Cytowanie Komentarza do Powtórzonego Prawa 2:5

ויבאו בני ישראל, “The Children of Israel arrived, etc.;” the arrival of which the Torah speaks were was during the fortieth year of their wanderings. Their lengthy detour around the territory of Edom who had denied them passage and whom G-d had not allowed them to harass in any way, had now been completed. It had commenced at Kadesh Barnea, and was concluded in the desert of Tzin. The Torah summarises this period here although it comprised 18 separate moves during which the Tabernacle had been erected and taken apart each time. In Numbers 33, 1936, the details of these moves have been recorded for posterity. The first encampment was at a place called Ritmah, the last at the edge of the desert of Tzin. Concerning that period we read Moses recalling in Deuteronomy 2,5: ונפן ונסע המדברה דרך ים סוף ונסב את הר שעיר ימים רבים, “we turned around and journeyed toward the desert in the region of the sea of reeds and marched around Mount Seir, for many years.” That period concluded there in verse 8 with: “we detoured our brethren the children of Esau that dwell in Seir, from the way of the Aravah from Eilat to Etzion Gaver.” From there they arrived at Kadesh, boundary of the Kingdom of Edom, as stated in Numbers 33, 36: “they journeyed from Etzion Gaver and encamped at the desert of Tzin, at Kadesh. What is missing here is only G-d’s warning not to harass the people of Edom (Compare Deuteronomy 2,5).

וילך אל ארץ, to a land where previously he had been living on an ad hoc basis before Yaakov had returned from Lavan. Now, after Yaakov’s return, he decided to move there permanently. כי היה רכושם רב, the reason that Esau moved now was 1) because the combined herds of Yaakov and Esau were extensive, and Esau feared he would ultimately be forced to leave the land of Canaan as G’d had promised it to Yaakov’s children as their inheritance. After all, his father Yitzchok had said to him in 27,39 that whereas his inheritance would be משמני הארץ, “of the fat places of the earth,” nothing had been said to him indicating that he would own part of the land of Canaan. Perhaps his father had even told him that Mount Seir would be his. The Torah refers to this land as being Esau’s by right in Deuteronomy 2,5 as well as in Joshua 24,4. His claim to this region was therefore not only that of a conqueror, but one which had Divine approval.

ונשמרת מכל דבר רע, “you shall be on guard against anything evil.” Rashi understands this line as a warning that Satan works “overtime” whenever the Israelites find themselves in danger, so that even minor misdemeanours will be exploited by him as the perennial prosecutor of the Jews at the throne of Hashem. Nachmanides writes that in his eyes the true explanation of this line at this particular juncture is that when at war due to the difficult conditions, one tends to become less stringent in one’s ritual observances. Moses therefore warns the people that at that time more than at any other, because one’s life is in danger and one depends on Hashem’s special protection, one must be careful not to become lax in one’s Torah observance. From the vantage point of the plain meaning of the text, the פשט, Moses warns someone who experienced a seminal emission to leave the boundaries of the camp (the subject discussed in the verses following), the reason being that seeing G’d is present in the camp, it is not befitting that someone who is ritually contaminated share that domain with the presence of G’d until he has purified himself. Consciousness of His presence in order to ensure our success in war, will also make the soldier concerned reflect that in the last analysis it is not his prowess as a soldier that ensures success but the help we receive from above. Similar considerations also made our sages decree that a synagogue, or even a private place where prayers are offered must be at least 4 cubits (2.5 meters) removed from a toilet or other place where garbage is dumped. The reason why the Torah decrees that excrement must be covered, although it is not ritually contaminating, is that if visible to the person offering up prayers to his Creator, it will distract from his concentration. Seeing that prayer, unless offered when the heart is “in gear,” is not only ineffective but almost insulting to Hashem, we must take steps to remove from our vision anything that will detract from our concentration.

from the fear of Your hand Heb. מתגרת, from the fear of Your blows. תגרת is an expression of (Num. 22:3): “And Moab became terrified (וַיָגָר).” The “tav” is a defective radical in the word, like תנובה, produce; תלונה, complaint; תקומה, restoration; תכונה, characteristic. This is how Menachem explained it, but I maintain that תגרת is not an expression of מָגוֹר, fear, because he should have said תגוּרה as he says from: וישב (and he returned) תשוּבה, [from] ויקם, וירם and וילן: תקוּמה, תרוּמה and תלוּנה, so he should say from ויגר, תגוּלה, or מגוּרה as (above 31:14, Jer. 20:3): “terror (מגור) from all sides”; (Isa. 66:4) “and their fears (ומגורתם) I will bring.” Thus you learn that מתגרת is nothing but as (II Chron. 25:19), “Why should you provoke (תתגרה) disaster?”; (Deut. 2:5), “Do not provoke (תתגרו) them,” in which case the verb is גרה like קוה, to hope; אוה, to desire; צוה, to command, of which the noun is תקוה, תאוה, מצוה. So one says from גרה, תגרה, and this is its explanation: from the blows of Your hand, with which You fight me, I perish.