Kommentar zu Dewarim 29:28

הנסתרת לה' אלהינו THE SECRET THINGS BELONG UNTO THE LORD OUR GOD — And if you say, “But what can we do? Thou threatenest the many (the whole community) with punishment because of the sinful thoughts of one individual, as it is said, (v. 17): “Lest there should be among you a man, [or a woman or a family … whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord …]”, and afterwards it states, (v. 21) “And they will see the plagues of that land”. But surely no man can know the secret thoughts of his fellow! Now, I reply: I do not threaten to punish you because of secret thoughts for these belong to the Lord our God and He will exact punishment from that individual; but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children that we may put away the evil from our midst; and if we do not execute judgment upon them, the whole community will be punished. — There are dots on the words לנו ולבננו to suggest that even for the revealed sins (those committed openly), He did not punish the community until they had crossed the Jordan — from the moment when they took upon themselves the oath on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal and had thus become responsible for one another (Sanhedrin 43b; cf. Sotah 37b).

THE SECRET THINGS BELONG UNTO THE ETERNAL OUR G-D. In the opinion of the commentators⁴⁴Ibn Ezra and others. the verse states: “It is for the Eternal our G-d to execute judgment upon those who worship idols secretly, for all hidden matters are revealed before Him, but the things that are revealed are upon us and our children that we may do to them all the words of this Law — to smite the idol-worshippers in accordance with the law of the Torah. According to the interpretation of the Rabbis, too, it is so.⁴⁵Sanhedrin 43b.
By way of the simple meaning of Scripture it is my opinion that the secret things are the sins that are hidden from those who commit them, as it is stated, Who can discern errors? Cleanse Thou me from hidden faults.⁴⁶Psalms 19:13. The verse states: “[Our] hidden sins belong to G-d alone; for them we bear no guilt for having transgressed [unknowingly]. But the things that are revealed, namely our conscious sins, belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this Law as an eternal statute. As such we accepted it, obligating the one who was present [when the covenant was made] and the one who was not present. And because he included in the imprecation [the obligation] to perform all the commandments, he excluded from the ban whoever commits a sin unintentionally, so that he should not be afflicted by this curse. The words of Onkelos indicate this, for he rendered it, “The secret things are before the Eternal our G-d,” [thus implying that we will not be punished for sins we have committed unknowingly], but if he agreed with the [aforementioned] interpretation of the commentators [that it is for G-d to punish conscious sins committed secretly] then Onkelos should have said, “The secret things are ‘to’ the Eternal our G-d” [to punish].

הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו, even though I have said that all of you are standing in the presence of the Lord whom it is impossible to mislead and deceive, so that He will collect His dues from everyone who owes him, G’d collects directly only from those whom it is not possible for His appointed representatives, i.e. a legally constituted judiciary to bring to justice.

הנסתרות לה׳ אלוקינו, והנגלות לנו, "The hidden sins are G'd's business, but the visible ones (are our business to deal with)." We have to understand this verse as the response by the Jewish people to Moses that he cannot hold them responsible for sins committed by fellow Jews in private. However, they accept the responsibility to try and stop sins being committed in public. לנו ולבנינו עד עולם, "for us and our children forever." This is the official acceptance by the Israelites of the oath Moses wanted them to swear.

הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו, I have already explained this on Deut. 26,15 in connection with the curses pronounced at Mount Gerizim and Mount Eyval. It is precisely because sins committed in secret cannot be dealt with by the courts, that the Torah has to go on record that the sinner will still not get away with his sin.

הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו, “The hidden [sins] are for Hashem our G’d, etc.“ Nachmanides writes that all the commentators understand the verse to mean that sins committed in private, unobserved, will be taken care of by Hashem, instead of by a human tribunal, whereas sins committed in public and witnessed, must not be simply left to His discretion to deal with. He adds, that from the plain meaning of the text it would seem that the sins described as הנסתרות, are the ones concealed even from the sinner, i.e. he was not aware of having committed them. Our sages have composed prayers in which we constantly ask G’d to protect us against committing such sins inadvertently committed. (Compare Psalms 19,13) In appreciation of not being made responsible for such sins, Moses says that we will take care of knowingly committed sins, do penance, etc., and ask G’d’s forgiveness and undertake not to be negligent again. The curses Moses has called down on sinners do not apply to people who have sinned unintentionally.

If you should ask, What are we capable of doing? etc. Rashi is explaining the relevance of the hidden [matters], etc. in this parsha.

V. 28. הנסתרת וגו׳. An diese Gott und seine Waltung dokumentierende Bedeutung Israels im Exil knüpfen sich weitaussehende in die fernsten Zeiten ausblickende Zukunftgestaltungen. Doch diese, als נסתרות, überlassen wir Gott. Was für uns das Offenbare für immer und für jede Zeit das klar Bewusste, Zweifellose ist, das ist: dass, wie sich auch unsere Zukunft gestalten möge und welche Zeiten und Geschicke wir noch zu bestehen haben mögen, unsere und unserer Kinder ewige Aufgabe bleibt überall und immer, im Lande und im Exil: Gottes Gesetze treu zu erfüllen.

הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו, “concealed acts concern the Lord our G–d;” seeing that the Torah had written in verse 20 of our chapter that G–d singles out individual sinners for retribution,” and verse 21 sounds as if the sins of a single individual could cause G–d to react angrily against the whole people, or at least against a whole family all on account of that single rebellious Jew, Moses now reassures the people that precisely because He is omniscient and knows what goes on in the hearts of each one of us, He will deal with the individual who is guilty and not engage in punishing the innocent as “collateral damage.” However, sins committed openly, and ignored by the judiciary, thereby constituting collective guilt by the people who had appointed corrupt judges, will become the subject of what for the uninitiated looks like collective punishment. In fact, the retribution for openly committed sins and tolerated by the courts, will result in the punishment extending beyond a single generation as long as we do not wipe out the phenomenon of open rebellion against the covenant that the whole people had voluntarily entered into with Hashem. The Talmud in tractate Sanhedrin, folio 43 points out that the dots above the letters לנו ולבנינו and above the letter ע of the word עד, are to inform us that as long as the Israelites had not crossed the river Jordan and been on sacred ground, G–d had not punished anyone for sins committed in private, not witnessed by even family members. The reason for this was that only after crossing the Jordan did the Jews accept the Torah [most of whose commandments did not apply outside the Holy land. Ed.] individually and collectively, so that each Israelite became responsible also for the sins committed by his fellow Jew. At that point what is written the words לנו ולבנינו, “for us and our children,” became applicable. If you were to query that if the above were correct, why is the last dot on the word על instead of on ה' אלוקינו, perhaps the reason is that it would be inappropriate to do this when it is subject to being erased. The words: lashem elokeynu in Hebrew including the tetragram that I cannot spell out here, comprise eleven letters, and that is why our sages place 11 dots to hint to us that this is where the dots really should have been. [Since no Israelite who had not yet crossed the river Jordan ever saw a Torah scroll with these eleven dots, I find the interpretation offered quite irrelevant. Ed.] According to a text known as massoret hag’dolah, the dots are attributed to when Ezra had to rewrite the Torah after the redemption when different scrolls had variations in the text, and the time would come when Moses would challenge him why he had not done it differently, he would explain that because of his doubts he had placed the dots on top. If Moses would be satisfied with the way Ezra had done it, it would be easy to erase the dots without harming the text of the Torah scroll. From this it is clear that Ezra had his doubts about G–d not holding us responsible for not interfering when becoming aware of sins committed prior to crossing the Jordan.

הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו, “sins committed in the privacy of one’s home, (which could not be witnessed and brought to court) will be taken care of by the Lord our G-d;” this had to be stated specifically in light of what we read in verse 18 about individuals who feel safe from punishment for their personal sins in periods when the community at large is Torahobservant.

והנגלות לנו ולבננו עד עולם, however, any sins committed publicly must be dealt with by this judiciary, forever, [I suppose the words עד עולם mean that there is no statute of limitations as in gentile countries. Ed.] לעשות את כל דברי התורה הזאת, to avenge G’d‘s having been slighted by the public commission of violations of Torah law, especially those affecting other people directly.

לנו ולבנינו עד עולם, it is up to us to administer the penalties prescribed by the Torah subject to the offender being convicted on the basis of reliable witnesses.

As it is said, “Perhaps there is, among you a man, etc. This implies that an individual sinned. But afterwards [it is written], They will see the plagues of that land, which implies that the entire land will be punished on account of him.

Sanhedrin 43 b wird das נסתרות und נגלות in Beziehung auf die Verantwortung gefasst, die nach der mit diesem Gesetzesbunde eingetretenen Solidarität für die Erfüllung des Gesetzes (siehe Kap. 27, 1 u. 9) der Gesamtheit und jedem einzelnen obliegt und die mit dem לנו ולבנינו עד עולם לעשות וגו׳ erneut zum Ausspruch gekommen, da dies nicht nur zur Selbsterfüllung, sondern überhaupt für die Verwirklichung des Gesetzes alle verpflichtet erklärt. Diese solidarische Verpflichtung, ערבות, das: כל ישראל ערבין זה לזה, wird hier nur auf die נגלות, auf das offenkundige Tun und Lassen beschränkt, in welcher Beziehung alle, die durch ihren Einfluss Gesetzübertretungen oder Pflichtunterlassungen hätten verhüten können und diesen Einfluss nicht geübt, שהיה בידן למחות ולא מחן, mitverantwortlich sind. נסתרות aber, geheime Vergehungen gegen das Gesetz, bleiben jedoch לד׳ אלקינו, der göttlichen Waltung allein. Und zwar stehen nach den dort sich ergebenden Erläuterungen über לנו ולבנינו und dem ע von עד, den Buchstaben von לד׳ אלקינו entsprechend, elf Beschränkung bedeutende Punkte, um zu sagen, dass auch für נגלות die Solidarität erst mit der Überschreitung des Jordans und der Bundesproklamierung am Gerisim und Ebal eingetreten, bis dahin jedoch, wie die נסתרות, auch die לד׳ אלדינו :נגלות gewesen (siehe תוספו׳ daselbst ד׳׳ה א׳׳ל ר׳ נחמיה nach Raschis Auffassung). Demnach wäre die moralische Zusammenhörigkeit aller, die in der Solidarität aller für alle ihre so folgenschwere Bedeutung gewinnt, gerade erst mit der durch die Niederlassung im Lande eintretenden Vereinzelung zur wahren Wirklichkeit gelangt, und dürfte dafür wohl das Motiv in der Erwägung zu finden sein, dass gerade erst in der mit dem normalen Erwerbs- und Nahrungsstreben sich erzeugenden bürgerlichen Verkehrsgemeinsamkeit alle Einzelpersönlichkeiten diejenige Bedeutung gewinnen, welche auch den gegenseitigen moralischen Einfluss bedingt.

לה׳ אלוקינו, “it is His duty to punish sins committed in places inaccessible to witnesses.”

That, even with regard to what is exposed [the community was not punished] until they had crossed the Yarden, etc. Rashi explains that if not for the dots one would think that this has always been Hashem’s attribute, so the dots come here [for us] to expound that when it says ours and our children’s, that this attribute did not apply until now, but only from now on [i.e., once they cross the Yarden], because dots always come to exclude. You might ask that the dots should only appear on Hashem's Name [in this verse], as this would clearly indicate that [without the dots, certain] sins are Hashem our God’s, and with the dots it would also indicate that [certain] sins are ours and not Hashem's. How is this so? To to teach that, even with regard to what is exposed, etc. You might ask why there is a dot on the עין of עד (forever)? The answer is that there is a dot on the עין of עד so that [a total of] eleven letters have dots, corresponding to the eleven dots of Hashem's name [in the verse], to teach you that the dots should have been on Hashem’s Name to exclude [what is exposed, etc.], but it is not proper to put dots on Hashem’a Name. (I found this in the name of Maharitz). Re”m writes that the dot on עד is to indicate that this word עד should not be here but next to the hidden [matters], to indicate that this rule [that the public is not punished for hidden matters] is [in effect] for all time [even before crossing the Yarden]. Even though we would know that it refers to the hidden matters and not the exposed matters as explained above [because of the other dots], nevertheless, were it not for the dot on עד that teaches that it is written out of place, it would have seemed like an error because it is written next to the revealed matters. But once it has the dot, it is as if the Torah explicitly writes that its place is not here but above. You might ask, why was [the public] punished in the incident of Achan? The Gemora (Sanhedrin 43b) already answers because his wife and children knew [of his sin].

והנגלות, ”but the sins committed publicly, etc,” dealing with deliberate sins committed in full view of the public must be dealt with by the judiciary by both you and your children, as otherwise such phenomena cannot be eradicated from your midst. This law becomes effective from the moment the Jewish people will cross the river Jordan. From that moment on their acceptance of the covenant with G-d meant that each individual Jew shared in the responsibility for the conduct of each fellow Jew. From that moment on we also became responsible. In order that you should not say that this approach applies forever (under all circumstances), the words והנגלות לנו ולבנינו, “and the publicly committed sins are also the responsibility of us and our children,” have been dotted, i. e. as long as we observe that part of the law, by letting our judiciary punish sinners of sins committed in public, G-d will take care of those that were committed secretly.[The dots, wherever they appear, have been added by learned scribes long after the Torah had been given, i.e. have been added by human initiative. There are dots only on ten letters, whereas there are eleven sins that were listed in the list of curses as being typical of sins committed secretly in Deuteronomy chapter 27, commencing with verse 15. This is deliberate in order to avoid giving the impression that we are telling G-d how to administer His laws. This is also the reason why the dots which we would have expected over the words לה' אלוקינו, where they would have made more sense, appear instead over the words לנו ולבנינו, Ed.]

הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו, when the prophet Isaiah, at the end of describing the idyllic state of mankind on earth after the arrival of the Messiah, states that G-d will also select priests and Levites from among the gentile nations,(Isaiah 66,13) this is also something reserved for G-d’s judgment, covered by the line הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו, “that there are hidden matters which only G-d is aware of,” not man.