Kommentar zu Dewarim 32:37

ואמר AND HE, the Omnipresent, WILL SAY with regard to them אי אלהימו WHERE ARE THEIR GODS which they served.

AND HE SHALL SAY, WHERE ARE THEIR GODS. The enemy will say, “Where is the G-d of Israel?” as it is stated, Wherefore should the nations say: ‘Where is now their G-d?’¹³⁴Psalms 115:2.

?ואמר אי אלוהימו, also the gentile nations asked: “where is Israel’s G’d? Therefore, out of concern for the honour due to My name I will save them and avenge them from their enemies, for I had already said at the beginning of their history that although I should wipe them out after the sin of the golden calf, I would not carry out My intention so that the nations of the world could not take the credit for having triumphed over Me. Now, however, that their former strength had become so completely negligible that the nations take credit for having laid Israel low, and they ask mockingly: “where is their G’d now?” I will avenge them in order to sanctify My holy name which these nations have desecrated by their very mockery of Me.

ואמר, at that point G’d will say to Israel

ואמר אי אלוהימו, “and when he (the enemy) will say (sarcastically) where is their god?” We know that Titus after cutting into the dividing curtain in the Temple found the Holy of Holies empty, exclaimed in this fashion, astounded that there was no image (compare Gittin 56b). This is also what the prophet Micah 7,10 referred to when he said: “when my enemy sees it, she will be covered with shame. She who taunts me with ‘where is He, the Lord your G’d?’”

אי אלוקימו Israel will begin to ask at such a time: "where is their G'd, the Rock that used to be its refuge?" Even though the deeds of the Israelites are not such that they qualify for G'd's intervention on its behalf, the people will come with a complaint against G'd although they observe only a small part of G'd's Torah. They do at least feel that their G'd ought to take them under His wings. They are conscious that they suffer all kinds of afflictions on account of the Lord being their G'd. They allowed themselves to die for the sake of the holy name of G'd, even. This is why they (the survivors) look to G'd hopefully, i.e. צור חסיו בו, "the Rock in whom they sought refuge."

VV. 37 u. 38. ואמר וגו׳. Wenn Israel durch feindliche Natur- und Menschenmacht so heruntergekommen, dass seine völlige Macht- und Hilflosigkeit sichtbar am Tage liegt, wird Gott dadurch endlich Israel für immer die völlige Nichtigkeit alles dessen zum Bewusstsein gebracht haben, worin es, von Gott abgewendet, die Schöpfer und Schutzmächte seines Glückes und seiner Freuden hat suchen wollen, denen es חלב זבחימו, das Beste seiner Wohlstandsopfer, und יין נסיכם, den Opferguss seines Freudenweins, zum Huldigungsanteil gebracht. Subjekt von יאכלו und ישתו ist wohl אלהימו, da חלב und יין des Opfers nicht vom Opfernden genossen wurde, sondern der Gottheit dargebracht wurde, die in beiden gleichsam den Genussanteil vom Opfermahl erhielt. Im jüdischen Opfer kommen חלב und יין dem der Hingebung an das Gottesgesetz errichteten Altar zur Nahrung und Weihe.

ואמר, “He will say: (mockingly),” who? The enemy.

ואמר אי אלהימו, and it is said: “where are their deities?” (a mocking question by Israel’s enemies) It makes fun of the people whom G-d had spent so much effort to redeem from Egypt, and who by now have fallen so low. All the deities they worship now in lieu of their G-d do not have the power between them to help them.

צור חסיו בו THE ROCK IN WHOM THEY TRUSTED — i.e. the rock beneath which they sought shelter (more lit., with which they covered themselves) from the heat and the cold; that is to say, “in which they trusted” that it would protect them against evil.

אי אלוהימו, where is now this god of the gentile nations upon whom you have relied, spurning Me? This is the period when all of G’d’s agents who had been assigned as protective forces for the gentile nations will be simultaneously removed from their function. Compare Isaiah 24,21.

אי אלוהימו, “where is their G–d? (Now, Who assisted them as long as the Temple was standing)