Kommentar zu Dewarim 32:40

כי אשא אל שמים ידי FOR I SHALL LIFT UP MY HAND TO HEAVEN — This means; for in My wrath I shall lift up My hand to Myself in an oath.

FOR I LIFT UP MY HAND TO HEAVEN. By way of the plain meaning of Scripture this is an oath by His throne. He states I lift up, for whoever takes an oath raises his hand and touches the object by which he swears. And by way of the Truth, [the mystic teachings of the Cabala], during the time of the exile He hath cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel.¹³⁷Lamentations 2:1. He, therefore states that now in an acceptable time¹³⁸Isaiah 49:8. He will lift His hand to the highest heavens, the reference being to the great hand¹³⁹Exodus 14:31. See Ramban there (Vol. II, pp. 190-191). that fights on behalf of Israel. And this is the sense of the expression, And I say: As I live forever,¹⁴⁰In Verse 40 before us. for I make My strong hand active when I whet the lightning of My sword¹⁴¹Verse 41. and support it [My hand] to prevail for the justice of Israel [which, until then, had been cast down to the earth]¹⁴²Abusaula. and to recompense them that hate Me,¹⁴¹Verse 41. for then will G-d’s Name be full and the throne perfect.¹⁴³See Exodus 17:16 (Vol. II, pp. 246-248). The student learned in the mysteries of the Cabala will understand.
Now this Song, which is our true and faithful testimony, tells us clearly all that will happen to us. It mentions first the mercy that the Holy One, blessed be He, bestowed upon us from the time He took us to be His portion. It mentions the favors that He did for us in the wilderness, and that He caused us to possess the lands of great and mighty nations, and the abundant good, wealth, and honor that He made us inherit there. Yet despite the abundance of all good, they rebelled against G-d to worship the idols, and it mentions how He was provoked by them until He visited upon them in their country pestilence, famine, the evil beast, and the sword, and then He dispersed them in every direction and corner. It is known that all this has been fulfilled, and it was so. And the Song states that ultimately He will render vengeance to His adversaries¹⁴⁴Verse 43. and will recompense them that hate Him.¹⁴¹Verse 41. The reason [for their punishment] is that they inflicted all these evils upon us out of their hatred of the Holy One, blessed be He: because they do not hate Israel for having made idols like theirs, but only because they do not imitate their deeds. Instead they serve the Holy One, blessed be He, and observe His commandments, neither intermarrying with them nor eating of their slaughterings, and they [Israel] hold their idol in contempt and remove it from their places, similar to what [the psalmist] said, but for Thy sake are we killed all the day.¹⁴⁵Psalms 44:23. If so, it is because of their hatred of the Holy One, blessed be He, that they inflict all these evils upon us; they are thus His adversaries and His enemies, and it is for Him to wreak vengeance upon them. And it is clear, that He assures [Israel] concerning the future redemption, for, during the construction of the Second Temple, the nations did not rejoice with His people,¹⁴⁴Verse 43. but mocked them: What are these feeble Jews doing?¹⁴⁶Nehemiah 3:34. Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, seeing they are burned? And their leaders were servants in the palace of the king of Babylon¹⁴⁷See Daniel 1:19. So was Nehemiah the cupbearer to the Persian king (Nehemiah 2:1). and all the Jews were subject to him. In those days He did not render vengeance to His adversaries and He did not make expiation for the land of His people.¹⁴⁴Verse 43.
Now, in this Song there is no condition of repentance or service [of G-d as a prerequisite for the coming redemption], but it is a testamentary document that the evils will come and that we will endure them, and that He, blessed be He, will do with us in furious rebukes¹⁴⁸Ezekiel 5:15. — but He will not destroy our memory. Rather, He will return and be comforted and will punish the enemies with His sore and great and strong sword,¹⁴⁹Isaiah 27:1. and forgive our sins, for His Name’s sake.¹⁵⁰Psalms 79:9. If so, this Song is a clear-promise of the future redemption — the infidels notwithstanding. And so the Rabbis mentioned in the Sifre:¹⁵¹Sifre, Ha’azinu 333. “Great is this Song, for there is in it the present, the past, the future, and there is in it this world and the World to Come.” It is to this that Scripture alludes in saying, And Moses came and spoke all the words of this Song in the ears of the people.¹⁵²Verse 44. It mentions all [‘all’ the words] in order to indicate that the Song contains everything that is to come upon them although it is brief in words, for Moses explained its many subjects to them.
Now, if this Song had been written by one of the astrologers declaring the end from the beginning¹⁵³Isaiah 46:10. it would have earned belief therein because all its words have been fulfilled by now, not one thing hath failed.¹⁵⁴Joshua 23:14. Certainly we shall continue to believe and look forward with all our heart for the word of G-d by the mouth of His prophet, the most trusted in all His house,¹⁵⁵Numbers 12:7. [and like unto him] was there no one before him, neither after him¹⁵⁶II Kings 23:25. — peace be upon him!
V’zoth Habrachah

כי אשא אל שמים ידי, in order to swear an oath. This is a formulation similar to Daniel 12,7 וירם ימינו ושמאלו אל השמים,”he raised both his right hand and his left hand toward heaven.”

כי אשא אל שמים ידי, "For I raise My hand towards heaven, etc." The wording is equivalent to an oath. G'd swears by the fact that He raises His hand that He will take revenge on Israel's oppressors. אם שנותי ברק חרבי, "If I sharpen My flashing sword, etc." The whole verse is an expression by the attribute of Justice.

כי אשא, reinforcing what He says by an oath, as in Genesis 14,22 where the oath is used in the same sense, although the verb used by Avraham is הרימותי ידי instead of אשא ידי as here.

For, in My fury, etc. Rashi explains: It is written, “The heavens are My throne, etc.” (Yeshayah 66:1) and so if He Himself sits in heaven, so how is it feasible that He raises His hand heavenward? Therefore Rashi explains that when it is written, “heavenward” it means “to Myself” i.e. towards Myself. When [Rashi] explains, “For in My fury, etc.” he means to say that it is not general practice to swear unless one makes a promise and then he swears to verify his word. If so, why does Hashem take an oath here? He did not make a promise! For this reason Rashi explains “for in My fury, etc.” i.e. nevertheless, due to His great anger against the enemy to wreak vengeance on him, and not to reconsider this, He took an oath that He will seek vengeance from the enemy. Re”m wrote: But I do not know the meaning of the word כי in the phrase “For (כי) I will raise My hand heavenward.” It does not fit with any of the four possible meanings of ki, which are: “if, perhaps, rather, [and] because. It seems that this is the explanation: Since it is not general practice to swear unless he makes a promise to give or to do something for him, as we find with Boaz who said “I swear as Hashem lives, lie down, etc.” (Rus 3:13), by this he swore to keep his word, and the promises which he had promised. Something which one says that he would do, can also have the same meaning, since it is the general practice to swear [to verify] what he wants to do, so too, I will swear on account of the fury, that it is My intention to rage against the nations. “I shall lift My hand to heaven” to swear that “If I whet My saber to a gleam, etc.” Then the meaning of כי here is “because” and means because “if I change.” This is similar to “Until I have spoken” (Bereishis 24:33) which is [a form of] “that.” The meaning of the verse here is as follows: Since it is general practice to take an oath on a promise that one makes to his friend, so too I will do, and I will raise My hand to Myself and say, “As I live” which is the oath. The meaning of, “heavenward” is to Himself, Who is called “Heaven’” which is His Throne.” [The verse] does not mean to say that Hashem grasped heaven in His hand and swore by holding an object [which is customary when making an oath], because the purpose in taking an object when swearing is only to add concentration and awe to the oath. This is something that does not pertain to Hashem. Do not challenge me that it says, “The hand is on Hashem’s Throne” (Shemos 17:16) where Rashi explains “the hand of Hashem is raised to swear by His throne,” because nothing is written there to imply an oath, as it does here. (Re”m)

V. 40. נשא יד .כי אשא וגו׳ findet sich allerdings namentlich auch von Gott wiederholt als Ausdruck des Schwörens, so Schmot 6, 8 und sonst. Ebenso חי אני (nicht, wie hier חי אנכי) als Formel eines solchen Schwures, z. B. Bamidbar 14, 21 und 28. Allein נשא יד אל שמים findet sich nicht in diesem Sinne, dürfte auch von Gott gebraucht, wohl ungeeignet erscheinen, wie weiter ersichtlich entspräche auch nur חי אני dem Schwur, חי אנכי לעולם erscheint auch als ein durchaus selbständiger Satz der Aussage, und endlich wäre es Schwur, so würde, wie immer bei Schwüren, das folgende אם eine Verneinung bilden, wie חי אני אם אתם תבאו וגו׳ ,ואולם חי אני וגו׳ אם יראו וגו׳ (Bamidbar 14, 23 u. 30). Wir glauben daher, es in dem Sinne wie: אשא אל גוים ידי וגו׳ (Jes.49, 22) nehmen zu sollen, wo es das Entbieten zur Erfüllung einer Anforderung bedeutet. So auch hier: Ich entbiete den Himmel zur Vollstreckung meines Willens. חי אנכי וגו׳. Wir haben bereits (Bereschit 7, 4 und 32, 3) den Unterschied zwischen אני und אנכי, insbesondere im Ausspruch von Gott bemerkt. Während אני die Persönlichkeit im Gegensatz zur Welt und in ihrer absoluten Unabhängigkeit von derselben bedeutet — daher ja auch beim Schwur חי אני — drückt אנכי vielmehr die Persönlichkeit als umfassenden Träger, als dasjenige aus, worin die Welt ausschließlich ihren Halt und ihre Stütze findet. Es war hier zuvor gesagt, wie, wenn Israel erst ganz hilf- und hoffnungslos darniederliegt, ihm die Erfahrung werden soll, wie denn doch Gott allein der unveränderlich Bleibende sei, dem es nicht entgehen, zu dem es vielmehr zuletzt zurückkommen werde, um von Ihm, der es darniedergeworfen und geschlagen, wieder Leben und Heilung zu gewinnen. Denn, spricht Gott, wenn Israel erst ganz erstorben darniederliegt, dann "hebe ich meine Hand zu dem Himmel hin und spreche: Ich bin der ewig Lebendige!" Ich bin die Allmacht und das ewige Leben. Bin die Allmacht, und die Himmel vollstrecken nunmehr meinen heilenden und rettenden Willen an meinem Volk, wie sie die Vollstrecker meines Unwillens gewesen. Und bin das ewige Leben, bin der ewig Lebendige, und bins nicht nur an mir und für mich im Gegensatz zu allem sonst Dahinsterbenden, חי אנכי לעולם: bins für alles sonst Dahinsterbende, gebe dem Abgestorbenen Anteil an meinem ewigen Leben, wecke das Hingestorbenste, wecke Israel auf zu neuem Sein und neuem Leben.

כי אשא אל שמים ידי, “for I raise My hand to heaven!” I swear an oath as it is in My power to carry out My vengeance on them.

כי אשא אל שמים ידי, “for I lift up my hand to heaven;” as do human beings in order to ensure that the people present will listen to them.

ואמרתי חי אנכי — This is the expression of an oath: I SWEAR AS TRUE AS I LIVE [FOR EVER].

ואמרתי חי אנכי לעולם, I used the fact that I live forever as the guarantee that I can keep My oath. This too has a parallel in Daniel 12,7.

This denotes an oath. As if it had said, “By the life of Myself.” Not that He is informing that He is alive and eternal.

The verse may also mean that even the attribute of Mercy concurs to take vengeance on the enemies of the Lord, i.e. those who have proven themselves to be enemies of Israel. The word ולמשנאי, "and to those who make Me hated," refers to the people who seduced Israelites to give up their religion and thereby to express their hatred for G'd.

ואמרתי חי אנכי לעולם, “as I live forever, etc.” It is not unusual for G–d to accompany His oath with the reminder that His oath is valid as He lives forever. Compare Isaiah 49 18: חי אני נאום ה', “as surely as I am (and remain) alive, says the Lord;” as soon as I have completed My judgment of the Jewish people, I will turn My attention to all those gentiles who have infuriated Me as well as to their so called deities, and carry out My vengeance.