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ואתם הדבקים בה' אלוקיכם חיים כלכם היום, you have all been smart enough to avoid a lure which would end up in your committing an idolatrous act.

ואתם הדבקים בה׳ אלוקיכם חיים כולכם היום, "But you who have cleaved to the Lord your G'd are all alive this day." Why did Moses add the letter ו at the beginning of the word אתם, "you?" This creates the impression as if it were meant to add an additional dimension to what was written before, whereas in fact it does the opposite, it contrasts the people whom Moses faced with those who served the Baal Pe-or. Another problem is why Moses speaks of הדבקים, "the ones who have cleaved," using the letter ה at the beginning of the word to indicate that the people he spoke about had been mentioned on a previous occasion.

V. 4. דבק ,ואתם הדבקים ist der innigste Anschluss an einen andern, ודבק באשתו (Bereschit 2, 24 — siehe daselbst S. 151), der sich somit nicht der leisesten Abneigung bewusst ist. עיניכם הראות heißt es im vorigen Verse, euch liegt die Selbsterfahrung vor Augen. Es ist keiner unter euch, der nicht weiß, dass er sich auch nicht die leiseste Abweichung zum Peor hin hat zu Schulden kommen lassen und darum mitten in der Pest, die die Schuldigen hinraffte, erhalten blieb. Dadurch hat jeder an sich selbst den stärksten Beweis von dem Werte des Gottgehorsams und die stärkste Mahnung zu wandelloser Treue. Diese Erfahrung machte die Gesamtheit in allen ihren Gliedern. Darum der Plural: ׳ואתם וגו׳ ,עיניכם וגו. Die strafende Vernichtung traf aber die Schuldigen mit Rücksicht auf die ihrer reinen Gottesbestimmung einheitlich zu erhaltende Nation, daher Singular: מקרבך. Die Bestimmung Israels als Gottesvolk duldet keine Peorsjünger in seiner Mitte.

Perhaps we can understand the verse by keeping in mind the Talmud's explanation (Sanhedrin 108) on Genesis 6,8 that "Noach found favour in the eyes of G'd." The Talmud says that even Noach was not really worthy of being saved but he managed to find favour in the eyes of G'd. When Moses prefaced his remarks with the word ואתם, "and you," he may have meant that even you the survivors deserved death; however, due to the fact that you demonstrated your cleaving to G'd at a certain time you are alive as of this day. The meaning of דבקות then is that the Israelites did תשובה before they too perished, and this is what saved them.

Moses made a point of saying כלכם, "all of you," to make it plain that he referred to the whole nation. We find that a similar thing occurred in Numbers 25,11 when G'd spoke of not destroying the children of Israel in His jealousy. From G'd's wording it is clear that all of the Israelites had been candidates for destruction at the time. Even though Pinchas had been the instrument of saving most of the people, he could not have accomplished this if the people had not done תשובה at the time already.

The letter ו here may also be understood as a reference to the people who had intended to worship the Baal Pe-or although not having done so in practice. I had explained that these people too had become culpable for entertaining thoughts of idolatry. Moses contrasts what happened to those people with what happened to those who remained alive. Just as the ones who died were punished for evil thoughts, so the ones who remained alive were rewarded for positive thoughts, for mentally cleaving to their G'd. The common denominator between both categories of people then is what went on in their minds. Hence the linkage by Moses using the conjunctive letter ו in the word ואתם. This conforms to the statement in Kidushin 40 that normally G'd counts a good intention as equal to a good deed even when it could not be carried out, whereas He does not consider an evil intention as culpable though the reason the person who had the evil intention and had not carried it out had been circumstances beyond his control rather than his having had a change of heart.

Moses phrased it ואתם הדבקים, to reflect a statement in Berachot 7 that in Exodus 33,16 Moses had prayed that G'd's presence should never rest on the Gentiles. We explained there that Moses meant that even if the behaviour of the Gentiles improves to a degree that would make it plausible for G'd to allow His presence to come to rest on them, he, Moses, prayed that the monopoly of being the carrier of G'd's presence should never be taken away from the Jewish people. When Moses said here ואתם הדבקים בה׳ אלוקיכם, he referred to this unique relationship between the Jewish people and G'd. When you accept this interpretation you will realise that the letter ה at the beginning of this word is justified as it refers to an agreement made between G'd and Moses after the episode of the golden calf.

הדבקים בה׳ אלוקיכם, "who have cleaved to the Lord your G'd." The choice of these two names of G'd used by Moses may be understood in light of what Maimonides wrote in chapter six of his treatise Yessodey Hatorah. He writes that there are seven sacred names of G'd and whoever destroys any of these seven names is guilty of the penalty of 39 lashes. Any letter which is a prefix to the name of G'd may be erased whereas any letter or letters which form a suffix to the name of G'd are treated as if they were an integral part of the name of G'd. Examples for the latter are the letter ך or כם at the end of such names as אלוקיך, or אלוקיכם. These letters have become sanctified by the name of G'd which precedes them and to which they have been attached. Thus far Maimonides on the subject. Moses may have wanted to teach us the lesson that the manner of our attachment to G'd should not be like a letter which forms a prefix of the sacred name of G'd and which therefore may be detached; rather, our attachment to G'd should be like the letters in the suffix of His sacred name which are not subject to erasure or detachment from the holy name itself. Moses illustrates the two varieties of prefixes and suffixes by using first the word ב־שם as the example for the detachable prefix, and אלוקי־כם as the example for the integral suffix which may not be destroyed or detached from the sacred name itself.

The combination of בה׳ אלוקיכם may also teach that our cleaving to G'd should not be merely like the prefix of a name of G'd which does not commit that letter to become sacred, but it should rather be like the suffix in the holy name of G'd אלוקיכם, i.e. inseparable. It is also possible that Moses hinted at the two levels of commitment to G'd amongst the Jewish people, the elite being committed like אלוקיכם, whereas the bulk of the people's cleaving was more like ב־שם. We have an allusion to this thought in Deut. 32,9 כי חלק ה׳ עמו, "for His people are an inseparable part of G'd." The Torah means that part of His people, i.e חלק, are an inseparable part of G'd Himself. This lends further weight to our interpretation.

Another meaning of the sequence of the words הדבקים בה׳ אלוקיכם may be understood in light of the Zohar volume 3 page 238 that when someone performs one of G'd's commandments the Ineffable Name comes to rest on the organ with which the מצוה has been fulfilled. The kabbalists claim that the positive commandments are all alluded to in that name. The negative commandments, on the other hand, are alluded to in the name אלוקים. Moses' use of both these names when describing that the Israelites had cleaved to G'd indicated that he alluded to the fact that they had performed both the positive and the negative commandments.

Moses may also have wanted to illustrate the nature of Israel's cleavage to G'd when he chose these two names. He meant to imply that the Israelites' hearts took pleasure both in G'd and in His commandments seeing that the name "your G'd" made Him their exclusive G'd, so to speak. We find a similar thought in the interpretation by Yalkut Shimoni at the end of Parshat Noach where the author explains Psalms 22,4 ישב תהלות ישראל. We are told there that G'd did not want even the hosts of the heavens to praise Him until after the Jewish people had said: "blessed be the Lord G'd of Israel." The reason is that G'd's uniqueness and Israel's uniqueness form such a strong bond between them. This is the reason you will not find expressions of praise for G'd in the Bible such as "the Lord of the heavens," "the Lord of the earth," or "the Lord of the angels."

חיים כלכם היום, "all of you are alive as of this day." These words are both a continuation of what is written before as well as an introduction to what follows. These words are a continuation of what is written before in the sense of אלוקיכם חיים, "your G'd is alive," as we know from Deut. 5,23. The words are also linked to what follows in the sense that the life which the Jewish people enjoy are a direct result of the source of life, i.e. our G'd. Even though we might be moving around, eating and drinking, etc., this would not be called being "alive." We know (Berachot 18) that the wicked are referred to as "dead" even while they go through the motions of being "alive." The reason for this is that the source they draw their energy from is itself "dead," i.e. is the source of death, i.e. Satan. Moses revealed to the people that the reason for their being alive was their cleaving to the source of life itself.

One may summarise Moses' words in one of two ways: 1) The reason you are alive today is because you have chosen to cleave to the source of life, i.e. the Lord your G'd. 2) The reason you have been found worthy to cleave to the Lord your G'd is because you are alive, i.e. you are righteous. You have demonstrated that you are careful to distance yourselves from "death" and have chosen life instead. Both these meanings are part of what this verse tries to tell us.

When Moses said כלכם, "all of you," he referred to being alive in a particular as well as in a general sense. The "particular sense" means that every individual Israelite was healthy, alive in all his limbs; no one was crippled or otherwise physically handicapped. The Talmud Zevachim 116 explains the words ומכל החי, "and from every living thing you shall bring to the ark, etc." (Genesis 6,19), i.e. Noach was to bring to the ark only animals which did not lack any limbs or organs. Moses alluded to something similar when he said כלכם חיים, i.e. all of you are in perfect physical condition. Our sages in the Mechilta mentioned that all the Israelites who were present at the revelation at Mount Sinai were in perfect physical condition, neither a blind man nor a deaf man amongst them. They base this on Exodus 20,15 "all the people saw the sounds and heard the sound of the shofar, etc." There is no reason to suppose that the physical condition of these people had deteriorated since the revelation. I have already explained elsewhere that any physical ailment is merely a reflection of a spiritual imperfection. The reason that the Torah disqualified priests with a physical blemish from performing service in the Temple is because such a physical blemish is only an external manifestation of a blemish on the person's soul. The Zohar volume three page 4 elaborates on this theme. As to the general condition of the Israelite nation qualifying as חיים "alive" at that time, Moses implied that not a single one of them was not righteous. Moses added the word היום, "as of this day," as he was not in a position to predict whether the people would all be able to maintain the spiritual high they were on at the time he addressed them. After all, man is a free agent, and until the day he goes to the ארץ החיים, "the land of the living," i.e. to the hereafter, there is no guarantee he may not sin.