ציטירנדיקער פּירוש אויף יחזקאל 20:25

לפניהם, “before them.” Rashi sees in this word an exclusion of gentiles, to whom all these ordinances will not apply, even if they would adopt our system of civil law. [Presumably, he felt that otherwise that word is superfluous, as it is obvious that the laws would be addressed to the |sraelites. Ed.] Jews are not allowed to submit their litigation to a gentile court even if the rules of that court are like those of ours. Our author uses a parable to illustrate the point. Imagine that two sick persons go to a physician to have themselves examined. The physician tells one of them to eat, heartily and healthily, whereas he tells the second one to abstain from some of the very foods he had encouraged the first person to eat from heartily. The reason is that not every food is good for everyone. What is good for one patient may be very dangerous for the next patient. When the physician advised the first patient to eat heartily, the reason was that that patient was diagnosed as fatally ill, so that he might as well enjoy the time left for him on earth. The same advice to the second patient would prove very dangerous for him. The same reasoning applies to Jews and gentiles. We read in Ezekiel 20,25 concerning the gentiles that G–d had given them laws and statutes that they could not live by, whereas the laws He gave to the Israelites were designed to be for their benefit. [This verse is extremely difficult, and the reader is advised to read the commentary by Rabbi M.Eisemann in the Art Scroll edition of the Book of Ezekiel. Ed.] Rashi assumes that when the Israelites fail to observe G–d’s laws, they will eventually attribute their hardships to G–d’s laws having been harmful. We are taught in the Torah that the opposite is true. Compare Leviticus 18.5. This is also the reason why we are forbidden to eat all kinds of creeping creatures, as they are injurious to one’s health. These same creatures, if eaten by gentiles, are not harmful to them. This is also the meaning of Psalms 147,19: מגיד דבריו ליעקב, חוקיו ,” ,משפטיו לישראל. לא עשה כן לכל גוי, “He issus His commands to Yaakov, His statutes and rules to Israel; He did not do so for any other nation;” The following is a true story involving the convert Onkelos, a nephew of the Roman Emperor Hadrianus, who when wishing to convert was afraid of the wrath of his uncle the Emperor. He told his uncle that he wished to engage in business, whereupon his uncle asked him if he was short of capital, in which case he was willing to help him out. He told his uncle that he wished to travel and find out which merchandise was both in demand and easy to obtain. His uncle told him to seek out a field which was presently in a recession so that he could invest at low prices and profit when market conditions would improve. As a result, he went to the land of Israel, at that time in a deep depression commercially, and studied Torah from the scholars prior to undergoing circumcision for becoming a convert. He was told that the words of Torah would only reside within him permanently if he circumcised himself first. He followed this advice, circumcised himself and studied a great deal of Torah. When Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Joshua saw him, they noticed that his facial features had undergone a great change. They concluded that this was not Onkelos who had studied the Torah. When he began to ask the scholars questions, they told him that this was the result. When he returned to his uncle the Emperor, the latter asked him what had brought about the change in his facial features. He told him that he had studied the Torah and had himself circumcised. Upon being asked who had advised him to do this, he said: “you have.” He explained that his uncle had told him to acquire merchandise which was in a depression and patiently wait until this merchandise would appreciate in value. He had visited many nations and not found a single one which was in such a state of depression as the Jewish nation, so that he became convinced that their fortunes would improve drastically. He quoted the prophet Isaiah 49,7 who had predicted this already more than five hundred years earlier. The Emperor slapped his face and asked him once more what had prompted him to convert to Judaism. He told him that actually, he had gone to study the Torah, but had been told that the condition for being taught Torah was that he had to be circumcised, just as Yaakov. He quoted Psalms 147,20 where it has been spelled out by the use of the word בל, that only the people of Israel had been endowed with Torah knowledge that could be retained. (Tanchuma, Mishpatim section 5)

V. 8. Nichts charakterisiert den "Mann Mosche" diesen ענו מאוד מכל אדם, der so gar nichts für sich in Anspruch nimmt, so gar nichts für sich sein wollte, so ganz und gar in seinen "Dienst Gottes" aufging, als dieses Wort! Was hätte nicht ein anderer, zu dessen Rechten, um mit dem Propheten zu sprechen, Gott seinen Wunderarm in aller Herrlichkeit geführt — מוליך לימין משה את זרוע תפארתו — für sich aus einer solchen Gnadenstellung gemacht! Wie hätte er nicht mindestens einen schwachen Wiederschein von dem blendenden Strahlenglanze einer solchen Wunderwirkung auf seine Person fallen lassen! Was sind alle die Brotspeisungen und sonstigen Wunderwerke aller der Wundermänner, von welchen eine gläubige Menschheit erzählt, gegen diese vierzig Jahre lang fortgesetzte regelmäßige, und in ihrer Versorgung selbst sich als höchste Providenz verkündende Speisung von dritthalb Millionen Seelen auf einem Zuge mitten durch die Wüste! Man braucht wahrlich nur um ein Haar breit weniger "Mosche" zu sein, als Mosche gewesen, um der Versuchung eines solchen Nimbus sondergleichen nicht zu widerstehen! Und siehe, "der Mann Mosche" zittert ganz eigentlich vor solchem Nimbus. Ihm genügt es nicht, im Verein mit seinem Bruder nur so nebenher (V. 7) darauf aufmerksam gemacht zu haben, daß ihr Murren doch eigentlich gegen Gott und nicht gegen sie gerichtet sei, die doch nur Gotteswerkzeuge wären; er greift selbständig dieses letzte Wort auf und fordert sie noch ganz besonders (V. 8) auf, aus der Erfahrung, die sie zu machen im Begriffe stehen, daß Gott sie abends und morgens speisen werde, daß Gott — ohne daß Mosche sich deshalb an ihn gewandt — unmittelbar ihr Murren gehört, nicht nur כבוד ד׳, die Größe Gottes, sondern gleichzeitig auch die Tatsache schöpfen sollen, daß sie unmittelbar unter Gottes Leitung stehen, Mosche nicht einmal als Mittler notwendig sei, und seine und seines Bruders Bedeutung für sie gänzlich zu verschwinden habe. Und in der Tat, Mosche ganze Sendung ist davon bedingt, daß sie durch und durch rein als unmittelbares Gotteswerk erkannt werde, und daß in unserm Bewusstsein menschliches Zutun auch keine Faser Anteil daran habe. Ein solcher Zug in die Wüste, ein solcher Schabbat wie der "mosaische" Schabbat, wie gar die späteren Schabbatjahre des "mosaischen" Gesetzes, und wie noch viele andere Institutionen dieses Gesetzes, wären nicht nur eine Torheit, wären geradezu ein Verbrechen, wenn ein Mensch, wenn nicht Gott sie geboten. Es darf kein Mensch Weib und Kind hoffnungslos in die Wüste führen, es darf kein Mensch sich für einen Tag, oder gar von Zeit zu Zeit für ganze Jahre, der Pflicht der Arbeit entziehen. Gott als deren Erteiler weg gedacht, sind das, wie der Prophet es ausspricht, חוקים לא טובים ומשפטים לא יחיו בהם (Jechesk. 20. 25). und es ist das Wort unserer Weisen: גוי ששבת חייב מיתה ein Nichtjude, der sich einen jüdischen Schabbat zur Pflicht machen würde, beginge ein strafwürdiges Verbrechen, durchaus ein Wort begründeter Wahrheit. Allein, von Gott geboten, von Gott gefordert als Zeichen und Übung rückhaltlosen Anerkennens und Vertrauens, wird, was sonst Torheit wäre, höchste Weisheit, was sonst Verbrechen, menschenwürdigste Tugend, deren Nichterfüllung Gott verleugnen und sich entehren wäre. — Ganz besonders aber bedarf die Institution, deren Grundlegung mit dieser vierzigjährigen Mannaerfahrung gegeben werden sollte, bedarf der שבת des unerschütterlichen Bewusstseins, daß der Mensch mit allen seinen kleinen und doch so unerlässlichen Bedürfnissen des täglichen Familienlebens unmittelbar unter Gott stehe, alle seine Wünsche und Sorgen unmittelbar Ihm zuzuhauchen habe und er keines Mittlers und Fürsprechers bedürfe, um Gott seine kleinen und großen Anliegen nahe zu legen. Der Schabbat wie das ganze Gesetz soll ja den Mosche überleben. Daher die ängstliche Sorge dieses "Mannes Mosche", dessen erhabenste Größe eben darin bestand, daß er nur Mensch und nichts weiter sein wollte, daß in den Anschauungen seines Volkes er völlig zwischen ihnen und ihrem Gotte verschwinde.

ראה נתתי לפניך היום את החיים ואת הטוב, “see here, I have placed before you today life and the good.” This verse shows that man has been given the choice to do either good or evil; for, if he did not have a free will, how could the system of reward and punishment be relevant? The way we have to understand the verse is that if you do good you will reap life, if you do evil your “reward” will be death.
An alternative explanation of this verse: the words “life and the good, death and the evil,” are a reference to the Torah itself. Torah can be the elixir of life for the righteous; at the same time it could be the source of death for the wicked. Our verse would be similar in meaning to Ezekiel 20,25: “and I also have given to them statutes which are not good and social laws that they cannot live by.” [the words “to them” in the verse refer to the wicked, Sabbath-profaning Jews]. Being in exile due to their sins, and forbidden by their hosts in exile to keep the Torah, makes the continued violation of the Torah a source of the people’s death for non-observance, or for death by their masters for violating local laws and insisting on observing Torah law instead. The Jewish people’s failure to keep Torah while on their own land, ultimately places them in a no-win situation in the land to which they have been exiled.