Commento su Levitico 26:25

נקם ברית [AND I WILL BRING UPON YOU A SWORD AVENGING] THE VENGEANCE OF THE COVENANT — Scripture speaks of “the vengeance of the covenant” because there is vengeance which is not mentioned in “The Covenant” (i. e. in this chapter of Scripture) being in the manner of other acts of vengeance (i. e. like the barbarous acts of revenge that are customary among other peoples, but which are not threatened in the Torah), and such a one was the blinding of the eyes of king Zedekiah (Sifra, Bechukotai, Chapter 6 1; cf. 2 Kings 25:7). Another explanation of נקם ברית is that it means vengeance for My covenant which you have transgressed. Wherever “bringing of the sword” is mentioned in Scripture it signifies a war waged by the enemies’ armies.

והבאתי עליכם חרב, as happened repeatedly during the periods when Israel was governed by its kings even though the Temple was standing. Kings II 8,12 describes a meeting of the prophet Elisha with King Ben Haddad of Aram (Syria) in which the prophet tells the king that the reason he is weeping is because he foresees the death and destruction which this king will cause his homeland.

נקם ברית, vengeance for the covenant which you broke. Compare what was written in verse 15.

There is “avenging” ... I.e., “I will bring an avenging sword upon you avenging the covenant,” implies the sword written in the covenant, i.e., the Torah. But there is another avenging not [mentioned] in the covenant, and that is the blinding of Tzidkiyohu.

חרב, “sword,” this is the opposite of the promise in verse 6, that no sword will cross the boundaries of your land. Regarding this “sword,” Isaiah 1,20, has said that you will be devoured by it. נוקמת נקם הברית “it shall execute the vengeance of the covenant (that has been broken by you.) The Torah had warned of this already in Exodus 24,8, when it was first described as a great blessing for you. In Vayikra Rabbah 35,6, the author, quoting Isaiah 1,18, אם תאבו ושמעתם טוב הארץ תאכלו, speaks of if you will agree and listen you will eat of the best the earth has to offer,” adding that “you will be devoured by the sword if you do not listen.”Rashi adds on our verse that there is also a vengeance that is not related to this covenant between the Jewish people and their G-d, citing the gouging out of King Tzidkiyahu’s eyes for having broken a covenant with King Nebuchadnezzar. (Torat Kohanim) This is a form of vengeance not mentioned in the Torah. [The first time we encounter it occurs with Shimshon, whose eyes were gouged out by the Philisitines, but in his caseaccording to our sages, it was actually retribution not for what he had done to the Philistines, but by what he had done to himself by following his eyes when repeatedly choosing Philistine women to cohabit with. The Torah, and Shimshon’s father, had warned him not to rely on what his eyes saw when choosing a wife. Ed.] There is yet another kind of vengeance not mentioned in the Torah, which is also described as violation of a covenant; When the Torah wrote in Deuteronomy 28,69, at the end of Moses’ version of the reprimands, Tochachah, אלה דברי בהרית, “these are the words of (warning) of the covenant concluded with the people at Mount Chorev,” the very word: אלה “these,” hints to us that in addition to “these,” there may be other contractual and mutual obligations, but not necessarily the ones entered into at Mount Sinai. [Keeping one’s solemn promise surely did not have to become part of morality only after the Jewish people accepted the Torah. Our forefathers already encountered this problem in their lives, Ed.]

ונאספתם AND YE SHALL GATHER YOURSELVES from outside (from the open country) WITHIN YOUR CITIES on account of the state of siege (Sifra, Bechukotai, Chapter 6 1).

נוקמת נקם ברית, vengeance for violating the covenant, the very vengeance which is mentioned in the Book of the Covenant, in the words of our sages (Ketuvot 30) “even though the institution of the Supreme Court became void, the penalties which this court was authorised to hand out have not become void.” [if someone guilty of such a penalty which could not be administered because we are in exile, forfeits the atonement which administering the penalty would grant him, so that he is in fact much worse off seeing the court could not convict him. Ed.]

The blinding of Tzidkiyohu. Blinding is not written in the Torah. Alternatively, “avenging the covenant” refers to Tzidkiyohu who made an oath [covenant], [then] transgressed the oath, and was blinded. And “other avengings” means cases where people transgressed the Torah’s commands such as theft and immorality, [where one does not transgress a specific covenant. Rashi is saying as follows: “There is ’avenging’ which is not for the (violation of a) covenant, such as with other avengings, while this (case of our verse) is the blinding of Tzidkiyohu.]

ונאספתם אל עריכם, “you shall be gathered within your cities;” you will have to take refuge within the walls of your cities from the swords of your enemies. Even this defensive measure will prove useless; because pestilence will break out amongst you within these cities, and you will be delivered into the hands of your enemies. This is the second curse contrasted with verse 13 where G-d promised that He will lead us in upright and selfconfident posture. The third plague follows when the Torah writes here that we will be delivered to our enemies as opposed to verse 8, when the Jewish people were described as so powerful and feared that a mere one hundred of them put to flight 10000 of their attackers. This is the third of the seven curses, the fourth being that you will fall before your enemies instead of at least being able to save your lives.

ושלחתי דבר בתוככם AND I WILL SEND THE PESTILENCE AMONG YOU, and through the pestilence it will happen, ונתתם ביד THAT YOU WILL BE GIVEN INTO THE HAND of the enemies who besiege you. This is because no corpse was permitted to remain in Jerusalem over night, and therefore when they would carry the corpse out of the city to bury it they would be given (they would fall) into the hands of their enemies (Sifra, Bechukotai, Chapter 6 1).

ונתתם ביד אויב, as happened to the Ten Tribes who were exiled by the King of Assyria.

Which you have transgressed. I.e., the Torah [according to the first interpretation].

Enemy armies. Rashi is answering the question: How can a sword on its own strike them? Why does Rashi not explain this above in v. 6 where it said, “No sword shall pass through your land”? The answer is: Above it is written “I will grant peace in the land.” Since peace is the opposite of war, as it is written (Tehillim 120:7), “I am for peace, but when I speak they are for war,” [“sword” of that verse] certainly refers to an armed force [i.e., war]. Here, however, no enemy is mentioned as it is only written, “I will bring an avenging sword upon you.” Therefore, he explains that “sword” refers to an army of enemies.

When they take out. Because otherwise, how is pestilence relevant to “You will be given into the hand of the enemy”? Even though did every evil, they did not leave the dead overnight because the [holy] Land is unable to bear it and the corpse immediately gives off a stench if left overnight.