Komentarz do Powtórzonego Prawa 12:5

לשכנו תדרשו AFTER HIS RESIDENCE SHALL YE INQUIRE — This refers to the Tabernacle at Shiloh. (Sifrei Devarim 62:3)

UNTO HIS HABITATION SHALL YE SEEK. The meaning thereof is that you are to come from distant countries asking, “Where is the road leading to the House of G-d?,” and you should say to one another, ‘Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Eternal, to the House of the G-d of Jacob,’²³Isaiah 2:3. similar to the expression, They shall inquire concerning Zion with their faces hit herward.²⁴Jeremiah 50:5. And in the Sifre it is stated:²⁵Sifre, R’eih 62. “Ye shall seek — seek [the place where G-d intended that His House be built] through the command of the prophet. I might think that you are to wait until the prophet tells you [when and where to build it]; Scripture therefore states, unto His habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come — seek and find [the place], and afterwards the prophet will tell you [whether your choice is the correct one]. And so you find it in the case of David etc.”²⁶“As it is said, O Eternal, remember unto David all his affliction, how he swore unto the Eternal, and vowed unto the Mighty One of Jacob, ‘Surely I will not come into the tent of my house … Until I find out a place for the Eternal, a dwelling-place for the Mighty One of Jacob’” (Psalms 132:1-5). And whence do you know that he did it only by command of the prophet? Because it says, And Gad [the prophet] came that day to David, and said unto him: ‘Go up, rear an altar on the threshing-floor of Aravnah the Jebusite.’ (II Samuel 24:18) (Sifre, R’eih 62).
And by way of the Truth, [the mystic teachings of the Cabala], l’shichno (unto His habitation) shall ye seek means that you are to inquire after His Glory [that abides there]; and thither thou shalt come to appear before the Lord, Eternal G-d, the G-d of Israel.²⁷Exodus 34:23. It is on the basis of this expression here [l’shichno — unto His habitation] that the Sages have spoken of the Shechinah (“Divine Presence”).

המקום אשר יבחר ה' אלוקיכם מכל שבטיכם...לשכנו, the place where His Name will have a permanent residence, during the early period at Shiloh, later on in Jerusalem, Solomon’s Temple, better known as בית עולמים, the permanent Temple.

To the place – When one transforms the letters of this phrase through atbash (a code which substitutes the last letter of the alphabet for the first, the second last for the second, etc…) the resultant word has the numeric value of ‘this is Jerusalem’ (Sifre). The numeric value of place (makom) is the same as to Zion (l’tzion).

לשכנו תדרשו, “you shall seek out His presence.” You are to come from afar and enquire as to the directions you have to travel to get to the location of the Tabernacle/Temple. You are to gradually congregate in larger and larger numbers, each encouraging the other to make the pilgrimage to the House of the Lord.

כי אם אל המקום אשר יבחר ה' אלו-היכם מכל שבטיכם, “except in the place which the Lord your G’d will select from amongst all your tribes, etc.” The place in question is Mount Moriah; it is well known among the Gentiles. They know of its spiritual advantages through tradition. There is no need to mention this location by name. The people all had a tradition that this was where their ancestor Yitzchak had lain bound on the altar. Maimonides writes in his Moreh Nevuchim (3,45) that there were three reasons why the location of the future Temple was not spelled out at this point. 1) If the nations of the world had known that in that location prayers are answered positively by G’d and sacrifices are welcome to Him, every nation would have made a supreme effort to take possession of that site. This would have resulted in untold slaughter among the nations and ongoing strife among them. 2) If the Canaanites who dwelled in the land at the time Moses spoke these words had heard of them and they had realized that the Israelites would dispossess them and take over that site they would have utterly destroyed it before the Jewish people had a chance to conquer it. 3) Even the tribes of the Israelites would have argued among themselves in whose territory this site, would be located at the time the land was distributed among the tribes. Such a division among the people would have been even worse than the rebellion of Korach when the people were not prepared to recognize the preferred hereditary status of the Priests. For all these reasons Moses preferred not to spell out the exact location of where the Temple would be built in the future. If even the Jews did not know the location, it is clear that the Gentiles did not know it either. Although everyone knew of the significance of Mount Moriah in the past, they had no idea of what this meant in terms of its future religious significance, in terms of the place G’d would choose.

This refers to the Tabernacle at Shiloh. I.e., do not seek His Presence anywhere [you wish], because private altars are forbidden. It seems that Rashi’s inference is based on the apparently extra word לשכנו (His Presence). For it would suffice to say, “Rather at the place ... to set His Presence there.” Rather, the verse is referring to two places — Jerusalem and Shiloh. Re”m’s explanation is difficult to understand (Nachalas Yaakov).

V. 5. כי אם וגו׳, nicht nur sollt ihr, was den Namen eures Gottes trägt, nicht zerstören, sondern es soll die Stätte, die Gott zum Träger seines Namens erwählen wird, der von allen hochgehaltene Mittelpunkt werden, der euch alle zur nationalen Vereinigung um Gott und das Gesetz seines Willens ladet. Es ist aber hier sofort die Bestimmung ausgesprochen, dass diese Weihung eines Ortes zum Träger des göttlichen Namens nicht wie bei den Völkern, deren Götterstätten im jüdischen Lande hier der Zerstörung überwiesen sind, von unserem subjektiven Belieben, sondern von der ausdrücklichen Erwählung Gottes abhängig gemacht wird. Nicht wir haben Gott eine Stätte zu weihen, sondern Er hat uns die Stelle zu bezeichnen, die Er zu Seinem Heiligtum und unserem Sammelpunkte um Ihn und Sein Heiligtum bestimmt.

כי אם אל המקום אשר יבחר, “except at a place of His choosing.” Moses did not spell out the name of that place, seeing that at different times G-d’s Presence decides to accept homage at different locations. [but never at more than one place at a given time. Ed.]

תדרשו, you shall seek out this place to worship and to offer your sacrifices, as per Isaiah 11,10 אליו גויים ידרשו, “nations will seek Him out there.”

לשכנו תדרשו, “you shall seek out His Presence.” You should seek out His attribute כבוד which first became manifest on Mount Sinai. In due course this Shechinah would be manifest in the Holy Land, originally in Shiloh (where the Tabernacle stood for over 390 years.). In this instance, seeing that Mount Moriah as the ultimate site of the Temple was not known yet, Moses has in mind the Tabernacle of Shiloh.

מכל שבטיכם, von allen und für alle, und hatten daher alle Stämme bei dem dereinstigen Erwerb dieser von Gott erwählten Stelle zum einzigen Nationalheiligtum für alle zu konkurrieren. Die durch Innehalten der Pest und durch das Prophetenwort Gads bezeichnete Gottesstätte in Jerusalem erwarb David von dem bisherigen Besitzer für sechshundert Schekel, wozu er für sich und Juda fünfzig gab und so von jedem der zwölf Stämme fünfzig erhob (vergl. Sam. II. 24, 24 und Chron. I. 21, 25 ספרי z. St. — siehe Sebachim 116 b).

ובאת שמה, G’d will not come to you, as in the case of the idolaters, but you will come to Him.

לשכנו תדרשו, nach der Bekundung seiner Gegenwart sollt ihr forschen, דרוש על פי נביא (Sifri z. St.), sollt der Kundgebung Gottes harren, und dann ובאת שמה in nationaler Einheit dorthin euch sammeln. לשכנו (siehe Bereschit S. 160 und Schmot S. 330).

That is that He commanded us to bring all of the sacrifices that are incumbent upon one during the first holiday of the three pilgrim holidays that we encounter, such that none of the three pilgrim holidays pass without each one of us sacrificing any sacrifice that he is obligated. And that is His, may He be exalted, saying, "and there shall you come. And there you shall bring" (Deuteronomy 12:5-6). And the content of this command is that it is saying that when you come there - and that is on each of the holidays of the three pilgrim holidays - you are obligated to bring every sacrifice incumbent upon you. And the language of the Sifrei (Sifrei Devarim 63:4-5) is, "'And there shall you come. And there you shall bring.' Why is it stated? To make them obligatory on the first holiday that he encounters." And there, it says, "He is not in transgression of 'you shall not delay' (Deuteronomy 23:22) until all three of the pilgrim holidays of the whole entire year have passed him by." This means to say that he has transgressed a negative commandment [only] after three pilgrim holidays have passed him by, and he has not brought [them]. However when one holiday passed him by, he has surely violated a positive commandment. And in the Gemara, Rosh Hashanah (Rosh Hashanah 4b), [it says,] "Rabbi Meir says, 'Once [even] one holiday has passed, one transgresses, "you shall not delay."'" And it is said there, "And Rabbi Meir, what is his reason? As it is written, 'and there shall you come. And there you shall bring.' But the Rabbis [reason, this verse only] comes to [indicate] a positive commandment." Behold it has already been explained there that His saying, "and there shall you come. And there you shall bring," is a positive commandment. And that is that he bring all that He is obligated from God's laws and dispose of them on each and every holiday. And whether it is any of the types of sacrifices, monies, appraisals, consecrations, gleanings (leket), forgotten sheaves or corner produce (peah) - the dispensation of one's obligation with any of these on the first holiday that he encounters is a positive commandment, as is explained in the Gemara, Rosh Hashanah. (See Parashat Re'eh; Mishneh Torah, Sacrificial Procedure 14.)