Commentary for Genesis 35:2

הנכר [PUT AWAY] THE STRANGE [GODS] —which you have in your possession from the spoil of Shechem.

אלוהי הנכר, which they had looted from Shechem.

הסירו את אלוהי הנכר, which you have taken from Shechem. Even though the adherents of these idols had already disowned them, (the surviving females of the city of Shechem), and we know from Avodah Zarah 43, and 52 that such items are subsequently permitted to Jews, Yaakov commanded his household to get rid of them before proceeding to Bet El. He wanted all his people to mentally completely dissociate themselves from anything connected wit items formerly used in idolatrous pursuits.

הסירו את אלוהי הנכר, "Remove the foreign gods!" Seeing that Jacob was about to leave the present location he was afraid that perhaps someone would take along trinkets which had served the people of Shechem as idols. Since Jacob's entourage did not include idol worshippers of the local population there had not been anyone who could neutralise these gods before they had come into the tents of Jacob's camp. Once that happened there is no way a Jew can neutralise these gods except by destroying them completely.

אל ביתו, to his children.

הסירו את אלוהי הנכר, “remove the alien deities!” These were the various images captured as part of the loot of the town of Shechem which the Torah mentioned as described already by Rashi. In spite of the fact that such artifacts were permissible for use by people prior to the Torah having been given seeing that they had undergone a process of involuntary abandonment by their owners which disqualified them from further use as idols, (Avodah Zarah 52), Yaakov commanded the members of his household to remove these former idols and to sanctify themselves in order for them to qualify to serve G’d. This is what is implied in the words: “let us arise and go to Bet-El.” He meant that he would offer a sacrifice there to G’d. Yaakov based himself on a concept found in Kohelet 4,17: שמור רגלך כאשר תלך אל בית אלוקים, “watch your step when you are on the way to the House of the Lord.”

נֵכָר, das nie für sich allei in der Bedeutung wie נכרי, sondern stets in Verbindung mit einem Stat. constr. vorkommt: אלהי הנכר ,בן הנכר. usw. scheint nicht adjektivisch der Fremde, sondern ein Substant. abstr.: die Fremde zu sein, und zwar sowohl das Ausland im Gegensatz zum jüdischen Lande, als die nichtjüdische Welt und das nichtjüdische Wesen im Gegensatz zur Judenheit und zum Judentum zu bedeuten. Nur einmal in Nehem. 13, 30 heißt es: וטהרתים מכל נכר und scheint dort die entfernten נשים נכריות zu bezeichnen. Es dürfte jedoch auch dort: von allem Ausländischen, allem unjüdischen Wesen bedeuten.

הסירו את אלוהי הנכר, “remove the alien deities!” This was required in order to avoid giving the impression that prayers or sacrifices were intended for them.

ותטהרו AND PURIFY YOURSELVES of idol-worship.

ואל כל אשר לו, to his men and maidservants.

והטהרו, “and become ritually clean!” The verse teaches us that sin itself is called ritual impurity. We have a similar verse in Ezekiel 20,7 where the prophet warns his compatriots ובגלולי מצרים אל תטמאו, “and do not defile yourselves by committing the kind of sins committed by the Egyptians.” On the other hand, anyone who abandons sin is described as ritually pure, as we know from Leviticus 16,30 מכל חטאתיכם לפני ה’ תטהרו, “you will become cleansed (ritually pure) from all your sins against G’d.” Another verse expressing a similar sentiment is found in Joshua 22,17 המעט לנו את עון פעור אשר לא הטהרנו ממנו, “is it perhaps not enough to have committed the sin of Pe-or from which we have not yet been cleansed (completely)?” King David also mentioned such a thought when he said (Psalms 51,9) “Remove my sin by means of hyssop until I am pure.” In verse 4 of the same psalm he said: ”wash me thoroughly of my iniquity so that I may be purified from my sin.”

Avodah Zarah 43 teaches that when one forces a Gentile to renounce his idol or even that belonging to a friend of his, such renunciation is legally valid. Once the idol has become the possession of a Jew, the only way it can be neutralised is by utterly destroying it. The Talmud distinguishes between adult Gentiles and children, however. The reason Jacob or the brothers did not force the surviving women of Shechem to neutralise these gods may have been that those women were halachically in the same category as children, i.e. that their actions had no validity in law. It is also possible that the sons of Jacob had simply not been careful to differentiate between different kinds of the loot. When they examined it at home it was already too late to do anything about neutralising these objects and making them usable for a Jew. Some of these idols may even have been hidden within other larger vessels which the sons of Jacob had captured. Another possibility is that the gods which had been neutralised in time somehow became mixed with others which had not.

והטהרו והחליפו שמלתיכם, ähnlich dem ויקדש את העם ויכבסו שמלתם .B. M .2 19.14. Das Hinaufziehen zu der Offenbarungsstätte des Vaters in Bethel war für die Jakobsfamilie, was für ihre Urenkel die Versammlung am Sinai war.

והחליפו שמלתיכם, “Change your garments!” because they were worn when engaging in idol worship.

והחליפו שמלותיכם AND CHANGE YOUR GARMENTS — lest you have in your possession a vestment that has been employed in idolatrous worship (Genesis Rabbah 81:3).

הסירו את אלוהי הנכר, the silver and gold the sons of Yaakov had looted from Shechem had idolatrous images engraved upon them, as had the various pieces of jewelry they had taken with them from there. Even though Yaakov’s sons had not taken these items in order to worship them but in order to melt them down and to put them to other uses, i.e. to use the melted down gold and silver, [something halachically acceptable as the idolatrous nature of these artifacts had been nullified through the melt down, Ed.] Yaakov did not want his children or household to benefit from anything which had once served idolatrous purposes although it was no longer recognisable as something that had once served such a purpose. Moses is on record as expressing similar sentiments when he said (Deuteronomy 7,25) “do not covet the silver or gold which was upon them.” (after the idols themselves had already been destroyed) He repeated this sentiment even more strongly in Deuteronomy 13,18 when he said “no part of the banned property may adhere to your hand, etc.” [these injunctions were especially called for after the Israelites had not only been allowed to loot the property of the former owners, but other Torah legislation such as even the eating of pig had been temporarily suspended during the years when the conquered the land of Canaan and had not yet settled there and received their tribal heritage. Ed.]

והחליפו שמלותיכם, “and change your garments!” From this we learn that both they and their garments had become defiled through contact with idolatrous images, or through contact with the bodies of the people who had been slain in Shechem.

Jacob instructed the members of his household to purify themselves because contact with idols defiles a person. Maimonides writes in Hilchot Avot Ha-Tumah chapter six that any אב הטומאה, source of serious impurity, which confers impurity through touch or through carrying same, not only confers impurity on any person who touches same but also on anyone touching or carrying objects that have been in touch with the person who is אב הטומאה. Accordingly, Jacob was quite right when he instructed his people to purify themselves and their clothing even if not they personally, but only their clothing had been in contact with the idolatrous trinket. Jacob was also very precise in referring to שמלותיכם, your garments. He meant that the garments worn by the people of Shechem at the time they were slain had to be purified also.

והטהרו; they needed to purify themselves as contact with idolatrous objects confers ritual impurity on the person who had been in touch with it.

You may ask that there should have been no need to change clothing seeing that clothing could have become defiled only through direct contact with the idolatrous object, an אב הטומאה, and even if these garments had been in direct contact with the idolatrous object they could not have conferred impurity on a human being seeing they themselves were not primary sources of impurity. When we read in Psalms 106,28: ויאכלו מזבחי מתים, "they ate sacrifices offered to the dead," the word "dead" is understood to be a reference to idolatry. Idolatry and the dead are equated halachically for the purpose of the transference of impurity. Chulin 3 states that the sword of a slain person is of the same degree of impurity as the person who has been slain with it. [normally it would be of a lesser degree, seeing it is not the original source of that impurity, Ed.] According to Maimonides Hilchot Tum-at met chapter chapter 5 the example of "sword" is applicable to any of the objects that were attached to the slain person at the time he died, including his garments. According to the foregoing the garments of the people of Shechem then were capable of transferring impurity to human beings just as the sword which kills a person.

והחליפו שמלותיכם, your garments too have become contaminated by the same ritual impurity so that you have to put on others. Alternatively, what is meant are the garments of the people of Shechem which were part of the loot.