신명기 4:20 해설: Rashi, Chizkuni, Kli Yakar & Sforno

מכור — a כור is a vessel in which one refines gold.

ויוצא אתכם מכור הברזל, “He has taken you out of the iron crucible;” Rabbi Akiva says that by this G-d (Moses) refers to the gentiles who burn their first born sons as sacrifices to their “so called” deities. (Yakut Shimoni on this verse, quoting Pirkey de Rabbi Eliezer).

“And the Lord took you, etc. to be His heritage nation, as it is this day.” Above it says And lest you lift your eyes to the heavens and see the sun, etc., referring to the daily sphere that is the greatest of all the hosts of heaven. About this, it says: How can you be so ignorant as to bow down to the sun when you are important and great in God’s eyes like the sun itself? How can you worship something that is similar to you? As it is said, And those who love Him are like the rising of the sun in its strength (Judges 5:31). And if you are comparable in stature to the sun, how much more so to the rest of the hosts of heaven which are lesser in value than the sun. Furthermore, you have dominion over the sun, as in Sun, stand still upon Gibeon (Joshua 10:12), and similarly Moses made the sun stand still. And what is written, which the Lord has allotted to all the nations, does not refer to the existence of the light itself, but rather to their influence over the lower realms, because all the nations are subject to the cosmic system, but you the Lord has taken under His direct guidance, for you are supervised by the First Cause, blessed be He. Therefore, you have dominion over the sun, so how could you worship it?