Kommentar zu Dewarim 8:18

And you will remember Ad-nai your God, who is the Giver of your strength to do valor. It is a main principle to remember the giver of anything. And as we find regarding the tithes (Deut. 26:13) "I did not transgress Your command and I did not forget" and in the Gemara we read "I did not transgress not blessing You and I did not forget to mention Your name over the produce" (Brachot 40b). And even regarding the words of Torah, if a person did not remember to say "Giver of the Torah" one's wisdom does not amount to anything. And therefore the Holy Blessed One set it so that the Human cannot exist without food, so the Human will lack something, and your creations will take great effort, and you will remember the One who brings about the Flow - and this is the level of Israel: they remember the One who brings about the Flow constantly. And through this they receive the inner energy of food, since in truth every thing has a specific quality, such as "wine that gladdens the heart of people" (Ps. 104:15) etc, and dates that make worry go away , as it is written in the Gemara (Ketubot 10b). And the opposite we also find in the Gemara, such as that the flour of barley is hard on the intestines (Brachot 36a), and so too the five grains there is a depth that precisely those five grains give strength and power to humans, and this is why the minimal amount is a olive-size. And regarding oil too, it indicates that "the beginning of wisdom is the awe of God" (Tzidkat HaTzadik 147:1) - and in this it is all the idea that a person must not say "my strength and my power brought me all this", one should constantly remember that "from all that comes from the mouth of God does a person live" (Deut. 8:3), that the essence of existence is what comes from the mouth of God, which is found in the essence of all things , and from this one should bless so that strength and force will flow from what one brought inside oneself, so that one will be able to serve God with that strength, as it is written [wisdom says] "for through me your days will increase, and years be added to your life. " (Proverbs 9:11)

AND THOU SHALT REMEMBER THE ETERNAL THY G-D, FOR IT IS HE WHO GIVETH THEE POWER TO GET WEALTH. It is known that Israelites are mighty men, valiant men for the war⁹⁴Jeremiah 48:14. because they were likened to lions⁹⁵See Genesis 49:9. and to a ravenous wolf,⁹⁶See ibid., Verse 27. and they vanquished the Canaanite kings in battle. Therefore he said, “If you should think, ‘my power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth,’⁹⁷Verse 17. you should remember G-d Who brought you forth from Egypt where you had no power or might of hand at all. You should further remember that He provided all your needs for you in the wilderness, where you had nought in the power of thy hand⁹⁸Further, 28:32. to survive. If so [concerning] this wealth which you have won by your strength as well, [you should bear in mind that] it is G-d Who gave you the power [that was necessary for you] to accumulate the wealth; and if you forget G-d He will consume thy flesh and thy body⁹⁹Proverbs 5:11. and you will perish,¹⁰⁰Verse 19. just as [the nations before you] perished,¹⁰¹Verse 20. for all that forsake the Eternal shall be consumed.¹⁰²Isaiah 1:28.
And then Moses reverted to bring yet another proof that you should not think ‘my power and the might of my hand etc.,’⁹⁷Verse 17. and he said Hear, O Israel¹⁰³Further, 9:1. a true word from my mouth, that these nations are greater and mightier than thyself,¹⁰³Further, 9:1. and how will you vanquish them in battle? Besides, they have cities great and fortified up to the high heavens,¹⁰³Further, 9:1. and how will you capture them? Moreover, there is a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom thou knowest¹⁰⁴Ibid., Verse 2. from the spies who saw them, and of whom thou hast heard¹⁰⁴Ibid., Verse 2. from days of yore that no man can stand up against them. And when all this becomes clear to you, you should realize and believe from this day on that you will be unable to go over [the Jordan to do battle] before them at all until you know in your heart that the Eternal thy G-d is He Who goeth over before thee as a devouring fire, and He will destroy them, and He will bring them down.¹⁰⁵Ibid., Verse 3. It is not the power and the might of hand He gave you, but the hand of G-d that did this to the mighty ones among them. This is an allusion to what is stated, and the Eternal cast down great stones from heaven upon them,¹⁰⁶Joshua 10:11. and similarly it is said there, And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Eternal hearkened unto the voice of a man; for the Eternal fought for Israel.¹⁰⁷Ibid., Verse 14. The reference to the fortified cities he mentioned here¹⁰³Further, 9:1. is an allusion to the wall of Jericho that fell before the ark. This is what David said, For not by their own sword did they get the Land in possession, neither did their own arm save them; but Thy right hand, and Thine arm, and the light of Thy countenance, because Thou wast favorable unto them¹⁰⁸Psalms 44:4. This psalm is ascribed to the sons of Korach (Verse 1). However, according to the Talmud (Baba Bathra 14b) it is David who wrote the Psalms, including among them the work of the elders, such as the sons of Korach, etc. Hence Ramban correctly writes of this psalm “that David said.” — the right hand of G-d and His [left] arm fought against their mighty ones, and the light of His countenance that was favorable unto them [the Israelites] gave them power over those who were slain in battle. Scripture refers to this in saying further, And I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.¹⁰⁹Amos 2:9. He [the prophet Amos] singled out the Amorite because it was the mightiest [nation] among them, and it was G-d Who destroyed it.

וזכרת את ה׳ אלוקיך, "You shall remember the Lord your G'd, etc." Moses means that we must remember that the source of all the good we will experience is G'd and we must never forget it. If He had not imbued us with strength we could never have achieved what we imagine we have achieved with our own power. Whenever people turn away from religion, if ever so slightly, it is because they forget that their achievements are not truly their own. Such a path leads to a person's eventual destruction. This may be the reason this verse is immediately followed in the next paragraph by the dire warnings about what will happen when Israel "forgets" its G'd deliberately. Once you forget that G'd is the source of all the good you experience, you will eventually forget that you have a very exclusive G'd altogether. Once that happens, you will seek out other deities. Not only will you contemplate idol worship but you will engage in it actively. Not only will this be some kind of loosely defined service, but you will even prostrate yourself in front of such images. Sanhedrin 60 teaches that if one prostrates oneself in front of the idol Markolies one is guilty of idolatry even though this is not an accepted form of worship for that idol.

וזכרת את ה' אלוקיך כי הוא הנותן לך כח, “you are to remember the Lord your G’d, for it is He Who gives you strength, etc.” Nachmanides explains that it was a well known fact that the Israelites counted among them men of outstanding bravery, experts in martial skills, and others of sheer physical strength, for had not their founding father Yaakov compared some of his sons to lions, wolves, etc.? Had they not defeated the most powerful Canaanite Kings in war? Therefore Moses takes pains to remind the people that such strength had been granted to these individuals by Hashem; they are not to credit their achievements in any sphere of activity to כחי ועוצם ידי, “to my own strength and the power of my hand,” but they are to remain mindful of the fact that without the active support of Hashem they could not have achieved any of this. Moses repeats once more his clarion call: שמע ישראל in chapter 9 reminding the people that the nations in the land of Canaan, on a man for man basis, are far more powerful than the individual Israelites, and they are more numerous, and it is only due to Hashem’s intervention on their behalf that past and future victories are possible. Those people even number giants as part of their population. If you were to leave everything to natural causes, you would never achieve your aspirations to subdue them. You must therefore constantly remain conscious of the fact that you have Hashem, Who is your commander-in-chief, and with such a commander-in-chief how could you fail?

V. 18. כח .וזכרת וגו׳: alles, was deine schaffens- und erwerbsfähige Persönlichkeit ausmacht: die Intelligenz, die Fertigkeit, die überlegende und berechnende Einsicht, die geistige und leibliche Gesundheit, jedes Moment deines seienden und wollenden und könnenden Wesens, ist kein Produkt deiner pyhsischen Nahrung, ist unmittelbare Verleihung deines Gottes, sowie von Ihm und Ihm allein auch das Zusammenwirken der äußeren Verhältnisse abhängt, die die Möglichkeit und das Gelingen deines Schaffens bedingen: Er gibt dir die Kraft, Vermögen zu schaffen. Dein Glück ist zum kleinsten Teil dein Verdienst. Und nicht einmal deinem sittlichen Verdienste kannst du diesen Segen des göttlichen Wohlgefallens zuschreiben; denn nicht um deiner sittlichen Verdienste willen, sondern um deiner Väter willen, deren Tugenden Er in dem Glück der Enkel lohnt למען הקים וגו׳, wird dir dies alles. Du hast also nach keiner Seite hin Ursache, stolz zu sein.