Deuteronómio 28:15 Comentario: Kli Yakar, Or HaChaim, Sforno & Rabbeinu Bahya

“And it shall be if you do not listen, etc.” All these curses are stated in the singular, while those in the portion of Bechukotai are all stated in the plural, And if you [plural] do not listen, etc. For even among these [curses in Deuteronomy] there are many afflictions directed at the community as a whole, such as “And your heavens that are over your head shall be copper.” And likewise, “The Lord will lead you and your king, etc.” And many others besides these. And what is the reason that those in Torat Kohanim [Leviticus] numbered forty-nine, while these are doubled in number to ninety-eight? Is this not a significant matter?

והיה אם לא תשמע, "It will be if you do not hearken, etc." The Torah made it plain here that unless we fulfil all three aspects of Judasim i.e. Torah study, scrupulous observance of the negative commandments, and the carrying out of positive commandments, some or all of the consequences described forthwith will occur. Learning Torah and not observing the negative commandments does not protect us. Observing both negative and positive commandments but neglecting the study of Torah will still result in the curses of the following verses being fulfilled. Non-observance of each of these three groups of Torah laws will attract its own kind of curses. The Torah commences by describing the punishments in store for the Jewish people if they fail to study Torah. .ארור אתה בעיר, "you will be cursed in the city;" this verse until the words ואבדך מהר, "and you will quickly perish" and the end of verse 20 are a row of escalating curses which are retribution for abandoning Torah, i.e. abandoning Torah study. When one abandons study of the Torah it is viewed as if one had abandoned G'd Himself. This is why this paragraph concludes with the words אשר עזבתני, "for you have abandoned Me."

אם לא תשמע בקול ה' אלוקיך לשמור לעשות את כל מצותיו וחקותיו אשר אנכי מצוך היום, with these words Moses introduces his admonitions, the ones which parallel chapter 26 in Leviticus, but are sounding far more devastating. Israel is described as “backsliding,” having, with the help of Torah legislation, been the frontrunner in civilised countries. Whenever the Torah speaks about the Jewish people abandoning the laws of the Torah, the intention is not to make us think that they slid into anarchy, but worse, they slid into adopting the laws of the prevalent cultures and civilisations. Clearly, this is an even greater affront to G’d the Lawgiver, than merely being passive and not carrying out Torah legislation. Social legislation involving tithes was largely ignored, leading to such great scholars as Hillel, and the High Priest Yochanan decreeing legalistic means of circumventing the legislation so that the people would not be guilty of violating such basic social laws as forgiving overdue debts at the end of the Sh’mittah year. The Rabbis, in a number of instances, were forced to preserve the spirit of the law, sometimes at the expense of what may be termed “the letter of the law.” The discontinuance of the examination by the priest of a woman suspected of marital infidelity, Sotah, is one such example, the Rabbis feeling that when infidelity had become the norm rather than the exception, it would not do to demand a miracle from G’d every time such a situation arose. Moreover, the chances were that the husband’s sexual life was not so free from blemish that he could point a finger at his wife. (Compare Shviit,1,3, Maasser Sheyni 5,15, Sotah 46,48,49) Other practices, such as referring disputes to pagan judges of the nation (Greeks or Romans) occupying Israel at the time, made it almost impossible for the Jewish judiciary, even when meaning to preside over Torah law, to be an effective legal instrument. All of these conditions became a self-fulfilling prophecy in the decline of the Jewish people as a holy nation and led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of Jewish independence on a land of their own.