Commentaire sur Le Lévitique 26:44

ואף גם זאת AND YET FOR ALL THIS — i. e., but also (אף) even though (גם) I shall execute on them this (זאת) punishment which I have mentioned when they shall be in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them to make an end of them and to make void My covenant which has thus far been with them (viz., the covenant 'כי אני ה‎‎ אלהיהם that I, the Lord, would be their God).

ואף גם זאת בהיותם, "And yet even when they are in the land of their enemies, etc." How can this verse which speaks of a favour G'd does to the exiled Jewish people be part of this sequence of dire predictions? Perhaps this is a reference to the earlier part where G'd explained that He was entitled to withdraw His providence from the people because they had accused Him of having done so. G'd goes on record that He does not withhold His supervision from the people and does not despise them [even though the people may not be aware of it. Ed.]

לא מאסתים לכלותם, “I did not despise them to the extent that I would wipe them out completely. I chastised them only sufficiently to discipline them by means of chastisements until they would humble their hearts.

ואף גם זאת בהיותם בארץ אויביהם, “and yet, in spite of their being in the land of their enemies, etc.;” what has been left for the surviving Israelites who have been deprived of all that had made their lives worth living?” G-d promises that the most precious of their possessions, the Torah, they had not been deprived of, and this will make them distinguished even when in exile and the nations look down upon them. This is what the famous liturgist had in mind when he composed the phrase: ואין שיור רק התורה הזאת, “there is nothing left except this Torah.” [zechor brit, recited as part of the selichot, near the end of the Ne’ilah prayer on the Day of Atonement.” Ed.

להפר בריתי, ”to violate My covenant.” The covenant which I swore to them.” Even though they, on their part have violated this covenant, I will not annul it seeing that I am G’d.

The verse may also supply another consideration why exile actually saved the Jewish people. We explained, based on Midrash Tehillim 69 that G'd vented His anger on the stones and the trees in order to spare as many of the human beings as possible. Had the Jews remained in the land of Israel they themselves would have experienced G'd's anger on their bodies, much as did the land itself. Moreover, the presence of a people who had formerly been so exalted with Jerusalem as their capital, now languishing in foreign lands, maltreated by pagan kings, would satisfy even the attribute of Justice so that it would not insist on their utter destruction. The words ואף גם זאת are therefore to be understood as the cause why G'd wanted the Israelites to experience exile among foreign and hostile nations.

להפר בריתי אתם, "to break My covenant with them." This is the covenant not to exchange the Jewish people for another nation, a covenant G'd kept for the people who experienced the Exodus. It is the deeper meaning of the words: "for I am the Lord their G'd." The sign of the covenant is that G'd does not adopt another nation in our place. G'd's promise at the time of מתן תורה that the Jewish people would be an עם סגולה וממלכת כהנים was equivalent to a covenant.

The verse may also refer to the second party to the covenant, the Torah, who would be orphaned if G'd destroyed the Jewish people seeing no one would observe it. G'd would therefore have broken His covenant both with the Jewish people and with the Torah.