Cytowanie Komentarza do Powtórzonego Prawa 4:41

These are the words. Moshe Rabbeinu’s intention with these words was not to reproach or to give new mitzvot. Rather to explain those mitzvot which required explanation. In this book of the Chumash there are no mitzvot that were not alluded to already. Moshe retold stories of the ancestors so that there would be no doubt. It was not in order to reproach them through this, for that would be a pointless activity. All of it was from the mouth of Hashem. That Moshe addressed. He reproached them at the time for each sin, and was not afraid. The Torah here elaborates on what it stated briefly elsewhere.

Kap. 19. V. 1 Wir haben bereits zu Bamidbar 35, 9 f. und Dewarim 4, 41 die hohe Bedeutsamkeit der Miklatstädte entwickelt und zu zeigen versucht, wie deren Ausführung sofort bei der Verteilung des Landes die offenkundigste Proklamierung des großen Grundsatzes sein sollte, von der Gottebenbildlichkeit des Menschen und der durch nichts aufzuwiegenden hohen Dignität des Menschenbluts als der nächst der Gotteinheit zweiten unverletzlichen Basis des ganzen jüdischen staatlichen Vereins. Darum folgt auch hier, nach Einsetzung aller staatlichen Organe: Richter, Königtum, Priester, Propheten als allererstes Objekt ihrer Wirksamkeit noch ein ergänzendes Kapitel zu den Vorschriften über die Sicherstellung des Menschenlebens im jüdischen Staate. Diese Ergänzung besteht vornehmlich in Erläuterung des miklatpflichtigen Totschlags durch ein Problem (V. 5) und in Anordnung noch fernerer drei Miklatstädte für die Zeit einer einstigen Vergrößerung des Staatsgebietes (Verse 8 u. 9).

When a person has on the skin of his flesh, etc. The section on skin afflictions [nega’im] is juxtaposed to the previous section that discusses circumcision, to teach you that circumcision pushes off skin afflictions, because in every place, the earlier commandment pushes off the later one, as explained above in Parashat Vayakhel regarding the statement of our Sages that the Sabbath precedes the Tabernacle, telling you that the Sabbath pushes off the work of the Tabernacle. And by way of allusion, it seems to me that this relates to our Sages’ statement (Nedarim 31b): “Great is circumcision, for it pushes off skin afflictions.” This is because circumcision is generally a catalyst for the removal of all four types of “foreskins,” including the “foreskin of the lips,” and when one is circumcised from the foreskin of the lips, they will not speak evil speech [lashon hara], and thus will not come to have skin afflictions, which come as a result of evil speech (Arachin 15b). Regarding this, Moses complained, saying: From when [az] I came to speak in Your name, etc. (Exodus 5:23) according to the Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni, Exodus 174) that states that all of Moses’ transactions were with az [the Hebrew word for “when/then”], alluding to circumcision. This is also explicitly concluded in the Yalkut Parashat Beshalach (241:15) on the verse Then [Az] Moses sang: that the sea was split in the merit of circumcision, which is performed on the eighth day, corresponding to the numerical value of az [which is eight]. Similarly, all those instances of az mentioned in Midrash Devarim Rabbah on the verse Then [Az] Moses set apart (Deuteronomy 4:41) also allude to circumcision, which saves one from bloodshed, as explained above in Parashat Bo on the verse See that evil is before your faces (Exodus 10:10). Likewise, the salvation of his [Moses’] life was only through az, as it says: Then [Az] she said, “A bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision” (Exodus 4:26). And similarly, his complaint was only with az, as it says: From when I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name (Exodus 6:23). Moses said: “I know that I am of uncircumcised lips, and I only came to speak in Your name from az, as I relied on circumcision, which is alluded to in az, that it would also be a catalyst for fixing the foreskin of the lips, but I see that it has not helped at all.”

שש ערי מקלט [AND AS TO THE CITIES WHICH YOU SHALL GIVE] SIX CITIES OF REFUGE (THERE SHALL BE FOR YOU] — This tells us that although Moses during his life-time set aside three cities on that side of the Jordan (Deuteronomy 4:41), they did not provide refuge until the three had been chosen which Joshua assigned in the land of Canaan on the west side of the Jordan (Sifrei Bamidbar 160:2; Makkot 9b).