Kommentar zu Dewarim 28:15

והיה אם לא תשמע, "It will be if you do not hearken, etc." The Torah made it plain here that unless we fulfil all three aspects of Judasim i.e. Torah study, scrupulous observance of the negative commandments, and the carrying out of positive commandments, some or all of the consequences described forthwith will occur. Learning Torah and not observing the negative commandments does not protect us. Observing both negative and positive commandments but neglecting the study of Torah will still result in the curses of the following verses being fulfilled. Non-observance of each of these three groups of Torah laws will attract its own kind of curses. The Torah commences by describing the punishments in store for the Jewish people if they fail to study Torah. .ארור אתה בעיר, "you will be cursed in the city;" this verse until the words ואבדך מהר, "and you will quickly perish" and the end of verse 20 are a row of escalating curses which are retribution for abandoning Torah, i.e. abandoning Torah study. When one abandons study of the Torah it is viewed as if one had abandoned G'd Himself. This is why this paragraph concludes with the words אשר עזבתני, "for you have abandoned Me."

אם לא תשמע בקול ה' אלוקיך לשמור לעשות את כל מצותיו וחקותיו אשר אנכי מצוך היום, with these words Moses introduces his admonitions, the ones which parallel chapter 26 in Leviticus, but are sounding far more devastating. Israel is described as “backsliding,” having, with the help of Torah legislation, been the frontrunner in civilised countries. Whenever the Torah speaks about the Jewish people abandoning the laws of the Torah, the intention is not to make us think that they slid into anarchy, but worse, they slid into adopting the laws of the prevalent cultures and civilisations. Clearly, this is an even greater affront to G’d the Lawgiver, than merely being passive and not carrying out Torah legislation. Social legislation involving tithes was largely ignored, leading to such great scholars as Hillel, and the High Priest Yochanan decreeing legalistic means of circumventing the legislation so that the people would not be guilty of violating such basic social laws as forgiving overdue debts at the end of the Sh’mittah year. The Rabbis, in a number of instances, were forced to preserve the spirit of the law, sometimes at the expense of what may be termed “the letter of the law.” The discontinuance of the examination by the priest of a woman suspected of marital infidelity, Sotah, is one such example, the Rabbis feeling that when infidelity had become the norm rather than the exception, it would not do to demand a miracle from G’d every time such a situation arose. Moreover, the chances were that the husband’s sexual life was not so free from blemish that he could point a finger at his wife. (Compare Shviit,1,3, Maasser Sheyni 5,15, Sotah 46,48,49) Other practices, such as referring disputes to pagan judges of the nation (Greeks or Romans) occupying Israel at the time, made it almost impossible for the Jewish judiciary, even when meaning to preside over Torah law, to be an effective legal instrument. All of these conditions became a self-fulfilling prophecy in the decline of the Jewish people as a holy nation and led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of Jewish independence on a land of their own.

והשיגוך, “and they will overtake you.” In this verse, introducing the curses (afflictions), the word is spelled plene, i.e. with the letter ו, whereas in the previous appearance of this word in verse 2 describing the blessings the word was written defective, without this letter ו. The reason may be to reflect the verse in Psalms 91,15: “I will be with him (Israel) in distress.” This message is, however, alluded to in those words, i.e. עמו אנכי בצרה in the last letters of each of these words, the letters of the tetragrammaton ו-י-ה, which whenever they appear in reverse order allude to the attribute of Justice. The veiled message is that in spite of the awesome list of afflictions in this chapter they will not result in the extinction of the Jewish people. G’d will continue to watch over the Jewish people though they may not be aware of this.

V. 15. והיה אם לא וגו׳. Oben V. 1, in der die Segnungen einleitenden Voraussetzung der Pflichttreue, werden alle Gesetze in den einen Begriff מצות zusammengefasst. Dem freudigen Gehorsam, der Pflichtfreude sind alle Gesetze, die beschränkenden wie die gebietenden, gleich, sie sind die Anweisungen dessen, was wir auf dem Posten unseres Lebensdienstes als Glied des großen Heeres der Diener im Gottes Weltenreiche zu erfüllen haben. Die beschränkenden nicht minder als die gebietenden erfüllen uns mit dem freudig gehobenen Bewusstsein treuen Lebensdienstes vor Gott. Hier aber, in dem trüben Gegensatz des vorauszusetzenden Ungehorsams, stehen הקתיו neben מצותיו; denn dem Pflichtvergessenden bilden namentlich die das sinnliche Begehren beschränkenden חקים den Kreis von Gesetzen, der dem von Gott sich abwendenden Gemüte am meisten widersteht.

ובאו וגו׳ והשיגוך sie werden über dich verhängt und kannst du ihnen nicht entgehen.