Commentary for Deuteronomy 4:28

ועבדתם שם אלהים AND THERE YE SHALL SERVE GODS — Understand this as the Targum does: And there ye shall serve peoples who serve idols, for since you serve those who serve them (idols) it will be as though you serve them.

AND THERE YE SHALL SERVE GODS. “When you serve their worshippers it is as though you serve them [the idols].” This is the language of Rashi. Now I have already explained the secret thereof that he who dwells outside of the Land is as if he worshipped the idols,⁹⁵Kethuboth 110 b. and the expression, [and there ye shall serve gods] the work of men’s hands indicates that the service begins with those on high and descends to the idols below,⁹⁶I.e., there they will be not only under the sway of the heavenly powers assigned by G-d to guide the destinies of the various nations from on high, but they will deteriorate until they worship idols, the work of men’s hands, below. as I have mentioned in the section Acharei Moth.⁹⁷Leviticus 18:25.

ועבדתם שם אלוהים מעשה ידי אדם, when Jews find themselves outside of the land of Israel against their will and in the course of time they are invited by member of their host country, they are not guilty of deliberately performed idolatrous practices. (Avodah Zarah 8).

ועבדתם שם, as per Onkelos, i.e. you will be servants of idolaters

ועבדתם שם אלוהים, “and there you will serve gods.” Moses refrained from adding the word אחרים, “alien, i.e. alien deities, as the Torah does on other occasions. This is an allusion to the Israelites who claim that when in the Diaspora people who engage in idolatry are not ritually impure.

ועבדתם שם אלוהים מעשה ידי אדם, “and there you will serve (worship) a god which is the work of man.” This is not a prophecy that the Israelites when in exile in host countries will themselves worship idols, G’d forbid. The meaning is that once you have been exiled you will become slaves to people worshipping idols, so that indirectly you will be serving such idols (Onkelos).

Since you will serve those who worship them, etc. Rashi is answering the question: Just because Hashem will disperse them among the peoples, they will serve man-made gods? The answer is: As the Targum, etc.

V. 28. ועבדתם שם אלהים: dort werdet ihr dem heidnischen Götterwesen, das euch mit seinen Reizen so anlockend erschienen, untertan, und werdet die Macht seines Einflusses kennen lernen, werdet in schmerzlicher Erfahrung kennen lernen, was aus den Menschen wird, wenn ihre Gottheit Götter sind מעשה ידי אדם, die sie sich selbst geschaffen, עץ ואבן usw. Es ist hier das Heidentum in seiner konkreten Erscheinung geschildert. Das von ihm Ausgesagte dürfte aber jede Auffassung, sowohl die exoterische populäre, die die Gottheit als dem geschaffenen Bilde innewohnend anbetet, als die esoterische, die Auffassung der gebildeten Eingeweihten treffen, die in dem Bilde die symbolische Darstellung weltbeherrschender Naturkräfte verehrte. Jene war, nach den Büchern der Propheten, der allverbreitete Volksglauben. Von ihm gilt im buchstäblichsten Sinne מעשה ידי אדם עץ ואבן וגו׳. Aber auch das gebildete Heidentum, das in seinen Götterbildern die symbolische Darstellung personifizierter Naturmächte erblickte, verehrte ja in Wahrheit Gottheiten אשר לא יראון ולא ישמעון ולא יאכלון ולא יריחון. Die Kräfte, die sie vergöttern, sind ja nur physische Gewalten "ohne objektive Intelligenz und ohne subjektives Bewusstsein" sie sehen und hören nicht: es fehlt ihnen die objektive Wahrnehmung, sie schmecken und riechen nicht: es fehlt ihnen das subjektive Bewusstsein. Weder was die Dinge "an sich" sind, noch was die Dinge "ihnen" sind, nehmen sie wahr, sie haben weder Geist noch Willen, sie stehen daher in ihrer bloß physischen blinden Unfreiheit tief, nicht nur unter dem Menschen, sondern sogar tief unter allem organisch Lebendigen, wo auch nur auf niedrigster Stufe der Anfang eines wahrnehmenden und wollenden Bewusstseins andämmert. Wo aber der Mensch bloß physischen Gewalten sich anbetend niederwirft, sein Schicksal und sein Tun und Lassen der Macht blinder Notwendigkeiten unterstellt, da entkleidet er sich selbst seiner geistigen Hoheit und nur entsittlichend wirkt auf ihn seine Götterverehrung, כמוהם יהיו עשיהם כל אשר בטח הטוב (Tehillim 115, 8). Die blinde Unfreiheit seiner Idole wird sein Ideal, ןעבדתם ׳ם אלהים וגו׳ und ihr werdet, der heidnischen Welt unterworfen, die ganze Wucht dieser entsittlichten Idolaterie kennen lernen.

'ועבדתם שם וגו, “and there you will worship, etc.” We find a similar construction in Chronicles II 15,3: וימים רבים לישראל ללא אלוהי אמת, וללא כהן מורה, וללא מורה וללא תורה.”^^!has gone many years without the true G-d, without a priest to give them instruction, and without teaching and without the Torah.”

ולא יריחון, as spelled out in Psalms 135,17 אשר אין רוח בהם, “these idols are not even alive, cannot even breathe.”

אשר לא יראון, because they do not do what they do out of their own free will, as do the members of the host nations who by fashioning the same kinds of sculptures or drawing similar pictures do so as an act of admiration for the idols they worship. When the members of the host countries make such sculptures they mean to draw attention to the force in the universe which is responsible for such phenomena in our day and age. [in the author’s time, art, generally, was legitimate only if it claimed to represent matters compatible with the dogmas of the Church, for instance. Ed.] The members of the host countries labour under the mistaken belief that the “originators” of the phenomena they worship produced what they produced out of their own volition; they do not realise that these “originators” had been programmed to do this by G’d the Creator. They pray to these phenomena thinking that these have the power to help them. Moses, representing G’d, says that the fact is that no phenomenon in this physical universe is able to do anything unless it has first been sanctioned by G’d.

ולא יאכלון ולא יריחון, “that are unable to either eat or use a sense of smell.” Nachmanides writes that in the fist half of the verse Moses describes the inability of such so-called deities to ”see,” or to “hear,” meaning that they most certainly do not qualify for the title “deity.” By referring now to their inability to eat or smell, he adds that such so-called deities do not even possess the minimal attributes of all living creatures, the ability to eat or to use their sense of smell. In other words, these man-made objects are just that,-mere objects.

אשר לא יראון ולא ישמעון ולא יאכלון ולא יריחון, “deities which are neither able to see, to hear, to eat or to smell.” In this verse Moses mentions only four of the basic five senses of man, omitting to mention the sense of touch. There was no need to mention that sense separately as it is included in the statement “who cannot eat.” There was no need to mention more than one of the two senses that serve as tools of perceptions by the body. The three senses, sight, hearing, and smelling are considered mental, spiritual senses and this is why we often find them associated with G’d. Examples are: “The Lord saw” (Genesis 6,5 and many others) “G’d heard” (Numbers 11,1 and others). “The Lord smelled” (Genesis 8,21). When David describes the impotence of the idols in Psalms 115,7, he had to mention that the idols’ hands are unable to use the sense of touch, ידיהם ולא ימישון, seeing he had not mentioned the inability of the idols to eat.
From this paragraph we can learn something about the importance of the five senses which are the principal tools man employs in all his activities. They are needed to fulfill the commandments of the Torah, and, inversely, they enable man to commit trespasses against the Torah. Man’s reward or punishment is due to the manner in which he employs these five senses. The reason that G’d provided man with five such senses is that they correspond to the five Books of the Torah. They also correspond to the five occasions on which “light” is mentioned in the story of creation. They also correspond to the five names by which the soul is known. They represent the complement of the body, making it the residence of the soul. The soul displays its activities by means of these five senses This is why the Torah/Bible condemns idolatry by pointing out that these idols cannot use any of their senses. Any image, cast or otherwise, which is devoid of the means of experiencing the sensations we experience by means of our senses is a priori incapable of helping anyone. How can idolaters say to their deities in times of stress: “arise and save us!” These idols are unable to rise, much less save (compare Jeremiah 2,27).
The infinite wisdom of the Creator made five different parts of the body the seat of these five senses and made them gateways to the spiritual, abstract soul. Even our “scientists” admit that the manner in which these senses have been “planted” in man is phenomenal and reflects the wisdom of the Creator. The sense of touch extends throughout the body of man, any part of man’s exterior feels, tingles, hurts, when coming into contact with other phenomena. The sense of smell extends beyond the boundary of our skin, outwards. We can perceive by means of it matters which are relatively distant. The sense of hearing covers a wider area than the sense of smell, enabling us to perceive things even further distant. The sense of sight enables us to perceive matters far further removed from us than most of the phenomena we can perceive by the sense of hearing. It is the sense which we need most of all.

NOR DO THEY EAT, NOR SMELL. The purport thereof is to state that they [the idols] remain inanimate stones⁹⁸Habakkuk 2:19. as they were to begin with, having no spirit of life at all, not even mortal life, as does man. For at first he said, which neither see, nor hear, meaning that they are not G-d and see not the suffering of their servants, nor hear their prayers, nor save them from their troubles.⁹⁹See Isaiah 46:7. And then he went back and said that they do not even have the inferior [mortal] life of man. Thus the one who makes them is more honored than they. Or perhaps the sense of the verse is in relation to the honor of the Supreme One, the verse thus stating: “which neither see the suffering of their worshippers, nor hear their prayers, nor eat, since no fire ever comes out from before them and consumes their offerings,¹⁰⁰A reference to Leviticus 9:24. The fire from heaven, which descended upon the offerings placed on the altar, indicated that G-d’s Presence was in their midst (see also I Kings 18:38). Such a miracle never occurred among idol-worshippers. nor smell their [offerings’] sweet odors.”¹⁰¹See Leviticus 26:31. Now Scripture adopted the general usage of language, but in fact the idols have none of these senses.