Комментарий к Шмот 34:11

את האמרי וגו׳ THE AMORITE etc. — There are only six nations mentioned here, because the seventh, the Girgashites, arose and emigrated of their own accord (Leviticus Rabbah 17:6; cf. Rashi on Exodus 33:2).

OBSERVE THOU THAT WHICH I AM COMMANDING THEE THIS DAY. Of all the commandments mentioned previously He did not say I am commanding thee. Therefore we must explain the meaning of His words as follows: “Observe the commandments which I command you today, and do not treat them as you have treated those which I commanded you at first, when you violated everything by worshipping the idols.” Now He promised here to drive out from before them the peoples [of the Land], and He warned them against their idols and against making a covenant with them, just as He had done in the section of Behold, I send an angel before thee,⁵²⁰Ibid., 23:20. thus going over the first conditions again. However, He added here, Thou shalt make thee no molten gods,⁵²¹Further, Verse 17. meaning that they should not do as they had done with the calf, even if their thoughts are directed to Heaven, to make themselves a guide. He restated here the subject of the three festivals,⁵²²Ibid., Verse 23. that they appear before the Eternal G-d, the G-d of Israel,⁵²²Ibid., Verse 23. as He had mentioned it there.⁵²³Above, 23:17. The reason [for the restatement] is known, since it comes after the admonition against idolatry. I have already explained it at the end of [Seder] Vayishma Yithro.⁵²⁴Ibid., 20:21.

שמר לך את אשר אנכי מצוך היום, I do not only caution you against ever trading My glory for some other deity, but you must not allow others to serve alien deities [this applies in the land of Israel where we shall have control of such people. Ed.]

שמר לך, "Observe for yourself, etc.!" How does the term "observe" apply to the subject matter of this verse? If the Torah refers to the commandment G'd is about to reveal as something Moses is to "observe" as Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra suggests, why would G'd select this commandment of not concluding a covenant with the seven Canaanite nations rather than any other of the many commandments as something for Moses to be very careful about? After all, Moses had already been told that it was not he who would conquer these nations What point was there in warning him specifically not to conclude such a covenant?

שמר לך את אשר אנכי מצוך, “Beware of what I command you today.” Nachmanides writes that it is clear that concerning commandments the Israelites had already violated, G’d would not say “the ones I command you this day.” Therefore, G’d must be referring to commandments that He is about to announce, and He warns the people not to disregard them as they had done with other commandments that had been issued in the past. At that time, by violating the commandment concerning idolatry they had in effect violated the whole of the Torah legislation that set them apart from other nations. When G’d had promised to expel the nations inhabiting the land of Canaan and to replace them with the Israelites, this had been due largely to the idolatrous ways of the members of those tribes. The Israelites are therefore warned at this time not to have any track with those nations, as they would lure them into worshipping their traditional deities, especially if there would be intermarriage between the two peoples. The absolute prohibition of making a cast image is therefore repeated here once more. As a corollary, and as if to underline how the pilgrimages three times a year to Jerusalem i.e. to the Temple would help cement the close relations between the average Israelite and his G’d, this legislation is repeated here once more also.

VV. 11 — 14. Die erste, unerlässlichste Bedingung ist, dass dieses "Werk Mosches an dem Volk" keinen gegensätzlichen Einfluss in Mitte des Volkes selber habe. Haben wir das קמיהם Kap. 32, 25 richtig verstanden, so war der jüngste Abfall selbst, wenn gleich nicht hervorgerufen, so doch wesentlich durch einen solchen fremden Einfluss gefördert worden. Zu diesem Zwecke muss das Volk mit dem Bewusstsein von seiner völligen Isoliertheit mit diesem Gottesgesetze erfüllt werden. Mit diesem Gottesgesetze in Händen, steht es auf Erden völlig allein. Es hat nicht einen Gott und die Völker haben auch einen Gott, einen Altar und die Völker auch Altäre, Denkmäler und Heiligtum, wie die Völker auch die ihrigen, so dass beide neben einander bestehen, beide gleich wahr, aber auch gleich unwahr sein können. Sein Gott, sein Altar, seine Denkmäler und Heiligtümer schließen alle anderen aus, sein Gott ist קנא und seines Gottes Name d. i. seine Anerkennung ist קנא, duldet keinen anderen Gott neben sich. Ja, תכרתון ,תשברון ,תתוצון: "Vernichtung des Heidentums in seinen Gottverehrungen (מזבחת), seinen Traditionen (מצבתם) und seinem Aberglauben (אשריו) ist eure eigentliche Sendung." Ihr sollt somit nicht nur die bisherigen Bewohner des Landes mit ihren heidnischen Lebensweisen und Anschauungen nicht unter euch dulden, ihr sollt auch die Spuren ihres heidnischen Wesens in eurem Lande verwischen.

שמר לך את אשר אנכי מצוך היום, “Observe that which I command you this day!” G-d warns that whereas He had pardoned the people for the sins committed in the past, that from now on they have to be on guard not to sin again.

Perhaps there is a lesson here about how true repentance works. Seeing the Israelites had become guilty of worshiping an idol, the תקון, rehabilitation, for such a sin required that they destroy everything even remotely connected with idolatry if they wanted to attain complete atonement for their sin. This required that they cultivate a strong abhorrence for all forms of idolatry starting already now, long before they would displace the idolatrous Canaanites and destroy any vestiges of idol worship the Canaanites had been guilty of. The verb שמר may perhaps be understood in the sense that Jacob used it when he heard Joseph's dream with the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowing down to him. At that time (Genesis 37,11), Jacob had begun to look forward to the way this dream would become fulfilled. The Israelites (including Moses) were now meant to look forward to the time when they could carry out the commandment G'd was about to give them.

אשרה und אשר, das nur im plur. masc. hervortritt, scheint ein Baum gewesen zu sein, den man sich unter dem besonderen Schutz einer Gottheit dachte, deren Gegenwart und Einfluss man in dessen Gedeihen (אשר) zu gewahren glaubte. Wenn, im Gegensatz zu מזבתתם und מצבתם, bei אשריו das pron. possess. im Singular steht und sich somit auf den Kollektivbegriff יושב הארץ des vorangehenden Verses bezieht, so dürften Altäre und Denkmäler im Heidentum auch von den einzelnen errichtet, אשרות aber nur durch nationalen Wahn geheiligt worden sein. Wenn übrigens, wie רמב׳׳ן zu Dewarim 20, 10 nachweist, auch bisherigen Bewohnern des Landes ein ferneres Verbleiben unter der Bedingung der Entsagung vom Heidentum und der Rückkehr in den Noachidenstand als גרים תושבים gestattet war, so dürfte das פן תכרת ברית ליושב הארץ eben vor der absoluten, bedingungslosen Gestattung des Verbleibens warnen.

Alternatively, G'd implied that as long as the Israelites had not become guilty of making a molten image He would not have bothered to command them to keep a physical and cultural distance from the Gentile nations and their abominations. Seeing they themselves had become victims of the impulse to worship an idol, G'd now had to give the people this law in order to ensure that they would not again be tempted to succumb to idolatry. The words שמר לך, are a reminder that the law was due to something the Israelites themselves had done.

כי לא תשתחוה לאל אחר. Das großeך hebt eben hier an bedeutsamster Stelle den Gegensatz zum אחד hervor. Wohl sollst du dich beugen, ja völlig niederwerfen, aber nur vor dem א׳ אחד. Aber eben dadurch, dass du dich vor dem einen Einzigen völlig niederwirfst, hast du vor allen anderen Mächten und Gewalten völlig aufrecht zu bleiben, gibt es keine andere Gewalt, vor der du dich beugen dürftest.

A moral-ethical approach sees in the word לך "for yourself" a reference to Moses; G'd hinted to Moses that the words: "I am going to drive out before you the nations, etc." are not a reference to what would happpen in the immediate future, but refer to the distant future, to messianic times. It corresponds to the statement of our sages in Bamidbar Rabbah 19,13 which describes the Jews (the generation which perished in the desert) as saying that: "the same Moses who has redeemed us from Egypt will redeem us in the future." G'd told Moses to be looking forward to that time, i.e. שמר לך. You may find support for this interpretation when you consider that the promise contained in the line "I will drive out before you, etc.," has never been fulfilled during the time the Israelites travelled in the desert.