[Commentary from Pentateuch and Haftorahs, ed. Dr. J.H. Hertz, the best compilation of Jewish interpreters of their own Hebrew Scriptures; translation is different from our translation of choice, EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses.—Admin1.]

Deuteronomy/Davarim 8

FATHERLY DISCIPLINE OF GOD–THE LESSONS OF THE WILDERNESS

The long wandering in the Wilderness had been designed to teach Israel humility and a self-distrusting reliance on Him.  In those years, when the Israelites were wholly dependent upon God, they had lacked nothing that was essential for their. life.  Now they were about to take possession of a fertile land; let them take heed not to forget the Divine goodness and guidance.

all the commandment.  Ibn Ezra joins this v. to the one following.  ‘If ye desire to keep all the commandments that ye may live, then remember all the way which the LORD . . . commandments or no.’

live and multiply.  This is said because of the fate of the preceding generation, which had been doomed to die in the Wilderness (Ehrlich).

all the way.  The spiritual purpose of the long journey in the Wilderness is now expounded to the people, presenting a fresh aspect of Divine Providence.

that He might afflict thee.  This is defined in v. 3, 15-16.  God brought provisions upon them to teach them how dependent they were upon Him, and how helpless without Him.

to prove thee, i.e. to test thee.  It is in adversity that the true nature of a man is seen.  When hardships came upon the Israelites, they had stood the test.  Although they had murmured and complained, under the restraining influence of Moses they had adhered to God.

and He afflicted thee.  Better, so He afflicted thee.

man doth not live by bread only.  Physical food is not the only thing that ensures man’s existence.  Apart from the normal sustenance, there are Divine forces which sustain man in his progress through life.  The words in the Text are of wider application than their reference to the manna.  They teach that man has a soul as well as a body, and the needs of the spiritual life should not be neglected.  This truth is of especial importance in an age when, in so many countries, men are passionately declaring that man can live by bread alone, and that he will.

thy raiment waxed not old.  ‘There are some who explain this in the manner of a symbol; i.e. the expressions are rhetorical, and not to be understood in their literal sense.  They are a vivid metaphor to denote the sustaining Providence of God during the wanderings in the inhospitable desert’ (Ibn Ezra).

and thou shalt consider in thine heart.  Better, and thou shalt know with thine heart: i.e. with the conviction which comes from knowledge—the ‘heart’ being the seat of intelligence (IV,29).

chaseneth his son. Better, disciplineth his son. Even the hunger and hardship during the wanderings in the desert were part of God’s fatherly discipline of His people.  Suffering is thus transfigured into what the Rabbis called ‘chastisements of love’.  ‘God delivereth the afflicted by His affliction’ (Job XXXVI,15).  Especially to the Rabbis is the pathway of suffering the necessary road to the beatitudes of higher life.  ‘Beloved is suffering; for only through suffering were the good gifts of the Torah, the Holy Land, and Eternal Life given unto Israel.  Those who . . . rejoice in their sufferings, they are the lovers of God’ (Talmud).

7-19.  This fatherly discipline of God is necessary to keep vividly in mind: lest, in the plenty of Palestine, God be forgotten.

a good land . . . hills.  ‘An attractive and faithful description of the Palestinian landscape’ (Driver); III,25.

brooks of water. i.e. wadys.

depths. Heb. tehomoth; the underground waters that feed the rivers and fountains.

without scarceness.  Among the desert Arabs, ‘some tribes taste bread but once a month, others not so often, and it is regarded as a luxury’ (E. Robinson).

whose stones are iron. i.e., the stones contain, and with treatment yield iron.  What is meant is probably the black basalt, a volcanic product, which contains about 1/5th iron, and i still called iron-stone by the Arabs.

brass.  Better, copper. Traces of copper works are to be found in Lebanon and Edom.

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and thou shalt eat.  The good things of the world are provided for man’s enjoyment; and, far from teaching that man is doing wrong by finding happiness in them, Judaism desires man to do so. 

bless.  i.e. thank; thou shalt be moved to praise Him with a grateful heart.  The Rabbis understood these words as a command, and based upon them the precept that every meal must be followed by Grace.  As ‘the earth is the LORD’s and the fulness thereof’, the Talmud declares, ‘Whoever enjoys any worldly pleasure without uttering a benediction of its Divine Giver, commits a theft against God.’

The Grace consists of four parts: thanksgiving for food, for the land of Israel, for the Temple, and general praise and petition.  In the light of Judaism, the table is an altar; and every meal is hallowed by prayer, before and after.  The ancient Jewish Mystics added a touch of ecstasy to the statutory Grace by singing gleeful table-hymns, Zemiroth.  The unique combination, in these songs, of adoration of God with genial appreciation of good cheer is a product of the Jewish genius, which interweaves the secular with the sacred, and spreads over the ordinary facts of life the rainbow of the Divine.  This saintly custom of table-hymns was soon adopted for the Sabbath by the whole house of Israel.  In this way, a Sabbath meal became, literally, a service of joy and with joy.  To those who sing, and teach their little ones to sing, these beautiful hymns and melodies, the Sabbath day is, as it was to their fathers of old, a foretaste of ‘that Day which is wholly a Sabbath, and rest in life everlasting’.

thy heart be lifted up . . . forget the LORD.  Wherever there is pride, there is forgetting of God.  ‘Of a man dominated by pride, the Holy One, blessed be He, says, “I and he cannot dwell in the same universe”‘ (Talmud).  ‘Prosperity always tempts man to fretfulness against every idea of restraint.  Whenever men forgot God, their whole way of life dropped to a lower level and served baser issues.  A reverent and humble recognition of Him and gratitude to Him would prevent their obedience becoming a weariness’ (Welch).

fiery serpents.  See Num. XXI,6.

thirsty ground where was no water. The desert was first of all a place of thirst without shade from the sun, the fierce rays of which cause excessive longing for drink; secondly, the desert was a waterless place.

at thy latter end.  lit. ‘in thy later days’; viz. when Israel is settled in the Land.  The hard experience they had been called upon to endure was part of their training for their independent national existence.

but thou shalt remember.  God would fulfil the promise He made to the Patriarchs; but the continuance of the good fortune of the Israelites would depend upon their own merit.  Hence the warning immediately follows, that forgetfulness of God would change national prosperity of that Covenant.

as it is this day. As the occupation of the Transjordanian lands, and the impending conquest of the Promised Land, are the result of that Covenant.

other gods . . . forewarn.  Local Baals of the Canaanites.

 as the nations . . . perish. Because you will then not be better than those nations.

[Commentary from the best of Jewish minds, collected in an excellent resource: Pentateuch and Haftorahs, ed. Dr. J.H. Hertz; our translation of choice is EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses..—Admin1]

Deuteronomy/Davarim 7

Observance of the Fundamental Laws–the Ten Commandments and Shema–demands avoidance of intermarriage, and the destruction of all idolatrous worship in the Promised Land.

before thee.  lit. ‘from before thee,’ i.e. to make way for thee.  The nations here enumerated are mentioned in Gen. X,15-18, XV,19; Exod. III,8,17; XIII,5 and elsewhere.  The Midrash states that the Girgashites left Canaan before the entry of the Israelites.

utterly destroy. Heb. i.e., consider them as cherem, something that must not come near thee.  On the ‘ban’ against the Canaanites, see XX,18.

show mercy.  Better, show grace; or, ‘give gifts to’ (Talmud).  The Rabbis restrict this prohibition, as all others in this connection, to actual idolaters like the ancient Canaanites.  It does not apply to ordinary heathens who observe the fundamental laws of human society.

marriages. The evil results of such marriages were perceived by the Patriarchs; Gen. XXIV and XXVIII.  Moses had previously warned the people against allying themselves by marriage with their neighbours (Exod. XXXIV,16), and the warning was repeated by his successor (Josh. XXIII,12).  In our own days, in conditions that are worlds asunder from those in Canaan of old, intermarriage is no less fatal to the continued existence of Israel. ‘Every Jew should feel himself bound, even though the duty involves the sacrifice of precious affections, to avoid acts calculated, however remotely, to weaken the stability of the ancestral religion.  Every Jew who contemplates marriage outside the pale must regard himself as paving the way to a disruption which would be the final, as it would be the culminating, disaster in the history of his people’ (M. Joseph).

he will turn away.  i.e., the heathen who marries thy daughter.

thy son.  The Talmud explains this to mean thy grandson.  Since the Torah, on this interpretation calls the child of an Israelite mother and gentile father the ‘son’ of an Israelite grandfather, it was deduced therefrom that the child is to be regarded as being of the same race and faith as the mother.  Consequently, the child of a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother follows in Jewish Law the religious status of the mother.

pillars.  Symbols of the sun-god Baal.

Asherim.  A tree planted (XVI,21), or a pole set up (II Kings XVII,10), as sacred symbols of Astarte, the goddess of fertility.

6-11.  REASONS FOR PREVIOUS COMMANDS

thou art a holy people.  See Exod. XIX,5—the classical passage announcing the covenant between God and Israel.  Being a holy people, Israel was not to be contaminated by foul and cruel worship.  It was to be a People apart from the other nations, and untainted by their heathenish practices.

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His own treasure.  See on Exod. XIX,5. ‘The character of Israel as the Chosen People does not involve the inferiority of other nations.  The universality of Israel’s idea of God is sufficient proof against such an assumption.  Every nation requires a certain self-consciousness for the carrying out of its mission.  Israel’s self-consciousness was tempered by the memory of its slavery in Egypt, and the recognition of its being the servant of the LORD.  It was the noblesse oblige of the God-appointed worker for the entire human race ‘ (Guedemann).

set His love upon you.  The root is used of the ‘blind’, non-rational love.  God’s love of Israel is like that love (cheshek) for which no reason is to be sought, as it is due solely to the desire of the lover (Albo).

the fewest of all peoples.  lit. ‘ the few out of the totality of peoples’; i.e. only a small fragment of the whole of humanity (Herxheimer, Dillmann). Israel is a small nation, but it has been chosen to accomplish world-embracing and eternal things.  ‘All the great things have been done by the little nations’ (Disraeli). ‘God has chosen little nations as the vessels by which He carries the choicest wines to the lives of humanity, to rejoice their hearts, to exalt their vision, to stimulate and strengthen their faith’ (Lloyd George).

know therefore.  ‘This phrase does not mean to know so as to see the fact of, but to know so as to feel the force of.  It is knowledge that is followed by shame, or by love, or by reverence, or by the sense of a duty’ (G.A. Smith).

12-16. THE BLESSINGS OF OBEDIENCE

The reward of obedience will be prosperity, vital power, and health.

corn . . .wine . . .oil. The principal products of Canaan.

diseases of Egypt.  The climate of Egypt is unhealthy, especially at certain seasons of the year.  Pliny describes Egypt as ‘the mother of worst diseases’.

17-26.  ISRAEL’S STRUGGLE WITH THE CANAANITE NATIONS

God will be his Helper.  Let not Israel in the hour of victory come to terms with Idolatry.

are more than I. “They are too many for me.’

hornet.  Exod. XXIII,28. A plague of hornets would drive the Canaanites from their hiding-places into the open.  Some of the species of hornets found in Palestine have their nests in rock-caves.  There is a novel and illuminating explanation of the meaning of the ‘hornet’.  It was the badge of Thotmes III and his successors, and would thus be a veiled reference to the systematic series of invasions and conquests in Palestine undertaken by that Pharaoh.  These invasions had reduced the fighting power and resistance of the Canaanites (Garstang).

affrighted at them.  So as to seek safety in flight.

and awful. God alone is to be feared, and the fear of Him would drive out any other.

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little and little.  Otherwise, large areas would be left desolate, in which wild beasts would multiply; see II Kings XVII,24, also Exod. XXIII,29.

beasts of the field.  Wild beasts, as ‘field’ is here used in the sense of uncultivated territory.  The country was at no time in the Biblical age so settled that the jungle lay wholly beyond the range of ordinary experience.  ‘How constant the war of man against wild animals was in ancient Palestine, may be felt from the promise of their being tamed as one of the elements of the Messianic Age; Isa. XI,6-8’ (G.A. Smith).

discomfit them with a great discomfiture. ‘Rout them in a crushing defeat’ (Moffatt).

the silver or the gold that is on them.  The wooden image was usually overlaid with one of the precious metals; see Isa. XL,19.

snared therein. i.e. brought into misfortune, through God’s judgment being provoked by the heathenish relic in the Israelite’s home.

an abomination. Heb., a contemptuous term for an idolatrous image, unchastity, or dishonest dealing.

be accursed like unto it.  Better, be an accursed thing; i.e. become a herem.  He who brings an abomination into his house, himself becomes abominable; see the story of Achan, Josh. VII.

[Continuing our featured resource, commentary from the best of Jewish minds all in one book, edited by Dr. J.H. Hertz, titled Pentateuchs and Haftorahs; our translation of choice is EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses—Admin 1.]

THE SHEMA

THE ONENESS OF GOD AND ISRAEL’S UNDIVIDED LOYALTY TO HIM

Deuteronomy/Davarim 6

now this is. Better, and this is.  

that thou mightest fear.  This sums up the aim and purpose of the general principles of the legislation, as well as of the separate statues.

4-9. After the repetition of the story of the Giving of the Ten Commandments, Moses proceeds to declare the other great foundation of the Torah; viz. the oneness of God and Israel’s undivided loyalty to Him.

The opening verse of this paragraph, called after its first Heb. word Shema, sounds the keynote of all Judaism, and has been its watchword and confession of faith throughout the ages.  Here the fundamental Truth of the Unity of God is proclaimed.  It is followed in v. 5-9 by the fundamental Duty founded upon that Truth;  viz. the devotion to Him of the Israelite’s whole being.

• He is bidden to love God with heart, soul, and might; t
• o remember all the commandments and instruct his children therein;
• to recite the words of god when retiring or rising;
• to bind those words on the arm and the head,
• and to inscribe them on his door-posts and the city gates.

The later leaders of Jewry showed their spiritual insight when they gave the place they did to this high and winsome message’ (Welch).

In the Liturgy, the Shema is said twice daily, and consists of three sections:

• Deut. VI,4-9; XI,13-21; and Num. XV,37-41.
• The second section Deut. XI,13-21, contains the promise of reward for the fulfillment of the laws, and punishment for their transgression.
• The third section Num. XV,37-41, enacts the law concerning the tzitzith, as a warning against the following evil inclinations of the heart, and an exhortation to submit to the laws of God in remembrance of the Exodus.

Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is One.  Or, ‘Hear, O Israel: the LORD is our God, the LORD is One’ (Sifri, Septuagint, and most Jewish translators and commentators).  It sums up the teaching of the First and Second Commandments; The LORD is our God, and He is One.  The translation given by AJ, ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is One,’ is less acceptable; for if the declaration only enunciated the Divine Unity, it would be sufficient to have said, ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is One.’  Some moderns follow Rashbam’s translation: ‘Hear O Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD alone.’

the LORD our God.  The Heb is the Divine Name of Four Letters, the Father and Sustainer of the lives and spirits of all flesh, the everlasting Power Who guides the destinies of men and nations.

the LORD is One. ‘In the opening v. of the Shema we have a third revelation of God’s being.  In Gen. XVII, He is made known to us as Almighty; in Exod. VI, as Eternal; and now as the One’ (Philippson).

• He is One, because there is no other God than He;
• but He is also One, because He is wholly unlike anything else in existence.
• He is therefore not only One, but the Sole and Unique God.

One.  Heb. echad.  Therefore to Him alone it is right to pray, and not to any being besides Him.  The belief that God is made up of several personalities, such as the Christian belief in the Trinity, is a departure from the pure conception of the Unity of God.  Israel has throughout the ages rejected everything that marred or obscured the conception of pure monotheism it had given the world, and rather than abandon that pure monotheism, rather than admit any weakening of it, Jews were prepared to wander, suffer, to die” [please go to  SHEMA – Perspective from Judaism to read The Shema and martyrdom–Admin 1.]

and thou shalt love.  This is the first instance in human history that the love of God was demanded in any religion.  The love of God is the distinctive mark of His true worshippers.  The worshipper, as he declares the Unity of God, thereby lovingly and unconditionally surrenders his mind and heart to God’s holy will.  Such spiritual surrender is called ‘taking upon oneself the yoke of the kingdom of heaven.’  If the Unity of God is the basis of the Jewish creed, the love of God is to be the basis of the Jewish life.  And the noblest spiritual surrender and love of God, the Rabbis held, was so to live and act toward our fellowmen as to make God and His Torah beloved in their eyes.

‘The meaning of the love of God is that a man should be longing and yearning after the nearness of God, blessed be He, and striving to reach His holiness, in the same manner as he would pursue any object for which he feels a strong passion.  He should feel that bliss and delight in mentioning His name, in uttering His praises and in occupying himself with the words of the Torah, which a lover feels toward the wife of his youth, or the father towards his only son.  The earlier saints attained to such disinterested love of God; as King David said in Psalm XLII, 2: “As the heart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my soul after Thee, O God” (Moses Chayim Luzzatto).

‘When the soul sinks in the depths of awe, the spark of the love of God breaks out in flames, and the inward joy increases.  Such lovers of God desire only to accomplish His holy will, and lead others unto righeousness (Moses Chayim Luzzatto).

with all thy heart.  Because there is one God, we must give Him undivided allegiance.  ‘The One God demands the whole of man’ (Smend).  The Rabbis explain with all thy heart  to mean ‘with all thy desires, including the evil inclination’; i.e. make thy earthly passions and ambitions instruments in the service of God.

with all thy soul.  We should be prepared to give up our dearest wishes and inclinations for the love of God.  The Rabbis take the words with all thy soul  to mean ‘with thy whole life’; i.e. love Him with thy heart’s last drop of blood, and give up thy life for God, if He requires it.  The classical example is that of Rabbi Akiba.  He longed for the sublime moment when his daily profession of the love of God might be put tot he proof and confirmed by act.  That moment came when, after his noble part in the last Jewish War of Independence against Imperial Rome, the Roman executioner was tearing his flesh with combs of iron.  ‘All my days,’ Akiba told his weeping disciples, ‘I have longed for this moment, when I loved Him with all my heart, and I loved Him with all my might; now that I have the opportunity of loving Him with all my soul, shall I not rejoice?”  It was such understanding of the words of the Shema that gave the Jewish martyrs throughout the ages the comfort and courage to lay down their lives for their Faith.  Bachya tells of a medieval Jewish saint who used to pray:  ‘My God, thou hast given me over to starvation and penury.  Into the depth of darkness hast Thou plunged me, and Thy might and strength Thou hast taught me.  But even if they burn me with fire, only the more will I love Thee and rejoice in Thee.’  Such spiritual surrender is, of course, without any thought of reward or punishment in the Hereafter.  As another of the saints boldly expressed it, ‘I have no wish for Thy Paradise, nor any desire for the bliss in the world to come.  I want Thee and Thee alone.’

. . . . The supreme sacrifice, however, is demanded only to avoid idolatry, incest, and murder.

with all thy might. With the full concentration of feeling and power.  One Rabbinic explanation is, ‘with whatever lot Providence has assigned to thee’; i.e. love Him in times of bliss and happiness, and in times of distress and misfortune.  Another explanation is ‘with all thy possessions’; i.e. despite whatever material sacrifice thy loyalty to Israel’s God and Torah might entail.  An 18th-century moralist understood ‘with all thy possessions’ to mean, ‘even when great wealth is thine’ (Panim Yafoth).

these words.  In v. 4 and 5; viz.  the Unity of God and the duty of undivided allegiance to Him, as the epitome of the teaching of the Book.

this day. ‘Do not regard the Divine commands as old and stale news; but consider them as something fresh, as a new Royal Proclamation reaching you this very day’ (Sifri).

upon thy heart.  The heart is conceived as a tablet on which these Divine words shall be inscribed; Jer. XXXI,32-33.

teach them diligently.  lit. ‘prick them in’; so that the words remain indelibly upon their hearts. ‘Let them have a clear, and not a confused or stammering, knowledge of the duties and teachings of their Faith’ (Sifri).

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and shalt talk of them. They are to be a theme of living interest, early and late, at home and abroad.

when thou sittest in thy house. ‘A man should conduct himself with due propriety in his house, so as to set an example to his household; and he should also be gentle with them, and not overawe them’ (Zohar).

when thou liest down. The Rabbis based on this institution of Evening Prayer.  It consists of the Shema, preceded by Two Benedictions (the one, referring to the Divine ordering of day and night; and the second, eulogizing the love of God shown in the revelation of the Torah.  The Shema is also followed by two Benedictions (the proclamation of faith; and the prayer for peaceful repose).  The Service continues with the Amidah (The 18 Benedictions—3 Blessings of Praise; 12 (now 13) Petitions; and 3 Blessings of Thanks) and Oleynoo.  The Shema is also recited before retiring to rest.   To fill one’s mind with high and noble thoughts is a wise preparation for the hours of darkness.  ‘The Shema is a double-edged sword against all the terrors and temptations of the night’ (Talmud).

when thou risest up. It is preceded by 2 Benedictions, and followed by one.  These Benedictions are

(1) a eulogy of God as the Creator of the light of day;

(2) a eulogy of God as Giver of the Torah; and

(3) a eulogy of God as the Redeemer of the 18 Benedictions.  On some days, Tachanun and the Reading of the Torah follow.  The Service concludes with Oleynoo, Kaddish and some psalms.

bind them. The precept of tephillin: The purpose of the tephillin is given in the Meditation recited before putting on the tephillin (Authorised Prayer Book):—“Within these Tephillin are placed 4 sections of the Law, that declare the absolute unity of God, and that remind us of the miracles and wonders which He wrought for us when He brought us forth from Egypt, even He who hath power over the highest and lowest to deal with them according to His will.  He hath commanded us to lay the Tephillin on the hand as a memorial of His outstretched arm; opposite the heart, to indicate the duty of subjecting the longings and designs of our heart to His service, blessed be He; and upon the head over against the brain, thereby teaching that the mind, whose seat is in the brain, together with all senses and faculties, is subjected to His service, blessed be He.’ The tephillin are not worn at night, nor on Sabbaths or Festivals, as these are themselves called ‘a sign’ of the great truths symbolized by the tephilin.  The commandment of tephillin applies to all male persons from their 13th birthday, when they attain their religious majority (Barmitzvah).  On the Sabbath following that birthday, the Barmitzvah is called to the Law, publicly to acknowledge God as the Giver of the Torah.

The wording of v. 8 and 9 is not  to be taken as a figure of speech.  ‘It seems on the whole to be more probable that the injunction is intended to be carried out literally; and that some material, visible expression of the Israelite’s creed is referred to’ (Driver).

By means of the mezuzah affixed to the doorpost in Jewish homes.  The mezuzah is placed in a metal or glass case, and fixed to the right-hand doorpost of the outer entrance of every dwelling room in the house.  It contains this section of the Shema and XI,13-20.  the word ‘Almighty’ written on the back of the parchment is rendered visible by means of a small opening in the case.  The mezuzah  is a symbol of God’s watchful care over the house and its dwellers.  It is a solemn reminder to all who go out and in, that the house is devoted to the ideals of the Shema.

Image from oneyearbibleblog.com

I. Abrahams thus sums up the basic importance of Deut. VI,4-9: ‘It enshrines the fundamental dogma (monotheism), the fundamental duty (love), the fundamental discipline (study of the Law), and the fundamental method (union of “letter” and “spirit”), of the Jewish Religion.’

10-19. PERIL OF FORGETTING

The pleasantness of their inheritance in the New Land might breed forgetfulness of their dependence upon the goodness of God, and a disposition to follow the gods of the surrounding nations.

cisterns hewn out.  In the Holy Land water had to be collected during the rainy seasons and stored.  For this purpose, cisterns cut out of the rocks are of special value.

thou shalt fear the LORD thy God.  This command is complementary to VI,5 ‘thou shalt love the LORD thy God’.  Love and fear of God combined constitute the highest reverence.  ‘The fear of God acts as a powerful deterrent from evil; the love of God, as the highest incentive to living in accordance with the Divine will’ (Talmud).  ‘Indeed, the fear of the LORD, is the nearest equivalent in Hebrew to what we mean when we speak about religion’ (Welch).

serve.  In prayer (Sifri).

by His name shalt thou swear.  This is no command to swear; only a bringing out of the religious significance of an oath (Oettli).  Primitive man constantly appeals to his gods for the truth and honesty of his transactions; and such appeal to his gods really constituted a profession of his loyalty to those gods.  An Israelite is to swear by the Name of God alone, always remembering that it was an unpardonable sin to take God’s Name in vain–and that the truly pious refrain from all oaths.

peoples that are round about you. Not that it was permissible to follow the gods of distant nations, but that the danger of adopting the worship of neighboring peoples was more insidious and real (Rashi).

a jealous God.  The Heb. el kanna means, ‘a zealous God’, full of zeal for holiness and justice, to whom man’s doings and dealings are not a matter of indifference, but Who renders strict retribution for all idolatry and iniquity.  It also means, ‘a jealous God.’ That may appear a startling description of God.  It signifies that God claims the exclusive love of His children, their entire sincerity—and complete self-surrender.  He will not allow the veneration and loyalty due to Him alone to be shared with other objects of worship. . . .the blessed doctrine of ‘a jealous God’ is of vital importance for the Jew’s attitude towards the neo-paganism of today and tomorrow.  ‘Judaism’s mission is just as much to teach the world that there are false gods and false ideals, as it is to bring it nearer to the true one.’

destroy thee. As a nation and an independent power.

of the earth.  Better, of the land; i.e. Palestine.

ye shall not try.  i.e. test, by questioning His power or protection; likewise, anyone who obeys the Divine commandments ‘on trial’, i.e. to see if he will be rewarded for doing so, transgresses this prohibition (Mal. III,10, is an exception).

that which is right and good in the sight of the LORD.  Note the words and good in addition to that which is right.  It is not enough to do that which is right; i.e. to act according to the strict letter of the law; as such action often involves hardship and harshness, and the truly pious avoid taking advantage of the letter of strict legality.  There is a higher justice, which is equity, and this bids man to be true to something more than the mere letter of his bond. ‘Man must act beyond the rule of law’, say the Teachers of the Talmud.  Jerusalem, they said, was destroyed because its Courts adhered too closely to strict Din (justice), and disregarded the principles of Yosher (equity).  Two examples will make clear what they understood by ‘equity’.  A Rabbi on being consulted by a poor woman whether a certain coin was good answered her that it was.  The next day, she came and told him it had been declared bad.  He took it from her, and gave her a good one in exchange. He was not compelled to act so.  He was going beyond the letter of the law, and doing ‘that which is right and good in the sight of the LORD’.

20-25.  THE EXODUS—AN OBJECT LESSON

The future generation is to be trained to gratitude and reverence towards God by means of the story of the Deliverance from Egypt.  The Seder Service is a domestic feast based on the actual usage in the Temple of Jerusalem, and accompanied by a running commentary of prayer and legend and exhortation known as the Haggadah shel Pesach.  This opens with the questions asked by the youngest child present, who is answered in a recitation of the events of the Exodus, with the Midrashic interpretations of Biblical passages (Josh. XXIV,2-4); Deut XXVI,5-8) relating to the Deliverance.  Hallel early formed part of the Seder; Nishmath, various hymns, folk-songs and children’s rhymes were added in the course of the centuries.

The Seder in history would require a monograph.  In the Middle Ages, the Seder nights were a time of terror to the Jewries of Christian Europe.  From the 12th century onwards, the Satanic charge of using human blood on Passover, was responsible for a long series of hideous massacres.  Also, it was on the eve of Passover, 1190 that the Jews of York resolved to anticipate massacre at the hands of the murderous mob by suicide, and perished almost to a man. ‘But the eternal message of hope, revived in the Jewish breast all the more ardently by the Festival of Freedom, saved the martyred people from despair, even in this darkest hour’ (Cecil Roth).

in time to come. lit, ‘tomorrow.’

what means the testimonies . . . ordinances. This whole section is analogous to Exod. XIII,14, where the child asks ‘What is this?’ Evidently the son here is of riper age than in Exod. XIII.  The Rabbis describe the latter as ‘simple’; and the son in this v. as ‘wise.’

we were Pharaoh’s bondmen. These words form the first sentence of the answer to the ‘four questions’ in the Haggadah.  The Seder Service is typical of Jewish education:  the ceremonies become object-lessons in religion, national history, and morality.  The garnered religious thought and emotion of past generations is made the horizon for the opening mind of the Jewish child.  At one point of the Seder, which is largely history raised into religion, it is remarked:  ‘Every Jew should regard himself as if he had personally come out of Egypt.’  That spirit dominates the whole of Jewish ceremonial. It all tends to the self-identification of the child with his fathers in the days of old, and to foster in the soul of the Jewish child the resolve to take his part in the Jewish life—whether in the sphere of worship, humanitarian endeavour, or Messianic achievement in and out of the Holy Land.

signs.  ‘The father’s reply points to an Almighty Power that can change the course of Nature for the accomplishment of His Divine purposes’ (Koenig).

preserve us alive.  ‘God, that He might complete His redemptive work towards Israel, gave it this law, to keep alive in it the spirit of true religion, and to secure in perpetuity its national welfare’ (Driver).

and it shall be righteousness unto us.  It will be accounted to us meritorious, and deserving of God’s approval.  The phrase is similarly used in Gen. XV,6, ‘and he (Abraham) believed in the LORD; and He counted it to him for righteousness.’

[This is another lonnnggggg read but worth the time you spend on it; please read slowly and absorb not only the scriptural text but the valuable commentary by the Rabbis and Torah scholars.  If it took time and patience for me to painstakingly type every word and punctation mark from the vast commentary of one of our most valuable resources, I certainly hope one reader would bother to make all this effort worthwhile . . . although the effort itself has been worthwhile for me, even if no other person benefits from all this! I may be speaking to myself in saying this, for all I know . . . and so be it—readers’ loss, not mine.  I tried to cut it in shorter chewable pieces but such chop-ups get in the way of following the progress and continuity of thought. There is so much to absorb from this post so please take your time to chew and digest not only the words of Mosheh but more importantly, the words of YHWH.  

As I keep emphasizing in the reading of the Hebrew Scriptures—- in no other way are we so privileged to meet Israel’s God and begin to scratch the surface of KNOWLEDGE about Him, His Character and Attributes, what He requires of Israel compared to what He requires of the nations who were not privy to His Revelation and Covenant Relationship.  The privileged position of Israel and leaders like Moshe required responsibilities and duties not expected of the UNchosen.  This much, we learn from the interaction between YHWH and Israel, between YHWH and His leaders/tribes chosen for specific purposes.

The religion that was birthed out of this unique relationship — Judaism — has much to contribute to the understanding of their Scriptures and their God.  Interspersed in the usual running commentary from Pentateuch and Haftorahs, ed. Dr. J.H. Hertz, are perspectives of Judaism regarding ‘a jealous God’, Idolatry, and Religious Tolerance, original has been reformatted here.  Translation is EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses.

Read on!–Admin1.]

Deuteronomy/Davarim 3

CONTINUED FROM DABARIYM 3: 23-29.

MOSES’ PRAYER AND ITS REJECTION

The signs of God’s favour to His people, shown in the victories over the Amorite kings, stirred the personal hope of Moses that he too might see ‘the good land that is beyond the Jordan’.  But it was not to be.  He might view the land, but he would never cross there.  He was to commit the future to Joshua, his successor.

I besought.  He does not base his request on his life of service to Israel, but begs it as an act of grace on the part of God (Rashi).

begun to show.  He yearned to see the consummation of the Divine promise.

let me go over.  Not as a Leader, but as one in the ranks, to whom the Divine decree might not apply.  Hence, ‘I besought the LORD at that time’ (v.23); i.e. after he had appointed Joshua as his successor (Malbim).

beyond the Jordan.  Here, as in v. 20 above, referring to Western Palestine.

that goodly hill-country.  i.e. that goodly mountain-land.  From where Moses stood the whole of W. Palestine appeared as one compact mountain mass–a thing of surpassing beauty to his mind; XI,11.  The three great landmarks in his life were all connected with mountains.  Horeb, where he was called to be the Leader of his people; Sinai, whence issued forth the Divine Proclamation for all time of the Law of conduct; and Nebo, the peak from which he was to behold the Promised Land from afar.

Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures we find a deep love of mountains and mountain scenery.  The Rabbis even introduced a special Blessing to be recited on beholding lofty mountains; Authorised Prayer Book p. 290.  All this is something quite exceptional in the Ancient World.  No Greek could have written Psalm CXVI, I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains; and no Roman could have exclaimed with the Prophet, Hear O ye mountains, the LORD’s controversy, and ye enduring rocks the foundations of the earth (Micah VI,2).  ‘The Greeks cared nothing for their native ranges; and the Romans were disgustingly practical, and regarded the Alps as an inconvenient barrier to conquest and commerce’ (A. Lunn).  Ruskin, who is supreme in modern times among the revealers of the glory and mystery of mountain landscape, largely drew his inspiration from the Hebrew Bible, which his mother taught him to read daily.

Lebanon. In the clear air of Palestine, the summit of Lebanon, the most prominent of all the mountains in Syria and Palestine, is visible from the plains of Moab.

for your sakes.  Heb. – the word is not the same as in I,37, and is understood by Hirsch to mean for your good.  ‘Had the unbelief of Moses gone unpunished, the people would have been hardened in their own transgression.  For their sakes, therefore, it was impossible to overlook it’ (Dummelow).

charge.  lit. command’ him, to do what you may not do! He is to begin the carrying out of the instructions given in Num. XXVII,19.

he shall go over.  The he is emphatic.

valley.  Glen or ravine.

Beth-peor.  This v. ends the historical review in the First Discourse that began in I,6.  Accordingly, the valley ‘over against Beth-peor’ must define more closely the location mentioned in I,5, ‘beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab.’

Deuteronomy/Davarim 4

The historical review in the preceding three chapters is now followed by an eloquent appeal not to forget what they and seen and heard at Horeb. The Divine Law, if obeyed, shall be their wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples. Let them remember the marvellous events at Horeb, and keep far from all idolatry.  Idolatry would inevitably be followed by exile.  Nevertheless, even in exile, if they sought God in contrition and repentance, they would find Him.  Moses concludes with an appeal to their experience of the uniqueness of their God and pleads for whole-hearted obedience to Him.

1-4.  An appeal to their experience, that should have taught them the disastrous consequences of disobedience.  As to the idea of reward and punishment which pervades this and the succeeding chapters, [here’s what Judaism says:.

Judaism teaches that obedience to the will of God is rewarded, and disobedience punished.  This doctrine is bound up with the fundamental belief of Judaism in a God of Justice.  Because God is just, He will not treat the righteous and the wicked in the same manner.  In some way it must be better with the former than with the latter, through the justice of God.  But such reward–whether conceived as material blessing or as in later ages, when it became more and more spiritualized—is not made the motive for virtue.  That must be love of God and His commandments, a free enthusiasm for doing His will.

Throughout his Farewell Discourses, Moses demands obedience to the Divine will out of pure and disinterested love of God.  His words in Deuteronomy breathe an ardent love and spiritual awe of the invisible God, a heart-religion such as we met in the greatest of the Psalms  and the highest portions of Prophecy.  Throughout these same Discourses, however, we find, as in no other Biblical book, the appeal to material reward for obedience, and material punishment for disobedience, repeatedly and urgently pressed. ‘This is due,’ it has been explained, ‘to the personal position of Moses.  In himself he is a lofty, spiritual nature, yearning with a parent’s love to a people incapable of rising to his spiritual plane; a people yet in the childhood of what we call real life, to be enticed with promises and frightened with threats.  And alternately he pours his spiritual fervour into their dull ears, and then falls back helplessly on to the material considerations which alone will move them’ (Moulton).  He boldly makes use of eery motive that actually influences men–gratitude to God, feeling of dependence on Him, and fear of God—in order to win them to the higher life.  ‘He does not ask men to serve God because it will be profitable to them, but because they love God: and he endeavours to make them love God by reciting all His love and friendliness and patience to His people, and by pointing out the evil which His love is seeking to ward off.  Having before his mind the results of evil conduct, he does urge men to escape from the wrath that may rest upon them.  But the only means so to escape is to yield to the love of god’ (Harper).

hearken. Heb. understand, take to heart.

statutes.  lit. ‘engraved decrees’; originally referring to enactments passed by an authoritative body, engraven upon a stone tablet, and exposed in public for the information and guidance of the people.  According to the Traditional explanation, chukkim are the precepts the reason for observance of which is withheld from us; such as the prohibition of swine’s flesh.  One of their main objects is to inculcate discipline and obedience in the heart of every member of the Holy People, ‘To obey is better than sacrifice’ (I Sam.XV,220.

ordinances.  Judicial decisions arrived at in connection with a matter which had not previously been adjudicated upon, such decisions remaining precedents for the future.  The phrase is a standing one in Deuteronomy . . . in order to indicate the basic importance of unquestioning obedience to the Divine Will.

which I teach.  The Jewish people have selected this teaching role of their Lawgiver as the holiest of all his activities, and speak of him not as King Moses, or Moses the Prophet, but as Mosheh Rabbenu, ‘Moses our Teacher.”

to do them.  This is the main purpose of the teaching.  ‘Not learning, but doing is the principal thing’ (Ethics of the Fathers).

that ye may live.  ‘As a nation!  As a matter of fact Israel preserved its identity among the nations, and survived the influences which overwhelmed the religions of its neighbours, by its obedience.  The Law was a fence about the people’ (G.A. Smith).

the God of your fathers.  The God who had promised the Patriarchs that the Land would come into the possession of their descendants was now fulfilling that promise.  The same God was imposing His commandments upon them, and would reward their fidelity and punish their disobedience in the years to come.

ye shall not add.  ‘A warning against weakening the force of the Divine commandment by additions, omissions, or explanations that would dilute its original meaning, or make it more palatable to human seflshness and desire (Dillmann). That, however, does not imply that the enactments of the Mosaic code could never be added to or modified as new conditions warranted the change, provided all such modifications were not proclaimed as new revelations from on High (Joseph Karo).  ‘Israel was not to invent additions to the laws, nor arbitrarily diminish them; e.g. using five species, instead of four, in observing the command of the Lulav, or placing five fringes on a Tallis’ (Rashi).

3-4.  These verses are to be linked on to v. 1 as providing evidence that faithfulness to the Torah spells life, whereas rebellion brings death in its train.

Baal of Peor.  The heathen deity worshipped in Peor with loathsome rites.

ye that did cleave.  The Heb is used in connection with whole-souled, disinterested love; e.g. to describe Jonathan’s loyal affection for David.  This v. is recited in the synagogue immediately before the Reading of the Law.

5-8.  Israel’s greatness and wisdom will be manifest in obedience to the Divine Commandment.

I have taught you. The past is somewhat strange after the participle used in v.1.  However, this was not the first occasion on which Moses had proclaimed the Divine enactments.  He is now merely recapitulating.  “When you reach the goal of your wanderings, remember that I have taught you statutes and judgments for you to observe in the midst of the land’ (Nachmanides).

as the LORD my God commanded me.  The Jewish teacher is commanded to teach the statutes and judgments to young and old in Israel (Hirsch).  For many centuries it was held that teaching had to be free, without taint of pecuniary remuneration.  Hence the astounding phenomenon that the greatest Doctors of the Talmudic Academies were artisans and handicraftsmen, who eked out their living from these occupations.  It was only under the stress of persecution and economic necessity that at last, in the 15th century, some rabbis were compelled to take salaries in compensation for the time which they otherwise might have devoted to find their sustenance.

observe therefore and do them.  Better, take ye heed to do them (Koenig).

this. i.e. your faithful observance of the Divine commandments.

in the sight of the peoples.  In the estimation of the peoples.  After Alexander’s conquest of Asia, enlightened Greeks looked upon the Jews as ‘philosophers of the East’, because of their unique monotheism (G.A. Smith).  But the aggrandizement of Israel was not an end in itself: it was to demonstrate to the children of men the Divine in Human History.  The sudden rise to power of a horde of slaves, their well-government, prosperity and security, would attract attention.  The peoples would ask, What is the secret of Israel’s greatness?  And, discovering that it rested upon fidelity to the Will of God, they might be induced to pay allegiance to the God of Israel.  ‘We have here in substance the idea of the missionary purpose of Israel’s existence’ (Oettli); I Kings X,1-3; Isa.II,1-3.  This idea was developed and frequently emphasized, in Prophetic and Rabbinic literature.

so nigh unto them.  Israel’s religion is unique because of the nearness of man to his Maker that it teaches.  It proclaims, No intermediary of any sort is required for the worshipper to approach his God in prayer.  ‘The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth,’ is the teaching of the Psalmist.  The Rabbis only deepened the teaching of the Prophets and Psalmists on this head.  The charge often brought against Judaism that it knows only a ‘distant God’ is thus without any foundation.

what great nation is there, that hath statutes and ordinances so righteous?  Israel’s religion is likewise unique through the ethical character and righteousness of its laws for the government of human society.  Cardinal Faulhaber, after reviewing the poor laws, the rights of labour, and the administration of justice found in the Pentateuch, placed the following alternative before the Nazi detractors of the Hebrew Scriptures:  either such laws are Divinely inspired, or they are the product of a people endowed above all other peoples with positive genius for ethical and social values! ‘The cradle of humanity,’ he declared, ‘is not in Greece; it is in Palestine.  Those who do not regard these books as the word of God and as Divine revelation, must admit that Israel is the super-people in the history of the world!’  For the tribute to Israel paid a generation before Faulhaber by Leo Tolstoy: “The Jew is that sacred being who has brought down from heaven the everlasting fire, and has illumined with it the entire world.  He is the religious source, spring, and fountain out of which all the rest of the peoples have drawn their beliefs and their religions.’

keep thy soul diligently.  lit. guard well thy life.’ The survival of the nation depends on Israel’s memory of and loyalty to the Law of Sinai.

from thy heart.  From thy memory; the ‘heart’ being conceived as the seat of memory.

make them known unto thy children. A second command:  These things must also be kept alive in the memory of posterity, so that future generations do not lose their spiritual identity and sink back into heathenism.  This transcendent duty towards children and children’s children is repeated with the utmost emphasis throughout Deuteronomy.  Eventually such insistence on the sacred obligation of religious education led to the first efforts in the world’s history to provide elementary instruction to all the children of the community. all thy children shall be taught of the LORD: or, ‘all thy children shall be disciples of the LORD.’  Zion’s peace will be based not on armed force, but on the God-fearing lives of all its inhabitants.  . . every Jewish child must be reared to become such a builder of his People’s better future. This verse is an important landmark in the history of civilization.  In obedience to it, Israel led in universal education.  In his History of the World, H.G. Wells records:  ‘The Jewish religion, because it was a literature-sustained religion, led to the first efforts to provide elementary instruction for all the children of the community.’

the day . . . in Horeb.  When Israel was consecrated as a ‘kingdom of priests’.  The two-fold obligation is insisted upon:  first, they are to learn God’s Will and shape their lives in accordance therewith; secondly, to teach their children the Divine Will, so that they too may shape their lives in the light of that Will.

under.  At the foot of (Onkelos, Biur).

with darkness. Better, amid darkness, that surrounded the mountain below (Mendelssohn, Driver).

ye saw no form.  Nothing to indicate a material body. He who was heard at Horeb was not seen.

covenant. Heb. berith;  a compact of any kind between man and man, and between God and man.  Here the word is used for the conditions of the Covenant, the terms of the agreement made at Sinai, as binding on Israel; viz. the Ten Commandments.

and the LORD commanded me. lit. ‘and me the LORD commanded’; i.e. to you He spake the Ten Commandments and these alone; but me He gave during those forty days on the Mount additional instruction for guidance of the Israelite’s life throughout all time.

for ye saw.  These words till the end of the v. are parenthetical.  As no form of God was seen at the Revelation on Mt. Sinai, it follows that representing Him under any image is forbidden, as He is a spiritual Being who cannot be pictured under any image.

deal corruptly.  Act perniciously.

figure.  The Heb is found in old Phoenician and Cypriote inscriptions in the sense of ‘statue’.

female.  How blasphemous and unnatural such a representation is to the Israelite mind can be gathered from the fact that the Heb. language does not even possess a word for ‘goddess’; i Kings XI,5, where the Heb. for goddess is ‘god’.

likeness of any beast. ‘All the great deities of the Northern Semites had their sacred animals, and were themselves worshipped in animal form, or in association with animal symbols, down to a late date’ (W. Robertson Smith).

and lest.  Still the continuation of take ye therefore good heed in v. 15.

lift up thine eyes unto heaven. The heavenly luminaries exercised a great fascination upon early man.  ‘Astronomy and adoration entered the world together’ (Martineau).  The ‘host of heaven’ was the dominant influence in Babylonian religion.  The Egyptians also reverenced the sun, the moon, and the stars as symbols of deities.  Associated with this worship was also the superstition that the heavenly bodies influenced the lives of mortals, a superstition which is not yet altogether extinct.

thou be drawn away.  lit. ‘Thou sufferest thyself to be drawn away,’ by their wonderful beauty, their inexplicable movements, and their varied effects upon the world, to worship them.

hath allotted (Onkelos)

unto all the peoples.  To be worshipped by them (some Talmud teachers, Rashbam and Mendelssohn).

—————————————-

RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE

God had suffered the heathens to worship the sun, moon, and stars as a stepping-stone to a higher stage of religious belief.  That worship of the heathen nations thus forms part of God’s guidance to humanity.

• But as for the Israelites, God had given them first-hand knowledge of Him through the medium of Revelation.
•  It is for this reason that idolatry was for them an unpardonable offence; and everything that might seduce them from that Divine Revelation was to be ruthlessly destroyed.  
• Hence the amazing tolerance shown by Judaism of all ages towards the followers of other cults, so long as these were not steeped in immorality and crime.  

Thus the Prophet Malachi declares even the sacrificial offering of heathens to be a glorification of God

• (see on Mal. I,11: great among the nations. i.e. even the heathen nations that worship the heavenly hosts pay tribute to a Supreme Being, and in this way honour My Name; and the offerings which they thus present (indirectly) unto Me are animated by a pure spirit, God looking to the heart of the worshipper.  
• This wonderful thought was further developed by the Rabbis, and is characteristic of the universalism of Judaism.)

 Equally striking is the attitude of the Rabbis toward the heathen world.

• War had been declared against Canaanites not because of matters of dogma or ritual, but because of the savage cruelty and foul licentiousness of their lives and cult.  
  

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• But the Rabbis never regarded the heathens of their own day as on the same moral level with the Canaanites.  
• Their contemporary heathens in the Roman and Persian Empires obeyed the laws of conduct which the Rabbis deemed vital to the existence of human society, the so-called ‘seven commandments given to the children of Noah’ (Rabbinical interpretation of Genesis IX:7 “And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; swarm in the earth and multiply therein.” viz.  
  • (1) the establishment of courts of justice;
  • (2) the prohibition of blasphemy;
  • (3) of idolatry;
  • (4) of incest;
  • (5) of bloodshed;
  • (6) of robbery;
  • (7) of eating flesh cut from a living animal.  
• The Rabbis called these seven laws the ‘Seven Commandments given to the descendants of Noah’.  

These constituted what we might call Natural Religion, as they are vital to the existence of human society.  Whereas an Israelite was to carry out all the precepts of the Torah, obedience to these Seven Commandments.)  

They wisely held that in their religious life these heathens merely followed the traditional worship which they had inherited from their fathers before them, and they could not therefore be held responsible for failure to reach a true notion of the Unity of God.  Such followers of other faiths—they taught—were judged by God, purely by their moral life.  ‘The righteous of all nations have a share in the world to come,’ and are heirs of immortality, alongside the righteous of Israel.

A later Midrash proclaimed:  ‘I call heaven and earth to witness that, whether it be Jew or heathen, man or woman, freeman or bondman—only according to their acts does the Divine spirit rest upon them.’ And in the darkest days of the Middle Ages, Solomon Ibn Babirol, the great philosopher and Synagogue hymn-writer, sang:

This is probably the earliest enunciation of religious tolerance in Western Europe.

—————————————————

iron furnace. One whose fire is fierce enough to melt iron—a symbol of intense suffering and bitter bondage.

a people of inheritance.  Involving a relationship that is doubly inalienable.  It cannot be renounced by Israel; ‘and that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all; in that ye say: We shall be as the nations, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.  As I live, saith the LORD God, surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out, will I be king over you’ (Ezekiel XX,32-33).  Nor will God ever forsake Israel; ‘for the LORD will not forsake His people for His great name’s sake; because it hath pleased the LORD to make you a people unto Himself’ (I Sam. XII,22).]

in this land. He is not to participate in the inheritance! The words tremble with suppressed emotion, and his soul is full of that thought.

I must not go over Jordan.  lit.  ‘I am not to go over Jordan.’  This clause seems unnecessary after, I must die in this land.  Hence Rashi’s comment, Not even my bones will be carried over Jordan to be laid to rest in the sacred soil, as will happen with the bones of Joseph.  LORD of the Universe—Moses prayed—the bones of Joseph shall rest in the Holy Land, why then shall I not enter it?  The Divine answer was, ‘Joseph always acknowledged himself a Hebrew, as it is said, “I was stolen out of the land of the Hebrews.”  Whereas thou, Moses, didst not always act thus.  When the daughters of Jethro told their father, “An Egyptian helped us,” thou wast silent and didst not contradict them.  Therefore thou shalt not be buried in the Holy Land’ (Midrash).

take heed.  This v. is not a mere repetition of v. 15.  The fate meted out to Moses should make Israel the more grateful for God’s goodness, and at the same time more heedful not to incur God’s wrath.

hath forbidden thee.  lit. ‘hath commanded thee’, not to do (Rashi).

a devouring fire.  Consuming whatever rouses His indignation.

——————————————-

A ‘JEALOUS’ GOD

a jealous God.  The Heb. el kanna  means, ‘a zealous God’, full of zeal for holiness and justice, to whom man’s doings and dealings are not a matter of indifference, but Who renders strict retribution for all idolatry and iniquity.  It also means, ‘a jealous God.’  It signifies that God claims the exclusive love of His children, their entire sincerity—and complete self-surrender.  He will not allow the veneration and loyalty due to Him alone to be shared with other objects of worship . . .

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(Exodus XX,5: a jealous God.  The Heb. root for ‘jealous’, kanna, designates the just indignation of one injured; used here of the all-requiting righteousness of God.  God desires to be all in all to His children, and claims an exclusive right to their love and obedience.  He hates cruelty and unrighteousness, and loathes impurity and vice; and, even as a mother is jealous of all evil influences that rule her children. He is jealous when, instead of purity and righteousness, it is idolatry and unholiness that command their heart-allegiance.  It is, of course, evident that terms like ‘jealousy’ or ‘zeal’ are applied to God in an anthropomorphic sense.  It is also evident that this jealousy of God is of the very essence of His holiness.  Outside Israel, the ancients believed that the more gods the better; the richer the pantheon of a people, the greater its power.  It is because the heathen deities were free from ‘jealousy’ and, therefore, tolerant of one another and all their abominations, that heathenism was spiritually so degrading and morality so devastating.)

This conception of ‘a jealous God’ saved Israel from going under in the days of ancient heathendom, as well as in the days of Greece and Rome.  ‘None of the founders of the great heathen religions had any inkling of this idea of a jealous God, a God who would have “none other gods,” a God of terrible Truth who would not tolerate any lurking belief in magic witchcraft, or old customs, or any sacrificing to the god-king, or any trifling with the stern unity of things’ (H.G. Wells).  Our fathers’ realization that truth can make no concession to untruth, nor enter into compromise with it, without self-surrender, is responsible for the religious stand they took up in the days of Greece and Rome.  ‘When Jerusalem fell, Rome was quite prepared to give the God of Israel a place in her Pantheon. Israel absolutely refused such religious annexation: the one, unique and universal God of Israel alone was the living God; Jupiter and his like were things of naught, figments of the imagination.  And the same reasons that would not permit the Jews to bend the knee to the gods of pagan Rome, prevented them in later generations from allowing themselves to be absorbed by the two great Religions that issued from Israel’s bosom.  Here too they found, both in dogma and morality, novelties and concessions that were repugnant to the austere simplicity of their absolute monotheism (T. Reinach).

And the blessed doctrine of ‘a jealous God’ is of vital importance for the Jew’s attitude towards the neo-paganism of today and tomorrow.  ‘Judaism’s mission is just as much to teach the world that there are false gods and false ideals, as it is to bring it nearer to the true one.  Abraham, the friend of god, began his career according to the legend, with breaking idols; and it is his particular glory to have been in opposition to the whole world’ (Schechter).

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25-31.  RENEWED WARNING OF IDOLATRY:  THREAT OF EXILE, WITH PROMISE OF GRACE ON REPENTANCE

They would be scattered among the peoples, if they fell away from the LORD.  But even in those days of tribulation God’s mercy would not forsake His people, if they turned to Him in true penitence.

ye shall have been long in the land. And your long continuance results in a loss of vigour, due to unbroken peace and prosperity.  “Prosperity sometimes acts like a narcotic, and sends the soul to sleep’ (Dummelow).  The Hebrew word is not ‘to grow old and increase in wisdom’ but lit. ‘to grow stale.’  They must not imagine that having dwelt for many centuries in Canaan, their tenure was now fixed, and they could neglect the conditions of the Covenant with impunity.  (Benjamin Suzold makes the opening words ‘when thou shall beget’, equivalent to ‘even when thou shalt beget’).

do that which is evil. These words are explanatory of what precedes; viz. the making of images.  Ibn Ezra explains them as signifying other offences–e.g. murder, impurity—which would provoke God.]

heaven and earth.  As abiding and outlasting the changes of human life.

ye shall soon utterly perish.  Not every individual would be destroyed, but the national life would be brought to an end.

scatter you.  The consequences of idolatry are exile from their native land, dispersion to the four winds of heaven, and diminution in numbers.

wood and stone. In their own land, they served images as symbols of something higher.  But in exile the Israelite would sink to the level of fetish-worshippers and grovel to the idols of wood and stone (Hoffmann).  Such things cannot, however, permanently satisfy human souls that have known higher things.  This very lowering of moral standards called forth a spiritual reaction among the religiously-minded ‘remnant’ in the Exile.

smell.  Or ‘breathe’.]

ye will seek the LORD.  This is a great pronouncement of Scripture, proclaiming the omnipotence of (God), Repentance.  But the sinner must seek God, i.e. he must feel the ‘loss’ of God, and take active measures to ‘find’ Him and regain His favour.  And that search must be with the sinner’s whole heart and soul.  Sincere repentance always and everywhere secures the Divine Mercy.  It would be so in the Exile, if they sought God with a radical change of heart, and the devotion of the whole being.  And indeed it was in the Exile that repentant Israel found God, rediscovered the Torah, rediscovered itself.

in the end of days.  Here equivalent to the phrase, ‘later on’ (Koenig).

a merciful God.  Although He is ‘a devouring fire’ to those who are perversely wicked, He is merciful and gracious to the sincerely penitent; and His hand is outstretched to receive the sinner returning unto Him.

fail thee.  He will not give thee up (Hoffmann); or, He will not withdraw His hand from upholding thee (Rashi).

neither destroy thee.  Nor permit thee to go to destruction.

nor forget the covenant. With the Fathers of Israel.  This is the basis of Israel’s selection and eternal preservation.]

32-40.  THE UNIQUENESS OF THE GOD OF ISRAEL

Again there is an appeal to history to justify the Divine claims.  From the beginning of time, from one end of heaven to the other, no nation had experienced the paralleled redemption and revelation that were vouchsafed unto Israel.  ‘He hath not dealt so with any nation’ (Psalm CXLVII,20).

and live. The idea often finds expression in Scripture that man cannot have direct communication with God and survive; Exod. XXXIII,20.

assayed . . . to take Him a nation.  Or, ‘adventured’ or, ‘attempted,’ to select a nation for His special service.  A bold anthropomorphism that gives striking expression to the profound thought that Israel is, so to speak, ‘a Divine experiment in history’ (M. Lazarus).

trials. e.g. testing the character of Pharaoh by the manifestation of His might; or testing Israel in the iron furnace of suffering, v. 20.

signs.  Events, either ordinary or extraordinary, having for their purpose the fulfillment of a Divine aim.

wonders.  Portents, supernatural phenomena.

war.  The overthrew of the Egyptian host.

a mighty hand.  The Biblical term to denote any Divine intervention in history (Koenig).

great terrors. e.g. the heaping of the waters at the Red Sea.  An old Jewish interpretation found in the Septuagint and the Passover Haggadah, understands this phrase to refer to God’s self-manifestation.

it was shown.  The experience of god’s unique power was first-hand with them, and not derived from speculation or hearsay.  Yehudah Hallevi bases on this circumstance the supreme credibility of the Revelation at Sinai:  it took place before an entire people.

there is none else beside Him.  A clear expression of absolute monotheism; repeated in v. 39; VI,4; VII,9′ X,17; and XXXII,39.  A Talmudical note on these words is, ‘not even magical powers’; i.e. the Israelites were to put no faith in witchcraft.

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instruct.  Better, discipline. What Israel had seen and heard was not merely to impress the mind, but to affect their course of life, and check any tendency to stray after idolatry.]

loved thy fathers.  The Patriarchs.

with His presence.  In His own person; not through an intermediary.

as it is this day. i.e. as thou hast already made conquests in the territory east of Jordan, the lands of Sihon and Og.

know this day.  This v. and the one following from the peroration of the First Discourse, and summarize the lesson to be learnt from all that has gone before.  According to most expositors, this First Discourse gives the historical framework and instruction for the new legislation.  The aged Lawgiver exhorts the people to gratitude toward God (I,6-III,29), and closes with solemn warnings of the dangers of idolatry that threaten them on entering the Promised Land (IV,1-40). v.39 has been introduced into the Oleynoo, the closing prayer of every Synagogue Service.

41-43.  MOSES ASSIGNS THREE CITIES OF REFUGE EAST OF JORDAN

The presence of these verses between the First and Second Discourses of Moses offers considerable difficulty, except on the interpretation of Luzzatto; I,5.  Having finished the exposition of the words, it is eleven day’s journey from Horeb unto Kadesh-barnea by the way of Mount Seir (I,2), Moses records that he thereupon set aside the three Cities of Refuge, thus completing the establishment of a portion of Israel on the east of Jordan.

separated.  Set apart.

three Cities.  There were to be six Cities of Refuge (see Num. XXXV,9), three on each side of the Jordan.  The purpose of these cities is expounded in Chap. XIX.

unawares.  Better, unintentionally.

Bezer. Mentioned in Josh. XX,8.

Ramoth in Gilead. Usually identified with the modern es-Salt; Josh. I,38.

Golan.  Josephus mentions a district called Gaulanitis east of Lake Tiberias, now named Jaulan, 17 miles east of the Lake.

[An Elohiym Who fights for His people . . . what a God!

 In reading about religions of the world, believers/worshippers of specific gods do not have this much assurance since their beliefs are based on man-made speculations on what their god is like.  They probably never hear from that god, except in their imagination.  In fact, from our readings, we find out that when warring tribes decide to fight it out, those whose god is the god of the plain would like to fight their battle on the plain while those whose god is of the mountain would like to fight on the mountain, thinking one has an edge over the other territorial god.

 The God of Israel is the Creator of the universe so wherever and whenever He decides to back up His chosen people, against all odds, Israel has proven again and again, even in their modern battles, that there is a FORCE—that is, aside from their battle-preparedness and excellent war strategies—that assures them victory, particularly if they have been obedient to the God Who has chosen them and taught them to live His Way.

This chapter is not even exciting to read, since there is no suspense about who wins in the end.  ‘The battle is the LORD’s’, so goes the lyrics of a Christian hymn.  We have rewritten the lyrics, in case you know the music, sing along:

The commentary, as usual, is from Pentateuch and Haftorahs, ed. Dr. J.H.Hertz; translation is EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses.—Admin1.]

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In the first portion of his Discourse, Moses dwelt on the abortive attempt to enter Canaan.  He now recalls (II-III,29) the victories that marked the close of their wanderings, victories that presaged Israel’s conquest of the Promised Land.  He thus points out that unbelief and rebellion brought shame and punishment; while repentant return to God and obedience to His will were crowned by blessing and triumph.

Deuteronomy/Davarim 2

II,1-8.  ROUND MOUNT SEIR

After the repulse at Kadesh, the Israelites turned back towards the Red Sea, skirting Mt. Seir, until God commanded them to turn northward, and pass peacefully through Esau’s territory.

by the way to the Red Sea. i.e. in the direction of the north-eastern branch of the Red sea, the Gulf of Akabah.

we compassed mount Seir.  Indicates the long and arduous journey in order to go round Edom; see Num. XXI,4.

many days.  Thirty-eight years.

turn you northward.  ‘The Israelites must be imagined by this time to have made their way along the south-western and southern border of Edom, as far as the south-east end of the Arabah, so that a turn northwards would at once lead them along the eastern border of Edom in the direction of Moab’ (Driver); Judges XI,18.

ye are to pass through. This is quite distinct from the earlier attempt to shorten the journey by passing through Edomite territory from Kadesh on the western frontier, permission for which was refused by the king of Edom; Num. XX.

the children of Esau.  The eastern portion of Edom was inhabited by free Bedouins, kinsmen of the Israelites. These did not threaten them with war, as the Edomites in western part of the land had done, if they dared pass through their land (Rashbam, Luzzatto).

be afraid of you. The western border of Edom is a series of natural fortresses, making it easy to repel any invading host.  Not so the eastern border.

contend not.  lit. ‘incite not.’  God is the ruler of the whole world.  All the nations—not only Israel—were under God’s Providential rule, and have had their territories assigned to them.  Israel therefore must respect these possessions and not become a mere conquering people.  Israel must confine his ambitions to the one Land Divinely assigned to him at the very beginning of his being as a family (S.R. Hirsch).

as for the sole of the foot.  They were not permitted even to pass through their land, without their permission.

unto Esau.  David fought against the descendants of Esau and made them his ‘servants’ (II Sam. VIII,14), but he did not dispossess them of their land; and later, in the reign of Jehoram, they again became independent (II Kings VIII,20).

hath blessed thee. Gives the reason for Israel’s proud independence of Edom.  The Israelites were well able to pay for their necessities.

He hath known. i.e. He hath cared for; the same usage of ‘know’ is found in Gen. XVIII,19.

way of the Arabah. The route from south of the Dead Sea to Hebron.

Elath.  The modern Akabah.

Ezion-geber.  Also mentioned in I Kings IX,26  as being ‘on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom’.  A fleet which Jehoshaphat had built was wrecked there (I Kings XXII,49).

The word Ezlon-geber is followed by a Massoretic note, known as ‘a break int he middle of the verse’, which indicates that a new paragraph begins with the second half of the verse.

8-12.  ON THE BORDER OF MOAB

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wilderness.  The Heb. does not always mean ‘a desert’.  It often denotes ‘a place where cattle is driven to pasture’, uncultivated land, ‘Isael kept so far east, not only to avoid the fertile and settled districts of edom and Moab, but so as not to have to cross the lower stretches of the great canyon between Edom and Moab.  These lower stretches are deep, the sides steep, and the roads over them difficult for caravans.  The route of Hajj, apparently that of Israel, crosses the much shallower head of this wady and the desert border.  Once over it, they were in the  wilderness of east of Moab’ (G.A. Smith).]

Ar.  The capital of Moab, situated in the valley of Arnon, on the Moabite frontier; Num. XXI,15,28.

the children of Lot.  Genesis XIX,37:  Moab. The name is explained as though it were the equivalent of me-ab, ‘from a father.’

10-12.  These three verses are a parenthetic note on the earlier inhabitants of Moab and Edom, and introduced by Moses probably on writing down his Discourse.

Emim. ‘The dreaded ones’l Gen. XIV,5: The peoples named in this verse—Rephaim, Zuzim, Emim, Horites—are the aboriginal inhabitants of the region afterwards occupied by Edom, Moab and Ammon.

Horites. The name has been translated ‘cave-dwellers.’  Macalister has discovered that at Gezer the remains of a pre-Semitic cave-dwelling race, using stone implements; and he identifies these with the Horites.  A far different view is propounded by J.W. Jack, who regards them as being ‘one of the most important cultural races of Western Asia during the earlier part of the second millennium. Some time before the Semites arrived on the scene, they occupied the whole of northern Mesopotamia.  It was to the Horites or Hurrians that the Hittites directly owed their civilization, including their religion and most of their literature.  This ancient race, who were in the country of Seir as early as the time of Abraham, must have exerted a considerable influence on the Hebrews’.

succeeded them.  Rashi notes that the verb is unexpectedly in the imperfect tense and implies ‘continued to dispossess them’.

as Israel did. Refers to the conquest of trans-Jordanic territory (Num. XXXII).

13-15.  THE CROSSING OF ZERED

This was an important step; hence the mention of the time that had elapsed since Israel left Kadesh, and also that now the doom passed on the men of war because of their murmuring had exhausted itself.  Since this doom was no longer resting on their efforts, the people could with every expectation of the Divine help go forward to the conquest of the new country (Welch).

brook.  A toreent-valley — the hollow between hills that is usually dry in summer, but a fast-rushing torrent in the rainy season—wady.

was greatest against them.  The generation of murmurers did not perish entirely from natural causes.  God hastened their annihilation, so as to enable their children to pass over the Jordan.

16-25.  AMMONITES AND AMORITES

children of Ammon.  Inhabited the district between the Arnon and Jabbok, the tributaries of the Jordan.

Zamzummim.  Nothing is known of them.  Their name is held by some to be formed on the analogy of the Grek ‘barbaroi’, as a people whose speech sounded uncouth (G.A. Smith).

Avvim.  Only mentioned again in Josh. XIII, as a Philistine people.

Caphtor.  i.e. Crete; see Gen. X, 14.

rise ye up.  This verse is the continuation of v. 19.  From Num. XXI,26 we learn that Heshbon and the surrounding territory had belonged to the Moabites, from whom it had been wrested by Sihon.

Kedemoth.  The precise site is unknown, but probably somewhere near the upper course of the Arnon.  The name occurs later a that of a Levitical city in the territory of Reuben; Josh.XIII,18.

with words of peace. i.e. messengers with proposals for a peaceful passage through his land, and undertaking to pay for such provisions as would be required.

by the highway.  The Heb. is, ‘by the way, by the way’; i.e. by the appointed road and nowhere else.  In Num. XXI,22 the phrase is ‘by the king’s highway’.

as the children of Esau . . . did unto me. As distinct from the kingdom of Edom.

hardened his spirit.  Similar to the phrase used of Pharaoh.  ‘The meaning is, As God rules all, so to Him must be traced all that happens in the world.  In some sense all acts, whether good or bad, all agencies, all beneficent or destructive, have their source and derive their power from Him.  But nevertheless men have moral responsibility for their acts, and are fully and justly conscious of ill-desert.  It is to be noted that God is never said to harden the heart of a good man.  It is always those who are guilty of acts of evil-doing upon whom this works’ (Harper).

obstinate.  Heb. ‘strong.’

as appeareth this day. As experience has now shown.

I have begun.  Sihon’s refusal was the beginning of God’s move to give Israel his country.

utterly destroyed.  Heb. ‘treated as ‘herem’; i.e. placed them under the ban of extermination.  Such was the rule of warfare in the days of old, when war was a sacred act.  The ruthlessness of those methods is as hideous to us today as war itself will–we hope and pray– be to the men and women of the future.  And if it is the wholesale nature of the destruction that especially shocks our moral judgment, it is well for us to consider that in the next World War it is especially the defenceless population that will be exposed to annihilation.

the city.  The capital, Ar.

thou camest not near.  In accordance with the warning in v. 19.

forbade us.  The Heb. is ‘commanded us’; and the words ‘not to conquer’ are understood.

Deuteronomy/Davarim 3

FURTHER VICTORIES

The Israelite hosts, advancing northwards towards Bashan, encounter and defeat Og and conquer his cities.

and went up.  This phrase denotes traveling northward, since there is an almost continuous ascent from South to North (Rashi).

Bashan.  The fertile district north of Gilead.

fear him not.  Og was a more formidable opponent than Sihon, belonging as he did to the race of giants.

region of Argob.  Probably identical with the modern el-Leja, south of Damascus, and east of Lake Tiberias.

gates.  The Heb. is in the dual, ‘double gates,’ an indication of the strength of the doors to keep out the enemy.

and bars.  The Heb. is in the singular; and there is no reason why it should not be so rendered.  Each city had a double gate, with a bar across it when closed.

unwalled towns.  Or, ‘country towns.’

8-17.  ALLOTMENT OF THE CONQUERED LAND

two kings of the Amorites.  Sihon and Og.

Sirion . . . Senir.  An archeological note.  ‘The several names in the Text, as also that of Sion (Deut. IV,48), are all descriptive.  Rising with its gray snow-capped cone to a eight of about 9,500 feet, it is visible from most parts of the Promised Land, and even from the depths of the Jordan Valley and the shores of the Dead Sea.  Hence it was Sion, the up0raised; or Hermon, the lofty peak; o Senir, and Sirion, the glittering “breastplate” of ice; or above all Lebanon the “Mont Blanc” of Palestine, the “White Moujntain” of ancient times” (Stanley).

for only Og.  This explains why the Israelites were able to enter into possession of the territory.  With the death of Og, the formidable race of Rephaim came to an end.

bedstead.  This is the meaning which the word has in the Bible.  In Aramaic the word signifies ‘coffin’; hence there are some who suppose that what is here meant is the king’s sarcophagus.  Some sites in Eastern Palestine are strewn with stone-coffins. The bedstead is mentioned in order to indicate the huge size of Og; and it is not improbable that his bed would have been preserved as a curiosity.

Rabbah. Situated 25 miles north-east of the Dead Sea.

the cubit of a man. An ordinary cubit, the length of which was about 18 inches.  This does not necessarily mean that the height of Og was nine cubits, as the bed is always longer than the man who occupies it.

this land.  From the valley of Arnon unto Mount Hermon.

the rest of Gilead.  i.e. the part north of Jabbok.

son.  Here used, as frequently in the Bible, in the sense of ‘descendant’.  In I Chron. II,21, he is said to be the great-grandson of Manasseh’s son Machir.

Geshurites and the Maacathites.  Two Aramean tribes.

Havvoth-jair. Tent-villages, each being the homestead of a clan.

unto this day. Until now.

Gilead.  From the context it is clear that the northern half of Gilead is meant.

Machir.  The name seems to be used here to denote the half-tribe of Manasseh that had its habitation beyond the Jordan.’

unto the Reubenittes.  This and the following v. are a repetition of v. 12 with greater detail of definition.

for a border.  i.e. the stream passing through the valley being the boundary.

river Jabbok. The upper part of this river is the western boundary of the territory of the Ammonites.

Chinnereth.  The city named after the Lake of Kinnereth, known today as Lake Tiberias.

the Salt Sea.  The Dead Sea.

slopes. Or, ‘springs.’

beyond the Jordan.  Unlike the same phrase in I,1; here it denotes the western side of the river.

I commanded Joshua.  This is not mentioned in Num. XXXII, as not being relevant to the incident which that chapter relates.

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words. i.e. discourses, of exhortation and reproof, which form the main contents of Deuteronomy.

unto all Israel. ‘These words redound to the praise of Israel.  Knowing that they were called together for the purpose of hearing a discourse which would contain strong words of reproof, they nevertheless attended in full number (Sifri).

beyond the Jordan.  Heb. ‘at the crossing of the Jordan’; or, at the banks of the Jordan,’ eastern or western.  Which one of these is meant in any particular passage can be determined only by the context (Gesenius, Luzzatto, Friedlander); Num. XXXII,19; Deut. XI,30.  Some commentators see in the words (lit. Transjordania) a fixed geographical name of the Moabite side of the Jordan, even for the inhabitants of that land.  Along with this went a local usage, determined by the position of the speaker.

in the Arabah. ‘The deep valley running North and South of the Dead Sea (RV Margin). Here the southern portion of this valley is meant, extending to the Gulf of Akabah, which is the north-eastern arm of the Red Sea.

Suph.  A shorter form of yam suph, i.e. the Red Sea.

Paran.  The wilderness of Paran is now called the wilderness of el-Tih, north of the Sinai Peninsula, and west of the Arabah.

Tophel.  Some identify this unknown place with el-Tafile, a village about 15 miles south-east of the Dead Sea.

Laban and Hazeroth. Possibly the Libnah and Hazeroth in Num. XXXIII,17-20.

Di-zahab.  The spot has not been identified.  The Hebrew implies ‘a place productive of gold’.

The five names mentioned above seemed to delimit the place where Moses gave one of the discourses to Israel.  Their identification is uncertain and full of difficulties.  Some of the ancient and medieval teachers have been inclined to treat these names homiletically.  By playing on their meaning, they associated these places with the murmurings and transgressions of the children of Israel.  Thus, Onkelos translates this v. as follows:  ‘These are the words which Moses spake to all Israel beyond the Jordan.  He reproved them because they had sinned in the Wilderness, and had provoked God to anger in the Plain (Arabah) of Moab; over against the Red Sea (Suph) they murmured against God; in Paran, they had spoken contemptuously (tophel) concerning the manna (laban); and in Hazeroth, they angered Him on account of flesh and because they amde the Golden Calf (di-zahab).’

it is eleven days’ journey. From Horeb, i.e. Sinai, the scene of the Giving of the Law, to Kadesh-barnea.  The distance between 160 and 170 miles.  In 1838, the traveller Robinson followed the route here specified, and the journey lasted exactly eleven days of ordinary camel-riding.

by the way of mount Seir.  Or, ‘by the Mount Seir road’—the easternmost track from the Sinai Peninsula to Kadesh.

[in the fortieth year.  The date of the discourses.  Moses reserved his exhortation for the closing days of his life, in the same way as Jacob (Gen.XLIX,), Joshua (Josh.XXIV), Samuel (I Sam.XII), and David (I Kings II).  Words spoke at the solemn time of departure from earth have a deep influence upon the hearers.

eleventh. . . .Koenig rightly points to this fact, among many others, as proof that, unlike the Samaritan and Septuagint Texts, the Heb. text has from the first been handed down to us with absolute accuracy, and that no attempt was made to ‘harmonize’ different forms of the same word or phrase.

Sihon . . . Og.  These signal victories, still fresh in the memory of all, are repeatedly mentioned in Deuteronomy; because the success of Moses’ leadership on these occasions heightened his authority and enabled him to address his people on their faults in the past and their duties in the future.

at Edrei.  The place where Og was slain (Num.XXI,35); the modern Dera, 30 miles east of the Lake of Tiberias.

this law.  ‘The Heb. word Torah does not and never did mean “Law”.  It means and always has meant, “Teaching”‘ (Herford).  The word torah may refer to moral guidance, or to a single specific teaching, as in Prov. I,8, ‘forsake not the teaching (torah) of thy mother.’  It is also applied to a body of religious precepts or teachings—such as form the central portion of this Book (Chaps.XII-XXVI). Often it denotes the entire sum of Israel’s religious doctrine and life—the Torah of Moses.

1-5.  Apart from the geographical uncertainties there are many other difficulties in these verses, so long as we regard them as forming the title-page to the whole of Deuteronomy.  Thus, v.5 states that ‘Moses took upon him to declare this law . . . ‘ In the light of the current view of these verses, this can only mean that the exposition in question follows immediately upon that verse.  And yet the succeeding chapters contain no exposition of the Torah; nor, strictly speaking, can the laws in chaps. XII-XXVI be called an ‘exposition’ of the Torah, seeing that, of the one hundred laws contained in those chapters, seventy are not mentioned int he previous Books of the Pentateuch.

For these and other reasons, many commentators regard v.1-15 as introductory not to the whole Book, but merely to the First Discourse of Moses (I,6-IV,40); and, in consequence, their interpretation differs considerably from that given above.  One of these commentators is Sforno, who paraphrases v. 1 and 2 as follows:  ‘These are the words which Moses repeatedly spoke unto all Israel, beyond Jordan, in the Arabah, over against Suph, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Di-zahab; viz. “it is eleven days’ journey from Horeb unto Kadesh-barnea by way of Mount Seir.” And yet it had taken them forty years to accomplish that journey!  Such was the veiled admonition that Moses intended to convey to them by these words in each of the places mentioned.’ Targum Jonathan, Sifri, and Rashi seem to have understood these verses in the same sense.  ‘Had Israel been worthy, they could have entered the Land within eleven days; but they were sadly found wanting, and they drew upon themselves the punishment of forty years’ wandering’ (Sifri).  Luzatto sees this thought continued in v.3-5, which he paraphrases as follows: ‘In the fortieth year, after the victories over Sihon and Og, Moses undertook to make clear and expound the veiled meaning embodied in this “teaching”.’  Such declaration and exposition are contained in the First Discourse (I,6-IV,40) which he addressed to the People about to undertake the conquest of Canaan.  And in fact, that First Discourse is a historic retrospect of the main incidents from Horeb to Jordan, bringing home to the new generation why it was that the Israelites were doomed to wander forty years in the Wilderness before they could enter the Promised Land, though the direct route was only an eleven days’ journey.

A.  MOSES FIRST DISCOURSE

REVIEW OF JOURNEY FROM SINAI TO KADESH WITH EXHORTATION TO OBEDIENCE

Chapters I,6-IV,40)

Moses reviews the experiences of the Israelites in the terrible wilderness through which they passed till they reached Kadesh-barnea.  Thence the spies were sent on to Canaan.  These brought back word of a good land, but also of cities great and fenced up to heaven, and a population counting giants among them.  They so filled the heart of the people with fear, that Israel forgot God and was prepared to return to Egypt.  The unfaithful spies and the whole of that generation were therefore to perish in the Wilderness; their children alone were to enter the Promised Land.  Moses continues to tell of their presumptuous attempt to defeat that sentence, and the ignominious failure and our with which it had been visited.  Moses himself had been entangled in the rebellious outbreak of the people; and his doom is made known to him, to leave the passage into the Land of Promise to another leadership.  But even the eight and thirty years wandering in the Wilderness lacked not the LORD’s watchfulness.  Towards the end of the wandering, they passed by Edom, but were forbidden to attack Moab and Ammon.  With the crossing of the brook Zered, however, the new era began; the dread of Israel fell upon the heathen peoples.  In vain Sihon, King of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, resisted; their cities were taken, their people extirpated, their land divided among the tribes of Reuben, Gad and half-Manasseh.

6-8/  COMMAND TO START FROM HOREB

the LORD our God. Placed emphatically at the beginning of the sentence as the motive of the whole Discourse.  ‘The phrase the LORD our God has the intimate accent of a common affection.  No phrase has been more helpful to piety in all generations’ (G.A. Smith).

hill-country.  The central mountain-range of Palestine.

Amorites. The general term for the inhabitants of Canaan prior to the entry of the Israelites; Amos II,9; the Amorite. Representing the previous inhabitants of Palestine, as the Amorite was the most powerful tribe.]

Arabah. Here refers to its northern part, the Jordan Valley, ending in the Dead Sea.

Lowland. Heb. Shephelah. The foothills between the Central Range and the Maritime Plain.  It is one of the most fertile tracts in the land.

the South.  The Negeb; the dry steppe-district south of Judah.

the sea-shore. The Plain extending inwards from the coast of the Mediterranean to a distance of from four to fifteen miles.

Lebanon.  The range of mountains to the north of the Holy Land.

the river Euphrates. The ideal limit assigned to the territory of Israel.

[he land which the LORD swore unto your fathers.  This phrase occurs more than 20 times in Deuteronomy.  The Divine love towards the Patriarchs and the Promise to give, their children possessed of Canaan, led to the selection, and are guarantees for the preservation of Israel.

9-18.  APPOINTMENT OF ASSISTANTS

The first movement forward towards the conquest of the Holy Land revealed the growing numbers of the Israelites.  Moses could no longer, unaided, support the burden of so vast a nation.  Others had to share responsibility with him.  He has in mind not only the appointment of judges on the advice of Jethro (Exod. XVIII), but also the election of the 70 elders to help in the administration of the community.

not able to bear.  A reminiscence of Num. XI,14.

as the stars of heaven.  A simile of wonderful beauty.  God had fulfilled His promise to increase the children of the Patriarchs; Gen. XV,5.

the LORD . . . bless you. A pious interjection, as in II Sam. XXIC,3.  Moses hastens to bestow his blessing upon Israel in order that his words be not misunderstood as if he lamented the increase of his people (Hoffman).  The phrase ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers,’ has in substance been taken over into the Prayer Book.  It implies the unbroken continuity of the generations in Israel; and, likewise, the unchanging relationship between God and His ‘kingdom of priests’.

myself alone bear.  Moses now proceeds to recall how the task of government had grown beyond his powers.

your cumbrance.  Your troublesomeness; the people made the leader’s task heavier by placing obstacles in his way (Sifri).  He did not have their cooperation and assistance.

burden. ‘The responsibility of providing the people with food and water, the lack of which caused hostile demonstrations to be made against Moses’ (Ibn Ezra).

strife.  They were quarrelsome, and at this stage it was essential for him to be relieved of petty judicial functions.

get you.  It is clear from v. 15 that Moses, and not the people, made the selection.  As the Sifri points out, the Hebrew word denotes taking counsel about a project, not taking action in connection with it.

full of knowledge.  Or, ‘known.’ Because of their outstanding merit.

wise men and full of knowledge.   Compare this with what is stated in v.13, ‘wise men, and understanding, and full of knowledge.’ The Rabbis explain that Moses was unable to find men who possessed all the desired qualifications.

officers.  Officials in the administration of justice and maintenance of civil order, whose duty it was to put in force the instructions of their superiors (Talmud).  Some render the Heb. shoterim ‘recorders’, from ‘document.’

hear the causes between.  lit. ‘hear between’; i.e. not to listen to ex parte statements, but to listen to all that is said on both sides (Talmud).

the stranger. In matters involving equity, there must be no difference between an Israelite and the resident alien.  ‘The care taken by Israelite law to protect strangers finds no parallel in Babylonia’ (S.A. Cook).  Today, a great modern state outlaws a section of its own population, and oppresses it far more than it would dare to oppress total aliens.

that is with him.  The Rabbis sometimes understand it in the sense of ‘inhabiting his house’, and therefore, more in his power.  The very life of such a man may depend on justice being granted him.  the wife of a Chassidic rabbi, having quarrelled with her maid, was setting out to the magistrate to lodge her complaint.  Noticing that her husband was about to accompany her, she asked him whither he was bound.  ‘To the magistrate,’ he said.  His wife declared that it was beneath his dignity to take any part in a quarrel with a servant.  She could deal with the matter herself.  The Zaddic replied:  ‘That may be, but I intend to represent your maid, who, when accused by you, will find no one willing to take her part.’  And then, bursting into a passion of tears, he quoted Job XXXI,13: ‘If I did despise the cause of my man-servant, or of my maid-servant, when they contended with me—what then shall I do when God riseth up?”

ye shall not respect . . . in judgment. ‘You must never show partiality to any person in a case’ (Moffatt).  The judge must avoid everything that can possibly be construed as a bribe.

small and great alike.  i.e. an insignificant person, and a person of importance.  There was not to be one law for the rich, and another for the poor.  ‘Small’ and ‘great’ may also refer to the matters under dispute.  A dispute involving a small sum requires the same earnest attention as that involving  large sum (Talmud).

the judgment is God’s.  The judge should feel that he is God’s representative, and that every judicial decision is a religious act: II Chron. XIX,6 (and the king said to the judges,’Consider what ye do; for ye judge not for man, but for the LORD; and [He is] with you in judgment). In Jewish teaching all those who administer the law in accordance with right and thereby maintain the moral foundations—Truth and Justice—upon which human society rests, are performing a Divine task.  ‘Every judge who renders righteous judgment, Scripture deems him a co-partner of the Holy One, blessed be He, in the work of Creation’ (Talmud).

19-46.  FROM HOREB TO KADESH-BARNEA

dreadful wilderness.  ‘Wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions, and thirsty ground where was no water ‘ (VII,5).

22-25.  The Mission of the Spies

ye came near unto me.  By combining what is related here with Num. XIII, we get a full understanding of the incident.  The plan originated with the people; it commended itself to Moses; and was sanctioned by God.  Moses does not here repeat all the details, because a reminder of all those details is not required for his address of admonition; whereas the historical account in Numbers could well dispense with narrating the circumstance that it was the Israelites who had demanded the sending of the  Spies.  ‘It is evident that a circumstance may be passed over in silence by the historian, which nevertheless the orator selects as lending emphasis to his oration’ (Hoffmann).  It was important to remind them that the sending of the spies, which led immediately to their rebellion, was their own suggestion (Sifri).

the thing pleased me well.  But it did not please God.  It is to be noted that in Num. XIII,2 the Hebrews is lit. ‘send for thyself men’, and God, as it were, dissociated Himself from the scheme; whereas in the appointment of men to assist Moses, which had God’s approval, Scripture relates, ‘The LORD said unto Moses, gather for Me seventy men’ (Num. XI,16).

into the mountains. Better, into the hill-country; as in v. 7.

valley of Eshcol.  Near Hebron; Num. XIII,23.

26-33.  The Disaffection of the People.

in your tents.  Being unwilling to unite for common action.  The well-known phrase, to your tents, O Israel (I Kings XII,16) is a formula of dispersion, not a call for military action (H.W. Robinson).

the LORD hated us.  To this extreme of unbelief and ingratitude were the people driven by the report of a few among themselves, in spite of their long experience of God’s leading.  ‘The passage is eloquent of the fickleness with which a people will suffer the lessons of its past—facts of Providence it has proved and lived upon—to be overthrown by the opinion of a few “experts” as to a still untried situation’ (G.A. Smith).

whither are we going up? i.e. what unknown dangers are in front of us?

Anakim.  Giants; INum. XIII,22.

He shall fight for you. The words of encouragement used by Moses at the Red Sea; Exod. XIV,14.

before your eyes.  This phrase occurs ten more times in Deuteronomy.  Moses, throughout his address, appeals to the people’s experience of God.  He is not weaving abstract theories, but drawing on their history.

the LORD thy God bore thee.  Exod. XIX,4, ‘how I bore you on eagles’ wings.’

as a man doth bear his son. The relationship between God and man is here conceived int he tenderest terms, that of a father carrying his infant son when he is too weak or tired to walk; Hosea XI,1-3. ‘It was this usage that prepared the way for the term “Our Father who art in heaven”, first used in Pharisaic circles’ (Herford).

32 Yet in this matter 
you have been showing-no-trust in YHVH your God,

yet in this thing.  Notwithstanding past experience of the Divine protection and support, ye believed not in the LORD your God.

34-46.  God’s Anger and Judgments.

Caleb.  See Num. XIV,24.)

for your sakes.  Better, on your account. Moses had certainly disobeyed God’s command, and thereby incurred His wrath; but this had happened as a consequence of the people’s action. ‘They angered Him also at the waters of Meribah, so that it went ill with Moses because of them’ (Psalm CVI,32).  The leader must share responsibility for the failings of his flock; see also on III,26.  ‘Moses alone realizes all that life in the Promised Land may be; and Moses alone of all the vast assembly is the one who will never see it.

the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, this is the phrase under which the speaker veils the breakdown of his life-task’ (Moulton).  Moses refers to the Divine displeasure here, because it leads up to the mention of his successor.

standeth before thee. The Heb. idiom for ‘attend upon’, as a servant.

encourage thou him.  In its literal sense; i.e. make him strong.

ye said should be a prey.  See Num. XIV,3,31.

have no knowledge of good or evil.  Who are not of an age to incur communal responsibility; youths under twenty.

by the way to the Red Sea.  See Num.XIV,25.  The explorer, Trumbull, identified this road with the modern pilgrim-track from Suez to Akabah.

we will go up. The word ‘we’ is emphasized in the Hebrew.  ‘The quick revulsion of popular feeling is true to life.  The change was too facile to be real.  Mere enthusiasm is no atonement for guilt.  Men cannot run away from their moral unworthiness on bursts of feeling on bursts of feeling’ (G.A. Smith).

presumptuous.  See Num.XIV,41,44.

the Amorites.  In Num. the opponents are called ‘the Amalekite and Canaanite’, but as explained on v. 7, ‘Amorite’ is the general term for the inhabitants of Canaan.

as bees do.  The same forcible image for number and ferocity occurs in Isa. VII,18 and Psalm CXVIII,12.

wept before the LORD.  “Tears follow foolhardiness, as foolhardiness does timidity; the psychology of Israel is that of a child’ (Bertholet).

hearkened not.  Because their weeping was not the outcome of sorrow over sin; but of sorrow over the consequences of sin.  This feeling the old theologians named ‘attrition’; in contrast with the sincere penitence—the sorrow over sin itself—which they called contrition. There is all the difference in the world between a man who is contrite and one who is merely ‘attrite’.

according unto the days that ye abode there. Hoffman and Driver take this as an example of the Semitic idiom often employed by a writer who is either unable, or has no occasion, to speak explicitly.  Rashbam, Mendelssohn, and Luzzatto accordingly render, ‘And ye remained in Kadesh the many days that ye abode there’; i.e. as is well known to you.

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[Straight reading, without verse numbering]

ROBERT ALTER: THE FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES

DEUTERONOMY 

[Finally we reach the last book of the TORAH.  

Like Israel, we gentile readers/students of the “T” in the TNK have made our own pilgrimage from the account of Bereshiyth— the beginning of the created world, through the formation of the nation of Israel and its pre-Land history in Shemoth/Wai-qrah/Bemidbar.  Hopefully in paying attention to details along the way, we’ve learned and continue to learn from the ups and downs in the life of the protagonists we meet in each book, individual Israelites as well as Israel as a whole, and the non-Israelites we meet along the way.  

Most of all, if not best of all, we have met the God of the Hebrew Scriptures and have gained knowledge of Him through His dealings with mankind and specifically His acts in the history of Israel.  “The most important knowledge is knowledge of YHWH” and “the beginning of wisdom is reverence for Him” as we state in our UPDATED SITE CONTENTS. We have stopped requesting in our prayers “give us wisdom”, for truly the God of the Hebrew Scriptures has already given that in His Torah.  All we have to do is indulge nonstop in that nourishment, partake of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil — the Torah is that tree.  We learn about both good and evil, right and wrong, about God and about ourselves, and get some wrong thinking right, such as who is ‘ha satan’. Wisdom comes from devoting ourselves in the study of Torah but wisdom that remains in the mind is useless unless it is applied to life. 

The introduction to the last book of Torah is from Pentateuch and Haftorahs, ed. Dr. J.H. Hertz. This MUST OWN book belongs to every bible student’s resource library.   We started featuring its running commentary and notes while navigating through the difficult-to-comprehend-much-less-explain books of Wai-qrah and Bemidbar.

Dr. J.H. Hertz was the former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain; his full name:  Rabbi Joseph Herman Hertz 91872-1946).   A blogger has written this piece which about sums up why it is a valuable resource:

The Pentateuch & Haftorahs by the late Rabbi Dr. J H Hertz is a masterpiece of a biblical resource. It is bound oriental style so reads from right to left (the reverse of our modern English books) due to the fact it contains Hebrew script, with English verses to the side and a vast ocean of commentary to the bottom.  The commentary gives a feel for the original Jewish context of the first 5 books of the bible, while drawing on some Christian commentators where relevant.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in wanting to know more about the Old Testament, and understand the Jewish aspect of the Bible.

Ditto. — Admin1.]

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NAME.  The name of the Fifth Book of Moses literally means ‘these are the words,’ from the opening phrase in the Hebrew text.  This title has been shortened in current use to Devarim, ‘Words.’  The oldest name of the Book, however, was ‘the Repetition of the Torah,’ a phrase based on XVII,18.  The Greek-speaking Jews translated this name by Deuteronomion, i.e. ‘Second Law’; and this title was taken over by the Latin Bible as Deuteronomium, and thence by the English Versions as Deuteronomy.

CONTENTS.  A full title might be,  Moses’ Farewell Discourses and Song to Israel.  The Lawgiver had brought his People to the borders of the Holy Land.  He then recounts in three Discourses the events of the forty years’ wanderings; and warns against the temptations awaiting them in Canaan, with promise of Divine judgment for disobedience, and Divine blessing for faithful observance of God’s commandments.  Included in the second Discourse is a rehearsal of the principal laws (XII-XXVI), as these were to be observed in the new Land.  These laws are given in three reproduction, with hortatory amplification, abbreviation,or even modification to meet new conditions.  In his Farewell Song, the dying Leader celebrates God as the Rock of Israel.  This is followed by the Farewell Blessing.  Standing on the brink of the grave, he gives his parting benediction to the tribes whose religious and political welfare had been the devoted labour of his life.  He then ascends the height to the sepulchre which no man knoweth.  ‘And there hath not arisen a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses.’

NATURE AND INFLUENCE.  Deuteronomy is a unique book — distinct from the narrative and historical, the legal, prophetic, and devotional writings of Holy Writ, though it has affinities with each of them.  In its literary aspect, it is oratory; and as such it is unsurpassed in its rush of rhythmic sentences, its ebb and flow of exalted passion, its accents of appeal and denunciation:  Moses’ speech shines as well as his face.  And this noble language gives utterance to truths which are always and everywhere sovereign—that God is One, and that man must be wholly His; that God is Righteousness and Faithfulness, Mercy and Love.  The central declaration of all this oratory, enshrined by Judaism in its daily devotions, is the Shema—which, as we shall see, teaches the unity of the Creator, the unity of Creation, and the unity of mankind.

The God proclaimed by Deuteronomy stands in a relation to Israel and humanity not merely of Judge or Ruler, but of Friend and Father.  ‘And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.’ This whole-souled love and devotion to God is to be accompanied by a large-hearted benevolence towards man, and indeed towards all sentient beings; by the recognition of retributive righteousness of God; and by the insistence on the vital importance of family life, and of religious instruction within the home.  The influence of this Book of the Farewell Discourses of Moses on both domestic and personal religion in Israel throughout the millennia has never been exceeded by that of any other Book in Scripture.

DIVISIONS.  Chapter I,1-5.  Introductory.

I,6-IV,40.  First Discourse—a review of Israel’s journeying, with an appeal not to forget the truth promulgated at Horeb.

IV,44-XXVI.  Second Discourse--on the religious foundations of the Covenant, together with a Code of Law, dealing with

worship (XII,1-XVI,17),

government (XVI,18-XVIII),

criminal law (XIX-XXI,1-9),

domestic life (XXI,10-XXV),

and rituals at the Sanctuary (XXVI).

XXVII-XXX. Third Discourse—the enforcement of the Law, and the establishment afresh of the Covenant between Israel and God.

XXXI-XXXIV.  The Last Days of Moses—the charge to Joshua, the delivery of the Law to the Priests, the Song, the Blessing, and the death of Moses.