Deuteronómio 11:30 Comentario: Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Rashbam & Sforno

הלא המה ARE THEY NOT [AT THE PASSAGE OF THE JORDAN … ]? — He gave geographical indications regarding them (the mountains).

across the Jordan opposite the wilderness.

אחרי דרך, it looks as if we encounter two successive vowel patterns both pashta, both tone-signs employed as separators, something most unusual. However, if we look closely we will find that the word דרך is accented on the first syllable, so that this results in the word אחרי sounding like an שופר הפוך, a term used in Hebrew grammar for a connecting tone-sign. [Minchas Shay suggests that when reading this line the reader should briefly pause after the word אחרי, in order to achieve the same result. Heidenheim, explaining Rashi, also states that Rashi understands the word אחרי as not belonging to the word דרך following it. Ed.]

אחרי [AT THE PASSAGE OF THE JORDAN,] AFTER — This means: behind the passage of the Jordan much further on in a distance, for that is the force of the expression אחרי, because wherever the term אחרי (in contradistinction to אחר; cf. Rashi on Genesis 15:1) is used it signifies “greatly separated” (Genesis Rabbah 44:5; cf. Sifrei Devarim 56:1; Sotah 33b).