Kommentar zu Dewarim 2:11

רפאים יחשבו וגו׳ THEY [ALSO] ARE ACCOUNTED REPHAIM, [AS THE ANAKIM] — As Rephaim are those Emim accounted, even as the Anakim — who are also termed Rephaim because the hands of everyone who beheld them became weak (רפה) (cf. Genesis Rabbah 26:7).

רפאים יחשבו, these are accounted as Rephaim, etc. Why did the Torah consider it necessary to tell us that these people were considered Rephaim (as of gigantic proportions)? I believe that the fact that amongst the ten nations whose lands G'd had promised to give to Abraham's descendants in Genesis 15,20 the Rephaim are mentioned, the Torah wanted to inform us that Or which G'd gave to the descendants of Lot as an inheritance was identical with the Rephaim mentioned by G'd in Genesis. This is why Moses added: "the Eymim used to live there in previous times;" the "previous times" mentioned by Moses was the period prior to G'd's promise to Abraham, at the covenant between the pieces in Genesis chapter 15. Moses reminded the people that the merit of Abraham will stand by them.

יחשבו גם הם כענקים, ”they too were considered as equivalent to the giants.” This is the reason why mention is made of that fact in this context.

רפאים יחשבו אף הם כענקים, “the Rephaim were also considered as similar to giants.” According to Rashi, Moses says to the Israelites: “you thought that this is the land of the Rephaim which I have allocated to Avraham, seeing that the Eymim who are identical with the Rephaim used to live there. However, this is not correct; the territory of those Rephaim I have allocated to the descendants of Lot and I have made the descendants of Lot settle there. The reason that these Rephaim were considered as identical with the Eymim, fear-inspiring like the giants was that although they themselves were not giants, they nonetheless succeeded in making everyone afraid of them as if they had been giants. We find a similar construction in verse 12: ובשעיר ישבו החורים, “and the Chorim who had lived in Seir.” This is a reference to the inhabitants of that land before Esau took over that territory allocated to him by G’d.

V. 11. Stellen wie Psalm 88, 11; Jesaias 26, 14; Prov. 2, 17 und a. m. lassen keinen Zweifel darüber zu, dass רפאים den Begriff: Verstorbene, aus dem Leben Geschiedene ausdrückt, und zwar liegt es nahe, diese Bedeutung aus der Verwandtschaft mit רפה: schwach, kraftlos sein und werden abzuleiten. (Über die Bedeutung "heilen" siehe Bereschit 48, 1). Wenn nun andererseits רפאים ebenso entschieden: Riesengeschlecht, und zwar, wie es scheint, in noch generellerem Umfang als ענקים bedeutet, da hier die Emim und Anakim zu den רפאים gerechnet werden: so glauben wir nicht ganz und gar irre zu gehen, wenn wir meinen, רפאים bezeichne in dieser Bedeutung die Riesen als das "untergegangene Geschlecht", als das Geschlecht der Vorwelt, das in der heutigen Menschheit keine Existenz mehr hat und von welchem zu Mosche Zeiten nur noch einzelne Nachkommen im kananitischen Lande sich erhalten hatten. Sam. II. 21, 16 und 18, 22 das untergegangene Riesengeschlecht auch im Singular: הרפה, und dass dies kein nomen proprium ist, beweist der Artikel — אמים .ה (siehe Schmot 15, 16): die Schrecklichen, Schreckerregenden. Sowie ענקים die Reste dieses untergegangenen Riesengeschlechtes nach ihrer äußeren Erscheinung: die mit hochgestrecktem Halse bezeichnet, so אמים nach ihrem Eindruck auf den Beschauer.

רפאים יחשבו אף הם כענקים, “the Refaim were also considered as part of a race of giants.” They were considered as such not because of their height, but because of their physical strength. That they were not truly giants is clear from the fact that the Moabites called them Eymim. This was the name by which most people called them.

אמים — so called because the dread (אימה) of them lay upon the people. — So, too, (v. 12) the Horim dwelt formerly in Seir and I gave them over unto the children of Esau. (Genesis Rabbah 26:7)