Commento su Deuteronomio 19:8

ואם ירחיב … כאשר נשבע AND IF [THE LORD THY GOD] ENLARGE [THY TERRITORY], AS HE HATH SWORN [UNTO THY FATHERS] to give thee the land of the Kenite, the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite (Sifrei Devarim 184:3).

AND IF THE ETERNAL THY G-D ENLARGE THY BORDER. This section deals with a future event, and I have already mentioned it²⁴⁴Above, 12:20. in the section [i.e., the Seder] of Behold, I set before you. For first he stated, When the Eternal thy G-d shall cut off the nations, whose land the Eternal giveth thee,²⁴⁰Verse 1. the expression whose land the Eternal giveth thee referring to all the seven nations that He mentions everywhere. So also he speaks with reference to them, And the Eternal thy G-d will cast out those nations before thee;²⁴⁵Ibid., 7:22. whereas for the wickedness of these nations;²⁴⁶Ibid., 9:4. and the Eternal will drive out all these nations from before you;²⁴⁷Ibid., 11:23. but of the cities of these peoples,²⁴⁸Further, 20:16. and so also in many other places. And now he commanded that after taking possession of their land and dwelling in it, he²⁴⁹The third person singular here seems to refer to the leader of the people — Joshua — although the fulfillment of the commandment was incumbent upon all Israel. shall set aside three cities, completing [the performance of] the commandment with their designation, as He said there, there shall be for you six cities of refuge,²⁵⁰Numbers 35:13. and He further said, Ye shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and three cities shall ye give in the land of Canaan.²⁵¹Ibid., Verse 14. And since the three cities beyond the Jordan eastward had already been set aside by Moses (above, 4:41), the designation of the three cities in the land of Canaan thus completed the fulfillment of this commandment. He did not command in the Torah that there be more than these six cities. Similarly all commandments of the Torah that become binding after taking possession and settling upon [the Land] become obligatory after the conquest of these seven nations. Only regarding this commandment, however, he added here, And if the Eternal thy G-d enlarge thy border and he did not say “as He hath promised thee,” as he said in the section, When the Eternal thy G-d shall enlarge thy border, as He hath promised thee²⁵²Above, 12:20. with reference to meat of a secular meal. This was because G-d did not promise them anywhere to give them [land] except for [that of] these seven nations. However, here he mentioned the patriarchs, as he said, And if the Eternal thy G-d enlarge thy border, as He hath sworn unto thy fathers, and give thee all the land which He promised to give unto thy fathers, this being an allusion to all ten nations²⁵³Genesis 15:19-21. that were promised to Abraham.
Now he made here a condition, if thou shalt [in time to come] keep all this commandment to do it etc.²⁵⁴Verse 9. [then another three cities of refuge would be designated in addition to the six already discussed in Scripture]. Now it is clear that they will not inherit even the seven nations if they transgress the Torah as he has said many times — hearken unto the statutes etc. that ye may live, and go in and possess the Land;²⁵⁵Above, 4:1. and thou shalt write upon them all the words of this Law etc. that thou mayest go in unto the Land;²⁵⁶Further, 27:3. For if ye shall diligently keep all this commandment etc., then will the Eternal drive out all these nations from before you.²⁵⁷Above, 11:22-23. And when Achan, who was but an individual, transgressed the devoted thing,²⁵⁸Joshua 22:20. it was stated, Therefore the children of Israel cannot stand before their enemies, they turn their backs before their enemies.²⁵⁹Ibid., 7:12. If so, [the question arises], why was this condition made only concerning these three cities, stating, And if the Eternal thy G-d enlarge thy border etc. if thou shalt keep all this commandment [when the conquest of the seven nations is also conditional upon observing the Torah]? The reason for this is, that it was the Divine Will before Him, blessed be He, that yet in the days of Moses and Joshua, He would give them possession of the lands of the seven nations which He had promised them while they were still in Egypt²⁶⁰See Exodus 3:8. and in the wilderness,²⁶¹See ibid., 34:11. because it was known to Him that they were deserving [of the lands] by virtue of their merits. Therefore He obligated them in the observance of all commandments upon the conquest of these [nations], and He further obligated them [in the commandment] of the six cities of refuge, and so Joshua designated [the cities]. But concerning the three remaining ones he made a condition, if thou shalt keep all this commandment etc. to love the Eternal thy G-d, and to walk forever in His ways etc.,²⁵⁴Verse 9. that is to say, that they would all observe the entire Torah, [they would then become obligated to set aside three additional cities]. There is no commandment dependent upon this condition except for [the designation] of these three cities.
But what reason was there to state, if thou shalt keep all this commandment etc. to walk ‘kol hayamim’ (forever) in His ways — then shalt thou add three cities more for thee, for who knows what will ever happen afterwards? Now Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra commented: “kol hayamim — [all the days] without interruption between them.” This is not correct. Rather, the purport of the verse is as follows: “If thou shalt keep all this commandment, when your merit attains a degree that you will keep all the commandments, loving G-d with a perfect everlasting love, so that it should be apparent to Him that you will never again sin, then He will broaden your boundary and give you all the [ten] nations [He promised to Abraham].” This is a reference to the days of which he said, And the Eternal thy G-d will open thy heart, and the heart of thy seed,²⁶²Further, 30:6. the expression the heart of thy seed indicating [the people of] all future days, similar to what is written in the Prophets,²⁶³See above, Note 25. And I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever; for the good of them, and of their children after them; and I will make an everlasting covenant with them etc., and I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me.²⁶⁴Jeremiah 32:39-40. Then when He shall make an everlasting covenant with them they will set aside these three cities [as cities of refuge].

ואם ירחיב ה׳ את גבולך, "And if the Lord your G'd will expand your boundary, etc." The Torah assures the Israelites that if they will observe all the Lord's commandments not only out of fear but out of love for Him the time will come when He will include the lands of the other 3 tribes in the boundaries of ארץ ישראל, the lands of the Kenite, the Kenizzite and the Kadmoni, all of whose lands were included in G'd's first promise to Abraham in Genesis 15,19. Our sages in Sanhedrin 99 confirm that the redemption in the future depends on our serving G'd out of love.

ואם ירחיב ה' אלוקיך את גבולך, this paragraph speaks of future events, a time when G’d would give the Israelites also the territory of the remaining three Canaanite tribes mentioned in the covenant at the pieces in Genesis, 15, the first covenant made between G’d and Avraham.

ואם ירחיב ה' אלוקיך את גבולך, “and if the Lord your G’d will expand your boundaries, etc.;” (condensed version of Nachmanides) At the beginning of the paragraph Moses spoke of the nations that G’d would dispossess, i.e. the seven well known Canaanite nations, and he commanded that after these cities had been resettled with Israelites, three cities of refuge in addition to the ones Moses himself had already set aside as such on the east bank of the Jordan were to be designated as such. (Compare Deut. 4,41) With the addition of the cities mentioned here the commandment of setting aside such cities would have been fulfilled in its entirety. All the commandments that were legislated with a view to being observed after conquest of the land are understood to become effective after the people had received their share of the land and had settled thereon. It is interesting that at this point, though Moses is apparently speaking about a law already formulated when the people had just received the Ten Commandments, that he does not add the words כאשר דבר לך, “as He (Hashem) had said to you” [40 years ago. Moses had used this formula no fewer than 5 times when elaborating on laws in the first 4 Books of the Torah. Ed.] The reason may be that what Moses refers to as the “broadening of the borders of the land of Israel” is the inclusion of the land of the three tribes promised at the covenant between the pieces to Avraham, but soft-pedaled since that time. (Compare Genesis, 15,19-21). This may be the reason why he adds the words כאשר נשבע לאבותיך, “as He has sworn to your patriarchs,” and again in verse 9 אשר דבר לתת לאבותיך, “which He has spoken about to give to your forefathers.” This is in sharp contrast to when he informed the people that after they would settle in the land, meat that has not been consecrated first would be allowed in their respective dwellings. On that occasion, although a broadening of the borders is clearly spelled out, (Deut. 12,20) Moses failed to mention that this had anything to do with promises Hashem had made to the patriarchs. He offered as a rationale for this new law only the fact that the journey to the Temple each time might be tedious. It is fairly obvious, that just as tenure in the land is dependent on the observance of the Torah’s command-ments, so Hashem’s fulfilling the unfulfilled portion of His promise to Avraham would have to await the time when the people‘s claim to the part of the land they had already inherited would prove to be deserved by their loyalty to the Torah. We may conjecture that it had always been Hashem’s intention to let the people inherit the lands of the seven tribes during the lifetime of Moses and Joshua, and that in order to qualify for the balance He gave them all the commandments in the Torah to test them if they were worthy of the remainder of the lands promised to the first of the patriarchs, Avraham.

ואם ירחיב ה' אלו-היך את גבולך, “and if the Lord your G’d will expand your borders, etc.” This paragraph is a promise pertaining to the more distant future. It deals with aspects of what G’d had promised Avraham at the covenant between the pieces in Genesis 15,18: “to your descendants I have given this land from the river of Egypt until the great river, the river Euphrates.” In that connection G’d mentioned ten tribes all of whom would be dispossessed in favor of the Israelites. Seven of these nations were dispossessed in the days of Joshua whereas the other three the Keyni, Kenizi, and Kadmoni have never been conquered by the Jewish people, though they will be conquered in due course.
In this instance the word ואם at the beginning of our verse is not to be understood as something conditional but as definitive. We must translate it as “when G’d will expand, etc.,” not “if G’d will expand.” The proof that this is the meaning of the word ואם in our verse are the words כאשר נשבע, "as He has sworn.” There was never anything “iffy” about this oath by G’d to our patriarchs. This is not the only instance in which the word אם means “when” instead of “if.” Another example is Exodus 20,22:ואם מזבח אבנים תעשה לי, where the meaning is: “when you make an altar of stones for Me;” a third example of the word אם meaning “when,” is in Exodus 22,24 אם כסף תלוה את עמי, where the meaning is not “if you will lend money to My people,” but “when you will lend money to My people.” Still another example of this meaning of the word אם is found in Leviticus 2,14 ואם תקריב מנחת בכורים, “when you offer a meal-offering of first ripe grain, etc.” (compare Mechilta בחודש 11 Parshat Yitro).

In accordance with His oath to give you the land, etc. Meaning that although Hashem promised to give Yisroel the [land of] the ten nations, He only gave Yisroel seven nations. He did not yet give the [land of the] Keini, Kenizi, and Kadmoni. However, in the future he will give [these three nations] as an inheritance [in order] to fulfill the oath [made to] the forefathers.

VV. 8 — 10. ׳ואם ירחיב וגו. Von den zehn Völkerschaften, deren Länderbesitz (Bereschit 15, 19 — 21) Abraham verheißen war, erhielten sie zunächst den Besitz von sieben. Das volle Erbteil blieb ihnen noch vorbehalten (siehe zu Kap. 1, 7). Wenn sie einst dieses noch vergrößerten Landbesitzes gewürdigt werden werden, so sollen sie auch für dies Gebiet die Grundlegung des darauf zu entfaltenden jüdisch-sozialen Lebens mit der Institution der Miklatstädte beginnen. Die durch keines der irdischen Güter aufzuwiegende Heiligkeit eines Menschenlebens bleibt für alle Zeiten die Basis aller jüdischen menschengesellschaftlichen Zustände. Das vergossene Blut eines Unschuldigen, דם נקי, lastet als schwere Blutschuld auf dem ganzen Staate, והיה עליך דמים (siehe ferner Bamidbar 35. 9 — 34).