Comentario citado sobre Deuteronómio 7:4

The enlightened ones will understand that the intent of the Torah is not to inform about the natural sciences; and that the Torah was not given except to straighten the ways of man to righteousness and justice, and to establish in their hearts the belief in [His] unity and providence, since the Torah was not only given to sages but [rather] to the whole people. And just like the matter of providence and reward is not explained (and it would not have been fitting that it be explained) in a philosophical manner, but the Torah [rather] spoke about it like the language of [ordinary] people ([as in] "the anger of the Lord will flare against you" [Deuteronomy 7:4]; "and it grieved His heart [Genesis 6:6]; and there are many [other examples] like this); so too, the matter of creation is not told (and it is not fitting that it would be told) in the Torah in a philosophical manner. And it is as the Rabbis, of blessed memory, have stated (Midrash HaGadol, Genesis 1:1), "To tell the power of the story of creation to flesh and blood is not possible." Hence it is not fitting for the follower of Torah to uproot the verses from their understanding in order to make them agree with the natural sciences. It is also not fitting for the scientist to deny that the Torah is divine (min hashamayim) if he finds things in its stories that don't agree with natural science. But it is fitting for this one and that one, that they contemplate the inner workings of human hearts and the ways of wisdom that is used by nature in speaking to the heart of every individual: to the youth according to his manner and to the young man in a different manner and to the old man in a different manner [still]; to the strong in a particular manner and to the weak in a particular manner; to the rich man in one manner and to the poor man in another manner; and so [too] with all groups of men, nature speaks to their hearts in a specific way that is fitting to the people of that group. And nature does not reveal the pristine truth - without any mask or cover - to any one of these groups. And so [too] the Giver of the Torah, may He be blessed, (since the God that created nature and the God that gave us the Torah is one God.) in his speaking with people was required to speak according to their levels, and not according to His level, may He be blessed. And behold, God wanted to inform people of the unity of the [universe] and the unity of mankind; since error in both of these matters caused great evils in ancient times: from the lack of awareness of the unity of the [universe], it came out that people would believe in the existence of specific gods, with defects and inferior character traits; and they would do evil acts in order to please [these gods] (see what I have written in Parshat Yitro on the verse, "There shall not be for you" [Exodus 20:3]). And from the lack of awareness of the unity of mankind, it came out that the people of one nation would hate and revile the people of another nation and they would act towards them with the force of arms, and not with justice and righteousness. And these two fundamental principles (the unity of the [universe] and the unity of mankind) are the main point of the stories of the creation saga; and details of the book also include other intentions, as will be explained.

King Solomon warns people in this verse to try and move within circles of scholars and at the same time to try and avoid keeping company with fools. The reason he uses the expression הולך, is that a person should always walk behind the scholars, become familiar with them, and consider himself as an adjunct to them. He should make of the scholars leaders for his “head.” Anyone who practices this virtue cannot fail to become wise himself.
On the other hand, anyone who habitually mingles with fools will wind up causing harm to his own head, i.e. he will become “broken.” Basically, this verse in Proverbs describes the damage which results from keeping company with fools and the advantage which accrues to a person from the company of scholars. It is a fact that while someone who mingles with the scholars will benefit by such an association, the scholar will not suffer by it at all. This is the reason the Torah has been compared by David to a light (candle), seeing that an unlimited number of people can get light from this candle without the light of the candle becoming dimmed. This is the meaning of Psalms 119, 108 נר לרגלי דברך, ואור לנתיבתי’ “Your word is a lamp at my feet, a light for my path.”
Our sages in Yalkut Shimoni (this book was not at the disposal of the author. Ed) comment on this verse in Proverbs that the matter may be compared to someone who enters a perfumery store. His clothing will absorb some of the fragrances in that store although he did not make a purchase of any of the products that are for sale there. In other words, the owner of that store provided a service for the browser without making a sale. Similarly, the mere fact that one is in the presence of scholars results in something rubbing off on those who make a point of being in such company. Solomon describes that the opposite is true when one frequents the haunts of fools. Not only is their presence not beneficial, but it is even harmful to those who are not of their ilk.
The expression כסילים which Solomon applies to these fools are people who deliberately choose negative virtues, indulge in physical pleasures as their main purpose in life and who at the same time despise and ridicule people concerned with moral/intellectual pursuits. Such people do not qualify for admonition as they belong to one of the three categories of people who are not to be admonished. They are 1) כסילים, fools, 2) לצים, scoffers, 3) רשעים, wicked people. Concerning category one Solomon said (Proverbs 23,9) “do not speak to a fool; he will disdain your sensible words.” Concerning the scoffer, Solomon said (Proverbs 9,8) “do not admonish the scoffer lest he hate you.” Concerning the wicked, Solomon said (Proverbs 9,7) “rebuking a wicked person one hurts oneself.” Just as the very company of scholars is like an open invitation to serve the Lord, so the company of the other types of people we mentioned is like an invitation to reject the service of the Lord. The Torah writes in Deut. 7,4 “for he will lead astray your son (grandson) from following Me. The Torah spoke about the results of intermarriage of a Jewish girl with a Gentile. Although, technically speaking, the children of such a union will be Jews, the influence of the Gentile father and his family will estrange them to Judasim.
For all the above considerations David commenced his Book of Psalms with praise for the people who resist keeping company with the habitual sinners, and who instead make the Torah of G-d the object of their ambition, preoccupying themselves with it both by day ad by night (Psalms 1,1-2).
Solomon followed in the footsteps of his father when he commenced the Book of Proverbs (1,8) with the words שמע בני מוסר אביך, “listen to the instruction of your father my son; etc.” He continued immediately by warning that we should not expose ourselves to the seductive words of the wicked (1,10).
Our patriarch Avraham made every effort to observe the eventual laws of the Torah and the sacrificial services; our sages illustrated this when they said (Yuma 28) that he even observed such rabbinic ordinances as עירוב תבשילים, ensuring that he had cooked and baked food in the house for the Sabbath which follows on the heels of a festival so that preparation of food on the festival itself would not be viewed as exploiting a day when work is forbidden to prepare for the Sabbath. Avraham faced the dilemma of keeping away from wicked people, people who were the cause of truly free choice of worship having become impossible. Once you have become a true heretic (compare Maimonides Hilchot Teshuvah) you are not given a chance to repent). This is why G-d told him to move away from such people so that he would not become infected by them. G-d sent him away from his land, his birthplace to a land which He was going to show him (once he had set out to leave his home).
According to Tanchuma 3 on Lech Lecha, Avraham was not aware of the stench caused by the people amongst whom he lived as his environment was similar to a graveyard which had been sprinkled with a bottle of spikenard oil which neutralized the stench which emanates from there. How did G-d deal with this problem? He took Avraham from place to place and acquainted him with the different smells of the universe. In this manner Avraham was able to appreciate what was wrong in the world, and he would be trained not to become overwhelmed by the stench caused by the lifestyles of his contemporaries. Then came the point when G-d said to Avraham: “remove yourself from them and do not become dirtied by them.” This is the meaning of the words לך לך, i.e. “it is time that you by yourself.” The repetition of the letters לך לך allude to the word לכלך, dirt. G-d did not want him to become dirtied by his surroundings.
This was the first of the ten trials Avraham had to undergo; he successfully coped with all of them. The final and greatest trial was when G-d told him to offer up his son Yitzchak on Mount Moriah. At that time G-d again introduced the trial with the words לך לך in order to compare his first trial to his last trial. The commandment of which the Torah speaks here at the beginning of chapter 12 was issued while Avraham was in Charan as this was his country and his birthplace. Concerning that place Avraham said later (23,2 when he instructed Eliezer to get a wife for Yitzchak): “but go only to my country and to my birthplace!” It was certainly a great trial for him to leave his country and the place he had been born and raised in, the place where he had dwelled with his whole family, and to go to an entirely unknown country.
Remember that prior to G-d’s communication to Avraham telling him to move away from home, it would have been appropriate for the Torah to tell us something about Avraham’s virtues, just as the Torah had done before it reported that G-d issued commands to Noach before him. We must assume that the reason the Torah did not do so was because it had already hinted previously that Avraham was a person of exceptional qualities when the Torah referred to אור כשדים, as we explained on 11,28.

ימול בשר ערלתו, “the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.” We have learned concerning this procedure as follows in the Talmud tractate Shabbat folio 137: “a newborn may be legally circumcised on the eighth, ninth or the tenth, the eleventh or the twelfth day, without the father having been remiss in performing the procedure on the correct day. How can this occur? 1) The normal day for mandatory circumcision is the eighth day. 2) the ninth day as the “official” day is when the baby was born at dusk. If dusk is considered as part of the next day, then the baby cannot be legally circumcised until the morning of the day following, i.e. the ninth day. If that day happens to be the Sabbath, circumcision would have to be delayed for another day. How could it happen that the legal day for the circumcision would not occur until the eleventh of even the twelfth day? If the baby was born at dusk on Friday, and the day following the Sabbath is a festival. If the baby was born at dusk of the end of the twentysecond of Ellul and the following Thursday which would normally be the eighth day is New Year of the following Year and a holiday. As this day however could be the ninth day, both days of New Year as well as Sabbath following are out, so that the earliest legal day would be Sunday, which is the twelfth day after its birth. It is possible that our author bases himself on a statement attributed in Bereshit Rabbah 7,2, to someone by the name do Yaakov, resident of Nevorai, who issued a ruling in Tzor, that the son of an idol worshipping woman and a Jewish father, born on the Sabbath, could be circumcised on the Sabbath. When Rabbi Chagai heard about this ruling he ordered this Yaakov to appear before him in order to be punished by lashes for such a ruling. To this Yaakov of Nevorai replied that “when someone gives a correct ruling according to the Torah, why should he be punished by lashes?” Thereupon Rabbi Chagai asked him to explain how his ruling could conform to Torah law. Thereupon Yaakov cited Numbers 1,18: ויתילדו על משפחותם לבית אבותם, “they identified themselves according to their families by their fathers’ houses.” To this Rabbi Chagai replied that Yaakov had not interpreted that verse correctly, as it could not override the prohibition against intermarriage with members of an idolatrous nation which is spelled out in Deuteronomy 7,3, with the words לא תתחתן בם, “do not intermarry with them (the Canaanites) i.e. since such a union is illegal its offspring is not Jewish. It is also confirmed by Deuteronomy 7,4 where the Torah gives as the reason for such a prohibition: כי יסיר את בנך מאחרי, “for he will lead your son astray from Me;” a reference to your soninlaw. The Torah did not write כי תסיר, for she will lead astray, but “for he will lead astray.” She cannot lead astray, as she is not Jewish in the first place. Therefore the son of the woman mentioned in the story cited in Bereshit Rabbah, does not require circumcision on either a weekday or the Sabbath since he does not qualify for performance of that rite until and if he converted.

וברוח אפיך AND WITH THE BREATH OF THY NOSTRILS — the breath that issues from both nostrils. Scripture speaks — if this were at all possible (i. e. if one may be permitted to speak so of God) of the Shechina (God) in the same manner as it does of a human monarch, in order to make peoples’ ears hear the facts in accordance with what usually happens to that they may understand the matter: when a man is angry the breath issues from his nostrils (and Scripture attributes this to God, also, when He is in anger). A similar idea is: (Psalms 18:9) “Smoke rose up in His nostril”, and also, (Job. 4:9) “By the breath of his nostril they are consumed”. And this is the meaning of what He said, (Isaiah 48:9) “For My name’s sake אאריך I will make long My אף”: when one’s anger subsides his breathing becomes long, whilst when one is in anger his breathing is short (consequently אאריך אפי signifies “I will not be angry”). The text continues ותהלתי אחטם לך which means “for the sake of My praise I will place a nose-ring in My nose to close up the nostrils against the anger and the breath so that they should not issue forth”. The word לך, for thee, in this text, means “for thy sake”, אחטם has the same meaning and root as in “a wild camel with a nose-ring (חֹטֶם)” which occurs in Mishna Treatise Sabbath (Mishnah Shabbat 5:1). Thus does the explanation appear to me. And wherever אף and חרון (i. e. where אף and words formed from the same root as חרון) occur in the Scriptures I say that it has the following sense: In the phrase חרה אף the first word is the same as (Job 30:30) “My bone is חרה with heat”, where חרה denotes burning and glowing, and this metaphor is used because the nostrils become hot and burning in a time of anger. The noun חרון is a derivation of חרה, just as רצון is a derivation of רצה, and therefore signifies “burning”. In the same way, חַמה which also signifies wrath really denotes heat (from a root יחם, not חמם, since the מ of חַמָה has no Dagesh. חַמָה is formed from יחם as עֵדָה, congregation, from יעד). That is why Scripture says, (Esther 1:12) וחמתו בערה בו “his wrath burned in him”, and when one’s wrath subsides one says, “his mind has become cooled” (נתקררה from קר cold).