פּירוש אויף דברים 10:12

ועתה ישראל AND NOW, O ISRAEL, [WHAT DOTH THE LORD THY GOD ASK OF THEE] — Although you did all this, yet His mercy and His love are extended over you, and in spite of all that you sinned against Him, He asks nothing of you EXCEPT TO FEAR [THE LORD YOUR GOD, etc.].

ועתה ישראל, מה ה' אלוקיך שאל ממך, “and now, Israel, what is it the Lord your G–d asks of you, etc.;” the list that follows comprises all aspects of life, so that it is hard to understand Moses as portraying G–d’s demands upon us as something trivial. According to one view, this question refers only to the last item in the list, i.e. “G–d asks us to do only what is clearly of benefit for us and is good for us and the observance of which will result in our earning a great reward.” However, our sages in the Talmud tractate B’rachot, folio 33 are clearly disturbed by such an interpretation. This is why they distinguish between ordinary folks like ourselves, and Moses, and state that what appeared as relatively easy in Moses’ eyes concerning himself, is a great deal more difficult for the ordinary Jew. Different sages dealing with the same problem arrive at a different conclusion by saying that the opportunity that G–d gave us by our earning merits through the recital of 100 benedictions on each day is what makes it so easy to accumulate all those merits. They arrive at this by not understanding the word מה in our verse as meaning: “what,” but as מאה, “one hundred,” the Torah alluding to how easy it is to accumulate one hundred merit points daily. (Compare Talmud, tractate Menachot, folio 43.) Our author tries to reinforce this daring interpretation by reminding us that whereas the numerical value of the word מה when we read the aleph bet from right to left, adds up to 45, when we read it from left to right these two letters appear as יץ in the matching (corresponding) sequence, and then add up to 100. Some, much later commentaries, such as Tur, Or Hachayim, chapter 46, state that King David, 500 years earlier than Ezra, who had introduced public Torah reading on Mondays and Thursdays, decreed the need to recite one hundred benedictions daily; he bases himself on Samuel II chapter 23,1 according to which 100 men in David’s army died daily and he did not know why, so that he introduced the rule to recite these benedictions to ward off the cause for these mysterious deaths. The numerical value of the word על which follows the word הוקם in that word is 100. and it is reported that the plague that killed one hundred people every day ceased forthwith, i.e. as soon as the people started reciting 100 benedictions daily. There is another interesting source for the benefit of the recital of 100 benedictions daily, which is derived from a verse in Psalms 128,4: הנה כי כן יבורך גבר, “so shall the man who fears the Lord be blessed,” the last four words of this line, seeing that the word has been spelled defectively, i.e. יברך, have a numerical value of 100, were the reason for the inclusion of the benediction מודים אנחנו לך, “we give thanks to You,” in the daily amidah prayer which we recite three times daily at least. We bow down while reciting this benediction. The source of bowing down when reciting these words is found in Samuel I 15,30 where King Sha-ul, after having been rebuked by the prophet Samuel for failing to have killed Agag, the King of the Amalekites, confesses to having sinned and bows down, והשתחויתי לה' אלוקיך, “I prostrated myself bowed down to the Lord your G–d; .Targum Yonathan translates the word והשתחויתי there as meaning: “I have given thanks.” The fact is that we do not prostrate ourselves during the daily amidah prayer when reciting the prayer beginning with the word מודים. The reason may be because the numerical value of the letters in that word is 100. This is another allusion to the fact that reciting 100 benedictions daily is appropriate or mandatory for each one of us. Or, the sages teach us that if one thanks the Lord daily in a proper fashion this is equivalent to having recited one hundred benedictions daily. In other words, it is equivalent to prostrating oneself. This has been attested to by a Rabbi Boon, in the Jerusalem Talmud [I have not found the quote, perhaps it is inaccurately quoted. Ed.]

WHAT DOTH THE ETERNAL THY G-D REQUIRE OF THEE. This is connected with the expression [in the following verse] for thy good. He is stating: “He does not require anything of you for His sake, only for your sake,” similar in meaning to the verse, If thou be righteous, what givest thou Him?²⁴³Job 35:7. Rather, it is all for your good. And he stated the reason for it, because unto the Eternal thy G-d belongeth the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, the earth, with all that therein is,²⁴⁴Verse 14. all giving glory to His Name and He is not in need of you. Only the Eternal delighted in thy fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you, above all peoples,²⁴⁵Verse 15. for you are the chosen of their seed, not Ishmael nor Esau.