Commento su Deuteronomio 29:21

AND THE REMOTE GENERATION, YOUR CHILDREN THAT SHALL RISE UP AFTER YOU, SHALL SAY. For the tribes of Israel in the first generation already knew [the cause of the disaster] for they heard the imprecations of the covenant [and therefore he states that the future generation will inquire into the cause of the disaster]. It is possible that this verse refers back to the root that beareth gall and wormwood,³³Succah 52b. that when this occurs in future generations, they will inquire into its cause.

ואמר הדור האחרון..וראו את מכת הארץ, "The later generation will say,…when they see the destruction and the conflagration, etc." Clearly, the Torah envisages that such punishment will not be something isolated. Why does the Torah mention the reaction by a later generation viewing the destruction of the Holy Land before mentioning the fact that they have seen it? The Torah should have written: "the later generation will see what destruction happened to this country and they will ask what caused it." Besides, the word ואמר is totally superfluous here seeing the Torah repeats in verse 23 that "they will say" i.e. all the other nations who came face to face with the destruction in the Holy Land. Furthermore, why did the Torah begin the verse in the singular, i.e. ואמר, only to switch to the plural, i.e. ואמרו כל הגוים, "and all the nations will say?"

ואמר הדור האחרון וגו', “and the later generation will say, etc.” these words already refer to what follows, i.e. “why has Hashem dealt in such a fashion, etc.?”

VV. 21-27. ואמר הדור וגו׳. Mit V. 20 sind die zur richtigen Würdigung und Auffassung der verkündeten Zukunft des Segens oder Unsegens eingeschalteten Tatsachen und Erläuterungen vollendet, und setzt dieser V. 21 die mit V. 69 im vorigen Kapitel unterbrochene Zukunftsverkündigung fort. ואמר הדור וגו׳ schließt sich unmittelbar dem V. 68 des vorigen Kapitels an. Sowohl für eure Nachkommen, als für die Gesamtheit der Völker wird die bis dahin geschilderte über euch und euer Land einbrechende Katastrophe und der dauernde Leidenszustand beider, zusammengehalten mit der längst voraus in dieses Buch niedergeschriebenen Verkündigung, zur sprechendsten offenkundigen weltgeschichtlichen Dokumentierung Gottes und seiner Waltung (vergl. Kap. 28, 46).

ואמר הדור הארון, “and the next generation will say, etc.” Moses refers to a generation that had not yet been born at the time when this covenant was entered into by the Jewish people.

I believe the best approach to understanding the sequence in our verse is as follows: "the later generation will say, etc." who is this later generation? Your children. The Torah had to spell this out seeing that other nations also have later generations. The Torah adds that not only your own children will raise this question, but even the Gentile who lives nearby and the nations who come from afar. וראו When all these nations from near and far will observe how this land has been devastated, they (too) will say: "what has caused this destruction?" It is taken for granted that your children who live in the land did not have to come and see the destruction. This is why the Torah could commence with describing only their reaction. The reason the Torah speaks of כל הגוים, "all the nations," is that those who have seen the desolation in the Holy Land will tell all those who have not seen it with their own eyes.

אשר יקומו מאחריכם, nicht אחריכם: die euch unmittelbar nachfolgenden, sondern אשר יקומו מאחריכם, auch die aus denen, die nach euch kommen, erstehenden Geschlechter, also auch die fernsten.

והנכרי אשר מארץ רחוקה, “as well as a stranger who had come from a distant land;” and had not heard about the solemn covenant; he will be astounded at the desolation in the land of Israel between the Jewish people and their G-d; the people around who knew about this covenant and its having breached by the Jewish people will not be surprised at all at what happened to this nation and its land.

The desolation described in this verse refers to the people of whom the Torah spoke in verse 17, the ones who decided to become idolators. The curses which had been mentioned immediately prior to this verse referred to the individual who tried to outsmart the Torah by hedging his acceptance of the oath of the covenant prior to affirming it with his mouth. The warning that G'd would erase that man's name applied only to the individual described in verse 18. Exile and desolation of the land of Israel are the result of idolatry.

אלהים אשר לא ידעום, Gott/i, den Gott ihrer Väter, kennen gelernt haben. ולא חלק להם (siehe zu Kap. 4, 19).

From a distant land. Even if they come from a different land, and know nothing of the nature of this country, they will still know and understand that these plagues are caused by Hashem harming the land, and not that it was always the nature of the land to be like this.

הכתובה בספר הזה, das Land und das Volk und dieses Buch, — Palästina, Israel und die Bibel — das sind die drei zusammengehörigen, sich gegenseitig erläuternden, ewigen Bezeugungen Gottes vor den Augen der Völker bis auf diesen Tag.

וישלכם das ist das mit dem großen ל über die Zerstreuten dieses Volkes für ihr und der Völkerbewusstsein sich aussprechende Wort. Wo immer sie sind, da ist nicht ihre ursprüngliche Heimat, und wo sie sich befinden, da sind sie nicht zufällig dort. Der Gott der Menschen- und Völkergeschichte hat dorthin sie "geworfen". וישלכם, als ein "großes Lamed", als ein großes "Lehr- und Wahrzeichen" für die Entwicklungsgeschichte der Völker, vielleicht auch, mit das ש in den Schatten stellendem ויליכם :ל sie dorthin "geführt", auch dort in der Verweisung aus dem ureigenen Lande, unter den Völkern Seinen Menschheitzwecken — vorbereitend — zu dienen.