Kommentar zu Dewarim 32:15

עבית has the meaning of “thickness” (stoutness), it therefore means: “ Thou hast waxed fat”.

VAYENABEIL’ THE ROCK OF HIS SALVATION — “he showed contempt for Him and disregarded Him, just as it is said, with their backs towards the Temple of the Eternal, and their faces toward the east.⁵²Ezekiel 8:16. There is no greater contempt than this.” This is Rashi’s language. And Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra commented: “Vayenabeil — that he caused ‘the profaning’ of G-d’s Name so that He would no longer help him.” This interpretation, too, does not appear to me to be correct, for it is not within the context of this place [i.e., this section of the Song], for he is still narrating [here] their sins, and will not state their punishment and vengeance that He would inflict upon them until [further on in the verse], And He said: ‘I will hide My face from them.’⁵³Further, Verse 20. The correct interpretation appears to me to be what I have mentioned above,⁵⁴Above, Verse 6. that the term n’valah is used to describe repaying evil for good. The verse thus states that the people of Israel abandoned the G-d Who created them in favor of strange gods and, in utterance and thought, showed disregard for the Rock Who helped them. [Israel] said “In return for serving Him, there is nothing but repayment of evil. By worshipping the strange gods he shall have plenty of bread;⁵⁵Proverbs 12:11. but when worshipping the Rock they will be contemptible and base before all the people.”⁵⁶Malachi 2:9. As our fools said, It is vain to serve G-d; and what profit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked mournfully because of the Eternal of hosts? And now we call the proud happy etc.,⁵⁷Ibid., 3:14-15. and as the accursed women said [to Jeremiah], But since we let off to offer to the queen of heaven etc., we have wanted all things.⁵⁸Jeremiah 44:18. Similarly [the prophet Jeremiah prayed], Do not abhor us, for Thy Name’s sake, do not dishonor the throne of Thy glory⁵⁹Ibid., 14:21. because they will say of Him that He repays His people with evil for good, just as [the prophet] said, Break not Thy covenant with us.⁵⁹Ibid., 14:21.

וישמן ישורון ויבעט, however, even the most erudite of them, the ones known admiringly as Yeshurun, (based on Bileam’s prophecy of אשורנו ולא קרוב, in Numbers 24,17) acted as if they were animals, kicking the very people who give them food.

עבית, related to the expression במעבה האדמה, “in earthen moulds” where the root letters עב have also been reversed, the normal order being עב. (Kings I 7,46) The disappearance of the third root letter ה is similar to such disappearances in ראית, “you saw,” from the root ראה, and עשית, “you have done,” from the root עשה. The construction מעבה in the verse from Kings we quoted parallels the word מראה from the root ראה. Similarly, the noun מעשה parallels the root עשה.

וישמן ישורון ויבעט, “Yeshurun grew fat and kicked.” The name “Yeshurun” is a complimentary name for Israel who are considered (when at their best) to be a nation of ישרים, loyal upright self-confident and G’d-fearing people.

וישמן ישורון ויבעט, “Israel became fat and kicked.” Up until this time the Jewish people had never been called Yeshurun. It is possible that Moses did not use the name in order to flatter them, but, on the contrary, in order to point out how a people who were once considered entitled to such a compliment had forfeited their claim to that name. The name derives from אשורנו, a vision the prophet Bileam refers to as having had, i.e. the ability to behold supernatural phenomena (Numbers 14,17). The Jewish people had seen such phenomena, i.e. the attribute of כבוד at the time they experienced their spiritual high during the revelation at Mount Sinai. This is why Moses employs this term immediately after having described the Mount Sinai experience of the Jewish people with the words יסובבנהו יבוננהו in verse 10. Seeing that the Torah described the attribute Israel focused at that time as “and the appearance of the glory of G’d was similar to consuming fire at the top of the mountain,” (Exodus 24,17) it is clear that the people at the time had a visual experience. Later on, during his blessings of the people in 33,4 Moses again refers to this term saying ויהי בישורון מלך, “the Lord became King amongst the people known as “Yeshurun.” When Moses concludes his blessings of the people in Deut. 33,26 he again refers to the Jewish people as Yeshurun, saying אין כא-ל ישורון, “there is none like the G’d of Yeshurun.” He meant that the very experience the people had had at Sinai should have convinced them that there is no power in the world that can equal their G’d.
All this is really part of this song which is a collection of criticism, rebuke, during which Moses argues with the people concerning their conduct in the future. He foretells them that they would become sinful and rebel against the Lord, becoming forgetful of all the kind deeds G’d had performed for them. This is why on this day, the last day of his life, he mentions the description Yeshurun three times to underline how terrible it is when a people who attained such spiritual stature as they would experience a spiritual decline.
The prophet Isaiah paraphrases Moses when he said in Isaiah 1,4 הוי גוי חוטא עם כבד עון, “woe, a sinful people, a nation laden with iniquity!” Our sages comment on this that when Isaiah used the term גוי he referred to the people who had distinguished themselves as being referred to as ,ומי גוי גדול, “and who is such a great nation?” How could such a nation become sinful? Furthermore, this was the nation which had been described as עם קדוש, “a consecrated people,” in Deut. 14,2. How could such a people have fallen so much that it fits the description “laden with iniquity?” The Jewish people had been described as “children are you to the Lord your G’d” in Deut. 14,1, and as “seed blessed by the Lord” (Isaiah 61,9).

There is a “light” grammatical usage, etc. Rashi means that since it is from the word “covering” (כיסוי) the [letter] sin [or samech] should have been written with a dagesh (punctuated dot), as we find in all places, that [the letter samech in the word] “כיסוי” is written with a dagesh.

V. 15. וישמן וגו׳. Wir begegnen hier das erstemal dem Namen Jeschurun. Es bezeichnet Israel nach dem Ideal seiner sittlichen Bestimmung, das in dem Charakter ישר des Geraden, seiner Bestimmung ohne Abweichung Entsprechenden, seine Bezeichnung findet. Vergl. זבולון und זבל. Es hieß oben: Gott wollte es die Doppelhöhen der irdischen Ziele ersteigen lassen, die höchste materielle Wohlfahrt und die höchste geistige und sittliche Vollendung. Sollte Israel ja in einem leuchtenden Beispiel zeigen, wie ein vollendetes geistig sittliches Pflichtleben keineswegs auf irdisch heiteres Glück notwendig zu verzichten habe, vielmehr der höchste Grad von Sittlichkeit sich sehr wohl mit dem höchsten Maß irdischen Glückes vertrage, ja sich eben in einem solchen zu bewähren und alle irdischen Mittel und Genüsse in geistige Errungenschaften sittlicher Pflichttaten umzusetzen habe. Als aber dem diesem sittlichen Ideale bestimmten Jeschurunvolke zur Lösung seiner Aufgabe sinnliche Güter und Genüsse in Fülle geworden, als es aus der Wüste zum Lande von Milch und Honig gelangt war, da wurde es fett und schlug es aus. שמנת עבית כשית ist eine Anrede in Paranthese an das Mosche gegenwärtige und jedes künftige, sein שירה-Wort lesende Volk. Sie entält die Quintessenz der ganzen jüdischen Geschichte. In Leiden hat sich das jüdische Volk meist großartig bewährt. Allein Glück hat es noch selten ertragen. "So oft es fett wurde, wurde es feist und vom Fett überwuchert", eigentlich: "bedeckt". כשית scheint Pual zu sein, wie כסו הרים צלה (Ps.80, 11) Berge wurden von seinem Schatten bedeckt. כסו פניו חרולים (Prov. 24, 31) seine Fläche war mit Dornen bedeckt. Es würde dann allerdings das Dagesch im ש fehlen, wofür sich jedoch Beispiele finden יוקשים בני אדם (Pred. 9, 12), לב הותל הטהו (Jes.44, 19). Oder כשה hat die intransitive Bedeutung: bedeckt werden wie כסה die aktive, bedecken. Der Sinn ist: je mehr markiger, fetter Nahrungsstoff dem Körper zugeführt wird, umsomehr sollte er den Überfluss an Stoff in Kraft und Arbeit umsetzen, um so erhöhter sollte seine Tätigkeit und Leistung sein. Dann beherrscht er die Fülle und bleibt körperlich und geistig gesund und hat durch die größere Leistung einen größeren sittlichen Wert. Unterlässt er dieses aber, so lagert sich der unverbrauchte Nahrungsstoff in seinem Körper ab, er wird korpulent, feist, und statt die Fülle zu beherrschen, wird er, sein eigentliches geistiges, tätiges Selbst, von dem Fett übermannt und geht darin unter.

עשהו, “Who made him;” the word: עשה here is a simile for wealth, עושר, as in Numbers 24,18: וישראל עושה חיל, where it means that Israel is abandoning the G-d who has made it wealthy.”[This editor admits that he has not understood the interpretation nor its comparison to Numbers 24,18.]

כשית is the same as כסית (‎ס and ש interchanging). It has the same meaning as in Job 15:27 “Because he hath covered (כסה) his face with his fatness”— like a person who is full of fat inside and whose flanks therefore lie in folds outside, as it goes on to state, (Job 15:27) “and be made folds of fat on his flanks” (Sifrei Devarim 318:6).

שמנת עבית כשית, you, the elite of the people, preferred to concentrate on the physical enjoyments offered by a life of leisure, and by doing so עבית, you became too gross to understand the finer points of the teachings of the Torah, the only truth. Isaiah 28,7 describes the conduct of the spiritual elite of the people when he writes: “but these are also so muddled by wine, and dazed by liquor, Priest and Prophet are muddled by wine;“

וינבל צור ישועתו, “acting villainously against the Rock of its salvation.” Nachmanides refers to Ibn Ezra’s interpretation that the villainy of Israel consisted in that it accused Hashem as not continuing to be able to act as its Saviour, views the whole “kicking” as an act of blasphemy both in word and in deed. He disagrees with Ibn Ezra, The reason that he does so, is that Moses is still reciting the people’s sins and has not yet begun to speak about the punishment they would have to suffer on account of their sins. This part only commences with verse 20 when G’d is quoted as withdrawing His Presence from the people, אסתירה פני מהם. The correct interpretation, according to Nachmanides, is that Moses continues with the theme discussed by me earlier, that the most serious aspect of Israel’s sins is that they repay good with evil. They abandoned a G’d who not only had created them as a nation, but had redeemed them from slavery. He had saved them from the pursuit of Pharaoh and for forty years kept them alive in the desert in spite of being provoked by them. He kept His promise to Avraham to bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey. They had repaid all this by failing to serve this G’d, although He did not demand anything difficult from them. They blasphemed by mouth and deed, transferring their allegiance to useless idols.

ויטוש אלו-ה עשהו וינבל צור ישועתו, “it deserted G’d its Maker, and was contemptuous of the Rock of its salvation.” The verse alludes to the two attributes of G’d which orchestrated the Exodus. The reason Moses did not say א-ל but אלו-ה was to include both the emanation תפארת and כבוד. This is why he added the letters ו and ה. This idea is reflected also in Job 35,10 איה אלוה עושי . The words וצור ישעותו mean that by means of the attribute צור, the deliverance of the Jewish people at the Sea of Reeds was orchestrated.

It would have meant “You covered others, etc.” But now it means that you cover yourself.

Das ist Israels Geschichte. Es hat Fülle und Überfluss nicht zu erhöhten geistigen und sittlichen Leistungen, nicht zu vollerer Lösung seiner Aufgabe benutzt; seine sittliche Vervollkommnung hat nicht mit seiner glücklicheren äußeren Lage Schritt gehalten; es hat es nicht verstanden, Herr seines Reichtums und seines Glücks zu bleiben, hat sie nicht in sittliche Pflichterrungenschaften umzusetzen gewusst, es hat sich von Reichtum und Glück übermannen und sein besseres, geistiges, sittliches Selbst darin untergehen lassen. —

כשית — There exists a Kal form (as is this word) in the sense of covering, as (Proverbs 12:16) “And a prudent man is covered with (וְכֹסָה) shame”. If it had written כִּשִּׂיתָ with a dagesh in the ש. it would imply, “Thou hast covered others (or other things)” (i.e., it would be transitive), as in the text already quoted, “For he hath covered (כִסָּה) his face”.

כשית, compare what Isaiah 44,18 writes, “they have no wit or judgment, their eyes are besmeared and they see not;”

נטש ,ויטש וגו׳ heißt überwiegend: sich um etwas nicht kümmern. Als Israel fett wurde, da stieß es alles, was es nicht selbst war, verächtlich von sich, kümmerte sich nicht mehr um Gott, der es doch zu dem gemacht hatte, was es war, erfüllte die Aufgabe nicht, für welche Gott es gebildet hatte, וינבל צור ישועתו wörtlich: und betrachtete als "abgewelkt" den Halt und Schöpfer seines Heils. In den Zeiten des Galut und für die Galutzeiten war Er gut und nütze, da hatte man keinen anderen Halt, da war es gut und nütze, sich einen Halt in den Höhen zu suchen. Allein in Freiheit und Glück auf eigene Füße gestellt, ist das Vertrauen auf Ihn und die Ihm zu zollende Treue ein antiquitierter, überwundener Standpunkt geworden, — der "altväterische Glaube" hat das Seinige getan, der "altväterische Glaube" kann gehen — וינבל צור ישועתו

וינבל צור ישעתו AND HE LIGHTLY ESTEEMED THE ROCK OF HIS SALVATION — This means, He showed contempt for Him and scorned Him, as it is said, (Ezekiel 8:16) “[and, behold, … there were … men] with their buttocks towards the Temple of the Lord” — surely, there can be no greater contempt than this (see Rashi on this verse) (Sifrei Devarim 318:9).

ויטוש אלו-ה עושהו, so that, following the example of their elite, the people at large abandoned G’d the One Who had made them;

וינבל צור ישועתו, despising the Rock of its salvation, i.e. sliding from bad to worse in their lifestyles.