Kommentar zu Dewarim 12:29

כי יכרית…את הגוים…השמר לך, "When G'd will cut down…the nations,….be careful, etc." Why did Moses appear to make being on guard against the lure of idolatry dependent on His cutting down the nations occupying Canaan? Were the Israelites to tolerate with equanimity the idolatry of many nations for many years as long as G'd had not cut down these nations? We know that this is not so as we have been told to wipe out idolatry and to refrain from it ourselves without a word about modifying this commandment by stating that it applied only if our neighbours practiced idolatry! Furthermore, why does the Torah write פן תנקש, "lest you be ensnared..after He has wiped them out?" Surely the sequence of events should have been the reverse? Why would the Israelites be in danger of being ensnared by idolatry performed by people whom G'd has already wiped out? Their very fate has discredited their deities who could not save them! Rashi's comment that after G'd has wiped out these nations we are to reflect about the sins which caused them to be wiped out and to be careful not to commit a similar sin so that we would not meet the same fate, does not really solve our problem. Thirdly, the Torah writes both פן תנקש and פן תדרש. In view of the fact that the "ensnaring," תנקש leads to your enquiring into the idolatrous practices, the Torah should have written פן תנקש לדרוש, "so that you will not be ensnared into enquiring, etc," instead of describing these two phenomena as independent of one another! Fourthly, why did Moses write לאמור? To whom did he expect the Israelites to say this? Fifthly, why did Moses use the word איכה as introducing a question? We do not find this word as having this meaning anywhere else! Sixthly, what did Moses mean (13,1) by forbidding both לא תגרעו, "do not subtract from the laws of the Torah" as well as לא תוסיפו "do not add to them?" Whereas we can understand the former, does not the latter exclude the enactment of rabbinic ordinances? Did not the Torah itself write (Leviticus 18,30) "You shall make fences around My commandments," i.e. that the prohibition of idolatry is to be surrounded with rabbinic decrees to ensure we do not violate the essence of the commandment? Is this not an invitation to make additional laws to keep us from becoming ensnared in the sin of idol worship?

כי יכרית ה' אלוקיך את הגויים, the word מפניך still belongs to these initial words of the verse.

V. 29. Säuberung des in Besitz zu nehmenden Landes von allen Spuren des heidnischen Unwesens, und dem gegenüber ausschließliche Hingebung aller nunmehrigen Bewohner des Landes an das sie alle einigende Zentrum der Gottesstätte des Gesetzesheiligtums, sowie Wahrung der leiblich sittlichen Richtung aller Glieder dieses Kreises auf die von diesem Gesetze gewiesenen Ziele und für die von ihm gesetzten Aufgaben durch Beachtung des שחיטה-Gebotes und des verbotenen Blutgenusses: das waren die Momente, welche den bisherigen Inhalt dieses Kapitels bildeten. Bevor nun das Gesetzeskompendium für die vereinzelten Glieder der Nation noch zur Vervollständigung der hierhin gehörigen ferneren Speisegesetze übergeht, folgen noch erst vier Warnungen vor geistigen und sozialen Einflüssen, die die Glieder der jüdischen Gesamtheit aus ihrer Gott und seinem Gesetze angehörigen Richtung ablenken könnten. Der Einfluss der Erinnerungen an das heidnische Leben ihrer Vorinsassen, der Einfluss geistiger Überlegenheit, der Einfluss des Familienverkehrs und der Einfluss bürgerlichen Hervortuns.

כי יכרית ה' אלוקיך, “when the Lord your G-d will cut off, etc.” this paragraph has been inserted here, as unless G-d cuts off the gentile nations, how is He going to widen the boundaries of your Land?

Actually, Moses intended to warn against the errors man is apt to make when he observes with his own eyes that wicked people are being destroyed. He is almost bound to arrive at either one of two possible (erroneous) conclusions when he is an eye witness to such a phenomenon. He may conclude that the idolatry these people had practiced was considered substantive and this is the reason why G'd was so concerned with their worshiping something other than Him that He decided to kill them. Alternatively, anyone witnessing the demise of such idol worshipers will conclude that the form of worship these people had indulged in is not substantive and would not arouse G'd's jealousy. An example would be if someone threw something in the direction of Markulies, or excreted before Pe-or, etc., which is a form of worship not applicable to the respective deity. It is a fact that we do not perform any such acts of worship to the Lord our G'd. Why then did G'd kill those nations? We would conclude that it was not for worshiping idols but for failing to worship G'd instead in the appropriate fashion. Not only that, but these people also failed to observe the various commandments G'd has revealed.

לרשת אותם מפניך, “and to dispossess them on your account;” the word מפניך actually is the continuation of the beginning of the verse, i.e. כי יכרית.

Indulging in speculations about the why of these peoples' demise is a waste of time which ought to have been devoted to Torah study instead. If the person who watched the demise of the pagans arrived at the conclusion that the form of worship these pagans indulged in was appropriate but that they addressed it to the wrong address, i.e. to an idol, he may conclude that the proper thing for him to do is to serve our G'd in that fashion. If, on the other hand, the witness of the demise of the pagans concluded that the reason G'd killed them was because their form of worship was too inconsequential, he may believe that if he himself were to do the same it would not have any negative consequences for him as he was not a pagan but believed in G'd and served G'd. After all, G'd had killed these people only because they did not serve Him! The Torah therefore warns: כי יכרית, "when G'd cuts down," etc., and you witness this, השמר לך, "be on guard" not to arrive at either one of the conclusions we have just described. Concerning the first conclusion that the service performed by these people was substantive and aroused G'd's jealousy, the Torah writes פן תנקש אחריהם, "do not be ensnared to follow after them, i.e. as Rashi wrote "do not commit the same stupid mistake as they did when they engaged in this form of worship but remember I have already killed these people as a sign that I abhor such practices." Concerning the second faulty conclusion by the witness of the destruction of these pagans, i.e. that their form of worship was inappropriate in the first place and that something of that nature does not come under the heading of idol worship at all, and that therefore it would not bother G'd, the Torah writes ופן תדרש לאלוהיהם, "and do not speculate about what constitutes proper idol worship by concluding that the nature of the obeisance determines what is true idolatry. This is what is meant by איכה יעבדו הגוים, "in what manner the pagans perform their idolatrous practices." The word איכה is not a question as we thought at first; it is part of a statement expressing amazement by the onlooker who could not fathom that something so undignified could possibly be classified as worship. Moses continues ואעשה כן גם אני, "and I shall do likeweise," to show what such faulty reasoning can lead to when a Jew wishes to express his disdain for an idol by excreting before it, for instance. The Torah warns not to do something of that nature.

Moses continues (verse 31) לא תעשה כן לשםה אלוקיך, "do not do so to the Lord your G'd, etc." concerning the first error we mentioned, i.e. to indulge in the substantive kind of worship the pagans engaged in, but in order to honour our G'd with such practices. The Torah tells us that we are wrong to assume that their form of worship was acceptable but not the address, by writing "for everything these people have done is an abomination which G'd hates." G'd's jealousy was not aroused by the fact that an aesthetically superior form of worship was lavished on idols instead of on Him, but even the form of their worship is an abomination in His eyes. In order to illustrate that these people had no idea of what constitutes an acceptable form of worship in G'd's eyes it suffices to remind the Israelites that they indulged in sacrificing their own children to such so-called gods. Concerning the second erroneous conclusion, that these forms of worship were of no consequence per se, the Torah explains that the form of worship is hateful to G'd, that "G'd hates everything these people did for their deities." G'd does not need to explain to us why a certain kind of activity is considered an abomination in His eyes. G'd did not explain to us why it is forbidden to marry two sisters while both are alive, although the principle of marrying both sisters itself is not taboo. Similarly, G'd does not owe us an accounting why He considers that something which may appear harmless and of no consequence in our eyes is hateful in His eyes.

In 13,1, the last verse in this passage, Moses continues: את כל הדבר, "the entire word," thus justifying both the commandment not "to subtract" nor "to add" to the commandment but to observe it precisely as written. The expression "do not add" concerns not adding pagan practices when we serve our G'd for whatever aesthetic reasons we think up. The words "do not subtract from it" refer to excluding the inconsequential forms of worship of the pagans from what is forbidden to us. Everything is part of the overall prohibition of idolatry and all that is connected to it.