Kommentar zu Dewarim 8:4

שמלתך לא בלתה THY RAIMENT DID NOT WEAR OUT — the clouds of Divine Glory used to rub the dirt off their clothes and bleach them so that they looked like new white articles, and also, their children, as they grew, their clothes grew with them, just like the clothes (shell) of a snail which grows with it (cf. Shir HaShirim Rabbah 4:11; Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 850).

THY RAIMENT WAXED NOT OLD UPON THEE. “The clouds of [Divine] Glory brushed their garments and pressed them so that they looked like freshly ironed articles; and so it was with their children, as they grew their garments grew with them.” This is Rashi’s language and also are the words of Agadah.⁷²Shir Hashirim Rabbah 4:23. But Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra wrote: “Other scholars say that they took many garments out [of Egypt]. And it is possible that it was not in the nature of the manna to produce perspiration [thus enabling their garments to last so long]. And so also he stated that neither did thy feet swell, meaning that He gave them strength or that He led them slowly.” But his [Ibn Ezra’s] words are not correct, for Moses mentions this to them in order to say that upon observing the commandment [of G-d] they will have food and raiment, and renew [their] strength, even as they lived by the manna forty years and they had garments, and the way with their feet they treadeth not.⁷³Isaiah 41:3. All of this was miraculous, for by every thing that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Eternal doth man live⁶⁷Verse 3 before us. and becomes supported. And if you were to cover a rafter with a new cloth it would wear out in forty years even though there is no perspiration, how much less man, that is a worm.⁷⁴Job 25:6.

שמלתך לא בלתה, “your garment did not wear out on you.” Rashi [based on Pessikta de Rav Kahane. Ed.], explains the phenomenon as G’d’s clouds of glory that traveled with the Israelites everywhere, dripping moisture on their garments so that not only did they look as if freshly laundered and pressed, but the children’s clothing grew as the children grew. Ibn Ezra, quoting other scholars, claims that the Israelites had taken a vast variety of clothing out of Egypt with them. He himself considers it possible that one of the properties of the manna was that it did not cause perspiration in the people who ate it. He explains the phenomenon of the feet not experiencing swelling during all these years as also due to the qualities contained in the manna. Alternately, the slow pace at which the people moved was the reason that their feet did not swell. [Considering that in a period of 40 years the people traveled lass than 700 miles, it is hard to see anything miraculous in their feet not swelling. Ed.] Nachmanides disagrees with Ibn Ezra, seeing that Moses was at pains to explain to the people that observing the commandments had been the reason for their phenomenal success during the last 40 years. Moses simply points to the immediate past being an allusion to the future when, if they continue on the right path, G’d will continue to make life easy for them. It would be counterproductive to explain what Moses said here as being natural phenomena, when the whole point of Moses’ recalling the past is to encourage the people so that they would continue to qualify for the kind of miracles they experienced in the past. The basic lesson Moses is trying to get across is that man lives on everything that emanates from G’d, not just from what grows out of the earth and the oceans. New clothes are no insurance against moths, or other destructive agents of nature, so that a degree of G’d’s supervision is needed regardless of how secure one feels with what one owns.

As they grew, etc. Rashi is answering the question: What is this verse teaching us, that by storing their garments in a chest they did not wear out? Rashi explains: Even though their garments were on them [i.e., they were worn] for forty years, they did not wear out. And the reason for this is because the clouds of Divine Glory, etc. This is the significance of מעליך (on you). I.e., even though they wore the garments.

V. 4. שמלתך, ja, an dir selber hast du die allen Bedürfnissen der Lage Rechnung tragende, erhaltende Wundermacht Gottes erfahren. Er hat deinem Gewande und deiner Haut eine solche Ausdauer verliehen, dass deine Kleider nicht gealtert und dein Fuss auf der Wanderung nicht geschwollen.

שמלתך לא בלתה, “your garments did not wear out;” this is relevant to chapter 7 verse 25, where matters you should not covet have been discussed. Although you have travelled a long distance in the desert, for almost forty years, G-d has made certain that your clothing did not need replacing. When you observe G-d’s commandments, you will not need all the things that ordinary people require in order to live on this earth comfortably. If He was able to look after you in an uninhabitable desert, how much more so can He look after you in habitable areas of the earth.

לא בצקה This means: [AND THY FOOT] DID NOT SWELL like dough (בצק), as is usual with those who walk barefoot — that their feet become swollen.

This usually happens to those who walk barefoot, etc. You might ask: It says in Parshas Ki Savo (below 29:4), “and your shoe did not shred from your foot,” which implies that they wore shoes! The answer is: That verse there refers to the Jews who left Egypt who had shoes — those shoes did not shred. Rashi’s explanation here refers to the Jews who were born in the wilderness who did not have shoes. However Re”m explains that, “This usually happens to those who walk barefoot,” is only describing the type of swelling, but they were not actually barefoot, etc. And according to this explanation, one should not ask: What is the significance of “nor did your foot swell”? Since they did not walk barefoot, is this not obvious? The answer is: Indeed this is so. The verse teaches us that their shoes did not shred from their feet. It should be understood as follows: Your foot did not swell (which usually happens to those who walk barefoot); and this is because you did not have to walk barefoot, since your shoes did not shred.