신명기 6:24 해설: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Chizkuni, Sforno & Rabbeinu Bahya

King Solomon said: the verse “her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths, peaceful” [Proverbs, 3:17]. This means, the ways of the Torah only make joy, and also, the world was only created with peace, since the Holy One had to have peace when he created heaven. He created it out of fire and water. It is known that fire and water cannot exist together. However, the Holy One made peace between them, as the verse says, “He imposes peace in His heights” [Job, 25:2]. The name of the Holy One is peace, as the verse says, “he called it, Adonai-shalom” [Judges, 6:24]. Israel are called peace because they worship the Holy One and received the Torah, which is peace for the body, from the person to the person’s soul. When the person is pious, the Holy One gives him health on his head, as the verse says, “healing for the whole body” [Proverbs, 4:22]. The soul comes to a proper rest through the commandments and Torah, as the verse says, “the teaching of the Lord is perfect, renewing life” [Psalms, 19:8]. This means, the Torah restores the soul to its proper place, and our prayers, which end with peace, just as the sacrifices also end with peace. Also, when they went to war against the nations, they had to first begin with peace, if they wanted to make peace. They did not do anything to the city and even in heaven among the angels one must have peace. The Holy One must make peace between Michael and Gabriel, as the verse says, “dominion and dread are His, he imposes peace in His heights” [Job, 25:2]. Michael is the highest angel and is called dominion, because he rules over all the angels and prays for Israel. Even the dead need peace, as the verse says, “you shall go to your fathers in peace” [Genesis, 15:15]. Therefore, the portion begins with:¹Bahya, Shoftim, Introduction.

לטוב לנו כל הימים לחיותנו כיום הזה, “for our good, always, and to keep us alive as of this day.” In other words, Moses gives the Torah’s answer that we will be the ones inheriting כל הימים, “all the days,” i.e. also in the world of the future. This verse is the answer to the ridiculous philosophy of the heretics who are asking the Israelites (sarcastically) “why did Moses never spell out that there is such a thing as an afterlife, something we call: עולם הבא?” The answer to their question has been spelled out in our verse. The fact that in many other instances Moses did not spell out that this afterlife is the reward for living a life of Torah observance, and he is more concerned with their observing the commandments while they are alive on this earth, is because Moses addresses every Jew, whether a grandfather or at the beginning of his adolescence. In other words, what he speaks about must be relevant to the nation as a whole. In this way he hopes to increase the awe in which each individual Jew relates to our G-d. For the same reason you have not heard him writing or speaking about gehinom, the domain reserved for the perpetual sinners, in which they are burned to a crisp, according to many other religions, and which will inspire them with dread of their god, not admiration and love, he warned them only about punishment in this life. (Compare the portions bechukotai, and ki tavo and a number of other places.)

ויצונו ה' לעשות את כל החקים האלה, in order to make us ready by means of their observance,