refuse to accept these terms, you must not spare any soul,(רמב"ן, עיין מס' סוטה לה ע"ב, ותוס' שם ד"ה לרבות.)
  you must utterly destroy them. Except for one of the seven — the Girgashites who left to settle in North Africa —there still remain the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perrizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, and they must be annihiliated, as the Eternal your Almighty commanded you,(רמב"ן, א"ע.)
  so that they will not teach you to do all their abhorrent things which they practiced before their idols, and you thus sin against the Eternal your Almighty.(רמב"ן, רשב"ם.)
  When you have to besiege a city a long time, in making war to capture it, you must not destroy her trees by thrusting an ax against them. You may eat of their fruit, but do not cut them for the purpose of building a rampart to help you in the siege, for man's life depends on the trees of the field for food.(רש"י.)
  Only trees which you know do not produce fruit may you uproot and cut to enable you to build up a siege against the city with which you are engaged in war, until it is subdued.(רמב"ן, רשב"ם.)
  
  
  
  If a corpse is found lying on the road, in the land which the Eternal your Almighty gives you to possess, and it is not known who killed him,(רש"י.)
  your leaders and judges of the cities in the vicinity will come forth, and measure the distance between the surrounding towns and the slain.(רש"י.)
  The leaders of the nearest town shall then take a young cow out of the herd, which was not yet used for ploughing, and which was not yet drawn in the yoke to carry loads,(רש"י.)
  and the leaders of the town will bring the young cow down to an uncultivated valley, which in the future may never be plowed nor sown. There in the valley, they shall break the heifer's neck. The publicity of this performance rite miay lead to the discovery of the murderer.(רש"י.)
  The kohenites, the descendants of Levi, will come forward; for the Eternal your Almighty has chosen them to minister before Him and to bless Israel in the name of the Eternal, and through their direction is decided every controversy and every symptom of leprosy.(רשב"ם, רש"י, א"ע.)
  6 Then all the leaders of the town nearest to the corpse will wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken in the valley.(רמב"ן, ועפ"י יונתן.)
  And they will call out and say: 'Our hands have not caused this bloodshed, as we never saw him and we could not give him escort.'(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  The kohenites say: 'O Eternal, forgive your people Israel whom You have redeemed, for failing to safeguard the highways against danger. Do not incur the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel, and may they be forgiven for the bloodshed.'(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  And if the murderer is discovered after this performance, he must be sentenced to death; so will you remove the innocent blood in your midst, for you must do that which is right before the Eternal.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  When you are plunged into war against your enemies, outside of the land of Canaan, and the Eternal your Almighty delivers them into your hands, and you take some of them captive,(רש"י, א"ע.)
  and you see among the captives a woman who, in your eyes, is good looking and you desire to marry her,(רש"י, א"ע.)
  you will bring her first to your house where she will shave off the hair of her head and let her nails grow, as a sign of mourning.(אונקלוס, רמב"ן.)
  She will remove the raiment of captivity, and put on the garments of a mourner while she stays in your house, and let her bewail her father and her mother a full month, in order to find consolation for leaving her parents, and accustom herself to a new life in a new faith; only then may you marry her, be her husband, and she be your wife with all the duties and rights of an Israelite wife.(רמב"ן.)
  Then, should you no longer want her, you must divorce her and let her go wherever she wants. You may not sell her for money, or present her as a gift, neither may you enslave her in your house as a bondwoman, for you have married her.(יונתן, ירושלמי.)
  If a man has two wives, one being his favorite and the other disfavored, and both the favored and disfavored have borne him children, but the disfavored son is the first-born,(רש"י.)
  when he bequeaths his estate to his children, he may not declare the son of the favored wife as the first-born in preference to the son of the disfavored, who is the legal first-born.(רש"י.)
  But he must recognize the right of the disfavored son, by allotting him twice as much as any of the other sons, of all that he has; for he is the first fruit of his strength, the right of the first-born is his.(רש"י.)
  If a man has a son of age, who is insubordinate to the Almighty and rebellious to his parents; who does not follow the instructions of his father and the teachings of his mother, and though they attempt to discipline him, he does not listen to them,(רש"י.)
  His father and his mother will take hold of him and bring him to the city council, who have their seat at the gateway of that place.(רש"י.)
  They will declare before the city council: 'This son of ours is insubordinate and rebellious; he does not follow our instructions. He is a glutton and a drunkard, therefore a potential criminal; he may kill for his high living.'(רש"י.)
  After a thorough investigation by the court into whether he had a healthy environment, or whether the parents were without physical defect and fit for one another, and if, after inflicting upon him other kinds of punishments he is still rebellious, the court must stone him to death in the presence of all the people of his city; so will you remove the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear and fear.(אור החיים, רש"י.)
  If a man is under a death sentence for blaspheming or idol worshipping, after he is stoned you hang him on the gallows.(רמב"ן, אונקלוס.)
  But his corpse must not remain overnight on the gallows; you must bury him on the same day, for it is a disgrace to the Divine Image of the hanged man. Neither may you leave unburied overnight any dead in the Land of Israel, in order that you will not defile your land which the Eternal your Almighty is giving you for an inheritance.(רש"י.)
  
  
  
  You must not look on when your fellowman's ox or his lamb runs away and neglect your attention of them; you must make every effort to bring them back to your fellowman.(רשב"ם.)
  If your fellowman does not live near you or you do not know him, you must bring it home to feed it and it will remain with you until your fellowman asks for it and you inquire whether he is the rightful owner, then return it to him.(רשב"ם, רמב"ן.)
  You will do the same with his lost donkey; you do the same with his garment; and so must you do with every lost article of your fellowman, which he has lost and you have found. You are not allowed to conceal your findings, but you must announce it till the owner claims it.(יונתן, רש"י.)
  You must not look on when your fellowman's donkey or his ox has fallen down on the road, and neglect raising them up; you certainly must help to raise them up.(עפ"י רמב"ן, ילקוט שמעוני.)
  A woman must not wear the attire of a man, neither may a man dress himself in the garments of a woman; for whoever does these things is abhorrent to the Eternal your Almighty, since this leads to immorality.(רש"י ורמב"ן.)
  If you happen to find a bird's nest on the road, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting upon the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young, for this is a cruel act, and in order to implant in you the virtue of mercy,(יונתן.)
  you must let the mother go, and then take the young for yourself; so that you may enjoy life in this world and extend your spiritual life in the world to come.(ספורנו.)
  When you build a new house, you will make a railing for the roof, so that you do not bring the guilt of innocent bloodshed on your house if someone should fall down from it.(א"ע.)
  You must not sow your vineyard with diverse seeds, otherwise the admixture of the seed, which you sow together with the products of the vineyard, will have to be burned.(אור החיים, כלי יקר.)
  You shall not tie together an ox, a donkey, or any two different kinds of animals for plowing, nor for carrying a load.(רש"י.)
  You must not wear a garment which is woven and spun of wool and linen together.(רש"י.)
  However, the Tzitzis which you put on the four corners of the garment that you wear during the day, you may make of wool and linen.(אור החיים.)
  If a mian is betrothed to a virgin, and after marrying her, he dislikes her;(רש"י, יונתן, א"ע.)
  67<i class="footnote">See the Glossary in Leviticus concerning the meaning of betrothed - Arussa.</i>and he charges her with false accusations, defaming her reputation by alleging to the court in her presence: 'I married this woman, and after living together, I found her to have been faithless while we were betrothed.'(רש"י, רשב"ם.)
  The father and mother of the young lady will bring forth the witness and the evidence of the young lady's fidelity before the elders of the city who sit in judgment at the gateway.(רש"י, רשב"ם.)
  And the father of the young lady will plead to the elders as follows: 'I married off my daughter to this man, but he disliked her,(רש"י, רשב"ם.)
  charging her with false accusations, alleging: 'I found your daughter to be faithless to me during her betrothal. But here are the witnesses and evidence for my daughter's fidelity.' When the falsity of his charge is established before the elders of the city,(א"ע.)
  the elders of that city will take the man and flog him,(א"ע.)
  and fine him a hundred silver shekels — double the amount of the customary fifty shekels promised her in the marriage contract of which he wanted to deprive her — and give it to the father of the young lady, for he defamed the reputation of an Israelite virgin. Moreover, she will remain his wife; he may not divorce her all his lifetime.(רש"י.)
  But if the charge has been proven by the evidence of witnesses, that the young lady was faithless after betrothal,(אונקלוס, רמב"ן, ספורנו.)
  then the young lady will be brought out to the entrance of her father's house, and there the witnesses will stone her in the presence of the people of her city until she dies; for she committd disgraceful folly in Israel, by bringing an evil reputation of unchastity upon her father's house. You must remove the evil from your midst.(ספורנו.)
  If a man is found living with a married woman, and if they were warned by witnesses of the seriousness of their action, they must both be put to death — the man who took the initiative to live with the woman, and also the woman. You must remove the evil from Israel.(רש"י.)
  If a young woman, a virgin, betrothed to a man, was walking in the street, in a town, and another man meets her and seduces her,(רש"י.)
  if witnesses warned them of the gravity of the offense, you shall bring them both to the gate of that town and stone them to death; the young woman, because it was in the city and she did not call for help, and the man because he violated his fellowman's bride. You must remove the evil from your midst.(רש"י.)
  But if the man finds the betrothed young woman in the field, and the man seduced her by force, only the man who assaulted her must be put to death.(רש"י.)
  The young woman, you will not punish. There is no death sentence against the young woman, for it is as a man lurking against his fellowman and murdering him,(רש"י.)
  for he found her in the field. The young woman probably called for help, but there was no one to help her.(רש"י.)
  If a man meets a young woman, a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and assaults her, when they are found —(רש"י.)
  The man who assaulted her shall pay fifty silver shekels to the father of the young woman, and he must marry her. Because he violated her, he may not divorce her in all his lifetime.(רש"י.)
  
  
  
  A man must not marry his father's wife, nor have any marital relations with a woman that was assaulted by his father.(ילקוט, וראה א"ע.)
  A eunuch and a castrated man may not marry a woman of the Eternal's Community.(יונתן, רשב"ם.)
  One who was born of forbidden wedlock may not marry an Israelite woman of the Eternal's community; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation may marry an Israelite woman of the Eternal's community.(עפ"י ספורנו.)
  The males of the Amonites and the Moabites may not marry an Israelite woman of the Eternal's community; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation may marry an Israelite woman of the Eternal's community ever, but their females — after converting may marry an Israelite.(עפ"י רש"י.)
  This is because their men did not receive you with bread and water on the way when you came out of Egypt; and because the Moabites hired against you Balaam, the son of Beor, from Pethor of Syria, to curse you.(יונתן, אונקלוס.)
  It was only that the Eternal your Almighty did not want to accept Balaam's intentions; instead, the Eternal your Almighty turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Eternal your Almighty loves you.(אונקלוס.)
  You must not seek their friendship nor their welfare all your days — forever — even after conversion.(יונתן, רמב"ן.)
  You must not completely debar an Edomite when he wants to convert, for he is your brother, a descendant of Abraham and Isaac; nor may you completely debar an Egyptian who wants to convert, for you have been a lodger in his land.(רש"י.)
  The children of the third generation who are born to them after conversion may marry an Israelite of the Eternal's community; people of other nations, who have not wronged you, however, may be accepted right away.(רש"י.)
  When the army camp goes forth against your enemy, your soldiers must guard against looting and immorality, and against every evil act.(רש"י.)
  If anyone among you becomes ritually impure by an involuntary night effusion, he must leave the camp; he must not re-enter the camp.(כל המפרשים עפ"י המסורה.)
  At the end of the day — toward evening — he must bathe in water, and when the sun sets, he may come within the camp.(עפ"י א"ע בויקרא ט"ו, ט"ז.)
  There must be a private place outside of the army camp, where you should go to relieve yourself.(עפ"י ספורנו ורמב"ן בפסוק יא וראה רש"י בהעלותך יא, א'.)
  Also, among your weapons, you must have a spade; so that when you have relieved yourself outside the camp, you will dig a hole with it and cover your excrement.(רש"י, ועיין בתורה תמימה.)
  The camp must be kept sanitary, for the Eternal your Almighty sends His Divine Presence to walk in your camp to save you and deliver you from your enemies, therefore must your camp be holy; no nakedness must be seen among you — otherwise you will not be able to concentrate in your prayers, and His Divine Presence will depart from you.(רש"י.)
  You must not turn over a heathen slave to his master; when he seeks refuge with you from his master,(רש"י.)
  he will live in your midst as a free man, in any place which he chooses within your gates, wherever he likes best; you must not humiliate him with offensive remarks.(רש"י.)
  You must not permit prostitution in Israel, nor allow sodomy in Israel.(א"ע, עפ"י רש"י.)
  The earnings of a prostitute who wants to expiate her sins, but continues her way of life, and the price of a dog, which attacked people, and whose owner wants to soothe his soul by giving its price for religious purposes, may not be accepted by the house of the Eternal your Almighty in fulfilment of a vow, for both are abhorrent to the Eternal your Almighty.(אונקלוס, רש"י.)
  Interest may not be charged, or paid on loans made between fellow Israelites, whether in money or food or anything which may be considered interest.(עפ"י שיטת רבי במנחות סב, א'.)
  To an alien — non Israelite, — you may give or charge interest, if it was so agreed at the time of the loan; to your fellow Israelite you must not pay or charge interest, even were it so agreed at the time of the loan. For this, the Eternal your Almighty will bless you in all your undertakings in the land which you enter to possess.(אונקלוס, רש"י.)
  When you vow to give a donation to the Eternal your Almighty, you must not defer fulfilling it, for the Eternal your Almighty will require it of you, and you will be found guilty.(אונקלוס, רש"י.)
  By refraining from making a vow, you will not commit a sin,(אונקלוס, רמב"ן.)
  but if you have made a promise, you must keep what you expressed with your mouth, and do exactly what you promised to the Eternal your Almighty; for it was a voluntary donation which you spoke with your mouth.(יונתן, רשב"ם.)
  When you come to work in your fellowman's vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as will sate your appetite; but you must not put them in your bag.(רש"י.)
  When you come to work in your fellowman's grain field, you may pluck ears of corn with your hand, to eat; but you must not lift up a sickle, or a knife, to eat from your fellowman's grains.(מלבי"ם.)
  
  
  
  When a man marries a woman and lives with her, then, having lost his love for her or having found her to be immoral, or for any other reason he writes her a divorce, delivers it into her possession and sends her away from his house,(עפ"י רש"י, א"ע.)
  and after having left his house, she marries another man,(רש"י בפרשת תצוה, ראה תורה תמימה שם.)
  and the other husband dislikes her, writes her a divorce, delivers it to her possession, and send her away from his house, or the latter husband who married her dies,(רש"י בפרשת תצוה, ראה תורה תמימה שם.)
  then the former husband who divorced her first may not take her back to be his wife, for having been married to another man, she is now considered as ritually impure to the first husband. For this would be abhorrent to the Eternal, since it may lead to an easy passing of one woman between two men. You must not defile the land which the Eternal your Almighty is giving you for an inheritance.(ספרא.)
  When a man takes a woman in marriage, he will be exempt from military service for one year, and must not be bound to anything connected with military service, such as supplying provisions, or repairing roads, so that he may rejoice in his house with his wife whom he married.(רש"י, אונקלוס, ספורנו.)
  A creditor may not take the lower part, nor the upper part of a millstone for security; neither may he take for security any tools with which a person earns his livelihood, for it is like taking a man's life in pawn.(רש"י, אונקלוס, ספורנו.)
  If a man be found kidnapping a fellow Israelite, enslaves him, and then sells him, that kidnapper should be put to death; you must remove the evildoers from your midst.(ראה ויקרא ב, ב.)
  Observe the laws concerning the symptom of Tzarath-leprosy. Follow thoroughly and do all which the Levitic kohenites direct you; as I instructed them, so must you observe to do.
  Remember what the Eternal your Almighty did to Miriam when she was smitten with leprosy — though she was a prophetess, He ordered the march to halt when you came forth from Egypt, and she was put in isolation for seven days; so must you isolate a leper even if he be king or prophet.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  When you give your fellowman any kind of loan, you must not enter his home to obtain the security for it.
  You must wait outside, while the debtor will bring the security outside to you.
  If the debtor is a poor man, and he gives you as security an article which he uses for covering during sleep, you must not keep the security overnight,(יונתן, ספרא.)
  you must restore the security at sunset, so that he be able to sleep with his garment. If the security is a garment worn during the day, you must restore it in the morning. He will bless you, and you will be credited meritoriously before the Eternal your Almighty.(רמב"ן, רשב"ם, רש"י, אונקלוס.)
  You must not wrong the poor and the needy daily laborer by withholding his daily wages, whether he be one of your brethren or one of the aliens who live in your land within your gates.(רש"י.)
  On the same day you will pay him his wage, before the sun sets, for he relies on his earnings for his livelihood; lest he complain to the Eternal against you, and you be guilty.(רש"י.)
  The court must not put to death the fathers on the testimony of their children nor for the crime the children committed; neither may children be put to death on the testimony of their fathers nor for the crime committed by the fathers; every person must be put to death only for his own crime, by the testimony of qualified witnesses.(רש"י.)
  You must not deny justice to the alien nor to the orphan, as they are defenseless; nor may you take away the garment of the widow when she defaults on the loan.(אונקלוס.)
  Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and the Eternal your Almighty redeemed you from there; therefore I instruct you to do this thing — not to treat ill people of humble standing, even when financial losses are involved.(ראה בבא קמא י ע"ב.)
  When you reap the harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, do not go back to take it; it must belong to the alien, to the orphan, and to the widow, in order that the Eternal your Almighty will bless you in all your undertakings.(א"ע.)
  When you shake the trees to bring down the olives, do not entirely remove the fruit from the branches, there must remain some for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.(עפ"י חז"ל.)
  When you gather the grapes in your vineyard, do not glean it to the end, there must remain some for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, therefore I instruct you to do these things.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  
  
  
  When there be a quarrel between two people, and they come before the court, where they are tried, the court will acquit the innocent and condemn the guilty.(עפ"י רש"י.)
  If the guilty deserves to be flogged, the judge will order him stretched on the bench, and he will be flogged in the judge's presence, as he deserves for his guilt. The highest number of lashes shall be —(עפ"י א"ע, ספורנו.)
  forty floggings! But in order that the officer may not exceed forty, he shall flog him only thirty nine times, lest he add an extra one and endanger the man's life, for after receiving his fine, he is considered your brother, who must not be degraded.(עפ"י רש"י.)
  You must not muzzle an ox while it is threshing, nor any other animal that is employed on the production of articles of food.(עפ"י רש"י.)
  When brothers from one father live together at the same time, and one of them dies childless, the wife of the deceased may not marry one outside of the family, a stranger. Her husband’s brother must marry her; take her to be his wife, and take the place of the former husband.(רמב"ן, רש"י, א"ע.)
  The first son that she bears will perpetuate the deceased brother’s name and estate, so that his name will not be extinct from Israel.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  But if the man does not want to marry his brother’s widow, his sister-in-law will go up to the judges who sit at the gate and say: “My husband’s brother refused to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israel; he will not take his place by marrying me.”(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  The judges of the city will summon him, and counsel him in the right course he should follow. But if he takes a stand and says: “I do not want to marry her,”(רש"י, ספורנו.)
  his brother’s wife will approach him in the presence of the elders, pull his shoe from off his foot, as a sign of acquiring the deceased estate from him, spit on the ground in front of his face, and call out and say: “So must it be done to a man worthy of contempt, for refusing to build up a family which his brother began to form.”(רש"י, יונתן.)
  And his name will be known in Israel as: “The house of the stripped shoe.”(רש"י.)
  When men wrestle with each other, and the wife of one party comes over to save her husband from the assailant, and she stretches out her hand and seizes his private parts,(עפ"י אונקלוס.)
  she must pay a money fine, for stretching out her hand and bringing shame on the man; even if she is poor, she must pay. You must not spare her.(מפרשים.)
  You will not have for your scales two kinds of weights, a large one for buying, and a small one for selling.(א"ע, רש"י בפסוק י.)
  You will not have in your house, where your househod might use it, two kinds of epha measurements — a large one, and a small one.(רש"י.)
  A perfect and just weight must you have; a perfect and just epha measurement must you have, so that your existence will be long in the land which the Eternal your Almighty gives you;(רש"י.)
  For they who practice deceit, and deal with falsehood in business, are considered an abhorrence to the Eternal your Almighty.(מפרשי אחרונים.)
  Remember to pass on from generation to generation what Amalek did to you on the march, as you came out from Egypt;(עפ"י רמב"ן בפסוק יד.)
  how he attacked you by surprise, and cut off the enfeebled in the rear, though you were faint and weary from the tiresome march, because of lack of water. He was devoid of pity, for he feared not the Almighty.(ספורנו.)
  Therefore, when the Eternal your Almighty grants you rest from your enemies all around in the land which the Eternal your Almighty gave you to possesses as an inheritance, you must blot out the memory of Amalek by destroying everything belonging to him; you must not forget that a nation which lacks human feelings towards others, does not deserve mercy.(רש"י.)
  
  
  
  When you enter the land which the Eternal your Almighty gives you for an inheritance, after occupying and dividing it among the tribes, and dwelling in it,(רש"י ושאר מפרשים.)
  you will take of the first of all the seven species of fruit from the earth, that grow in the land, which the Eternal your Almighty gives you. You will place them in a basket, and go to the place which the Eternal your Almighty will choose for His Divine Presence.(רמב"ן.)
  You will come to the High Kohen who will minister in the Sanctuary in those days and say to him: “I declare to-day my thankfulness to the Eternal your Almighty Who brought us to the land, and whose Divine promise to our forefathers to give it to us came true.”(רש"י.)
  The kohen will take the basket from your hand, wave it toward high as a Divine offering, then place it before the altar of the Eternal your Almighty.(רש"י יונתן, רמב"ן.)
  After some formal address by the kohen you shall call out and say before the Eternal your Almighty: “My forefather Jacob was a wanderer in Syria; then when we went down to Egypt he migrated there with his family, few in number, only seventy persons. And when he became there a great, mighty and populous nation,(רש"י, והשבתי מלשון להשבית אויב, תהלים ח' ג.)
  the Egyptians dealt ill with us; they afflicted us by reducing us to poverty, then put us to harsh slavery.(רש"י, והשבתי מלשון להשבית אויב, תהלים ח' ג.)
  We prayed to the Eternal, the Almighty of our fathers, and the Merciful Eternal accepted our prayer: Our poverty, and our toil in building the treasure cities, and our distress were revealed before Him.(עפ"י רש"י.)
  The Eternal brought us out from Egypt by mighty power, by an outstretched arm, and by great terror, and by signs and wonders.(עפ"י רש"י.)
  He brought us to this place, and gave us this land flowing with milk and honey.(יונתן, א"ע.)
  And now here I brought the first ripened fruit of the soil which Your, 0 Eternal, has given me.” The kohen once again will wave the basket, and you will place it before the altar of the Eternal your Almighty, and bow down before the Eternal your Almighty.(עפ"י ספורנו.)
  You and your household will rejoice with all the bounty which the Eternal your Almighty has given you and your household. Together with you will take part in the blessing the less fortunate, the Levite and the alien who are in your midst.(רש"י.)
  When you will have disposed of all the tithes of your products in the third Sabbatical year, the year of the tithe for the poor; after ypou have given it to the Levite, the alien, the orphan, and to the widow, sufficient enough so that they eat and be satisfied,(יונתן, רש"י.)
  then before Passover of that third Sabbatical year, which is also the “Year of Removal,” you will make the following solemn declaration before the Eternal your Almighty. “I have paid all the arrears, by removing from the house the second tithe, which is holy to the Eternal, and I have eaten it in the holy city. I have also given the first tithe to the Levite, and the third tithe to the alien, the orphan, and to the widow according to the law which You have commaded me; I have not violated any of Your commandments, neither have I forgotten to thank You.(יונתן, רש"י.)
  I have not eaten of it in my mourning, neither have I consumed any of it when I was ritually impure, or when the tithe was ritually impure, nor used any part of it to provide a coffin or shrouds for a dead person: I followed the commandment of the Eternal my Almighty to bring it to the holy city. I have done according to all which You have commanded me.(יונתן, רש"י.)
  As we have fulfilled Your commandments, so do, O Merciful, Eternal, fulfill Your Promise to us: Look forth from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the land which You have given us, as You have promised our forefathers. May it always be a land flowing with milk and honey.”(יונתן, רש"י.)
  The day on which you bring the first ripened fruit to the kohen in the Sanctuary is also the holiday of receiving# the Torah, when the Eternal your Almighty commanded you to practice these decrees and judgments: observe and practice them with all your heart and with all your life.(יונתן, רש"י.)
  On that day you acknowledged the Eternal to be your Sovereign Almighty by your willingness to walk in His path, to observe His decrees and His judgments, and to follow His commandments.(א"ע)
  And in the same way the Eternal acknowledged you ter be His treasured people, as He had promised you, by choosing you to observe His commandments,(רש"י.)
  and to elevate you in adoration, in fame, and in glory, high above all the nations which He had formed; and that you will be a holy people of the Eternal your Almighty, as He had promised.(רש"י.)
  
  
  
  Moses instructed the leader to transmit the followiug to the people: “Observe thoroughly the following commandment which I instruct you today:(יונתן ובילקוט.)
  Soon after you cross the Jordan to the land which the Eternal your Almighty gives you, you shall erect for you large stones, at the banks of the Jordan, plaster them with plaster,(א"ע.)
  and inscribe on them all the words of the Torah, soon after your crossing, to serve you as a reminder that because of this Torah you came to the land which the Eternal your Almighty, gave you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Eternal, the Almighty of your forefathers has promised you.(ספורנו, א"ע.)
  And when you already have crossed the Jordan and reached Mount Ebal, you shall also erect other stones on Mount Ebal, as I instruct you to-day, and plaster them with plaster that they may last a long time.(א"ע.)
  Here you shall also build an altar dedicated to the Eternal your Almighty, an altar of stones; do not lift up an iron-tool on them,(יונתן.)
  only of unhewn stones shall you build the altar of the Eternal your Almighty. You will offer burnt-offerings to the Eternal your Almighty.
  Slaughter peace offerings, eat there, and rejoice before the Eternal your Almighty for the renewal of the Covenant between Him and you.(ספורנו.)
  And you will inscribe on the stones all the words of this Torah thoroughly expounded in many languages."(רש"י.)
  Moses and then the Levitical kohenites spoke to all the Children of Israel: “Be attentive, and understand, O Israel! This day, by virtue of the renewed covenant have you been chosen to be a people before the Eternal your Almighty.(יונתן, ספורנו.)
  You shall therefore heed the commandments of the Eternal your Almighty, and practice His precepts and His decrees, which I instruct you to-day."(מפרשי אחרונים.)
  Moses instructed the people on that day:(רש"י.)
  “When you have crossed the Jordan, the following tribes shall stand on Mount Gerizim toward which the Blessing on the people is pronounced: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.(רשב"ם.)
  And the following tribes shall stand on Mount Ebal toward which doom is pronounced: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtalie.(רש"י.)
  The elders of the Levites shall stand together with the elders of the Kohenites around the Ark, in the valley between the two mountains. First they turn toward Mount Gerizim and pronounce the Blessing, then turn toward Mount Ebal, and call out to all the men of Israel in a loud voice:(רש"י.)
  “Doomed be the man who makes a graven or molten image, abhorred by the Eternal, the handiwork of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret.” And all the people will call out, “Amen, So be it.”(רש"י.)
  Doomed be he who disgraces his father or his mother, And all the people will call out: “Amen, So be it.”(רש"י.)
  Doomed be he who removes his neighbor's landmark. And all the people will call out: “Amen, So be it.”(רש"י.)
  Doomed be he who gives wrong advice to an inexperienced person, which is similar to directing a blind man along the wrong way. And all the people will call out: “Amen, So be it.”(רש"י.)
  Doomed be he who denies justice to the alien, orphan or widow. And all the people will call out: “Amen, So be it.”(רש"י.)
  Doomed be he who has incestous relationship with his father's wife, and there are no witnesses to punish him by the court, for he has dishonored his father. And all the people will call out: “Amen, So be it.”(רש"י.)
  Doomed be any person who has coition with an animal secretly, unpunishable by the Court, And all the people will call out, “Amen, So be it.”(רש"י.)
  Doomed be he who has incestous relationship with his sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's daughter, secretely, unpunishable by the Court. And all the people will call out, “Amen, So be it.”(רש"י.)
  Doomed be he who has incestous relationship with his mother-in-law, secretly, unpunishable by the Court, and all the people shall call out and say: “Amen, So be it.”(רש"י.)
  Doomed be he who defames his fellowman by slander in secret. And all the people will call out: “Amen, So be it.”(רש"י.)
  Doomed be that judge, or those witnesses who take a bribe to slay an innocent person. And all the people will call out, “Amen, So be it.”(רש"י.)
  Doomed be he who will not obey the words of this Torah and not practice them. And all the people will call out, “Amen, So be it.”(רש"י.)
  
  
  
  Now, if you will thoroughly obey the command of the Eternal your Almighty, to observe and practice all His precepts which I instruct you to-day, then the Eternal your Almighty will elevate you spiritually above all the nations of the world.
  Also all the following material blessings will come to you with little effort, if you will only follow the command of the Eternal your Almighty:(ראה הירש, רש"י.)
  Blessed will you be in commerce in the city, and blessed will you be in ploughing and reaping in the field.(יונתן.)
  Blessed will be your offspring, your crops, and your cattle; your cowherd, and your sheepherd.
  Blessed will be your daily bread in your basket and in your kneading trough.(מפרש אחרונים.)
  Blessed will be you in all your activities whether in spiritual undertakings or in your going out in the world of commerce.(עפ"י א"ע.)
  Blessed with all these gifts, you may arouse the jealousy of people who will unite against you, but they will surely fail. For the Eternal will doom your enemies who rise up against you to defeat; they will come out against you by one way, but be scattered and flee from you in seven ways.(יונתן, רמב"ן, רש"י.)
  The Eternal will order blessings in your warehouses, and in all your undertakings. He will bless you in the land which the Eternal your Ahnighty gives you.
  If you keep the commandments of the Eternal your Almighty and walk in His ways, the Eternal will establish you as His consecrated people, as He has promised you at the covenant of Sinai.(רמב"ן.)
  When all the people of the world will see that the Eternal’s attributes of kindness are imbued within you, and He therefore renders you protection, they will be afraid of you.(עפ"י רשב"ם.)
  The Eternal will grant you overabundance in prosperity of your off-springs, of your cattle, and of your crops, in the land which the Eternal has promised your forefathers to give you.
  The Eternal will open His beneficial reservoir, the heaven, to give you rain in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand and you will have such an overabundance that you will be able to be a creditor to many nations when they will be in need but you will not have to borrow.(א"ע.)
  The Eternal will cause you to be a reputable nation and not an insignificant one; you will always have the upper hand, and never be cast down, if only you will follow the precepts of the Eternal your Almighty which I instruct you to-day to observe and practice,(אונקלוס, רמב"ן.)
  and not depart from all the words which I instruct you to-day, neither to the right nor to the left, going after idols to serve them, then all these blessings will be granted to you.
  But if you will not follow the command of the Eternal your Almighty to observe and to practice all His precepts and His decrees which I instruct you to-day, then all the following maledictions will come upon you, and reach you, wherever you will escape.
  You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field.
  Cursed will be your basket and your kneading trough. You will have no bread.(יונתן.)
  Cursed will be your offspring, your crops, and your cattle, your cowherd and sheepherd.
  Cursed will you be in your comings and goings.
  The Eternal will send upon you disaster, confusion, and failure in all your undertakings whatever you do, so that you will be destroyed and quickly lost because of your evil doing in forsaking Me.
  The Eternal will make pestilence stick to you, until He has made an end to you in the land where you enter to possess.
  The Eternal will strike you with tuberculosis, fever, inflammation, consumption, drought, blight of crops and with mildew; they shall follow you until you will be lost.
  The skies above you will be like copper and the earth beneath you like iron.
  The Eternal will make the rain of your land powder and dust: from the sky will they drop on you, until you will be destroyed.
  The Eternal will cause you to be defeated before your enemies: you will go out to fight them by one road, but flee from them by seven roads; and you will become a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
  Your carcasses will become prey for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, with none frighten them off.
  The Eternal will strike, those who will survive famine, with the Egyptian boils, with hemorrhoids, with scabs, and itch from which you will never be cured.
  The Eternal will strike you with madness, blindness and bewilderment.
  You will grope at noon as a blind man gropes in the dark; you will not prosper in your undertakings, but you will always be extorted and robbed, with none to extend you a helping hand.
  You will be engaged to marry a woman, but another man will consort with her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it; you will plant a vineyard, but you will, not enjoy its fruit.
  Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat of it; your donkey will be robbed from you, and it will not be returned to you; your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will help you.
  Your sons and daughters will be delivered to another people, while you look on; you will be longing for their return every day, but it will be in vain.
  The fruit of your land and all you labor will be eaten up by a people you do not know; you will be robbed and shattered continually.
  You will be driven mad by what your eyes see.
  The Eternal will strike you with severe boils in the knees and in the legs from which you will never be cured—from the sole of your foot to the neck of your head.
  The Eternal will drive you, and the king you have set over you, to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have ever heard of where you will serve nations who worship idols of wood and stone.
  Your destruction will become a proverb and a byword among all the peoples to which the Eternal will drive you.
  Though you will plant much seed in the field, you will gather in little, for the locust will consume it.
  Though you will plant vineyards and dress them, you will have no wine to drink, nor gather the grapes, for the worm will devour them.
  Though you will have olive trees throughout your land, you will have no oil for anointment, for your olives will drop off.
  Though sons and daughters will be born to you, they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity.
  The enemy’s army will take over all the trees and products of your land.
  The alien in your midst will rise above you, higher and higher, while you fall lower and lower.
  He will be your creditor, but you will not be his, he will be on the top and you will be his inferior.
  All these curses will befall you, they will follow and reach you, until you will be destroyed, because you did not hearken to the voice of the Eternal your Almighty and kept not His commandments and His decrees which He instructed you.
  They will serve you as signs and proofs against you and your children forever.
  Because you did not want to serve the Eternal your Almighty in joy and gladness in time of full prosperity -
  you will have to serve — in hunger and in thirst, naked and lacking everything — the enemies whom the Eternal will send against you. He will put an iron yoke upon your neck until He will destroy you.
  The Eternal will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, which will swoop down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand,
  an arrogant nation, that will show no respect to the old and no mercy to the young.
  It will devour the offspring of your cattle and the produce of your land, until you will be destroyed; leaving you nothing of the grain, wine, or oil, of your cowherd and sheepherd, until he ruins you.
  That nation will besiege you in all your gates throughout your land until every high and fortified wall in which you trust will come down. And when you will be besieged in all your gates throughout your land which the Eternal your Almighty has given you,
  you will eat your own children, the flesh of your sons and daughters that the Eternal your Almighty has given you, because of the siege and the anguish which the enemy will press you.
  The tender and delicate men among you will act meanly towards his brother and the wife of his bosom and the children he has spared,
  so that he will refuse to give them of the flesh of the children that he eats, because he has nothing else left, as a result of the siege and the anguish to which your enemies press you in all your gates.
  The tender and delicate women among you, who would never venture to put a foot on the ground because of their tenderness and delicatness, will act meanly towards their husbands, sons and daughters,
  for they will refuse to give them of the flesh of their little babies and children: they will eat them themselves secretly, because of utter want, in the siege and anguish to which your enemy will beseige your gates.
  If you will not observe to practice all the words of this Torah that are written in this book; to revere the honored and respectful Name, the Eternal your Almighty,
  the Eternal will inflict mysterious plagues upon you and upon your children, strange and long continued ones, bad and chronic diseases.
  He will bring back upon you all the sicknesses of Egypt which you dreaded so, and they shall cling to you.
  The Eternal will also bring upon you all the other diseases and plagues that are not mentioned in the Book of this Torah, until you will be destroyed.
  You will be left few in number, after having been as numerous as the stars in heaven, because you did not hearken to the voice of the Eternal your Almighty.
  And as the Eternal once rejoiced in making you properous and many, so will the Eternal now rejoice in causing you to perish and destroy you; you will be removed from the land which you are entering to possess.
  The Eternal will scatter you among all the people from one end of the earth to the other, and there will you serve people which worship idols of wood and stones, whom neither you nor your fathers have known.
  Even among those nations you will find no peace, nor will you find a place to rest. The Eternal will give you there agitation, anxiety, and despondency.
  Your life will be insecure, you will live in fear night and day, with no assurance of survival.
  In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening,” and in the evening, you will say: “If only it were morning,” because of the happenings which your heart will dread and your eyes will see.
  The Eternal will send you back to Egypt in galleys, by a way which I assured you, “You shall not see it again.” There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male slaves and female slaves, but none will buy you.
  These are the words of the covenant which the Eternal commanded Moses to renew with the Children of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant which He made with them in Horeb-Sinai.
  
  
  
  Moses summoned all Israel, and said to them: “Some of you have seen all that the Eternal did in your presence in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants and to his whole land,(יונתן.)
  the great miracle that your eyes have seen were of great signs and wonder.(אונקלוס.)
  Yet these Divine acts did not yield fruit for the heart to contemplate, and eyes to visualize, and ears to be attentive, to this very day.(ספורנו.)
  Some of you remember how He led you forty years in the Wilderness; your garments you wore did not wear away, neither did the shoes on your feet wear out.
  You have not eaten bread — only the manna — neither did you drink wine or other strong drink, in order that you might know that I am the Eternal your Almighty, who will always provide for your needs, miraculously.(ספורנו בפרשת עקב ח.)
  When you all reached this place, Sihon, king of Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan, came out to wage war against us, but we defeated them.(א"ע בפסוק א', אונקלוס.)
  We conquered their land and gave it to the Reubenites, to be Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh for an inheritance.
  Observe therefore the words of this covenant, even in time of victory, and do not become arrogant in time of prosperity; but rather practice them in order that you shall continue to be prosperous in all that you will do.(רש"י.)
  You are standing assembled on the last day of my life, all of you, before the Eternal your Almighty; the chiefs of your tribes, your leaders, and your officers, all the men of Israel:(רש"י.)
  Your children, your wives, and the proselytes from the Canaanites who came to your camp pretending to be from other nationalities, and I set them to be your wood choppers and water carriers;(רש"י.)
  to enter into the covenant of the Eternal your Almighty, which is accompanied by His solemn oath which the Eternal your Almighty concludes with you to-day;(יונתן, רש"י.)
  that He may establish you as His chosen, spiritual people, and so that He will be to you an Almighty protector, never to exchange you for any other people, as He had spoken to you and as He had promised your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
  Not only with your generation alone do I make this covenant and this solemn oath;
  but with both those who are standing with us to-day before the Eternal our Almighty, and also with the future generations who are not with us here to-day.(רש"י, רמב"ן, ספורנו.)
  For some of you are still here who remember the idols when we dwelt in the land of Egypt, and recall what we have experienced and witnessed of the idols among the nations through which you passed.(א"ע.)
  And you have seen their detestable things, their idols of wood and stones which were put up in public places, and of silver and gold that were kept with them indoors.(רש"י.)
  Be cautious lest there be among you a man, woman, or a family, or a tribe, whose heart is turned away this day from the Eternal our Almighty to go and serve idols of those nations; lest there be among you one who has sinful thoughts like roots developing into ripe fruit of poison and bitterness.(יונתן, אונקלוס.)
  And when such a man hears the words of this solemn warning he will assure himself immunity, by saying: “All will be well with me, though I follow the evil impulses of my heart,” in order to satiate his thirsty passions with additional sins.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  But the Eternal will not give him the opportunity to repent that he may be pardoned; the anger of the Eternal and His indignation will consume that individual who will perish at once in the smoky fire, and all the words of the solemn warning which are written in this Book will come upon him; and if the sinners are a whole family, the Eternal will blot out its name from under heaven.(עפ"י חז"ל: האומר אחטא ואשוב אין מספיקין בידו לעשות תשובה.)
  And if a whole tribe will be the sinners, then the Eternal will single it out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the punishments of the solemn warnings of the covenant which are written in this Book of the Torah.(א"ע.)
  And the future generation, your children who will rise after you are gone, and the foreigner who will come from a far off land, will discuss it when they see the plague and the diseases of that land which the Eternal implanted in it;(יונתן.)
  brimstone, and salt with burning fire on all its grounds, so that it can not be sown, nor sprout, neither any grass growing in it, and they will recognize that it is an act of the Almighty, for it will look like the overthrow of Sodom, Gomorah, Admah, and Zebaim, which the Eternal overthrew in His anger and in His wrath.(אברבנאל, ספורנו.)
  And when all these nations will ask: "Why did the Eternal act thus toward this land? Why was this great anger so fierce?”
  Your children will answer: 'Because they have abandoned the covenant that the Eternal, the Protector of their fathers made with them when He brought them out from the land of Egypt;
  They served idols, they worshipped idol-objects which do not possess Divine power and could not render aid to them.
  Therefore the anger of the Eternal burned against this land and brought upon it all the maledictions that are written in this Book.(רש"י, אונקלוס.)
  The Eternal exiled them from their land in anger, fury and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as you see at this time.'(רש"י, אונקלוס.)
  But this fierce punishment of the Eternal our Almighty applies only to those who break the covenant in secret. Those who disobey it openly, however, must be tried by a court, for we and our descendants for ever are responsible for carrying out all the words of this Torah.(א"ע, ספורנו.)
  
  
  
  When all these things, the blessing and the curse, which I have proclaimed to you, will reach you in all the exiles of the nations where the Eternal your Almighty has banished you, and you will contemplate deep in your heart to differentiate between the true belief and the false faith;(ספורנו, יונתן.)
  your repentance will reach the Throne of the Merciful Eternal your Almighty if you decide to follow His command, according to all which I instruct you to-day; you and your children will repent with all your heart and with your soul.(רשב"ם, רמב"ן.)
  The Eternal your Almighty will be willing to accept your repentance, for He will be merciful to you. His Divine Presence that shared your sufferings will return with you when He will gather you from all the peoples where the Eternal your Almighty dispersed you.(א"ע, יונתן.)
  Even if any of your exiled will be at the end of heaven, will the Eternal your Almighty reunite you; He will take you from there,(רש"י.)
  and the Eternal your Almighty will bring you into the land which your fathers inherited, you will possess it, and He will make you prosperous and multiply you even more than your forefathers.
  When you will start to repent, the Eternal your Almighty will support you spiritually. He will open your eyes so that you will return from the sins which have corrupted your heart, and the hearts of your children; you will love the Eternal your Almighty with all your heart, and with all your soul, so that you will gain everlasting life.(רש"י, ספורנו.)
  The Eternal your Almighty will put all these curses on your enemies who actually oppressed you, and against your foes who were hostile in spreading hatred against you.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  You, however, will repose, for you will obey the commandments of the Eternal and practice all His precepts, which I instruct you to-day.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  And the Eternal your Almighty will grant extra prosperity in all the work of your hands, in your offspring, your cattle, your crops. For the Eternal will again rejoice to bring prosperity upon you as He rejoiced over your fathers,(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  for you will obey the command of the Eternal your Almighty to keep His precepts and His decrees that are written in this Book of the Torah. Only you must return to the Eternal your Almighty with all your heart and with all your soul.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  For this precept of repentance which I instruct you to-day is not an obscure matter for you, nor a mysterious teaching difficult to understand.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  It is not supernatural, to serve as an excuse: 'Who can reach heaven and take it for us; explain it and then will we practice it.'(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  Neither is it beyond the sea so that you may say: 'Who will cross to the other side of the sea, take it for us and explain it and then will we practice it.'(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  No, repentance can easily be achieved at any time or place, for this thing is very near to you, by confessing with your mouth, and sincere regret in your heart.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  Mark! Because you are endowed with free will, and you have the choice in your own hands, therefore I have set before you the way of everlasting life by doing good deeds, and the way of death by following the way of evil.(ספורנו.)
  The way of good deeds which I direct you today is: to love the Eternal your Almighty, to walk in His ways by being kind to your fellowman, and to keep His precepts, His decrees, and His judgments. Then you will obtain everlasting life; you will live, multiply, and the Eternal your Almighty will bless you in the land where you enter to possess it.(ספורנו.)
  But if your heart turns to take the wrong direction, and you will not listen to my instructions, and you will go astray to worship idols, and serve them,(ראה א"ע.)
  I warn you to day that this is the path of evil, for you will surely be lost; you will not last long on the land to which you are crossing the Jordan, to enter there and possess it.(רש"י.)
  I call against you as eternal witnesses the heaven and the earth: That I have set before you the ways of life and death, ways that lead either to a blessing, or to adversity, and I counsel you that you shall choose the way of life in order to gain everlasting life, you and your descendants,(רמב"ן, ספורנו, א"ע.)
  to love the Eternal your Almighty, to obey His commandments, and to cleave to Him by emulating His kind actions. For it is He who grants you life and lasting days, that you may dwell in the land which the Eternal promised your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give to them."(רמב"ן, ספורנו, א"ע.)
  
  
  
  After completing his exhortation to the assembly, Moses went from tribe to tribe, encouraging them to put their faith in Joshua, and spoke the following to all Israel,(א"ע.)
  telling them: “I am a hundred and twenty years old to-day. Although my strength is not declined, nevertheless I am not allowed to take part in public life, for the Eternal has told me: ‘You shall not cross this Jordan.'(רש"י.)
  But be not alarmed. The Divine Presence of the Eternal your Almighty will precede you. He will destroy these nations to make way for you; Joshua will lead you, as the Eternal had spoken.(יונתן, רמב"ן.)
  The Eternal will deal with them as He dealt with Sihon and Og, the Kings of the Amorites and their lands, whom He helped you to destroy.
  The Eternal will deliver them to you, and you will deal with them according to the entire instruction which I instructed you, to destroy their idols.(א"ע.)
  Be courageous and brave; be not afraid, neither be alarmed at them, for the Divine Presence of the Eternal your Almighty leads you. He will not fail you in time of war, nor forsake you in time of peace to protect you against the surrounding enemies."(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  Moses invited Joshua, and said to him in the presence of all Israel: “Be courageous and brave, for you are appointed to bring this people to the land which the Eternal promised to their fathers to give them, and you will divide it among them.(א"ע.)
  And the Divine Presence of the Eternal will lead you; He will be with you, He will not fail nor forsake you; be not afraid nor cowardly.”(רש"י, ספרי.)
  When Moses completed writing down this whole Torah, he entrusted it to the levitical kohenites — who had charge over the ark of the Eternal's covenant — and to all the teachers of Israel.
  And Moses instructed them: “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time of the Sabbatical year, during the Feast of Succos-Booths,
  when all the Israelites come to appear before the Eternal your Almighty in the holy place which He will choose, the king will read this last of the five Torah Books before all the Israelites, aloud.(רש"י.)
  Assemble the people — men, women, children, and the alien who live within your gates — in order that they may hear, and learn to respect the Eternal your Almighty, and observe and practice all the words of this Torah.(רשב"ם.)
  And your children, who do not have knowledge of the Torah, will be initiated when they hear ask questions, and the fathers will answer, and so will they learn to respect the Eternal your Almighty as long as you live in the land where you cross the Jordan to possess it.”(רשב"ם.)
  The Eternal said to Moses: “Mark! The time for you to die is nearing. Summon Joshua, and present yourselves in the Tent of Assembly, and I will reassure him.” So Moses and Johua went from the camp of Israel, and presented themselves in the Tent of Assembly.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  The Divine Presence of the Eternal appeared in the Tent through a column of cloud, and the column of cloud stopped at the entrance of the Tent, and the Voice reached them outside, because Joshua was not permitted to enter there yet.(ראה א"ע.)
  The Eternal said to Moses: “Soon you will join your fathers in everlasting life, and this people will arise and become faithless by following the idols of the nations of the land, where they are about to enter. They will forsake Me, and nullify My covenant which I made with them.(א"ע, יונתן.)
  Then My anger will burn against them on that day; I will reject them, and I will remove My Divine Presence from them. They will be plundered, and many calamities and troubles will reach them, and they will acknowledge their sin by saying on that day: These calamities reached us because the Divine Presence is not among us.'
  However, because their repentance is not sincere but rather only because of their suffering, I will keep My Divine Presence removed from them even on that day of their suffering, for all the evils that they committed when they turned to the idols.(רמב"ן, א"ע.)
  Therefore, write this poem for yourself; teach it to the Children of Israel and explain it so that they shall study it with their mouths, in order that this poem may be My witness against the Children of Israel.(רש"י.)
  For when I shall have brought them into the land which I promised to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they will eat, be satisfied and become prosperous, and turn to the idols and serve them, then they will provoke My anger because they nullified My covenant.
  Then when many calamities and troubles will reach them, this poem will testify against them as witness that I wrarned them of the results of being faithless to Me. Let them learn so that it shall never be forgotten from the mouth of their descendants, because I know their evil passions and how they act even now, before I have brought them to the land which I have promised.”(א"ע.)
  Moses wrote down this poem on that day, and taught it to the Children of Israel.
  The Eternal reassured Joshua the son of Nun, and said: “Be courageous and brave, for you will bring the Children of Israel to the land which I promised them, and My Divine Presence will be with you.”(רש"י.)
  When Moses completed writing the words of this Torah in a book completing it to the very end,
  Moses instructed the levitical kohenites who had charge over the ark of the Eternal’s covenant, as follows:
  “Take this Book of the Torah and place it on a board projecting from the right side of the ark of the covenant of the Eternal your Almighty, so that it may remain there as a warning against you, and all Israel.(יונתן, א"ע.)
  For I know your rebellious nature, and your stubbornness: even now, while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Eternal, how much more so after my death!(תופשי מלשון ותפש את הסלע, מלכים ב, יד, ז.)
  Assemble to me all the teachers of your tribes and your officers that I may speak directly to them, and I will call heaven and earth as witnessess against them.(יונתן, א"ע.)
  For I know that, after my death, you will act corruptly, and turn away from the path which I have directed you. Then, at the end, suffering will reach you, for your having done what is evil before the Eternal, to provoke His anger by serving idols, the work of your own hands. And so, by reading the words of this Torah you will be reminded of the warning and you will repent.”(אונקלוס, ספורנו.)
  These words of the poem to the very end, Moses had spoken aloud to the entire assembly of Israel.(אונקלוס, ספורנו.)
  
  
  
  “Be attentive, O eternal heavens, while I speak: You, also, everlasting earth. Be witnesses and hear the utterences of my mouth.(עפ"י רש"י.)
  May my teaching penetrate the hearts of Israel as rain is absorbed in the soil, may they pleasantly accept my sayings as the gentle dew; my instructions sound as the breezy winds rustling on the grass, and the light rain that refreshes the herbs.(א"ע, רש"י, ירושלמי.)
  Though I pray in the name of the Merciful Eternal, yet, let us aggrandize Him also when He deals with us as a strict judge.(רמב"ן, יונתן.)
  It is true that He is mighty as a rock to punish the guilty, but His work is perfect, for all His ways are based on justice; a trustworthy Judge who rewards the righteous, although seemingly delaying, and there is no injustice, for even the sinners receive a reward for some good acts. Yea, just and upright is He.(רמב"ן, יונתן.)
  Suffering does not come from Him; it is the defect of the sons of men, of a generation crooked and perverse.(אור החיים.)
  How can you ascribe this, your affliction, to the Beneficent Eternal, O ungrateful and unwise people? Did He not act as a Father when He acquired you by delivering you from Egyption slavery? Has He not constituted you and established you as a nation at Sinai?(עפ"י רש"י.)
  Remember ancient history, study the years of each generation, consult the Books of your prophets, they will make it clear to you; the Books of your wise men will explain to you the events of former years when He bestowed prosperity upon them.(עפ"י רש"י, ספורנו.)
  When the Most High allotted territories to the nations after the flood; when He separated the sons of men into different nations, after the Tower of Bable; when He set the borders of the people, there were seventy nations as the number of persons of the sons of Israel when they came down to Egypt.(רשב"ם, רש"י.)
  For the share of the Eternal is His people, Jacob is the lot of His possession.
  He supplied him with all necessities in the desert land; in a dry waterless place, His Divine Presence led him around through the clouds of glory. He taught him His Torah, He guarded him as a man watches the pupil of his eye.(אונקלוס.)
  Like an eagle gently awakening his nest, so was the Eternal's tender affection toward Israel; as the eagle hovers over his young to protect them, so were His protective clouds over His people; as the eagle spreads forth his wings, takes the young, carries them on his feathery wings —(אונקלוס.)
  so did the Eternal alone lead him, and there was no other power with Him.(אונקלוס.)
  Triumphantly did He lead Israel to his land which is the height of the earth, where he ate the produce of the field, fed him honey from the cleft, and oil from the flinty rock.(אונקלוס.)
  He gave him cream of the herd, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and he-goats, with nutritious wheat as the choicest fat of kidneys, and wine from red grapes to drink.(אונקלוס.)
  But when the righteous Israel grew fat, he became reckless; yea, he prospered, became powerful, possessing estates, and he forsook the Almighty Who made him and acted ungratefully toward the Mighty Who redeemed him.(אונקלוס.)
  They aroused His indignation by worshipping idols, they provoked him by acting abnominably.(אונקלוס.)
  They offered sacrifices to demons who have no power, to idols whom they did not know, new idols that arose of late, which your fathers practiced not.(אונקלוס.)
  You have forgotten the Mighty One Who created you; the Almighty Who established you as a nation have you forsaken.(אונקלוס.)
  And when this was revealed to the Eternal, He was wrathful because of the provocation of his sons and daughters.(אונקלוס.)
  And He said: ‘I will remove My Divine Presence from them; it is revealed before Me what will be their end; for they "are an inconsequential generation, sons that are not trustworthy.(אונקלוס.)
  They have aroused My indignation by worshipping powerless idols, they have provoked Me with their vanities; and I will arouse indignation against them by a worthless people; I will provoke them by sending upon them a barbarious nation.(אונקלוס.)
  For a powerful storm of fire comes out from before Me in anger, and burned to the depths of the nether-world. It will devour the land and her products, and set ablaze the foundations of the mountains.(יונתן, רש"י.)
  I will heap misfortunes upon them; My punishments will, suddenly, like arrows, be exhausted upon them:(א"ע.)
  Hunger swollen, food for the vultures, deadly plagues, and the teeth of the beasts in field will I send against them, with venom of serpent crawlers in dust.(אונקלוס, א"ע, רש"י.)
  Outside the city the sword of the invading armies will bereave, and inside the home will be the terror of pestilence, sparing none; young man, also women, the suckling with the graying man will suffer these miseries.(ראה רש"י.)
  I would have abandoned them, obliterate their memory from humanity,(אונקלוס.)
  were it not for the insolence of the foes at their triumphant gathering. Lest their enemies boast, lest they should say: ‘Our greater might has destroyed our enemy; it is not the Eternal who has executed all this.'(אונקלוס.)
  O, these nations are wanting intelligence: They are perplexed people, that have no intelligence, they lack profundity.
  For if they were wise, they would consider that Israel suffered because of sin, then they would understand that their own end will be even worse, for their sins are greater.(קידושין סא, א'.)
  They should have asked themselves: ‘How could one of the enemies chase a thousand Israelites, and two repel ten thousand, unless their Mighty One had abandoned them, and the Eternal had given them up.(א"ע, רמב"ן.)
  O, you enemies who judge us, must admit that your idols could never have stood up against our Rock, the Almighty. It is only that the Eternal has punished Israel.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  Because their wicked deeds were as the vineyards of Sodom, and the fields of Gomorah; the results of their actions are like poisonous grapes, their arrogance is like bitter clusters.(ר' נחמי' בספרי.)
  Their cup of punishment is like the venom of serpents mixed in wine, their cruel enemy is like the poison of the cobra.(רמב"ן.)
  But this poisonous wine, this extreme cruelty will not be forgotten, it is surely stored with Me, it is earmarked in My vault.(א"ע, רש"י.)
  Vengeance is prepared before Me. It will be repaid as soon as Israel’s disaster is near, and their unhappy destiny will be felt by them.(א"ע, רש"י.)
  For the Eternal will execute justice on behalf of His people, and He will reconsider the case of His servants! His salvation will come when it will seem to Israel that they are rendered powerless and their strength and rescue are no more.(ראה ירושלמי, רמב"ן.)
  And when the enemy will mock: ‘Where is their Almighty, the Rock in whom they trusted;(ראה ירושלמי, רמב"ן.)
  to whom they offered the fat of their sacrifices, and for whom they poured their drink offerings? Let Him rise up and help you; let Him be your refuge!”(יונתן.)
  But when Israel's redemption will come, He will say to all nations: 'See now: that I am, that I always was, and that I will always be, and there are no other powers beside My Divine Powers! I bring death, but will also quicken the dead, yea, I have wounded Israel and I will heal them, but nobody can save beside My Power.(יונתן, ירושלמי, א"ע.)
  For I will elevate Israel to heavens' heights by My Divine Power, and I promise, as I live for ever, that—(רמב"ן, אונקלוס, רש"י, א"ע.)
  when I sharpen My glittering sword, and My Power will grasp that sword to mete out justice, then will I repay punishment to My adversaries for all they had done to Israel, and to My enemies will I mete out retribution.(א"ע, רמב"ן.)
  I will make My arrows saturated with blood of the enemy, and My sword will consume their flesh; from the blood of the slain and the captives, confusion will come to the heads of the enemy.(רמב"ן, אונקלוס, רש"י, א"ע.)
  Jubilate together with His people, O Nations, for He will avenge the blood of His servants; He will wreak vengeance upon His enemies, and will atone for His land and His people."(רשב"ם, אונקלוס.)
  Moses came from the Sanctuary and spoke all the words of this poem before the people; he read it and his successor, who was popularly known as Hoshea, the son of Nun, interpreted it.(יונתן, רש"י, א"ע.)
  And when Moses finished reading all these words to all Israel,
  he said to them: Be mindful of the words with which I have warned you today; instruct your children to observe and to practice all the words of this Torah.
  For these are not merely empty words for you; this is surely the destiny of your life. It begins with the mercies which the Almighty had shown to you since you became His people; it predicts your betrayal when residing in the land of affluence, your punishment and your sufferings, and finally the Almighty's avenging of the blood of His people. And by recalling these words you will remain long on the land to which you cross the Jordan to possess it.(עפ"י רמב"ן בפסוק מ'.)
  The Eternal spoke to Moses early on that day, as follows:
  "Ascend through this mountain range to Mount Nebo, which is at the land of Moab facing Jericho, and observe the land of Canaan which I give to the Children of Israel for a possession.
  Prepare yourself to die on the mountain whither you ascend. And your soul will be joined with the souls of your people who have preceded you, and yours will be the same peaceful death as that of your brother Aaron, even as his soul joined the souls of his people.(א"ע, רש"י.)
  This is because you were the cause of bringing disloyalty against Me among the Children of Israel at the water of Meriboth-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; for by hitting the rock and not speaking to it, as I commanded, you failed to sanctify Me among the Children of Israel.(עפ"י רש"י.)
  Only from a distance may you see it, but from there you will not enter the land which I give the Children of Israel."(ראה אור החיים.)
  
  
  
  This is the blessing which the Divinely inspired Moses bestowed on the Children of Israel before he died.(עפ"י רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  He said: “The Eternal revealed Himself from Sinai to give the Torah to Israel. The precious splendor of His Divine Presence had shown Itself on Mount Seir to offer the Torah to the Children of Esau which they refused to accept. Then in His radiant glory He appeared on Mount Paran to offer it to the Ishmaelites, and they too refused to accept it because of its high moral ideals which could not grasp. He revealed Himself again to Israel, in the Presence of myriards of holy angels; He issued from the midst of fire for them, from His righteous throne, a law combined mercy with justice.(עפ"י רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  Yea, He loves the tribes of Israel! All the holy ones of Israel have You brought out with might from Egypt; they are led under Your clouds of Glory, they are marching by Your command.(יונתן, א"ע בויקרא כג, ה', וראה תוס' קידושין לז, ב'.)
  The Children of Israel constantly repeat: The Torah which Moses instructed us will be transmitted to endless generations as an inalienable heritage by all the assembled tribes of the House of Jacob.'(יונתן, ספורנו, רמב"ן.)
  So also did righteous Israel acknowledge the Eternal as everlasting King at the time of the giving of the Torah on Sinai, when the chiefs of the people assembled, united with all the tribes of Israel.(יונתן, ספורנו, רמב"ן.)
  Long live the tribe of Reuben! May they not die when they pass as vanguards in the war for the land of Israel, and let not his men become diminished.(יונתן, ספורנו, רמב"ן.)
  And this prayer I offer for the land of Judah, in which Simeon is included when marching together in war: “Accept, O Eternal, the prayer of Judah when he goes forth to battle, and bring him back to his people in peace. His own might shall be sufficient for him without reliance on outside help; his only help against his adversaries shall come from You."(ספורנו, אונקלוס.)
  Of the tribe of Levi he said: ‘O Eternal, Your holy Oracle of Thumim and Urrim You vested in Aaron, the man who was always found to be faithful to You; whom You tested at the test of the golden calf; upon whom You imputed the sin at the waters of Meribah, and though it was Israel’s offence, he was punished.(יונתן.)
  The tribe of Levi, when commanded to discharge his duties to the Eternal, disregarded even father and mother, Thus, when called upon to punish the worshippers of the golden calf he did not respect his Israelite half-brothers, nor did he want to know of his Israelite grandchildren; for they observed Your Word, and kept Your Covenant.(יונתן.)
  They are worthy to teach Your judicial laws to the House of Jacob, Your Torah to Israel; their descendants, the kohenites, will offer incense before You, and sacrifice acceptable offerings upon Your Altar.(יונתן.)
  Bless, O Eternal, his guards when they enter the Sanctuary, and pleasantly accept the offerings they sacrifice for Israel; smash the strength of his adversaries, and defeat his enemies who contest the Kehuna, so that they shall not rise again.”(יונתן.)
  The tribe of Benjamin Moses blessed thusly: “As the beloved of the Eternal, he will dwell in trust of Him: The Divine Presence will ever hover above him, for the Sanctuary will be built in his territory and His Presence will abide in the midst of his inheritance.”(יונתן.)
  The tribe of Joseph, Moses blessed thusly: “O Eternal, may his land be blessed; may it bring forth delicious vegetation through the dew and rain from heaven above, and from the fountains that spring from the depths below;(יונתן.)
  choice crops nourished by the sun, and sweet fruit the produce of each month.(יונתן.)
  On the top of the mountains may grow the first-ripened fruit, and on the hills will be everlasting vegetation,(יונתן.)
  also the blessing of sweet vegetation be in the plains of his land with its fullness. May the blessing of the Eternal, Who appeared to me at the burning bush, come upon the head of Joseph; on the crown of the prince of his brothers.(יונתן.)
  The greatness of his descendants will adorn him, for their strength will be like the horns of the wild ox; united will they conquer nations, even to the end of the earth. These are the tens of thousands which were executed by Joshua, descendant of Ephraim, and the thousands executed by Gideon, descendant of Manasseh.(יונתן.)
  Of the tribe of Zebulun Moses said: “Because you have combined in partnership with the tribe of Issachor: you will embark on trade and provide support for Issachor while he occupies himself in the study of the Torah — I therefore bless both of you: Prosper, O Zebulun, in the dispatch of your commerce and may Issachar spiritually advance in his Torah academies.(רש"י.)
  Through the commercial contact which Zebulun will make with foreign nations, many people will convene at the mountain of the Eternal; there they will offer holy sacrifice. Since both tribes dwell at the port of ships they will accumulate the wealth of the oceans, and treasure the trade of the various colorful pottery made of sand.”(רש"י, יונתן.)
  Of the tribe of Gad Moses said: “Blessed is He Who allotted unto Gad the largest territory of all the tribes. With the courage of a lioness he settled in the bordcr-towns, and as a lioness tears the arms and the skull, so docs Gad kill the army of the enemy together with their leader.(רמב"ן, ספורנו, יונתן.)
  He was first of all the tribes to choose his portion in the eastern part of the Jordan for he knew that there, in his territory, Moses the law giver would be buried. Gad will come as the vanguard of the people’s army to conquer the Western part of the Jordan; he will do his duty in carrying out the righteous will of the Eternal, and execute justice to Israel by helping them to conquer the land.”(אונקלוס, רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  Of Dan Moses said: “Dan, like Gad, lives close to the border, and he, too, is likened to a young lion that leaps forth from Bashan and stretches his territory from the North to the South.”(יונתן.)
  Of Naphtali He said: “Contented is Naphtali, for his fertile territory is full of the Eternal’s blessing; he possesses the southwest of the lake of Tiberias whose fruit on its shores is famed for its superior quality.”(אונקלוס, ספורנו.)
  And of Asher he said: “Because of the rich soil of his land, Asher will be praised by all the tribes for the Succulene food which he will provide; he will be the favorite of his brothers; olives will be so abundant in his land that he will dip his feet in oil.(רמב"ן, יונתן.)
  Your borders will be unconquerable, as though they were barred with doors of iron and copper; as the strength of your younger days so shall your old age be.”(ספורנו, רמב"ן.)
  O, all tribes of Righteous Israel! There is none like the Almighty! The Divine Presence Who is in heaven is your salvation, His grandeur is above the skies.(ספורנו, א"ע, אונקלוס.)
  The Almighty of ancient times is enthroned in heaven above, and He rules the world beneath. He cast out the enemy from before you, and He commanded: 'Destroy those who do not abandon idolatry.’(ראה רמב"ן בפרשת שופטים כ, טו.)
  Israel will dwell securely only when he will be in his land alone, as prophesied by Patriarch Jacob: ‘The Almighty will be with you, and bring you back to the land of your fathers, to the land of grain and wine; even heaven above will send down its dew.'(אונקלוס, רש"י, אור החיים.)
  Happy are you, O Israel; None is like you! A people whose victory comes from the Eternal: His salvation is your shield in time of trouble? He is the Sword of your Triumph. Your secret foes may betray you, but in the end, you will tread on their graves."(א"ע, אונקלוס - במותימו לפי פשט אחר הוא קבר, עפ"י ישעי' נג, ט.)
  
  
  
  Moses ascended from the plain of Moab to Mount Nebo to its peak facing Jericho. The Eternal showed him all the land, from Gilead in the eastern part of the Jordan to Dan which was situated on the North-West boundary at the Western part,(עפ"י אונקלוס, רמב"ן.)
  all the territory of Naphtoli on the eastern border of the land of Israel, the land of Ephraim and Menasseh, in the central part of the land, and all the land of Judah in the South as far as the Mediterranean,(א"ע, הירש, אונקלוס.)
  the Negeb, and the plain, as far as the valley of Jericho, the city of Palm trees, as far as Zoar.
  The Eternal said to him: “This is the land which I promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying: I will give it to your descendants! I have shown it to you in its present physical state, and I have also shown it to you in its future state — in its prosperity as well as in its days of adversity: the victories of Jephtha the Gileadite; Samson the Danite; Gideon of Menasah, and David the Judean; the sinners in the land and the evil consequences which they will suffer. As anxious as you are to enter the land to pray there, you can, nevertheless, not pass there.”(ספרי, יונתן, רש"י.)
  Then by the command of the Eternal Moses, in tears, wrote the following eight verses: “There in the land of Moab, Moses — who to his very last was the servant of the Eternal — died.(מס' בבא בתרא טו, א', א"ע.)
  He went into a cave and He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth Peor, and no man knows his sepulchre to this day, in order that he may not be deified.(רש"י, רשב"ם.)
  Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eyes were not dim nor did the precious radiance of his face disappear after his death.(אונקלוס, רש"י.)
  The Children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; and when the days of weeping and mourning ended, the people turned to Joshua.(א"ע, יונתן.)
  For Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of Divine wisdom, because Moses laid his hands upon him, thus endowing him with his spirit, and the Children of Israel received guidance from him and did as the Eternal commanded Moses.(א"ע, יונתן.)
  There has not yet arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, to whom the Eternal communicated His knowledge and His Divine Ways so clearly and directly,(יונתן, רמב"ן.)
  nor such a messenger for all the signs and the supernaturally wondrous acts which the Eternal sent him to perform in the land of Egypt, in the presence of Pharaoh and all his servants, and to all the people of his land;(ספורנו, רמב"ן.)
  and for all the great might, and for all the miracles in the vast and fearful wilderness which He had performed through Moses in the presence of all Israel.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)