Komentaryo sa Deuteronomio 12:23: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Rashi, Ibn Ezra & Sforno

“But make sure that you do not partake of the blood” [12:23]. The Torah wrote concerning this, that one is warned not eat blood. The Holy One will give him much good and also to his children, as the verse says here, “thus it will go well with you and with your descendants after you” [12:28]. Our sages learn from here the reward for the commandments. They say: the Holy One gives a good reward when the person does not eat blood. No person has a desire for this, since it is very disgusting to eat blood. Nonetheless, God gives him a good reward. How much more so, when a person does not engage in illicit sex or does not steal. People desire these things much more. Thus, the Holy One will give him a great reward.⁷Bahya, Deuteronomy, 12:28.

רק חזק לבלתי אכל הדם ONLY BE STRONG THAT THOU EAT NOT THE BLOOD — From the fact that it states, “Be strong” (make a special effort), you may learn that they had a prediliction to blood — to the eating of it; it was therefore necessary to state, “be strong”. This is the view of R. Judah. R. Simeon, the son of Azzai, however, says: Scripture merely intends to caution you and to teach you to what great an extent you must strive to fulfil the divine commandments in general. If, as regards blood from which one can easily keep aloof since one does not long for it, it felt it necessary to insist on a strong effort on your part when forbidding it to you, how much the more is it necessary for you to make great efforts in keeping other commands [the fulfillment of which requires much moral strength] (cf. Sifrei Devarim 76:1-3).

I have already explained the phrase for the blood is the life [comment on Genesis 9: 4: comment on Leviticus 17: 15].

ולא תאכל הנפש עם הבשר AND THOU MAYEST NOT EAT THE LIFE WITH THE FLESH — This is a prohibition of אבר מן החי, the eating of a limb cut from a living animal (Sifrei Devarim 76:5; Chullin 102a; cf. Rashi on Genesis 9:4).