Commento su Levitico 24:23

ובני ישראל עשו AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL DID [AS THE LORD COMMANDED MOSES] every prescription mentioned in respect to the stoning-penalty in another place, viz., the casting down of the culprit from a height, the heaping of stones upon him, and the hanging him after the execution has taken place (cf. Sifra, Emor, Chapter 19 10; Sanhedrin 43a).

AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL DID AS THE ETERNAL COMMANDED MOSES. “This includes the leaning of hands,⁵⁴⁰Verse 14. casting from a height, and hanging the dead body, as well as the regulation, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree.”⁵⁴¹Deuteronomy 21:23. [This is the language of the] Torath Kohanim.⁵⁴²Torath Kohanim, end of Emor. And Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra wrote that the plain meaning thereof is that from that day onwards they acted in accordance with the law concerning one who wounds [a fellowman or causes him damage, mentioned here above in Verses 17-21]. But it is not a correct [explanation] that this verse be referring to the future. The plain meaning thereof is as follows: “and they stoned him with stones because the children of Israel did according to the commandment which the Eternal commanded Moses.” Such a repetition of expressions is found with respect to all those who keep the commandments of G-d, just as it is said in the section of the Passover,⁵⁴³Exodus 12:28. and as He stated in the section of the census, Thus did the children of Israel; according to all that the Eternal commanded Moses, so did they;⁵⁴⁴Numbers 1:54. and so also with regards to the rods of the princes: Thus did Moses; as the Eternal commanded him, so did he.⁵⁴⁵Ibid., 17:26.
The correct interpretation here appears to me to be that since Scripture mentioned first the stoning, it went back afterwards and stated, and the children of Israel did etc., for the meaning of Scripture is to declare that when Moses spoke to the children of Israel they immediately brought forth him that had cursed, and they stoned him; and all the children of Israel did so in order to keep and fulfill [the commandment] as the Eternal commanded Moses, but not out of hatred to the son of the Egyptian who had striven with the Israelite, for [they did it] in order to remove the unworthy one from their midst.
Behar

ובני ישראל עשו כאשר צוה השם. The children of Israel did as G'd commanded. Why did the Torah write that the children of Israel did what G'd commanded after it had already reported in the first part of the verse that they took the blasphemer out of the camp and executed him by stoning him? Seeing that the cause of this execution was a quarrel between a Jew and the son of a Jewess, one could have argued that though the judgment was carried out, many people harboured reservations in their hearts about this execution. The Torah therefore repeats that the children of Israel did what G'd commanded to indicate that their motivation was to carry out G'd's commandment.

ובני ישראל עשו כאשר צוה ה' את משה, they did not stone him as an act of revenge, or because they hated the individual being stoned; they did it merely in order to fulfill G’d’s commandment.

ובני ישראל עשו כאשר צוה ה' את משה, “and the Children of Israel did as G’d had commanded to Moses.” Nachmanides draws attention to a statement in Torat Kohanim, according to which the words “as G’d had commanded Moses,” included the requirement that all those who had heard the blasphemer were required to place their hands and weight, סמיכה, upon him prior to his being stoned, as well as the requirement to push him down from an elevated wall into a pit, and to hang him subsequent to his death until the evening after his execution. Ibn Ezra states that the procedures mentioned in Torat Kohanim became effective from that day onwards for all people who were executed at the command of the courts. Nachmanides disagrees with Ibn Ezra on this, claiming that if so, the legislation to do so would have had to be phrased in the future tense. The plain meaning of our verse is that the Israelites carried out the instructions G’d had given to Moses. There is nothing strange in the Torah describing this execution in more than the minimal number of words, as we have many instances of the Torah doing so, as for instance in connection with the Passover, (Exodus 12,28) or with the census of the Jewish people (Numbers 1,54). Personally, (Nachmanides writing) I feel that the reason for the above being apparently repeated is that the instruction was given to Moses individually. When the Torah reports that all the people participated in this execution “as G’d had commanded Moses,” the point the Torah made is that the people did not feel any personal animosity towards this man who had an Egyptian father, but that their participation in the execution was motivated purely by the fact that G’d had commanded Moses that this was what was to be done. They wanted to participate in removing stains on their collective national character by doing so.

ובני ישראל עשו, “and the Children of Israel did, etc.” they carried out what we have read in this portion.

וירגמו אותו אבן, “they stoned him to death with stones.” The use of the word אבן “stone,” in the singular mode, teaches that if one stone had been enough to kill the sinner, no more stones are to be hurled at him. (Sifra)

Alternatively, the Torah wished to give credit to the whole people for having fulfilled this commandment although it was obviously impossible for the entire nation to physically participate in this execution.

ובני ישראל עשו, “and the Children of Israel had done;” from this day onwards the legislation of how to deal with people who injure others was practiced. An alternate interpretation of this line: the words: “they did,” refer not only to the last verse preceding this, but state that all the steps of the legal proceedings of carrying out an execution were performed dutifully by all the people whenever the need arose to do so.(Sifra)

The Torah may even go beyond this and credit the whole people with having fulfilled all the commandments because they all identified with this execution. This is why the line is couched in general terms, the Torah not specifying which command of G'd the people had fulfilled.

It is also possible that the Torah had to write this line seeing that the command to execute the blasphemer had been addressed to Moses, G'd addressing him in the singular and saying (verse 14) "take the blasphemer outside the camp and have all those who heard his blasphemy place their hands upon his head and the whole congregation shall stone him." According to that verse we thought that whereas Moses was only to take the blasphemer outside, the entire people had to execute him. Here the Torah wrote: "they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him to death." The verse makes the people the whole subject. The Torah now proceeds to praise Israel for not having waited until Moses took the blasphemer outside the camp; they did so themselves and proceeded to complete the commandment to execute him. If we adopt the previous ways of interpreting the verse the word הוצא "take out" which G'd said to Moses may be understood to mean that either Moses or the people were to do this.