Комментарий к Вайикра 26:7

לפניכם לחרב [AND YE SHALL PURSUE YOUR ENEMIES AND THEY SHALL FALL] BEFORE YOU BY THE SWORD — one by the sword of the other (Sifra, Bechukotai, Chapter 2 3).

ורדפתם את אויביכם, beyond the boundaries of your country.

ורדפתם את אויביכם, "and you will pursue your enemies." Why does the Torah have to give the Israelites this assurance after having assured them of dwelling securely and no one frightening them? The assurances which preceded this verse related to Israel feeling secure from surrounding nations. The latter would neither cause death nor destruction. Now the Torah speaks about relations between Israel and the nations with Israel as the aggressor. The Torah assures Israel that the promise of safety from invasion does not mean that it ties Israel's hands versus its neighbours. The Torah therefore speaks of the Israelites pursuing their enemies. This reinforces the previous assurances. Even though Israel may have started a pre-emptive campaign against its enemies, G'd assures them of success. They will return to their country not having to fear retaliation. If the Torah called the opponents of Israel "enemies," this was not because they invaded the country but because they are enemies of the Lord. The wicked people amongst the Gentiles are always referred to as both G'd's enemies and hence our enemies. It is a law of nature that the Gentile nations hate us.

ונפלו לפניכם לחרב, “they (your enemies) will fall before you by the sword.” Nachmanides writes that first G’d assured the Jewish people that when they would keep His commandments, that if invaded, they would succeed in warding off the attackers and pursue them beyond their borders. He now repeats and reinforces this promise by describing that He would make the Israelites so full of self-confidence that five of them would put twenty times their number to flight. He also simultaneously makes their enemy display their fear of the pursuers. This is an additional promise as it is possible that their enemies would escape the sword by outrunning their pursuers. Ibn Ezra writes that the meaning of the repetition is to assure us that even if the enemy would attack repeatedly, they would fall by the sword until they would give up attacking the Jewish state.

Each before his fellow-soldier’s sword. Since it is not written “You will fell them before you by the sword.” Or it should have said “You will strike them by the sword.” Therefore, it means that they will fall by their fellow-soldier’s sword (Re’m). Alternatively, normally a person strikes fleeing people from behind and they fall on their faces. If so, why does the verse write לחרב (lit. to the sword)? Therefore, it means [he will fall by] his fellow-soldier’s sword.

ונפלו לפניכם לחרב, without your even having to fight them. This is what Isaiah 66,16 referred to: “for with fire will the Lord contend; with His sword against all flesh, and many shall be slain by the Lord.”

ונפלו לפניכם לחרב. "and they will fall before you by the sword." The unusual לחרב instead of בחרב, by the sword, is a hyperbole. The way the enemies will fall before the Jewish armies will be similar to their falling by the sword. A moral-ethical approach to these words conjures up the deeds of the Hasmoneans. The historian Josephus describes seeing an angel of the Lord drawing his sword against the enemy. When the Torah speaks here of ונפלו, they will fall, it may refer to the thrusts of the sword by the angel.