פירוש על דברים 32:26

אמרתי אפאיהם means, I said in my heart, “I will אפאה them”. One may explain אפאיהם to mean: I would make them as פאה, i.e. “as grain left in the corner of the field”, to cast them away from Me as something free to all. We find a similar idea to this in Ezra (Nehemiah 9:22), “And thou gavest them kingdoms and nations and didst set them aside as a corner (פאה)” — i.e., as free to all. Thus (under this meaning) did Menachem ben Seruk classify it. Others expound it as the Targum does: My wrath (אף) will fall upon them. This is, however, not correct, for if it were so (i.e., if אפאיהם were connected with אף) it ought to have written אֲאַפְאֵיהֶם with two Alephs, the one as a servile letter (a prefix) and the other as a root letter, just as in (Isaiah 45:5) אאזרך, “I girded thee”, and (Job 16:5) “I would strengthen you (אאמצכם) with my mouth” (in both these cases the first letter of the root is א as it is in אף), and the middle א (that after the פ) would not be proper to be in it at all. Onkelos, however (in connecting the word with אף, anger), rendered it according to the explanation of a Baraitha taught in Sifrei Devarim 322:1 which divides this word into three words, אמרתי אף אי הם, which means, I said in My anger (אף) I will make them as though they were not existent, i.e., that those who are looking for them would ask about them, “Where are they (אי הם)?".

[‘AMARTI’ (I SAID)] ‘APHEIHEM.’ Grammarians⁸⁸R’dak in “Sefer Hasharashim,” root peiah. See also Ibn Ezra. explained it as meaning: “I will disperse them into every ‘corner.’” And if so, the word amarti means that it was the Will before Him by the attribute of justice that they be so scattered forever in every corner, and that their memory cease forever from among men⁸⁹In Verse 26 before us. — were it not that I was in dread of the wrath from the enemy.⁹⁰Verse 27. And in my opinion the word apheihem is a composite word, as is mentioned in the Sifre,⁹¹Sifre, Ha’azinu 322. that it consists of these three words: aph ei heim [“I said in My ‘anger’ that I will banish them so that it will be said of them ‘where are they?’ “]. The meaning thereof is that I will put them in such a place and in such a manner that it will also be said of them “Where are they?” signifying that there will be no name or remnant left of them among the nations, and their place will not be known where they are.⁹²Nahum 3:17. He thus alludes to the exile of the ten tribes that were banished to the river Gozan,⁹³II Kings 17:6. The reference is to the exile by Assyria of the ten tribes that formed the kingdom of Israel. this being the river which the Sages call “Sabbatyon.”⁹⁴Sanhedrin 65. The meaning of the name will be explained further on in the text. The name “Gozan” is of the expressions: ‘vayagaz’ (and it brought over) quails from the sea;⁹⁵Numbers 11:31. Thou art ‘gozi’ (He that took me out) of my mother’s womb,⁹⁶Psalms 71:6. because those who remain behind [that river] are “divested” of any contacts with other people. It is called “Sabbatyon” because of its rest on the Sabbath-day, for the Sabbath-day in that language, as in Arabic, is called Sabbat, and they add adjectivial suffixes of ‘yon’ to certain nouns, such as: eizoviyon (Greek hyssop),⁹⁷Shabbath 109b. churyon (another),⁹⁸See Aruch Hashaleim, under the term choron. mulyon (a mule),⁹⁹Yerushalmi Berachoth VIII, 6. and many others.

אמרתי אפאיהם, I had said that I would leave a small “corner” (from פאה, the 1/60th of the farmer’s field to be left for the poor to help themselves to) of them survive whereas I would destroy the balance. This is what I will do at the end of history before the final redemption, seeing that I had been unable to achieve My purpose either through giving them the Torah, or through giving them the Land of Israel, or even through sending them into exile to give them a taste of what they had lost due to their obstinacy. (compare Yoel,3,5 warning the Jewish people of precisely this )