Commento su Deuteronomio 13:17

לה' אלהיך [AND THOU SHALT BURN WITH FIRE THE CITY …] FOR THE LORD THY GOD — i.e. for the honor of His name and for His sake.

ואת כל שללה תקבוץ, ”and you are to collect all its loot (all the possessions).” Our sages in Sanhedrin 111 say that the word שללה “its loot,” excludes “the loot belonging to heaven” [a reference to donations the citizens had made to the Temple Treasury. Ed.] These are to be subject to redemption just like הקדשות of ordinary people in other towns. They are not to be burned. Included in such שלל שמים is the second tithe which normally is taken to Jerusalem to be consumed there by the owners (or its proceeds). Neither are holy writings such as Torah scrolls subject to this provision of all the possessions of the people in that city having to be burned. They need to be buried (Sanhedrin ibid.)

כליל לה' אלוקיך, “as a holocaust (completely) to the Lord your G–d.” You are to do this in public so that everyone knows that your motivation is not to enrich yourself by doing so. [According to an opinion in the Talmud, there is no record of this legislation ever having to have been enforced. Ed.]

כליל לה' אלו-היך, “completely for the Lord your G’d.” All of it henceforth belongs to G’d; no one has the right to use any of it for deriving any benefit from it whatsoever. On the same folio in Sanhedrin 111 Rabbi Shimon is quoted as saying in the name of G’d: “if you carry out the provisions written here concerning such an עיר הנדחת, a city which has to be obliterated, I will consider it as if you had offered a burnt-offering which the Torah describes as כליל לה'.” He based this on Exodus 32,29: מלאו ידכם היום לה' כי איש בבנו ובאחיו, “dedicate yourselves to the Lord this day, for each has opposed his son and his brother.”