Kommentar zu Dewarim 32:18

תשי means THOU HAST FORGOTTEN. But our Rabbis explained it thus: whenever He was about to bestow good upon you, you provoked Him to anger and, as it were, weakened (תש) His power so that He could not do you good (Sifrei Devarim 319:3).

צור ילדך תשי, even you, Yeshurun, the one blessed with erudition, once you turned your attention to the physical enjoyments of life on earth, undermined, weakened your wisdom and your knowledge about the greatness of G’d and His Torah.

You disregard. The letter yud, with the value of 10, is small, to imply that Hashem gave you Ten Commandments, and you tested Him with ten trials, and also to imply that Hashem should remember Avraham whom he tested with ten tests.

צור ילדך תשי, "You neglected the Rock that begot you;" This is best understood in connection with Sanhedrin 38 that at the time G'd was about to create man, He consulted with the angels about His project. Some angels strenuously opposed the creation of man. G'd not only ignored these angels and created man, but He punished the angels who had opposed man's creation. Whenever Israel sins this weakens G'd's argument in favour of having created man. This is what Moses meant when he said ילדך תשי, "you weaken the One who begot you."

ילדך, as in Genesis 10.26 when the Torah writes ויקטן ילד את אלמודד, where the verb ילד though it appears in the kal-mode, is to be understood in the transitive hiphil-mode, as הוליד, “he sired.”

Thus weakening His capacity for benevolence towards you. It comes from the same root as “His strength תשש (became weak) like a female” (Rashi Bamidbar 11:15). According to the first explanation, the word תשי comes from the root “I נשיתי (forgot) prosperity” (Eicha 3:17).

V. 18. צור ילדך וגו׳. Ist wieder eine, wie שמנת וגו׳ (V. 15) an das damalige und jedes kommende Geschlecht gerichtete, einen allgemeinen Erfahrungssatz aus Israels Geschichte enthaltende Anrede.

צור ילדך תשי, “You neglected the Rock that begot you;” You forgot the Almighty Who formed you in your mother’s womb and caused you to be born; you did all this on account of something new that had not proven itself in any way.

צור ילדך, “of the Rock that begot you,” the word is used in the conjugation kal, actively, although its meaning is causative; we find an example of this mode in Genesis 10,24: וארפכשד ילד את שלח, “and Arpachshad sired Shalach,” instead of הוליד. Similarly, in the same verse: ושלח ילד את עבר, “and Shalach sired Ever.”

אל מחללך means, God Who has brought you forth out of the womb. It has the same meaning as in (Psalms 29:9) “[The voice of the Lord] makes hinds to bring forth (יחולל)”, and (Psalms 48:7) “travail (חיל) as that of a woman in childbirth”.

ותשכח א-ל מחוללך, Who had treated you so well. Compare Isaiah 51, 12-13 אנכי הוא מנחמכם...ותשכח ה' עושך נוטה שמים וארץ, “I, I am He Who comforts you!…You have forgotten the Lord your Maker, Who stretched the skies and made firm the earth.”

תשי, from the root נשה, to be weakened, the construction teshi parallels אל תט אל דרכיה from the root נטה, to deviate, turn away. The letter י at the end of the word תשי, parallels the word תמחי instead of תמחה in Jeremiah 18,23. It means the same as if it had been spelled with the letter ה at the end instead of the letter י.

ותשכח אל מחללך, "You forgot the G'd who brought you forth." The word מחללך may be understood as a reference to jewels as in Hoseah 2,15 ותעד נזמה וחליתה, "when she was decked out with her nose-rings and her jewelry," etc. What Moses means is that Israel forgot the very G'd who had made her a more precious jewel than any other creature including the angels. Compare Psalms 66,12, or Isaiah 49,3 "Israel in whom I glory." G'd means that He wears the name of Israel like a person wears a jewel. Our sages have offered a variety of interpretations of this verse.

Wäre תשי von נשה, so würde ש ein Dagesch haben. So weist es wie יהי ,תחי auf eine Wurzel שיה hin. שיה ist aber die Wurzel von שי, eine Huldigungsgabe, לך יובילו מלכים שי (Ps. 68, 30), יובל שי לד׳ צבאות (Jes.18, 7) wie גַי von גיה. Hat er dich erst geboren, so bringst du deinen Hort, statt Ihm zu huldigen, andern zur Huldigung, d. h. gibst du ihn als ferner für dich wert- und bedeutungslos auf, um damit anderen zu huldigen, ותשכח אל מחוללך, habe ich es doch erlebt, dass du selbst Gottes vergaßest, noch indem Er in deiner Erzeugung begriffen war, noch ehe du, wie z. B. in der Wüste, an das Ziel einer selbständigen Existenz gelangt warst und noch auf dem Wege dahin in jedem Augenblicke dich von Gott getragen und seine Waltung dir gegenwärtig fühlen musstest! Auch dieses צור ילדך תשי, diese Leichtfertigkeit, nach kaum erreichten besseren Zuständen das altjüdische Verhältnis zu Gott zu verleugnen, um mit dieser Verleugnung einer anderen Macht zu huldigen und deren Gunst zu erlangen, ist kein vereinzeltes Faktum in der jüdischen Entwicklungsgeschichte.

ותשכח א-ל מחוללך, “you forgot the Divine Power who brought you forth. Moses repeats the thought as it seems so unbelievable that the Jewish people could ever become so foolish. Once I have done this, Moses quotes G–d as saying: אראה מה אחריתם, “I will see what their end shall be;” G–d will watch what use their new found deity has been to them.

תשי, “was unmindful;” the letter י in this word, is just like the letter י in Jeremiah 18,23: אלתמחי, where it is also superfluous and the prophet could have written: אל תמח, “do not wipe out!”

מחוללך, “that bore you;” a reminder how when you were (brought out of Egypt you danced for joy and sang songs; מחולות, dances.