Komentaryo sa Deuteronomio 29:13: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Ibn Ezra, Kli Yakar & Or HaChaim

“Not with you alone” [29:13]. The oath that Israel took was to keep the Torah and it was also for all future generations and not only for those who were present at that time. Our sages say that all the souls that were created since the creation of the world. They were all present at that oath. Therefore, each person should know and remember that he swore to keep the Torah. He should be warned to keep his oath. However, perhaps there are those who do not believe in the oath. They are, because of our sins, transgressing and say, I am not afraid of the curses. He says, I will go after my heart’s desire. There are many righteous people in the world. They will protect me. I am an individual who commit sins, and I will follow my heart’s desire until I have had a taste and then I will stop. However, he does not know anymore that he will only have his bite. He will have more desire to commit sins and he never has enough. He thinks he will make his evil inclination satiated. First, he makes the evil inclination very hungry by having thoughts of committing sins. Afterwards, God punishes him for these evil thoughts, since much depends on the heart’s thoughts. When the person is happy in his heart to fulfill a commandment, then his reward is great. Similarly, when he is happy to commit sins, then his evil payment is very great. There are some people who are sad in their heart when they have committed a sin, and they say, why have we sinned? His heart is stopped up and his sin is not so great because his heart is stopped up and also because his heart has regrets. However, there are also many people whose heart burns for the sin. They would gladly commit the sin again. This has a double evil payment, to pay him with pain and suffering. Concerning this, our sages said, “thoughts of a sin are worse than the sin itself.” This means that the sin that the person thought about for a long time and then does it, this sin is very evil because he first had impure thoughts to do evil. Maimonides writes. When the person contaminates his thoughts so that his heart has thoughts to commit sins, his soul becomes impure. This is a great sin that he thinks about the sin. He wants to do it again and he does it. The Holy One judges him with evil punishments. However, before he does the act, the Holy One does not judge him for the evil thoughts, since the Holy One does not judge Israel for evil thoughts alone, when he has not yet committed the sin. However, the person should not accustom himself to have evil thoughts, since in the end he will have to do this. The Holy One leads the person in accordance with the evil thoughts for which the person has desires.⁴Bahya, Deuteronomy, 29:18.

Not with you alone but rather, with you, and with those who shall come after you: your children, and your children’s children.

“And not with you alone am I making this covenant, etc.” Most commentators have greatly struggled with this oath that was upon them and upon their descendants who were not yet in the world, and how could they enter into the covenant of the oath. The root of this difficulty can be found in the Binding of Isaac, and the Abarbanel and other commentators have followed his opinion. The opinion of our Sages (Tanchuma Nitzavim 3) is that all the souls that were destined to be created were there. Some have deduced this from the change in language in the verse: For he who is here with us standing today before the Lord our God, and with him who is not here with us today (Deuteronomy 29:14). And it does not say “and with him who is not here with us standing today before the Lord,” which implies that it is speaking about souls, which although they are not here with us, they nevertheless are standing before the Lord constantly under the Throne of Glory like angels who are called “those who stand,” as it is written: And I will give you access among these who stand (Zechariah 3:7). It also seems possible to deduce this from the language with us, for it should have simply said “and with him who is not here today.” Rather, the precise meaning is that specifically with us they are not, but they are with the Lord and standing before Him. And regarding the objection of how can one administer an oath to a soul, we find a parallel to this where our Sages said in Tractate Niddah (30b) that on the day of birth they administer an oath to the person: “Be righteous and do not be wicked, etc.”