Commento su Deuteronomio 4:25

ונושנתם AND YE SHALL HAVE BEEN LONG [IN THE LAND] — He gave them a vague intimation that they would be exiled from it at the end of 852 years, according to the numerical value of the word ונושנתם, but He sent them into exile earlier, at the end of 850 years. He did this two years earlier than the numerical value of ונושנתם, in order that the prophecy should not be fulfilled in them “that ye shall utterly perish” (v. 26). This is the meaning of what is said, (Daniel 9:14) “And the Lord hastened in regard to the evil, and He brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is צדיק” — i.e., He acted charitably (צדקה) with us, in that He brought it (the evil) two years before its assigned time (Sanhedrin 38a; Gittin 88a).

KI’ (WHEN) THOU SHALT BEGET CHILDREN, AND CHILDREN’S CHILDREN, AND YE SHALL HAVE BEEN LONG ESTABLISHED IN THE LAND. The purport of this verse is that it mentions and affirms that “when ye shall beget children and children’s children, and because you will have been long established in the Land and dwelled in security, you may perhaps forget G-d — I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day⁸⁷Verse 26. Ramban’s point is thus that we are not to understand Verses 25 and 26 as expressing two independent thoughts [When thou shalt beget children … I call heaven and earth …], but instead they constitute one statement, as follows: “Should a longer period of security in the Land create a tendency among the people to idolatry, heaven and earth will witness Israel’s loss of the Land.” that ye shall speedily perish, for He will not be long-suffering with you seeing that you worshipped idols.”
Now this section, although constituting a warning, opened [with the word ki — “when” and] not with the expression im — “if” [which would be here more appropriate, since it speaks of a hypothetical condition of future time]. The reason is that he [Moses] was virtually prophesying about their affairs, and therefore he spoke in an equivocal manner — using an expression which in addition to being a warning [to avoid the sin of idolatry] also contains a prediction of things to come [when the warning will not be heeded]. He was thus saying that if they do so the following will happen to them, but he does not decree that they will do it. Therefore our Rabbis have said⁸⁸Gittin 88 a. that in the numerical-value of [the letters in the Hebrew word] v’noshantem (and ye shall have been long established)⁸⁹The numerical-value of the Hebrew letters in the word v’noshantem is equivalent to 852 [vav = 6; nun = 50; vav = 6; shin = 300; nun = 50; tav = 400; mem = 40; — totalling 852]. Thus at the end of 852 years from the time that Israel came into the Land the exile was to occur. G-d, however, brought this about two years earlier in order that the prophecy — they shall “utterly perish” — at the end of that period should not come to pass. By bringing about the exile two years before the terminus of 852 years, G-d voided the prediction of total retribution. — It is of interest to note that in his Sefer Hage’ulah (Book of Redemption) Ramban similarly writes of the future redemption that, after it will have occurred, the allusion to that date will be found in this section of the Torah (Kithvei Haramban, Vol. I, p. 263). he alluded to the time of the exile following the destruction of the First Sanctuary. It was thus a tradition [among the prophets and Sages of the generations] that this section of the Torah contains an allusion to the time of the exile, and, when it actually came to pass, they understood the allusion by contemplating this section [and interpreting the hidden message of the prophecy in light of the historical event].

להכעיסו, to cause the benevolent presence of G’d to remove it self from Israel, in order to clear the way for the people to be just like the gentile nations, free of the yoke of the Torah’s commandments.

כי תוליד בנים, “When you beget children, etc.” Nachmanides understands the word כי here to mean “after.” Moses warns that after having gotten used to being in the land, having raised children and grandchildren, there may came a time when you take your possession of that land for granted, and you might forget the Lord Who has made all this possible for you.

כי תוליד בנים ובני בנים, “When you will beget children and grandchildren, etc.” The reason this paragraph adjoins the passage warning the Israelites against becoming guilty of idolatry is because Moses foresaw that in the future the Jewish people would become guilty doing precisely this on holy soil in the land of Israel. Proof that this paragraph is a prediction, not a mere theoretical discussion of what might happen, is that the paragraph does not commence with the conditional word אם תוליד,” if you will beget,” but Moses says כי תוליד, “when you will beget, etc.” Seeing that it is the prophet’s task to rebuke his people, and at this time Moses was the prophet, it was up to him to react to what he foresaw in his prophetic vision.

Eight hundred and fifty-two years etc. It is written regarding the building of the first Beis Hamikdosh (Melochim I, 6:1), “And it was in the four hundred and eightieth year, etc,” and the first Beis Hamikdosh stood for 410 years [for a total of 890 years until the first exile]. Subtract from them the forty years that the Jewish People were in the wilderness which is included in the total, because the verse counts the time of leaving Egypt. We find that they were in the Land for only 850 years. They did not reach 852 years, the numerical value of ונושנתם, as Rashi explains.

V. 25. כי תוליד. Nicht sogleich nach dem Eintritt in das Land fürchtet Mosche die Gefahr der Verirrung, aber er sieht sie kommen, je länger sie im Lande sein werden, sieht sie kommen, wenn erst das zweite und dritte Geschlecht im Lande geboren sein wird, ונושנתם בארץ: und sie "alt" geworden sein werden im Lande. ישן ist nicht wie זקן der Gegensatz von "jung", sondern der Gegensatz von "neu", "frisch", wie ja schon in den Begriffen "Dunkel" und "Schlaf" liegt, die ja auch mit ישן bezeichnet werden (siehe Bereschit S. 58 u. 319). Wenn die Nation erst zwei, drei Generationen hinter sich im Lande hat, werden sich ihre Bürger als aus dem Lande entsprungen, mit dem Lande verwachsen begreifen; es wird die Zeit, in der sie noch heimatlos und bodenlos gewesen, ihrem Bewusstsein völlig entrückt werden und sie gänzlich ihres Ursprungs und dessen vergessen, dem sie das Land und jede Daseinsdauer im Lande verdanken. Richt umsonst hat Gott mit seinem: למען תוכר את יום צאתך מארץ מצרים כל ימי חייך die ägyptische Erlösungstatsache in unser tägliches Bewusstsein zu immer frischem Gedenken verwebt, nicht umsonst seine Feste und seine großen Schemita- und Jobelinstitutionen zu ewig wiederkehrenden national gemeinsamen Erkenntnis- und Bekenntnistaten dieses Ursprungs und der Gotthörigkeit des Landes gestiftet, nicht umsonst das כבש בן שנה, das "Junge" der Herde zum ewigen Symbolausdruck seines Volkes in dessen Beziehungen zu ihm bestimmt. Wir haben in unseren individuellen und nationalen Beziehungen zu Gott keinen größeren Feind, als dieses die Begeisterungsfrische unseres Gottörigkeitsbewusstseins in "Blasierteit" verkehrende "Altgewordensein im Lande der Verheißung", wenn das, was als "Verheißung" das sehnsüchtige Ziel unserer Wünsche und Hoffnungen gewesen, "unser" geworden und wir "im Besitze verjähren". —

'כי תוליד בנים וגו, “when you beget children etc.” Moses warns the people not to take their settlement in the land of Israel for granted even after they have lived there for several generations. Their tenure in the land is contingent on their continuing to observe the Torah and all of its commandments. If they failed to do, not only would they endanger their tenure of the land, but they would endanger their continued existence as G–d’s people. [If, say after six generations in the Holy Land, the people who had not been witnesses to all the miracles G–d had performed before the first generation settled in that land, they would claim that there was no reason why their tenure is linked to Torah observance, just as their neighbour’s tenure to their respective lands is not contingent on a set of laws of their religion, Moses warns them against such a fatal error. Ed. According to the Talmud, tractate Sanhedrin, folio 38, the numerical value of the letters in the words: ונושנתם בארץ, “and you will be long established in the land,” (852) אבוד תאבדון, “you will be utterly wiped out in verse 26. G–d did us a great favour when the exile began after 850 years of tenure, so that the threat of utter destruction of the Jewish nation since the time Joshua crossed the Jordan did not have to be fulfilled. This has been hinted at in the Book of Daniel 9,14: וישקוד ה' על הרעה ויביאה עלינו כי צדיק ה' אלוקינו, “Hashem hastened the calamity and brought it upon us, for Hashem is righteous in all He does (but we did not heed His voice).”

כי תוליד בנים ובני בנים, “When you shall beget children, and children’s children;” Moses implies that when he warned the people not to forget the Lord’s covenant, he did not refer to the generation he was addressing. He was not worried that they would forget. What he was concerned about was future generations, who had not been eye witnesses to what the Lord had done for the Jewish people.

ונושנתם בארץ, “and you are long established in the land;” our sages in Gittin 55 find in these words an allusion to the length of time the Israelites would enjoy independence in the land. The numerical value of the letters in the word ונושנתם is 852. Solomon’s Temple was completed 480 years after the Exodus as we know from Kings I 6,1. The Temple stood for 410 years before it was destroyed by Nevuchadnezzar King of Babylon. This gives you a total of 850 years after deducting the 40 years the Jewish people were in the desert before they gained their own land. The reason that G’d allowed the Temple to be destroyed 2 years prior to the time allotted to it was to ensure that the decree of absolute destruction [no rebuilding] would not have to be kept, seeing that the people had not been allowed to enjoy the full number of years allotted to their independence. We read in our verse the words כי אבד תאבדון מהר, which mean “you will perish utterly and quickly.” G’d in His mercy, accelerated the destruction of the Temple so that He would not be bound by this prediction. We find an allusion to this in Daniel 9,14: “Hashem hastened the calamity and brought it upon us, for Hashem is righteous in all His deeds which He has done.” Daniel means that the very premature destruction of the Temple was an act of righteousness enabling the Temple to be rebuilt 70 years later.

“For Adonoy our God is righteous He acted charitably etc.” Rashi is answering the question: How is it righteous of Hashem that He precipitated the evil and brought it upon us? The answer is that it was righteous of God to bring the evil before the time of ונושנתם [after 852 years, when the Jewish people would “have grown old in the Land” and deserve to be completely destroyed, as stated below in v.26]. See Maseches Sanhedrin 38a.

He states and ye make a graven image, ‘t’munath kol’ (even the form of any thing),⁹⁰In Verse 25 before us. but does not say “and you will worship it or bow down to it.” Instead he says, and ye shall corrupt yourselves, for “the graven image” spoken of here is the form of Kol (All)⁹¹See in Vol. I, pp. 291-293. and on account of “corruption”⁹²I.e., of “mutilating the shoots” of faith (Ma’or V’shamesh). See above Note 64. He prohibited it, as I have explained above.⁹³Above, Verse 15 and 21.

והשחתם. Wie der Gedanke an den in der Geschichte eures Ursprungs euch offenbar gewordenen außersinnlichen Einen als den einzigen wirklichen Träger eures Seins und des Weltganzen erblasst, drängt sich die Sinnenwelt mit ihrer vermeintlichen selbstherrlichen Realität euch in den Vordergrund und ihr werfet euch der "heidnischen Gesunkenheit" in die Arme, die alles individuelle und nationale Menschendasein nur als Produkt der sinnlichen Weltmächte begreift, die ein Land zur Wiege eines Volkes gestalten und denen es zugleich als Diener und Meister sein Geschick abzuringen hat. — Es ist dann nicht mehr Gott, der euch in Seinem Lande und durch Sein Land segnet, je nachdem ihr euer Tun und Lassen Seinem euch geoffenbarten Willen gemäß regelt, sondern es ist dieses Land selbst mit allen in ihm sichtbar wirkenden sinnlichen Potenzen, in denen ihr Gewähren und Versagen eures Gedeihens erblicket, ועשיתם פסל תמונת כל: und die ihr euch in sinnlicher Darstellung vergegenwärtigt und endlich dahin gelanget, dass ועשיתם הרע בעיני ה׳ אלהיך להבעיסו, dass ihr in Gott, mit seinem die stete entsagungsfreudige Unterordnung eurer Sinnlichkeit fordernden Gesetze nicht den Spender, sondern den Hinderer eurer Lebensfreuden erblicket, zu dem in prinzipiellen Gegensatz zu treten, euch die Heilesrettung eurer Lebensrichtung dünkt. —

ונושנתם בארץ, “and you have become old established in the land;” you will therefore take it for granted and not worry about ever losing that land.