Comentários de Citação sobre Levítico 26:44

לא תעשו לכם, even though you yourselves are now subservient to the pagans, as for instance the Jew who was forced to sell himself to a pagan, you must not trade your dignity, i.e. your religion, for a religion which is totally useless. Although this whole line appears superfluous, as the Torah had spoken on this subject repeatedly, the Torah here inserts this line so that people who due to force of circumstances had to enter the service of pagans, and who attribute this to their own G’d having abandoned them, do not commit the additional error of thinking that Judaism no longer has a claim on them in such circumstances. In Ezekiel chapter 20 the prophet dealt with the people who wanted to know how G’d could still have a claim on them seeing he had “sold” them to the pagans into exile. The matter was compared to a husband who had divorced his wife and continued to dictate to her. One of the most convincing answers is that G’d continues to speak of “My servant David” in Samuel II 3,18, the same description G’d applies to Nevuchadnezzar in Jeremiah 28,9. In other words, no human being whether out of his own volition or because he considers himself rejected by G’d, is ever free from the obligation to serve the Creator, His ultimate Master. At the end of the תוכחה, the predictions of the retribution we will experience for failure to observe G’d’s commandments, (Leviticus 26,44) G’d is on record as saying that even when the Jewish people have reached a historic low in their fortunes, G’d did not despise them nor abandon them permanently.

A kabbalistic approach to the words זה א-לי ואנוהו. The word זה (as well as the word זאת) is a name of the Shechinah. Examples are 13,8 בעבור זה עשה לי, “He did it for me on account of זה.” In Genesis 49,28 we read וזאת אשר דבר להם. In Leviticus 26,44 we read: ואף גם זאת בהיותם בארץ אויביהם; these verses demonstrate that the Shechinah is with the Jewish people in all the exiles. This is why we read in Exodus 13.19 that “the angel of G’d journeyed with the Israelites,” as this presence orchestrated the salvation. This is also the meaning of the line in Exodus 23,21 -which is both promise and warning- כי שמי בקרבו, “for it (the angel, i.e. Shechinah) contains My name.” This “name” is what David referred to in Psalms 114,7 as אדון חולי ארץ, “the Lord who was present at the beginnings of the earth.” These considerations prompted Moses to mention עזי וזמרת י-ה, referring to G’d by His name י-ה, something totally uncharacteristic of Moses. Even though we do find that after the battle against Amalek Moses did mention that name of G’d (Exodus 17,16) where he spoke of כי יד על כס י-ה, we need to remember that in that context Moses made the point that G’d’s name as י-ה is incomplete just as the word כס for throne is incomplete and should have been כסא. While an Amalek exists in this universe, G’d, i.e. His name and His Kingdom, cannot be complete.
The reason that Moses did mention that name is because it represents the attribute of Justice. This is also why David uses this name in Psalms 130,3 where he says אם עונות תשמור י-ה מי יעמוד, “if she will keep track of sins (the attribute of Justice) who can possibly survive?” The word תשמור in that line is not a masculine second person future, but a feminine third person future, i.e. an indirect reference to the feminine attribute of Justice. In Psalms 118,18 David discusses the same theme when he writes that the attribute י-ה, though it had disciplined him severely, had not delivered him to the angel of death.” Again the name י-ה appears as the attribute of Justice. We find the same in Psalm 94,12.
In Bereshit Rabbah 92,1 the author emphasizes that David does not mention the tetragrammaton when speaking of the afflictions endured by those whom the Lord disciplines, but he rather refers to the source of these afflictions as י-ה. Here too the word תיסרנו should not be understood as “You discipline him,” but as “whom the attribute י-ה disciplines.” We may picture someone as standing in front of a judge who pronounces judgment upon him. Thus far Bereshit Rabbah.

I will not return from My good word, which I said. (Lev. 26:44) “I have not rejected them nor have I abhorred them,” to destroy Ephraim.