Kommentar zu Dewarim 29:20

הכתובה בספר התורה הזה — Above, however, (Deuteronomy 28:61) it says: And every sickness and every plague … [which is not written] הזאת) בספר התורה הזאת the feminine form, whilst here we have הזה, the masculine)?! But the explanation is: הזאת, the feminine form, refers to the feminine word התורה, whilst הזה, the masculine form, refers to the masculine word הספר in our text. Through the division into clauses by means of the tonic accents (which serve also as marks of interpunctuation) they (the two phrases) are shown to be two different expressions: in the chapter containing the curses (ch. Deuteronomy 28:61) the Tipcha (a disjunctive accent) is placed beneath the word בספר, and the words התורה הזאת are connected one with the other, therefore it says הזאת, the feminine form, (since it has to be connected with a feminine noun), whilst here the Tipcha is placed beneath the word התורה, and consequently the words ספר התורה are connected one with the other (i.e. they form one phrase), — therefore it is a masculine word that is applicable after it, because the term (the pronoun) refers to הספר (which is masculine).

ומחה ה׳ את שמו מתחת השמים, "and G'd will blot out his name from under the heaven." Remember that the root of the souls of all the Israelites originates in a sacred part of heaven, immediately below the throne of G'd.

והבדילו ה' לרעה, “Hashem will single him out for evil;” a reference to the whole tribe.

AND THE ETERNAL SHALL MARK HIM OFF FOR EVIL. This refers to a tribe from among the remaining tribes of Israel.

V. 20. והבדילו וגו׳. Es trifft ihn das ganz spezielle Gottesgericht, das durchaus nicht bloß Gesamtheiten, sondern in ganz spezieller השגחה פרטית auch jeden einzelnen in seinem Einzeltun und Lassen überwacht und richtet.

והבדילו ה' לרעה, “and the Lord will single him out for misfortune; that sinner had thought that he alone of all the Israelites could get away with being disloyal to the covenant. I will show the Israelites that he alone will be singled out for such harsh treatment by Me. The punishment will fit the crime.

והבדילו, “and the Lord shall separate him, etc;” his punishment will correspond to the principle of the punishment matching the sin. He used his individualism as a way to escape punishment; as a retribution he will be singled out for punishment while G-d is not (yet) dealing with communally committed sins.

מכל שבטי ישראל, “from among all the tribes of Israel.” The remaining ones.

In this instance, a unique instance, the Torah threatens that in spite of the sacred origin of his soul, it will be utterly blotted out in retribution for the devious plan to be parasites and to benefit from the blessings granted to the Torah-observant majority while at the same time violating all the commandments.

לרעה, “for evil;” this had to be spelled out as G-d also singles out people “for good,” when the occasion justifies this. A well known example is the tribe of Levi, who, as the only tribe not to worship the golden calf, was rewarded by being singled out to become a special tribe.

והבדילו ה׳ לרעה, "And G'd will single him out for misfortune, etc," This seems a paradox. After the soul of the person has already been blotted out, how can G'd separate it from other souls? We may have to understand this in connection with Isaiah 60 that all the Jewish souls originate in the same place as we have been told by Vayikra Rabbah 4,6 on Genesis 46,26 where all the 70 souls of the family of Jacob are described as כל הנפש, "the whole soul" (singular), as opposed to the souls of Esau which are described in the plural (Genesis 36). When the Torah writes that "G'd will blot out his name from under the heaven, this means that G'd will not take action against this man and consign him to the forces of the קליפה which is here called רעה, "evil," until He has separated his soul. This "separation" implies certain restrictions G'd imposes on the forces of the קליפה concerning the soul of this person. G'd makes it a point to always set some limits on the forces of destruction though He Himself allocated to these forces the parameters within which they may operate. We have quoted an example of such restrictions placed on the forces of destruction when Rava's father warned his son not to sleep in his bed in order not to be killed by these forces ( Taanit 24).

מכל שבטי ישראל, from all the tribes of Israel. Seeing that a Jewish soul has an affinity to all the tribes, G'd has to separate this person's soul from all the tribes lest the evil which befalls it will have negative repercussions on those tribes.

Alternatively, the word והבדילו may mean that after G'd has wiped out the name of this person, i.e. his soul, from under the heaven, He will transfer it to a spiritual region reserved for destroying such souls. ככל האלות, "like all the curses, etc." this means that the רעה, "evil" in store for this soul will include all the curses mentioned in the Torah thus far.