“Behold! – “r’eh,” “see, look” - I set before you today a blessing and a curse…” (Deut.11: 26, emphasis added). The imperative form of the verb “see, look or behold” is in singular person, while the “you” in this verse is in plural form. Thus, although that which is about to follow is a charge to the entire nation, each and every individual Israelite is to consider what is being said, and is to be personally responsible to obey YHVH’s Word. Contrary to the English rendering that, a blessing will result “if you hear the commandments of YHVH your Elohim which I command you today; and a curse, if you will not hear the commandments of YHVH your Elohim” (11:27 italics added), in Hebrew it is simply: “Behold I set before you today a blessing and curse; a blessing [of] hearing the commandments…” The prepositional “if” is attached only to the curse. Thus, keeping YHVH’s Word constitutes a blessing in itself, which is the very reason He gave Yisrael the Torah in the first place - instructions for life abundant! (cf. John 10:10).
In order to maintain the blessings in the land of their inheritance, the Israelites are commanded: “You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall possess serve their gods… and you shall obliterate their name from that place” (12:2a.3c italics added). The verb used for “utterly destroy” is the same as for “obliterate” - “abed” of the root a.b/v.d (alef, bet/vet, dalet). The first reference is a double rendering, “a’bed ta’abdoon (destroying you will destroy - singular)”, while the second is “ve’eeba’de’tem (plural).” “Abed” forms a pun with “avod” (ayin, bet/vet, dalet), which here is “worship and service rendered to idols”, and may be an intentional device employed in our text. Thus we read above, “The places where the nations… serve [av’du] their gods”, and in 13:6-8: “If your brother… or your son or daughter, or the wife you cherish, or your friend… entice you secretly, saying, ‘let us go and serve [na’avda] other gods…’ you shall not yield to him or listen to him…” (emphasis and italics added), as serving other gods will indeed bring about utter destruction and obliteration – avadon - of the above root a.b/v.d - upon those thus engaged (see also 13:10-17).
But while the command to “obliterate” points to the places (of the nations’ idol worship), when the text describes idolatry which originates with one’s relatives and close associates a completely different course of action is enjoined: "But you shall surely kill [harog ta’hargenu – killing you will kill] him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from the YHVH your Elohim…” (Deut. 13:9-10).
Having been nomads in the wilderness, the
Israelites have not yet experienced the “rest and the inheritance”
promised them by YHVH (12:9). It is
precisely in order to obtain those two promises that they are to “not do
according to all that [you] are doing here today, each doing all that is right
in his own eyes… And you shall cross over the
Large portions of our Parasha deal with YHVH’s place of choice of where He is to be worshipped. It is no wonder, therefore, that just beforehand He commands to cleanse the land of all vestige of idolatry. As we saw in Parashat Va’ye’tze (Genesis 28: 10 – 32:2, in chapter 28:10ff) “place” is “makom”, originating from the verb “kum” which means “to rise, stand up, or go up”. This place is defined as: “The place which YHVH your Elohim shall choose out of all your tribes; for you shall seek His dwelling, to put His name there” (12:5). It is there that the Israelites are to “go” -- it is there that they are to “bring” their “offerings, sacrifices, tithes, contributions and oaths” (12:6, 11). It is also there that they are to “do” all that He commands them to do (12:14). It is to be a place for both individual and corporate service to, and worship of YHVH, with the Pesach sacrifice being offered there (ref. 16:2, 6), and where the “rejoicing” during the Feast of Shavu’ot (Feast of Weeks) is to take place (ref. 16:11), as well as Succot (16:15). Finally, “three times in a year shall all your males appear before YHVH your Elohim in the place which He shall choose” (16:16 emphasis added). The word here for “males” is not the usual “z’charim” (singular, “zachar”), but another version of the same root (z.ch.r. zayin, chaf, resh), “z’churim”. The root z.ch.r means to “remember”, and thus a “male” is “one who remembers”. But here the changed form (“z’churim”) means “those who are remembered”. If the Israelites remember to obey YHVH’s Word, He will definitely not forget them and will maintain His faithfulness to them (and to their households).
Whereas the sacrifices and offerings are not to be
offered randomly (“take heed to yourself that you not offer your burnt
offerings in every place that you see”, 12:13), the slaughtering and partaking
of meat, once Yisrael enters the land, may be done at will (v. 15). This will
enable the people to eat the meat of undomesticated animals such as deer and
ram, which although kosher, could not be eaten in the wilderness as they were
not to be used for sacrifices. But in
addition to this changed regulation, another change is now being enacted. Because meat eating in the wilderness always
involved a sacrifice (“peace offering” for the laymen), those partaking of it
had to be “tahor”, that is in a state of ritual cleanliness. However,
with the changed conditions and requirements for and in the
The expression “life is in the blood”, of 12:23, is actually the “blood is [or constitutes] the soul”, as we see also in B’resheet (Genesis) 9:4. Soul - “nefesh” - stems from the root n.f.sh (noon, pey/fey, shin) meaning, “rest” or “refreshing oneself”. Shmot (Exodus) 23:12 provides a good example and illustration of the usage and meaning of this verb: “Six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor [in order] that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave, as well as your stranger may refresh themselves” (emphasis added). Thus, embedded in the very word for ‘soul’ is YHVH’s original intent and design for it, which is “rest, repose and refreshment”. What's more, in Exodus 313:17 we read the following: "...for in six days YHVH made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed - va'yinafesh" (italics added).
Chapter 13 begins with a challenge concerning false prophets or dreamers of dreams, which the Israelites are not to heed if they are to truly express love for YHVH their Elohim. Accordingly, we read the following in verse 3: “You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for YHVH your Elohim is testing you to find out if you love YHVH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul”. The Hebrew for “you love…” is “ha’yesh’chem ohavim…” This is an unusual usage of “yesh”, which means as a rule, “there is, substance, or existence” and is generally not attached to verbs. The particular usage employed here indicates that the love the Israelites are supposed to have for YHVH is to be part and parcel of their very being, their make up and fiber.
The rest of chapter 13 and the first part of 14
deal (again) with idolatrous practices, about which it says: “You shall put
away evil from among you” (13: 5c, see also v. 17a). The verb for “put away” is “(u)ve’arta”,
of the root b.ae.r (bet, ayin, resh) ,
which literally means to “burn”. In
Bamidbar (Numbers) 11:1 we read, “And when the people complained, it
displeased YHVH and YHVH heard it; and his anger was kindled, and the fire of
YHVH burnt among them”. That fire of
YHVH, which burnt among them, was denoted by the same verb. And thus we may infer that Yisrael is not only
to “burn” the “evil”, but that failing to depart from it they will incur YHVH’s
burning (anger). Moreover, there is another
word that is spelt the same and means “brutish or ignorant” and
by inference also “beasts and cattle” (e.g. Gen. 45:17). The fools are addressed in Tehilim (Psalms)
94: 8 –
The laws of tithing are also repeated in our Parasha: “You
shall surely tithe all the increase of your seed that the field yields year by
year” (14:22). “Aser ta’aser” – “you
shall surely tithe” (lit. “tithing you shall tithe”) is emphatic.
The letters ayin, sin [also shin] and resh from the word “eser” - “ten” (the
tithe of course being the tenth part of the whole, and therefore called “ma’aser”). These letters also form the root of ashir
- rich (with a slight modification in the letter “sin”, placing the dot –
vowel - on the upper right hand side, turning it to “shin”). Are we to surmise from this that he who pays
his tithes is guaranteed riches? The
reason given here for the tithes (and for having to be faithful to eat it in
the place chosen by YHVH), is for the purpose of teaching the “fear [of] YHVH”
(14:23). The commentator Alshikh asks,
“How can eating, drinking and abundance of rejoicing teach people to be God
fearing? … Perhaps the Holy One blessed Be He commanded them to take a tithe of
all their possessions to
The principle of the release of debts comes next.
“Every seven years you shall make a release [“sh’mita”] (15:1), of the
verb sh.m.t. (shin, mem, tet), which means to “drop, release,
or let go” (as we saw in Parashat Mishpatim – Ex. 21-
In the latter part of chapter 15 we encounter instructions concerning Hebrew slaves, who are to be released on the seventh year: “And when you send him out free from you, you shall not let him go away empty. You shall richly bestow on him from your flock, and from your threshing floor, and from your winepress…” (v. 14, emphasis added). The Hebrew reads: “bestowing you shall bestow”, while the verb for “bestow” is “ha’anik” (the root is a.n.k, ayin, noon, kof). According to Daat Mikra commentary [5] the usage of this verb here is connected to “anak”, a necklace, in order to point out that rather than ‘hang burdens on the neck’ (as the idiom goes) of the former slave, the master is to ‘hang on his neck’ gifts of every kind. Still on the same theme, in 16:11 we read concerning the Feast of Shavu’ot: “And you shall rejoice before YHVH your Elohim, you and your son, and your daughter, and your male slave, and your slave-girl, and the Levite that is inside your gates, and the alien, and the fatherless, and the widow that are among you…” According to Rashi, the first group of four parallels the last four. The first lot belongs to man, while the second lot belongs to YHVH, who says to man: “If you will treat well those who belong to Me, I shall likewise be kind [literally, ‘cause to rejoice’] to those who belong to you”. [6]
[1] Dvarim with Daat Mikrah Commentary,
Pub. Mossad Harav Kook, Jm. 2001.
[2] New Studies in Devarim, Nechama Leibowitz,
trans. Aryeh Newman. Eliner
Library,
Department for Torah Education and Culture in the Diaspora. Hemed
Books Inc.,
[3] Etymological
Dictionary of Biblical Hebew, based on the commentaties of
Samson Raphael Hirsch, Matityahu Clark,
Feldheim Publishers,
[4] Ibid
[5] Dvarim with Daat
Mikrah Commentary, Pub. Mossad Harav Kook, Jm. 2001.
[6]
Ibid
