Kommentar zu Dewarim 32:10

ימצאהו בארץ מדבר HE FOUND HIM IN A DESERT LAND — for them (Jacob’s sons) he found to be faithful to Him in the desert land, when they accepted His Torah, His sovereignty and His yoke, something that Ishmael and Esau had refused to do, as it is said, (Deuteronomy 33:2) “And He shone from the Seir (Esau) unto them, He appeared from Mount Paran (Ishmael)” (cf. Rashi on that verse).

The expression [He kept him] as the apple of His eye⁴⁴Verse 10. alludes to watchfulness, the verse stating that G-d watched over him as He would shield “His own eye.” Or it may be that the word “man” is missing here: He watched over him as a man shields the apple of his eye, for generally [where there is no specific reference to the contrary, it is assumed that] Scripture speaks of man. There are many similar verses.

ימצאהו בארץ מדבר, in the desert He found that the heart of this nation which He considered His only share among mankind was pure and loyal, as testified to in Jeremiah 2,2 “you followed Me into the desert.”

ימצאהו בארץ מדבר ובתהו ילל ישימון. "He discovered it in a desert land, in desolation, a howling wilderness." It appears that Moses referred to a thought expressed in Pessachim 119 that the Israelites did not leave Egypt until G'd had made them to be like a fishpond devoid of fish. [the Talmud deals with the meaning of the word וינצלו in Exodus 12,36. Ed.] Finding Israel in the desert was as unlikely as finding fish in the pond referred to. In Rabbi Chayim Vital's Likutey Torah on Parshat Vayera we read that if the Israelites had remained in Egypt at the time of the Exodus they would have remained mired in that impurity forever as they would have descended to the 50th and absolute level of impurity. This is why Moses stresses "where", i.e. in what spiritually low state G'd found the Jewish people. He does not describe the area as מדבר, "a desert," but as ארץ מדבר, "desert land," as the former has absolutely no spiritual content, is completely barren of spiritual values.

ימצאהו, as when the Torah had written in Numbers 11,22 ומצא להם, the reference is to G’d being the “supplier,” i.e. “finding” their needs for them.

ימצאהו בארץ מדבר, “He found him (Israel) in a desolate land.” I believe that the reason Moses said: “in a desolate land,” i.e. ארץ מדבר instead of simply: מדבר, is that the clouds representing the attribute כבוד joined the people at the time they entered the desert, מדבר. The meaning of the words בארץ מדבר then is: “in a land adjoining a land, i.e. cultivated, inhabited areas.” You will find something similar in the Torah’s description of the Jewish people’s departure from Egypt, when the Torah writes (Exodus 3,20-21) “they journeyed from Sukkot and they encamped in Eytam, at the edge of the desert, בקצה המדבר. The Torah adds: “and the Lord would walk with them both by day and by night.” The meaning of the words ימצאהו then is twofold: it can mean “He found them,” i.e. the word is derived from מצא, or it can mean “supplied, “ i.e. ספק.“ Onkelos appears to have understood it as meaning the latter when he translated ספיק צרכיהון בארעא מדברא, “He supplied their needs in a desert-like country.” Onkelos means that the attribute כבוד found the Jewish people when they were about to enter a desert-like country and proceeded to supply their needs.

He found them faithful to Hashem in, etc. [By this,] Rashi means to explain why Hashem did not want Eisav and Yishmoel as His inheritance, even though they are the sons of Avraham and Yitzchok, just like the sons of Yaakov.

V. 10. ימצאהו בארץ וגו׳. Wo die Menschen נחלות hatten, fand Gott seine נחלה nicht; den eigenen festen Boden unter den Füßen, hatten die Menschen den Herrn über ihren Häuptern vergessen. בארץ מדבר: im Steppenlande, wo keine Äcker grünen und keine Städte ragen, wo der Mensch von Natur- und Menschenmachtstütze verlassen ist — ובתהו: in der Öde, wo durch keine Erscheinung der Außenwelt angesprochen, der Mensch in sein Inneres zurückgewiesen, mit seinem Innern und seinem Gott allein ist, eben jenes Innere, das den Menschen und Völkern in ihrem Ringkampf um Dasein und Glück so wenig und nur so viel gilt, als es sich in äußere Güter des Genusses und der Macht umsetzen lässt, und das doch eben das, ganz allein das ist, auf welches und von welchem aus Gott den Menschenbau des Einzel- und Volkslebens zu dauerndem Heile erbaut wissen will, —

ימצאהו בארץ מדבר, “He found him in a desert region.” The word I have underlined is equivalent to yamtzieyhu, meaning: “He provided all their needs for them in that desert. He provided water, heavenly bread, manna, quails (meat) and made their garments resist decay. (Compare Deuteronomy 8,4.)

ובתהו ילל ישמן AND IN THE DESOLATE HOWLING SOLITUDE — i.e. in a land of drought and desolation, a place of screeching monsters and ostriches; even there they adhered to their faith and did not say to Moses, “But how can we go out into the wilderness, a place of drought and desolation?” — just as it is stated, (Jeremiah 2:2) “[I remember the loving kindness of your youth, the love of your espousals,] When you went after Me in the wilderness, [in to a land that was not sown]” (cf. Rashi on Exodus 12:39).

יסובבנהו, to Mount Sinai, as mentioned in Exodus 19,12 when G’d had said to me: והגבלת את העם סביב, “and you will fence in the people around the Mountain.”

יסובבנהו, with His protective angels, as mentioned in Psalms 34,8 “the angel of the Lord camps around those who fear Him.” We also have a liturgical poem recited on the second Day of Rosh Hashanah which revolves around this theme. [the poem is attributed to Rabbi Shimon bar Yitzchok. Ed.] According to the plain meaning of the text the function of the heavenly cloud was only to provide a barrier in front of the people. It would therefore be erroneous to understand Moses as saying that this cloud enveloped the camp of the Israelites. This had been spelled out quite clearly in Exodus 13,21. Furthermore, the word יצרנהו is basically a repetition, i.e. reinforcement of the word יסובבנהו,

ובתוהו ילל ישמון, “in desolation, a howling wilderness.” Moses recalls that when the people reached this point in their journey, far from civilisation, the matzot (dough) which they had slung over their shoulders when they left Egypt (Exodus 12,39) were exhausted.

Which He arched over them like a barrel. The goodness in this is in order that they should be coerced [into the covenant] and He would be unable to send them away ever, like the law of a coerced woman (Devarim 22:29). This is also how I explained in Parshas Yisro (Shemos 19:17). Do not ask how Rashi knows these three explanations [from a single verse], for one can answer, which of them could be excluded? Alternatively [one can answer that] the verse explains all three of them, for it states, “He encircled them, He granted them understanding.” He encircled them at the time of the Giving of the Torah, meaning that He arched the mountain over them like a barrel. “He encircled them,” “He sheltered them” from snakes, i.e. He surrounded them with the Clouds of Glory and killed all the snakes and scorpions. “He encircled them,” “He sheltered them like the pupil of His eye,” from the nations, i.e., He surrounded them with flags.

Moses also said that not only did this land not have much to offer spiritually, but it was תהו ילל ישמון, it was full of spiritually negative influences. Zohar volume one page 16 describes תהו as one of the levels of the קליפה. ילל ישימן are descriptions of similar phenomena. The reason that such phenomena flourish in those environments is the absence of spiritually positive forces. This is a reason why the Torah describes the fact that G'd "discovered" Israel in the desert land in the future tense, to emphasise that unless the Jewish people in that region enjoy the ongoing protection and supervision of G'd, i.e. יסבבנהו יבוננהו, they would be spiritually lost. Moses means that the Exodus was due to the fact that the Jews could not absorb any additional negative influences in Egypt. He protected them at the time He brought the plagues upon the Egyptians. A simple example of this is Exodus 9,6 which tells us that not even the cattle of the Israelites suffered from the plague of pestilence, not to mention the immunity of the Jewish firstborn during the last plague.

ילל ישימן: und wo die Gelegenheit da ist, die Kraft dieses Innern und seines Gottbewusstseins allen Schrecknissen der Wildnis gegenüber zu erproben: dort, בארץ מדבר ובתהו ילל ישימו suchte Gott sein חלק und seine נחלה, um daraus עמו, sein Volk zu bilden.

ובתהו ילל ישימון, “and in an empty howling waste, etc.” in that very region which harbors only jackals and ostriches, as we know from Micah 1,8 which are constantly lamenting, I provided all that could be wished for. An alternate interpretation for the expression: ימצאהו בארץ מדבר. In this area where one could not logically have expected to find anything worth while, Israel found a real treasure i.e. the Torah which the Lord gave them.

יסבבנהו HE SURROUNDED HIM — there He surrounded them and encompassed them with the “clouds of Glory”; He surrounded them with the banners on their four sides; he surrounded them by the underside of the mountain (Sinai), which He arched over them like a cask (cf. Sifrei Devarim 313:11).

יבוננהו, as G’d had said to Moses in Exodus 24,12 והתורה והמצוה אשר כתבתי להורותם, “and the Torah and the commandment which I have written in order to instruct them.”

כאישון עינו, the cloud, i.e. as G’d’s agent had performed for the Jewish people at the time what the eyelid does for the eye, (pupil ) i.e. it provided a protective cover. The reason it is called אישון, suggesting something dark, is that when the eyelid covers the eye the eye becomes inoperative, its owner remains in darkness. Or, the very fact that the pupil looks black is enough reason for it to be called אישון. We find the word used in Psalms 17,8 where the psalmist implores G’d to protect him as one would the “apple” (אישון) of one’s eye. In Zecharyah 2,12 it is referred to as בבת עין, the part of the eye with which we see.

יסובבנהו, “He circled it.” He surrounded the Jewish people with the clouds of glory. According to Onkelos who translates as אשרינון סחור לשכנתיה, the meaning is: “He surrounded them with flags from four sides.” The verse then explains that the Jewish camps in Sinai were like a circle with the Shechinah among them; this is also the meaning of Song of Songs 7,1: כמחולות המחנים, “with the camps encircling.” The author speaks of two camps, i.e. the camp of the Israelites and that of the angels. The latter had descended from their celestial regions with the Shechinah (Bamidbar Rabbah 2,2). This is also alluded to in Taanit 31 that at some time in the future G’d will arrange for a circle for the righteous in Gan Eden and His attribute כבוד will be amongst them.
יבוננהו, “He granted insights to it,” He enabled them to understand things by means of the Torah.
יצרנהו, “He preserved it;” He protected them against the attack by Amalek and attacks from the other nations.
כאישון עינו. “as the pupil of His eye.” The pupil of the eye is known in classical Hebrew as אישון. The reason is that it contains within it something which resembles a human being, איש. The word, or rather the ending ון, suggests something small, just as the word שבתון in the expression שבת שבתון suggests a diminution of the Sabbath, something akin to but not quite like the Sabbath. Whereas the word שבת describes the principal parts of the Sabbath, the word שבתון describes an addition to the Sabbath, something secondary and therefore something “smaller.” We find a similar construction in אמנון, אמנינון in Samuel II 13,20 where it describes Amnon being put down, being degraded as a brother, seeing he had not acted as a brother should (compare Kimchi).

This refers to the dark area of the eye, etc. Why is [this part of the eye] called אישון (man-like)? Because it looks like the image of a small person. Just as the image of a person appears in a woman’s mirror. אישון is a word meaning “man-like.” (Rabbeinu Bachye)

יבוננהו, "He granted it discernment." Moses refers to the people receiving the Torah which is the source of their insight, the instrument by which G'd preserved the people "like the pupil of His eye" (Compare Proverbs 2,11 תבונה תנצרכה, "understanding will preserve you.") When Moses added the reference to the "pupil of His eye," we are reminded of Zachariah 2,12: "for anyone who harms you (the Jewish people) is as if he harmed the pupil of his own eye." The prophet meant that an eye cannot tolerate being touched by the finger of man. The reason is that whereas the eyeball is scrupulously clean, man's fingers are not. The eye symbolises spirituality, the finger, physicality. The former does not like to be touched by the latter. This is the mystical dimension of Rabbi Shimon's saying in the Zohar volume two page 211: "woe to the soul that has to suffer from alien fire." He viewed the fire which enters the soul to punish it as alien fire relative to the fire represented by the soul itself. This is why you find in that passage of the Zohar that the soul of the righteous has to immerse itself in the fiery river Dinur, etc.

יסובבנהו: er umgab es mit Schutz, den ihm die Natur- und Menschenmacht versagte, יבוננהו: gab seinem wachgewordenen Innern Verständnis und Einsicht seiner Lehre, יצרנהו כאישון עינו: überwacht es, wie der Mensch seinen Augapfel wahrt. נצר bedeutet weniger ein Schützen vor Verletzung von außen, als ein Zurückhalten von jeglichem Selbstverderbnis und in Verlust geraten. So נוצר האדם (Job. 7, 20) נוצר נפשך הוא ידע (Prov. 24, 12), vom Überwachen des Menschen hinsichtlich seines sittlichen Verhaltens. נוצר תאנה (Prov. 27, 18), נוצר פיו שומר נפשו (daselbst 13, 3), wer seinen Mund bewacht, schützt sich vor Übel. שומר נפשו נוצר דרכו (daselbst 16, 17), נצר לשונך מרע )Daher auch dem Erkennen anderer Vorenthalten .(Ps. 34, 14): בל תורוצנ (Prov. 7, 10). ונצורות ולא ידעתם (Jes.48, 7). Von ברית ,עדות ,מצות: seinem Bewusstsein die göttlichen Gebote immer gegenwärtig halten, sie sich nicht entgehen lassen. Es ist lautverwandt mit נזר zurückhalten von etwas. In נשר, Wurzel von משור: die Säge, und נסרים chald. Bretter tritt der Begriff des Trennens hervor. Vielleicht auch נשר der Adler als der auf hohem einsamem Horste sich Zurückziehende. Hier erscheint es wohl wie נוצר האדם und נוצר תאנה in dem Sinne einer wartenden und überwachenden Pflege der geistigen und sittlichen Entwicklung. Vergl. אני ד׳ נוצרה לרגעים אשקנה פן יפקד עליה לילה ויום אצרנה (Jes.27, 3), wo das Bild einer solchen wartenden Pflege ausgeführt ist. Der Vergleich כאישון עינו bezieht sich dann weniger auf die Art der Wartung, als auf den Wert des Gegenstandes, wie dem Menschen die Erhaltung der Gesundheit seines Augapfels am Herzen liegt. אישון siehe Bereschit 2, 21.

ובתהו ילל ישימון, “as long as they had not received the Torah that region had been a completely arid wasteland for them.” Once they received the Torah, it was as if they had been given the gift of light. This is why Solomon said in Proverbs 6,23: כי נר מצוה ותורה אור, “for the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is a light.

יבוננהו HE INSTRUCTED HIM there in Torah and wisdom.

יצרנהו, He carefully engirded them from being enslaved to other nations and from being subject to the angel of death, as we have been taught by Eyruvin 54 that the words חרות על הלוחות, are best understood as חירות על הלוחות, freedom on the Tablets, i.e. acceptance of the Torah would result in the immortality of the person observing it totally.

He encamped them [around His Presence], etc. I.e. Onkelos translates the phrase “He encircled them” in this manner, and Rashi explains that it refers to the Tent of Meeting, etc.

Moses compared the type of protection G'd afforded the Jewish people as comparable to the way in which we protect the pupils of our eyes. G'd protects the spirituality whereas He considers everything outside the "eye" as physical and potentially lethal even by mere touch. Israel had not attained such a level of spirituality until after it had received the Torah. When Moses first spoke of יבוננהו, and only afterwards of יצרנהו, he referred to the negative commandments.

יסובבנהו, ”He enclosed it (protectively) by clouds;” Another interpretation: “He surrounded it with an upside down turned mountain, Sinai, like a bucket.” (compare Talmud, tractate Shabbat folio 88).

יצרנהו HE GUARDED HIM from snakes, serpents and scorpions and from hostile nations,

כאישון עינו. Just as a man watches carefully over his eyeball after having tended it, so G’d watched over His people. G’d tried to surround the Israelites with layers of protective legislation to counter their natural tendency to be obstinate and “do their own thing.”

Another thought that may have prompted Moses to choose these expressions may be related to what we learned in Berachot 54: "three categories of people are in need of protection, one of them being the Torah scholar." The reason is that the destructive forces in the universe are jealous of the Torah scholar's achievements and status and try to harass him. Moses therefore says יבוננהו, that by giving the Torah scholar insight, i.e. the Torah, G'd has armed the scholar against such harassment. Once he possesses such insight he himself understands that he has to protect the Torah like the pupil of his eye.

יבוננהו, “He provided them with insights;” through the Torah. Alternate interpretation: based on the root: בנה, “to build”, “He provided them with a building,” i.e. the Tabernacle.

כאישון עינו AS THE אישון OF HIS EYE — that is the black in the eye from which the light comes. Onkelos, however, rendered ימצאהו by “He provided Him” with all He needed in the wilderness. It took the words to be of the same meaning as, (Numbers 11:22) “[Shall the flocks … be slain for them] to suffice (ומצא) them?” and (Joshua 17:16) “The hill is not enough (ימצא) for us”.

יצרנהו כאישון עינו, “He kept him as the apple of His eye.”

יסבבנהו — Onkelos renders this by “He made them abide round about His Divine dwelling place” — the “tent of congregation” in the middle and the divisions of the tribes (lit., the banners) on the four sides.