Komentarz do Powtórzonego Prawa 18:12

כל אלה עשה [FOR] ALL THAT DO THESE THINGS [ARE AN ABOMINATION UNTO THE LORD] — it does not say, “he who does all these things”, but “all who do these things” — who do even only one of them (Sifrei Devarim 173:1; cf. Makkot 24a).

מוריש אותם, for they did not bother to consult G’d and the true prophets about their impending future. Instead, they relied on their respective idols, all abominations in the eyes of the Lord, so that by their perishing the impotence of their deities to protect their believers had to be demonstrated.

כי תועבת ה' כל עושה אלה; “for anyone who has done such things has committed an abomination in the eyes of Hashem.” The word כל here is not to be understood literally as “everyone,” for the people guilty of מעוננן or מנחש, though they have transgressed have not committed a תועבה. The Torah does make allowance for the natural desire of a person to be able to know the future. The reason why G’d forbade us, the Jewish people, even to engage מעוננים and מנחשים to help us unravel the future is because we have been provided by Hashem with prophets who have had revealed to us as much of the future as G’d deems it for necessary to make known to us, so that it would reflect ingratitude to bypass these prophets and turn to other most unreliable sources to gain that kind of knowledge.

כי תועבת ה' כל עושה אלה, “for anyone who does these is an abomination of Hashem;” anyone of the nine cults mentioned previously. ובגלל התועבות האלה, “and on account of these abominations, etc.,” with which the people perpetrating them disgust the Lord your G’d Who is above all such forces as the planetary constellations and disciplines concerning their movements and influences on terrestrial earth, the very planetary system, גלגל, is apt to be upset. The word בגלל is chosen by the Torah to remind us of the planetary systems. According to Shabbat 151 the function of these systems is to revolve in their orbits without deviating from their assigned paths. The expression also occurs in connection with צדקה, the practice of charity (Deut. 15,10) where we already mentioned that money has a way of “orbiting” from one person to another, especially if the owner is not charitable. The lesson to be learned is that we must detest anything of which we know that G’d detests it. We must be wholehearted in our service of the Lord as per verse 13. This means to serve the Lord without any intellectual reservations, both by fulfilling His positive commandments and by refraining from violating any of the negative commandments. The expression תמים means that one’s exterior, the visible part of a person, should reflect his interior. The verse also implies reciprocity by G’d. If we behave towards G’d sincerely, then He in turn will reciprocate, as for instance in Exodus 34,28: “G’d remained with Moses.” We have a similar verse in Daniel 2,22: “He reveals the deep and the mysterious, knows what is in the dark, and light dwells within Him.” Midrash Eychah Rabbati 1,51 views this as a promise to people who have attained the level of “being wholehearted” with G’d. King David also referred to this theme in Psalms 41,13: “You will support me because of my integrity and let me abide in Your presence forever.”

V. 12. כי תועבת וגו׳ ובגלל התועבת וגו׳. Welche sittliche Verirrung dieses ganze heidnische Unwesen in sich trägt und welches sittliches Verderbnis es erzeugt, haben wir an den oben zitierten Stellen des Buches Schmot und Wajikra erläutert. Sobald der Mensch mit seinem Geschick- und Tatenleben, mit seinen Entschlüssen, seinen Hoffnungen und Befürchtungen sich dem unfreien Nachtgebiete wahngeborener Mächte unterstellt glaubt und hingibt, für welche der sittliche Wert oder Unwert seines Wollens und Vollbringens nichts gilt, alsobald wirft er selbst die Wage des sittlichen Urteils aus Händen, deren Ergebnis allein ihm bei seinem Wollen und Vollbringen, für sein Fürchten und Hoffen maßgebend sein sollte, und fällt einer Unfreiheit anheim, die das Grab aller Sittlichkeit wird. Die ganze sittliche Entartung der Kanaanitischen Bevölkerung ging aus diesem mantischen Unwesen hervor und hatte ihren Halt in ihm.

ובגלל התועבות האלה מוריש אותם מפניך, “on account of the previous inhabitants of this land having performed all of these abominations the Lord is dispossessing them of this land.” Their expulsion is proof that their protectors were powerless, so why would you even think of turning to such means for knowing the future? As a result of this failure of the idols G-d suggests that