Pemikiran Yahudi Ulangan 29:17: Derush Chiddushei HaLevanah & Guide for the Perplexed

Nevertheless, since all these responses will not satisfy one whose heart is characterized by “a root that bears gall and wormwood,”⁶⁵Cf. Devarim 29:17. God therefore said, “Bring an atonement offering for sinning against Me through such thoughts that came as a result of My diminishing the moon. My intent was for the benefit of the world, but you developed misconceptions about Me.” The wording עלי in the Talmudic passage is used in the same manner as the word על in the phrase,⁶⁶Bamidbar 6:11. “who sinned against the soul.” This is also the intent of the verse,⁶⁷Ibid. 28:15. “a goat as a sin-offering to God,” i.e., the goat is brought as a sin-offering for having sinned against God. This is a short synopsis of the words of the Akeidah.

The knowledge of these theories and practices is of great importance in explaining the reasons of the precepts. For it is the principal object of the Law and the axis round which it turns, to blot out these opinions from man’s heart and make the existence of idolatry impossible. As regards the former Scripture says: “Lest your heart be persuaded,” etc. (Deut. 11:16), “whose heart turneth away to-day,” etc. (ibid. 29:17). The actual abolition of idolatry is expressed in the following passage: “Ye shall destroy their altars, and burn their groves in fire” (Deut. 7:5), “and ye shall destroy their name,” etc. (xii. 3). These two things are frequently repeated; they form the principal and first object of the whole Law, as our Sages distinctly told us in their traditional explanation of the words “all that God commanded you by the hand of Moses” (Num. 15:25); for they say, “Hence we learn that those who follow idolatry deny as it were their adhesion to the whole Law, and those who reject idolatry follow as it were the whole Law.” (B. T. Kidd, 40a.) Note it.

It further denotes “thought.” Comp. “Went not mine heart with thee?” (2 Kings 5:26), i.e., I was with thee in my thought when a certain event happened. Similarly must be explained, “And that ye seek not after your own heart” (Num. 15:39), i.e., after your own thoughts: “Whose heart (i.e., whose thought), turneth away this day” (Deut. xxix. is).