레위기 18:3의 주석

כמעשה ארץ מצרים AFTER THE DEEDS OF THE LAND OF EGYPT… [SHALL YE NOT DO] — This tells us that the deeds of the Egyptians and the Canaanites were more corrupt than those of all other nations, and that the district of Egypt in which the Israelites had resided (אשר ישבתם בה) was even more corrupt than all the rest of Egypt (Sifra, Acharei Mot, Section 8 3).

According to the opinion of Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra, the Scriptural command, After the doings of the land of Egypt … shall ye not do,²²⁴Verse 3. is a reference to [the practice of sacrificing to] the demons mentioned above [in 17:7]; and after the doings of the land of Canaan … shall ye not do²²⁴Verse 3. is an allusion to the forbidden sexual relationships, in which the Canaanites were very bad and sinful,²²⁵Genesis 13:13. as He stated at the end of this section, For all these abominations have the men of the Land done.²²⁶Further, Verse 27. And in the opinion of our Rabbis in the Torath Kohanim,²²⁷Torath Kohanim, Acharei 9:3. the Egyptians were also addicted to carnality, in all forms of the forbidden relationships, and with males and cattle. This is the truth, [as Scripture states] that there were also sodomites in the Land,²²⁸I Kings 14:24. The verse concludes: they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Eternal drove out before the children of Israel. referring [to the abominations of the nations] which were there from the beginning till now. Scripture further testifies concerning them, the Egyptians, thy neighbors, great of flesh,²²⁹Ezekiel 16:26. and it further says, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses,²³⁰Ibid., 23:20. the term “flesh” being a euphemism [for the sexual organ]. Similarly, in the expressions, his flesh ran with his issue,²³¹Above, 15:2. and her issue in her flesh be blood²³²Ibid., Verse 19. [the term “flesh” is an allusion to the sexual organ].

כמעשה ארץ מצרים וכמעשה ארץ כנען, Rabbi Yossi the Galilean, raised the point that seeing the Torah had compared the cultures of Egypt to that of the Canaanites, and that of the Canaanites to that of the Egyptians, why were we commanded to wipe out the Canaanites and to replace them in their former homeland, while the Torah did not command us to destroy the Egyptians and their culture? The Canaanites were granted to live on their land for 47 years longer than it took for G-d to punish the Egyptians as we know that Chevron was founded seven years earlier than its counterpart Tzoan in Egypt? (Compare Numbers 13,22) The answer to his question is that they had the merit of burying Avraham in the cave of Machpelah going for them. (Sifra) Our paragraph was written at this juncture because the satyrs to whom the Egyptians sacrificed and whom the Israelites while there copied, have been mentioned immediately before this paragraph.

אשר אני מביא אתכם שמה [AND AFTER THE DEEDS OF THE LAND OF CANAAN] WHITHER I BRING YOU [SHALL YE NOT DO] — This again tells us that those Canaanitish clans whom Israel subdued were more corrupt than all the others of them (Sifra, Acharei Mot, Section 8 4).

[And that place] in which the Israelites settled [was the most corrupt of all]. Explanation: Even [worse] than the practices of the Land of Goshen, and how much more so than that of Egypt. Because if not so, why [does the verse add] “and the practices of the Land of Canaan?” [The answer is]: The verse is adding [in severity as it goes] from Egypt to Goshen, and from Goshen to Canaan.

ובחקתיהם לא תלכו NEITHER SHALL YE WALK IN THEIR ORDINANCES — What has Scripture left unsaid when it spoke of the deeds of the Egyptians and Canaanites that it felt compelled to add ובחקתיהם לא תלכו But by these latter words it refers to their social customs — things which have assumed for them the character of a law as, for instance, the frequenting of theaters and race-courses. Rabbi Meir, however, said: These (חקתיהם) refer to the "ways of the Amorites" (superstitious practices) which our Rabbis have enumerated (Shabbat 67a; Sifra, Acharei Mot, Section 8 8; cf. also Tosefta Shabbat 7).

Theatres. In the first chapter of Kesuvos (5a), Rashi explains that טרטיאות are palaces of non-Jewish kings and non-Jewish ministers. (Gur Aryeh): אצטדיאות is a sport where they incite bulls and other beasts to gore and fight each other.