Kommentar zu Dewarim 2:29

כאשר עשו לי בגי עשו AS THE CHILDREN OF ESAU DID TO ME — This does not refer to passing through their land (רק אעברה ברגלי) for Edom refused this, (cf. Numbers 20:18) but to the matter of selling food and water (also mentioned in the preceding verse).

והמואבים היושבים בער, these were not the other Moabites, of whom the Torah had written that they failed to welcome you with bread and water. (Deut. 23,5) The same is true of different sections of the descendants of Esau as I explained on verse 4. The Israelites detoured around the militant Edomites as reported in 2,1. It took a long time to make this detour.

כאשר עשו לי בני עשו, “as the descendants of Esau have done to me.” According to Rashi the subject is the food and drink that the Israelites were interested in buying while traversing the land of Sichon. The reference could not have been to the crux of the matter, the permission to traverse the land, as the descendants of Esau were known to have refused this, so how could Moses have misrepresented the facts? Ibn Ezra has a problem with such an interpretation, as we would be faced with the Israelites contradicting themselves when the Torah cites as a reason that the Moabites could never be accepted as converts the fact that they refused to offer food and water to the Israelites? (Deut. 23,5) He therefore understands the words כאשר עשו לי בני עשו, as referring to the fact that the Israelites had made a detour around the land of Edom not because the Edomites objected to their traversing the land in an orderly fashion, בדרך, בדרך, but because their king had objected. Moses asks to be given the same privileges as the בני עשו as opposed to the מלך אדום had been prepared to grant them. Only the king had been afraid that the Israelites instead of staying on a rural pass would march into a city. Many other commentators do not see a contradiction in what is written in Deut 23,5 with what is written here. There is a difference between volunteering to a thirsty nation some water and selling water to a nation that clearly has managed for 40 years without such “favours” from any other nation. G’d’s objection to the Moabites’ behaviour was based on their lack of humanity in denying much needed water to a nation that owed its entire existence to that nation’s founder Avraham having once rescued him from captivity and the second time from being included in the people who lost their lives in Sodom by praying on behalf of the “righteous“ inhabitants of Sodom. Some commentators feel that the line in Deut. 23,5 refers to the Ammonites, not to the Moabites. The Moabites had hired the services of Bileam to curse the Israelites, an act of extreme ingratitude that is quite enough to disqualify them from membership in the Jewish nation, and to enjoy the direct protection of the כנפי השכינה, the protectively outstretched wings of the Divine Presence. According to that view, at the time, the Moabites had offered bread and water.

כאשר עשו לי בני עשו, “as the children of Esau have done for me.” It is quite impossible to understand these words to mean that the Edomites had provided the Israelites with bread and water seeing that Moses includes the Moabites in his statement and we know for a fact that the Moabites had done no such thing. After all, one of the reasons that a Moabite may not become a proselyte is precisely because that nation had not offered bread and water to the passing Israelites when they were in need of it (Deut. 23,5). The words must refer to the request to be allowed to march through their lands without causing any damage. Verse 4 in our chapter means that the Edomites were quite amenable to the Israelites traversing the mountain of Seir at the border of their country. The king of Edom only refused the Israelites to travel through the built up area of his country, the fastest route to the land of Canaan. This is why he had said לא תעבור בי (Numbers 20,18) i.e. “not through my capital.” Neither he nor his people had any objection to the territory of their land being used as a passage for the Israelites. I explained it there.

This does not refer to [our] passing through their land, etc. Rashi is answering the question: The verse writes, “Food for money sell me... just let me cross on foot. As the descendants of Eisov did for me.” This implies that Edom [i.e., Eisov] allowed them to pass through their land. Yet, it is written in Parshas Chukas (Bamidbar 20:21), “Edom refused... and the Israelites turned away from them.” For this reason, Rashi explains: “This does not refer to [our] passing through etc.” You might ask: The verse here implies that Moav also sold food and water to them, but in Parshas Ki Teitzei it is written (below 23:4), “Neither an Ammonite nor a Moavite shall enter into the community... because they did not greet you with bread and water.” Re”m answers: Perhaps there is a [significant] difference between קדמו (greeting [with food]) and השבירו (selling food). For the Moavites did not greet them with bread and water, but they did sell food and water to them. But the verse, “they did not greet you,” means without [charging] money. An alternative answer is: The verse means, “Neither an Ammonite nor a Moavite shall enter into the community — Ammon because they did not greet you, and Moav because they hired Bilaam against you, etc.”

V. 29. כאשר עשו לי וגו׳ bezieht sich nur auf den Verkauf von Speise und Trank, da ja die Söhne Esaws ihnen den Durchzug nicht gestattet haben.

כאשר עשו לי בני עשו, “as the descendants of Esau did for me.” This was not a reference to traversing their territory, but a reference to their letting the Israelites buy their water and food from them. The Torah had never spelled this out before, but it is logical to assume that they had done so, seeing that the Torah had specifically permitted them to do so. (Deut. 2,6) Our verse merely explains what was meant in verse 6., כאשר עשו לי בני עשו היושבים בשעיר והמואבים היושבים בער“as the descendants of Esau who live in Seir have done for me, as well as the Moabites who dwell in Or.” It sounds clear that both the Moabites mentioned here as well as the Edomites mentioned here had volunteered to supply the Israelites with these victuals. This is in stark contrast to what the Torah had described in Deut. 23,4 as the reason why proselytes from the Moabites and the Ammonites must not be accepted. It says there that these two tribes had not come forward with offers of bread and water for a nation that had just come out of Egypt, and had hired Bileam to curse the Israelites. How do we reconcile these two verses? Moreover, the Talmud in tractate two in tractate Yevamot, folio 77, even tells that several hundreds of years later, some of the Israelites wanted to declare King David as not fit to be their king, but as not being Jewish, since his maternal ancestor Ruth had been a Moabite, and her conversion therefore was null and void. In light of all this, some commentators feel forced to conclude that the verses from Deut. 2,6 until and including verse 29, are only Moses’ formulation of the words the delegation were to say to the rulers of that land, but are not to be understood as testimony by the Torah, and that some Moabites and some Edomites had come forward with such offers. What follows are words by Moses recalling what had happened in how making war on Sichon and Og had not been aggression by the Israelites, but self defense, as the other side had started the hostilities. Instead of understanding the Torah as telling us that the Moabites of Or and the Ammonites had been generous, Moses includes them all in a negative light. None of these kings had allowed the Israelites to cross their lands. The ones that got away with it were the ones whom G-d had commanded the Israelites not to harass as they were not Canaanites, on the contrary, were related to the Israelites through Avraham‘s family.

עד אשר אעבר את הירדן UNTIL I SHALL PASS OVER THE JORDAN — This is to be connected with "Let me pass through thy land” (v. 27).

This refers to the statement, “Let me pass through [your land].” And not to the statement, “Food for money sell me,” which immediately precedes it. Otherwise, what is the meaning of, “[Sell me food] until I will have crossed the Yardein”? It should say instead, “Until I will have crossed your border,” as it is written in Parshas Chukas (Bamidbar 21:22).