Comentário sobre Deuteronômio 13:4

FOR THE ETERNAL YOUR G-D TRIETH YOU. This is to state that the purport of the wonder which came to pass and which G-d showed him in his dream or [as the philosophers say] in his kahin¹⁰⁷This is borrowed from the Arabic, kahanah, a term referring to the power residing in man to be able to foretell the future. It is so explained by Shmuel ibn Tibbon in his list of “Foreign words.” was G-d’s will in order to test you in your love of Him. Now I have already explained¹³⁸Genesis 2:1 (Vol. I, p. 275). that the term “test” is derived from the point of view of the one who is being tested. It states here to know [for the Eternal your G-d trieth you ‘to know’ whether ye do love … meaning] that it became known in fact what exists in potential and is revealed [only] to Him. Thus the commandment of this entire section refers to someone who prophesies to worship the idols. But concerning one who prophesies in the name of G-d to change any of the commandments of the Torah, our Rabbis have interpreted¹³¹Sanhedrin 90a. that if he came to [completely] uproot any item from the Torah, such as permitting [the eating of] swine or [permitting] one of the adulterous relationships, according to this judgment shall it be done to him¹³⁹Exodus 21:31. [i.e., he is liable to death as is stated here in Verse 6]. But if he declares it to be permissible only for some time as a temporary measure such as Elijah did on Mount Carmel [in permitting offerings to G-d outside of the Sanctuary in Jerusalem],¹⁴⁰I Kings 18:33-38. The purpose was to vindicate the belief in the true G-d and cause the people to reject the idolatrous worship of Baal. And because Elijah was an acknowledged righteous prophet we were commanded to listen to him (Rambam, Hilchoth Yesodei Hatorah 9:3). we are obligated to listen to him and to do everything that he commands us.
It appears [to me] that if he prophesies in the name of G-d to command a precept that he innovates, as happened concerning reading of the Scroll [of Esther on Purim],¹⁴¹See Ramban above, 4:2. that he is not guilty of a capital offense, only that we are not to obey him, because it is written, These are the commandments,¹⁴²Leviticus 27:34. [which our Rabbis interpret to mean]:¹⁴³Torath Kohanim, end of Bechukothai. The reading of the Megillah (Scroll of Esther) on Purim is “a positive commandment by the authority of the Scribes” (Mishneh Torah, Hilchoth Megillah V’Chanukah 1:1). “No prophet is henceforth permitted to declare any new matter therein.” But perhaps, since we do not believe him, he is thus a false prophet and his death is by strangulation.¹⁴⁴See “The Commandments,” Vol. II, pp. 25-26.

לא תשמע אל הנביא ההוא, do not even turn to listen to find out if his words have even partial substance, for there can be no question that the man is full of lies and tells you things he has made up, all for an evil purpose; כי דבר סרה, for what he portrays as a miracle is nothing but sleight of hand or forgery of some other kind.

כי מנסה ה׳ אלוקיכם אתכם לדעת, for the Lord your G'd is testing you, wanting to know, etc." You may well ask why such a prophet should be executed if G'd sent him to test the loyalty of the Jewish people! Clearly then the words כי מנסה do not mean that G'd instructed this prophet to say what he said, but it explains only why the miracles this prophet performed in order to legitimise himself were allowed to happen.

'כי מנסה ה' וגו, the only reason G’d allowed such people to possess what sounds like supernatural knowledge, is to test our faith, to see if we will heed the prohibition against using such sources of information and of tolerating such people as part of our culture. By choosing not to resort to the knowledge of such people of the future, etc., we accumulate merits in G’d’s books (compare Deut. 18,10-13). Refusing to believe such false prophets is in itself a good deed. Believing them is equivalent to believing in idolatry.

כי מנסה ה' אלוקיכם אתכם, “Hashem, your G’d is testing you, etc.” the reason why Hashem allows such a person to perform a miracle, or to correctly foretell an unlikely future event, is to put your faith in Him to a test, to see if you will use such people to try and foretell future events for you, thus subverting your absolute faith in Him. During the period in our history when there were prophets, the people when puzzled about events, would indeed turn to the accredited prophet and ask him to enquire from G’d about the meaning of events which they could not reconcile with what they had been taught to expect. Nachmanides has explained that the term ”test” when used by the Torah always refers to how it looks to the person being tested. G’d Himself never needs to test anyone as He is aware of man’s belief and reactions to so-called “tests.”

V. 4. כי מנסה וגו׳: Gott fordert als Probe eurer wirklichen, vollen Hingebung und Treue, dass ihr selbst durch solche durch Zeichen und Wunder unterstützte Versuchung eure Hingebung und Treue nicht erschüttern lasset.

לא תשמע אל דברי הניא ההוא, “do not listen to the words of that “prophet;” it is illogical to believe that such a prophet’s miracle could override My commandments to you, seeing that I have warned you of the possibility of such false prophets arising already before any such person did in fact claim to be My prophet.

או אל חולם החלום ההוא, to see if even part of what he dreamt reflected some truth of what was going to happen; you may be sure that the dreamers did not actually dream any part of what he claimed to have dreamt, but he invented all of it in order to seduce you;

Alternatively, the fact is that G'd never allowed any miracles to be performed by a prophet except to demonstrate His dominion over the forces of nature, i.e. that He created these forces. The words כי מנסה השם, "for G'd conducts a test, etc." are only an answer to the question why G'd allows some people to perform such miracles instead of preventing them so as not to mislead the Israelites. The Torah answers that G'd allows the world to function in its normal manner. If it were not for the fact that G'd on occasion wants to test His people, He would not allow such charlatans to perform miracles so as not to reinforce the power of the wicked.

כי מנסה “for He is testing;” I already explained the meaning of this “test.”

כי מנסה ה' אלוקיכם אתכם, by referring with hostility to a person who spoke out against G’d, you will be proven as truly loving G’d.

הישכם, the letter י in this word has the vowel chirik.

לדעת, once your previously theoretical faith in G’d has been so tested, you will become truly tested in your intimate conviction of G’d’s goodness which becomes an unshakable enduring conviction. Someone who believes truly in the goodness of the Lord cannot help but hate anyone who denies G’d’s goodness, just as if you love a human being truly you cannot help hating a person who hates the person whom you truly love.