Comentários de Citação sobre Deuteronômio 4:43

from Bozrah Our Rabbis said (see Makkoth 12a): “The heavenly prince of Edom is destined to commit two errors. He thinks that Bozrah is identical with Bezer in the desert, which was a refuge city. He will also err insofar as it affords refuge only for inadvertent murder, but he killed Israel intentionally.” There is also an Aggadic midrash (see above 34:6) that because Bozrah supplied a king for Edom when its first king died, as in Gen. (36:33), “And Jobab the son of Zerah from Bozrah reigned in his stead,” and Bozrah is of Moab, according to the matter that is stated (Jer. 48:24): “Upon Kerioth and upon Bozrah.”

The Torah informs us that a day will come when G'd will make a reckoning with the forces who have initiated all this, and on account of whom G'd had to use the children and the righteous as atonement for the common people. This is the meaning of: שלם ישלם המבעיר את הבערה, "the thorns which have kindled the fire will certainly have to make restitution." Sanhedrin 100 tells us that when the time comes, G'd will make sure that the wicked are tough enough to be able to endure all the suffering G'd has in store for them as part of the restitution they have to make. We have it on the authority of Bereshit Rabbah 63,10 that when the sons of the righteous reach maturity so that they are no longer punished for the sins their parents may have been guilty of, their parents make a feast at which they bless the Lord for having freed their children from being guarantors of the conduct of their fathers. [This appears to be the reverse of fathers blessing the Lord on the day their sons become of age because they, the fathers, are no longer liable for mistakes made by their children. Anyone interested in pursuing this is referred to the commentary of Rabbi David Luria on this Midrash. Ed.] At any rate, G'd punishes the ones who by their actions have released the forces of retribution in the world. The way a person is able to vanquish all these potential fires of his evil urge which if allowed to rage is apt to consume both the children and the righteous together, is if he is truly concerned about all these consequences that his own conduct will evoke and suppresses his evil inclination as a result of such concern. Our sages have taught us in Kidushin 40 that one should always view oneself as if the world teetered on a scale of guilty and innocent and the next action one performs decides in which direction the scales will tilt so that one holds the fate of mankind in one's hands, figuratively speaking. Should one make the wrong move one not only carries the guilt of an untold number of souls but is also responsible for all the souls which will never be born (placed inside bodies) due to the premature death of their parents. Alternatively, the reason the Torah repeats שלם ישלם is an allusion that G'd does not only bring retribution on the person who has started the actual fire but also on the one who has been the ultimate cause of such a fire, i.e. Satan. We have been taught in Sukkah 52 that the day will come when G'd "slaughters" the evil urge, (angel of death). At that time the angel of death will not even be able to escape to Bazrah, a reference to Betzer [the first city of refuge mentioned in the Torah Deut 4,43 Ed.] seeing that he was an intentional killer and as such does not qualify for taking refuge in such a city (compare Makkot 12). The Talmud Baba Kama 60 has interpreted the passage in Isaiah 63 in a different but also homiletical way.

And on the other side of the Jordan, from Yericho eastward. [These cities were set aside] during the days of Moshe, as it is said, “Betzer in the wilderness.”¹Devorim 4:43.