Commento su Deuteronomio 29:25

לא ידעום [FOR THEY … SERVED OTHER GODS] WHOM THEY KNEW NOT — i.e. in whom they had never experienced any Divine power.

GODS THAT THEY KNEW NOT — “gods in whom they had never experienced any Divine power. ‘V’LO CHALAK LAHEM’ (AND THAT HE HATH NOT ALLOTTED UNTO THEM) — He did not give these [gods] to them [Israel] to be their portion. And Onkelos rendered this expression: v’lo otiva l’hon, meaning, ‘they had not done them any good.’ [Onkelos thus explained] the term chalak as meaning, ‘that god which they have chosen for themselves has never chalak (apportioned) them any inheritance or portion.” This is Rashi’s language. The correct interpretation is: “gods that they knew not as gods, that is to say, [they worshipped gods] whom they knew not as having acted with any Divine power inherent to their essence. And the Eternal, the G-d of their fathers did not allot them [these gods] to them, meaning that He did not designate them as lords over Israel as He placed them over the nations.” I have already explained this.⁴¹See Leviticus 18:25, and above, 4:19.

אלוהים אשר לא ידעום, they did not even know of such a deity’s existence. For such unproven and almost anonymous deities they abandoned their G’d, the One Who had been proven as true, powerful, through all the miracles He had performed for them.

אלוהים אשר לא ידעום, “a deity that had been unfamiliar to them.” Nachmanides explains that what is meant is that the people had not had any evidence that this so-called deity possessed and exercised powers that would be helpful for its worshippers.

וישתחוו להם, אלוהים אשר לא ידעום ולא חלק להם, and they served their gods; gods they did not know of and which He did not apportion to them.” Moses meant that the Jewish people had never known that these idols were supposed to possess independent divine powers. Not only this, but G’d had not assigned these powers to the Jewish people but only to the Canaanites (Nachmanides). This is based on Deut. 4,19 where we discussed it and pointed out that Israel had been assigned as its protective Power the Creator of the entire universe, and that the Lord Himself is described as מנת חלקי וכוסי, “the Lord is my allotted share and portion” (Psalms 16,5). We also have a verse in the Torah itself, Deut. 32,9 כי חלק ה’ עמו, “for He is the share of His people.”

They had no notion that they possessed Divine omnipotence. [In some texts] Rashi explains the text out of order because he wants to prove that when the verse writes unknown to them, it means, They had no notion that they possessed Divine omnipotence. Because once Rashi explains the verse that Which He had not apportioned to them means He did not allot them as their portion, it is obvious that they were unknown to them. If so, why does the verse write unknown to them”? Therefore we must say it means they had no notion that they possessed Divine omnipotence. Re”m explains that [Rashi explains the verse out of order] because the verse [too] should have written, “gods [which] He had not apportioned to them and were unknown to them, in order to first say that they prostrated themselves to those gods not because Hashem had allotted them as their portion. And afterwards he adds that they also did not choose them of themselves for they saw that they possessed Divine omnipotence.

ולא חלק להם, “and whom He had not allotted to them.” (Compare Deut.4,19-20) The fact that the Torah and the land of Israel is not part of the heritage of the gentile nations has been made in the Holy Scriptures on numerous occasions such as Lamentations 3,24, and Psalms 16,5.

ולא חלק להם means, He did not give them (the gods) to be their portion (cf. Rashi on Deuteronomy 4:19). Onkelos, however, renders it by לא אוטיבא להון, i.e. they did not bestow upon them any good. As for the expression לא חלק, Onkelos took it thus, explaining also the singular form of the verb: that god which they have chosen for themselves has never given them any חלק, any inheritance or portion.

ולא חלק להם, a deity, be it a horoscope or whatever which He had not assigned to them. The reason G’d had never assigned such a horoscope to them had been to show them that they did not need it, as did the other nations. Moses had mentioned in Deut. 4,19-20 that G’d had assigned such intermediaries to the gentile nations.

ולא חלק להם, “and that Hashem had not assigned to Israel as a protective power.” This is a reminder that whereas the fates of nations of the world are guided by angels, assigned by Hashem to each nation, the Jewish people are under His direct supervision so that there is no protective angel assigned to them.