Comentario sobre Levítico 26:19

ושברתי את גאון עזכם AND I WILL BREAK THE EXCELLENCY OF YOUR STRENGTH — This is a reference to the Temple; for thus does it state, (Ezekiel 24:21) “Behold I will profane my sanctuary, the excellency of your strength”.

ושברתי את גאון עזכם, by the destruction of the Tabernacle in Shiloh. Compare Psalms 78,60 “He forsook the Tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent He had set among men.”

ושברתי את גאון עזכם, "And I will break the pride of your power." According to Torat Kohanim our verse speaks of the Holy Temple and its destruction. Seeing the Jewish people did not repent in spite of their afflictions G'd will deprive them of the Holy Temple. The Jews erred in thinking that as long as the Temple remained standing this was proof that G'd related to them positively.

ושברתי את גאון עוזכם, as we read in verse 26 בשברי לכם מטה לחם, “when I will break your proud glory,” (economic independence) Ezekiel 16,49 uses similar words to express the same thoughts In the aggadic literature the predictions are understood as predicting the destruction of the Temple. In Ezekiel 24,21 the Temple is referred to as גאון עזכם, “your pride and glory.” The plain meaning of the text is in accordance with what I explained as testified to by the end of the verse ונתתי שמיכם כברזל ואת ארצכם כנחושה, “I will make your skies like iron and your earth like copper.”

Destroys its produce. Because [the land] is damp, its the fruits rots.

I will make your heavens like iron and your land like copper. Moshe said the opposite (Devarim 28:23): “And the heavens above your head will be like copper and the earth that is beneath you, iron.” This is because most commentaries agree that this entire rebuke corresponds to the Destruction of the First Temple, and that of Parshas Ki Savo corresponds to the Destruction of the Second Temple. It is known that iron is harder than copper. In the First Temple period, their main sin was towards Heaven, through the worship of the stars and the constellations, as it says (Yirmiyahu 44:18), “But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven.” Therefore, the heavens were as hard as iron, as it says (Iyov 20:27), “The heavens shall reveal his iniquity and the earth shall rise up against him.” During the Second Temple period, however, they did not worship idolatry. Their main evil was in the earth through baseless hatred and disputes among themselves, and the earth was destroyed as in the generation of the flood. Therefore, the earth was harder [like iron] than the heavens [like copper].

I will break the pride of your power. The gematriah (numerical value of the letters) of את גאון is זה המקדש (this is the Temple). The gematriah of the phrase את גאון עוזכם isזה ירושלים (this is Jerusalem).

ושברתי את גאון עוזכם, “I will break the pride of your power;” this has to be contrasted with verse 13 where the Torah described G-d as breaking all the yokes that the Egyptians had used to keep the Israelites down. This is stage one in this process of humbling the Jewish people. Step two follows with: ונתתי שמיכם ברזל, “I will make your heaven as iron;” this is the contrast to verse 4 where rain was promised to fall at the appropriate time of the year.

ונתתי את שמיכם כברזל ואת ארצכם כנחשה AND I WILL MAKE YOUR HEAVEN AS IRON AND YOUR EARTH AS COPPER — This threat is even severer than that of Moses, because there it says, (Deuteronomy 28:23) “And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be copper, [and the earth that is under thee shall be iron]” which implies that the heaven will at least exude moisture (will give some humidity) just as the copper exudes moisture, whilst the earth will not exude just as iron does not exude, and so it will keep its fruit in good condition, since it will not be too humid. Here, however, Scripture threatens that the heaven will not exude moisture, just as iron does not exude, and there will therefore be draught in the world, whilst the earth will exude (be too humid) just as copper sweats, and it will consequently make its fruits perish (Sifra, Bechukotai, Chapter 5 3).

ואת ארצכם נחושת, “and your soil like copper.” This contrasts the word בעתם, “at their proper time” in verse 4 above. This was a separate blessing, i.e. the third one.

The word נחושת, “copper,” is a noun, as in Psalms 18,35: ונחתה קשת נחושה זרועותי, “my arms can bend a bow of copper.”