Komentarz do Powtórzonego Prawa 28:14

AND THOU SHALT NOT TURN ASIDE FROM ANY OF THE WORDS WHICH I COMMAND YOU THIS DAY. This is connected with the expression [in the preceding Verse 13] if thou shalt hearken, meaning that all these blessings will come upon you when you will hearken to His commandments, and when you will not turn aside to the right, or to the left⁸⁵In Verse 14 before us. from any of the words which I command you concerning idolatry. For, if you will go after other gods to serve them⁸⁵In Verse 14 before us. you will already have turned aside from all His commandments⁸⁶See Ramban to Numbers 15:22. — The verse before us, And thou shalt not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, is thus not an independent negative commandment, as the author of the “Hilchoth Gedoloth” would have it, but is rather to be understood in connection with the concluding part of that verse, to go after other gods to serve them, meaning to say: if you will go after other gods to serve them, you will already have turned aside from any of the words which, command you this day. and He shall have no desire whatever for any of the commandments you may observe. The sense of the verse is thus unlike the words of the “Hilchoth Gedoloth”⁵⁹Rabbi Shimon Kairo of the Gaonic period, who flourished in the second half of the eighth century Common Era, was the first to enumerate the Taryag Mitzvoth contained in the Torah. The listing is in the preface to his work “Hilchoth Gedoloth”. His concept was utilized by the Paitanim, the writers of liturgical poetry who wrote various Azharoth (Exhortations), liturgical poems containing the Divine Commandments. — It should be noted that while the “Hilchoth Gedoloth” contains the first historical record in our possession of an attempt at enumerating the individual commandments, there is no doubt that the author drew upon older sources of such lists, and as Rabbeinu Saadia Gaon writes here, such “a list of the commandments” was written upon the stones by Moses. who counted this verse as a negative commandment.

Moses concludes the blessings applicable to the period of the Second Temple by warning ולא תסור מכל הדברים אשר אנכי מצוה אתכם היום ימין או שמאל, meaning that the people are not to introduce changes in the commandments of the Torah, and especially not to make any changes in the social legislation, משפטים. Neither are they to introduce variations in the observance of certain commandments which were part of the culture of nations that lived in the land of Canaan, and which had been well entrenched in the entire region. Especially, is this forbidden if by adopting those habits, which, though unrelated to idolatry and of no religious significance, you adopt them in order thereby to display some respect for the culture of the members of those tribes still residing in your midst. In the Torah’s view this would constitute ללכת אחרי אלוהים אחרים לעבדם, that you are on the path to adopt idolatrous practices, eventually even worshipping those idols. However, the admonitions up unto verse 36 i.e. יולך ה' אותך ואת מלכך, refer to periods during the Second Temple, the period of the Seleucids until the Hasmoneans started their uprising to rid the land of the Neo Greeks. Eventually, Aristobulus, a King of the Hasmonean Dynasty, was exiled by the Romans to Rome at the command of Pompey. Starting with this incident up until verse 63 ונסחתם, Moses refers to the period of the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans. What follows are admonitions dealing with our present exile.

ולא תסור מכל הדברים, “if only you do not turn away from any of the words, etc.” According to Nachmanides these words are a continuation of what is written in verse 13 that these blessings are premised on your hearkening to G’d’s commandments. If you were to look right or left, i.e. consider indulging in any form of idolatry, you would already be considered as having turned away from the path G’d prescribed for you. [A warning that not only idolatrous actions bring disaster, but even contemplating such actions is culpable. Ed.] Nachmanides does not agree with the author of halachot gedolot, who considers this verse as one of the negative commandments.