פֶּֽה־לָ֭הֶם וְלֹ֣א יְדַבֵּ֑רוּ עֵינַ֥יִם לָ֝הֶ֗ם וְלֹ֣א יִרְאֽוּ׃
זײ האָבן אַ מױל און רעדן ניט, זײ האָבן אױגן און זעען ניט;
Rabbeinu Bahya
בני אהרן, “sons of Aaron,” etc. Our sages in Sotah 23 understand this as excluding female descendants of priests, i.e. “the sons of Aaron but not the daughters of Aaron.” I have explained the reason why the female offspring of priests is not considered as priests in the full sense of the word in my commentary on Parshat Tzav (Leviticus 6,19) as due to the woman having been the one who brought death into the world. This does not make them fit to act as priests, i.e. people who are concerned with preserving and extending life.
The reason that this paragraph of special laws for the priests has been written immediately after the verse prohibiting the law of how to deal with sorcerers, various kinds of performers of magic, is explained in the Midrash as justified by subsequent Jewish history. King Saul killed an entire city of Priests (Nof), compare Samuel I 22,18 appointing Doeg their accuser to be the executioner. [There had not been the kind of evidence that the priests had committed treason against Saul which would stand up in court. Ed.] Subsequently, when King Saul found himself in a quandary when he did want advice from G’d and was refused it, he turned to a necromancer despite the express prohibition to even allow such people to live in Leviticus 20,27. G’d had foreseen all this and had written these two commandments, i.e. to give precedence to the priests and to abhor necromancers as a warning to Saul and others not to become guilty of the sin described.
Isaiah 8,19 deals with this subject when he writes addressing the common folk who might be asked to practice the art of necromancy by saying: “should the people say to you, ‘inquire of the ghosts and familiar spirits that chirp and moan, for a people may inquire of its divine beings, of the dead on behalf of the living, for instruction and message;’ by responding: ‘surely for one who speaks thus there shall be no dawn.” Isaiah’s point is that if such a practice is raising its head in Israel the people have to respond that they get any information they are desirous of from their G’d directly, not from charlatans, etc. The prophet Elijah had remonstrated with King Achazyah who had sent inquiries to idols of other nations, and had challenged him saying: “are there then no representatives of the true Lord in Israel that you saw fit to inquire from deities like Baal Zevuv and others?” (Kings II 1,6). In the event that the people feel that they have no legitimate address from which to inquire about their future, the Torah goes on record in Deut. 17,9: “you will come to the priests, the Levites, or to the judge who will officiate in those days; when you inquire they will tell you.”
Rabbi Yehoshua from the village Sakinin said in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi that G’d showed Moses a bird’s eye view of all subsequent generations and their respective leaders. He showed him King Saul, his sons, and his death by the sword of the Jewish people’s enemies. This was part of the panorama G’d showed to Moses. Moses was aghast and exclaimed: “the first King of the Jewish people should have such a tragic end, should be stabbed by a sword?” Thereupon G’d told Moses to write down the paragraph we are now dealing with. Thus far Rabbi Yehoshua (compare Tanchuma Emor 2). I plan to explain the details about the various forms of necromancy, etc., in connection with Parshat Shoftim, (seeing there are different views about this subject).
The reason that this paragraph of special laws for the priests has been written immediately after the verse prohibiting the law of how to deal with sorcerers, various kinds of performers of magic, is explained in the Midrash as justified by subsequent Jewish history. King Saul killed an entire city of Priests (Nof), compare Samuel I 22,18 appointing Doeg their accuser to be the executioner. [There had not been the kind of evidence that the priests had committed treason against Saul which would stand up in court. Ed.] Subsequently, when King Saul found himself in a quandary when he did want advice from G’d and was refused it, he turned to a necromancer despite the express prohibition to even allow such people to live in Leviticus 20,27. G’d had foreseen all this and had written these two commandments, i.e. to give precedence to the priests and to abhor necromancers as a warning to Saul and others not to become guilty of the sin described.
Isaiah 8,19 deals with this subject when he writes addressing the common folk who might be asked to practice the art of necromancy by saying: “should the people say to you, ‘inquire of the ghosts and familiar spirits that chirp and moan, for a people may inquire of its divine beings, of the dead on behalf of the living, for instruction and message;’ by responding: ‘surely for one who speaks thus there shall be no dawn.” Isaiah’s point is that if such a practice is raising its head in Israel the people have to respond that they get any information they are desirous of from their G’d directly, not from charlatans, etc. The prophet Elijah had remonstrated with King Achazyah who had sent inquiries to idols of other nations, and had challenged him saying: “are there then no representatives of the true Lord in Israel that you saw fit to inquire from deities like Baal Zevuv and others?” (Kings II 1,6). In the event that the people feel that they have no legitimate address from which to inquire about their future, the Torah goes on record in Deut. 17,9: “you will come to the priests, the Levites, or to the judge who will officiate in those days; when you inquire they will tell you.”
Rabbi Yehoshua from the village Sakinin said in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi that G’d showed Moses a bird’s eye view of all subsequent generations and their respective leaders. He showed him King Saul, his sons, and his death by the sword of the Jewish people’s enemies. This was part of the panorama G’d showed to Moses. Moses was aghast and exclaimed: “the first King of the Jewish people should have such a tragic end, should be stabbed by a sword?” Thereupon G’d told Moses to write down the paragraph we are now dealing with. Thus far Rabbi Yehoshua (compare Tanchuma Emor 2). I plan to explain the details about the various forms of necromancy, etc., in connection with Parshat Shoftim, (seeing there are different views about this subject).
Rabbeinu Bahya
According to a comment in the Sefer Hayashar at the time Avram was born a certain star in the eastern sky “swallowed “ four other stars in four directions of the sky. At that time Nimrod’s advisors said to him: “at this moment a son has been born to Terach whose descendants will produce a nation which will inherit the whole earth as well as the hereafter. If you agree, let us give his father a house full of gold and silver and get his permission to kill the baby.” Thereupon Nimrod immediately sent an urgent message to Terach in which he referred to the baby who had been born to Terach on the previous evening, and demanded that it be handed over to be killed. In return he promised Terach a house full of gold and silver. Terach replied by citing a parable. He said: “I will explain to you how your offer looks to me. They told a horse ‘let us cut off your head and we will give you a house full of barley.’ The horse replied: “you are fools. If you cut off my head who is going to eat the barley? Similarly, if you are going to kill my son who will inherit all this gold and silver?” Having heard this explanation by Terach the king replied: “I infer from your words that a son has been born for you. Terach replied that this was true but that the baby was dead already. Thereupon the king told him: “the offer to pay you for him with a house full of gold and silver applies only if you deliver him alive. If you deliver him dead the offer does not apply.” Thereupon Terach hid the baby in a cave for the next three years. G’d provided two outlets for that cave. One became the source of fine flour, the other of oil.
When Avram was three years old he left the cave. When he looked around he began to wonder who had created heaven and the earth and himself. At first he began praying to the sun all day long. Then, at night, when he saw the moon, he began to pray to the moon as he had concluded that the position of the moon in the sky was proof that the moon had created it and the stars as well as earth and himself. He considered the stars as servants of the moon. When the moon disappeared in the morning and the sun rose in the East he began to realise that the phenomena he had observed thus far had only been tools in the hands of someone mightier than either of them. He now went to his father Terach and asked him who had created heaven earth and himself? Terach answered him: “my god created all these phenomena.” Thereupon Avram asked his father to show him this god who supposedly was powerful enough to have created all these phenomena. Terach brought him one of his idols. Avram could not accept that this idol had any power at all. He went to his mother asking her similar questions. He asked his mother to cook a fancy dish so that he could offer it to one of the idols hoping it would be accepted as an offering. He placed the food in front of Terach’s biggest idol. The idol did not respond at all, neither by sign or movement of his eyes or other organs. At that point, Avram had some divine inspiration and he said of these idols פה להם ולא ידברו, עינים להם ולא יראו, “they have a mouth and are unable to speak, they have eyes but are unable to see” (Psalms 115,5). He seized the idols and burned them. He took the largest idol outside and placed the fire in his hand. When his father came home and wanted to know what had happened, Avram accused the biggest idol of having burned the others. Terach accused Avram of having burned his idols. Avram claimed to be innocent accusing the largest idols of having burned the others in a fit of fury. Thereupon his father said to him: “my son, you are foolish, how can any of these lifeless idols do such a thing? I myself have made these idols out of wood.” Thereupon Avram said to his father: “I wish you would hear yourself talk. If they have no power why did you tell me that they have created heaven and earth?” Terach then went to Nimrod and told him that his son had burned both his own and Nimrod’s idols. Nimrod sent for Avram and asked him why he done such a thing. Avram denied having done anything and blamed the largest of the idols for having burned the others. Thereupon Nimrod also challenged him by saying: “since when do these idols possess a spirit of life enabling them to act?” Avram then told Nimrod more or less the same as he had told his father, adding: “why do you reduce the god who has created heaven and earth to a wooden image and you worship such an image?” Thereupon Nimrod told Avram that he personally had created heaven and earth and that both heaven and earth were under his control.
Thereupon Avram said to Nimrod: “You are able to create? when I came out of the cave I saw the sun rise in the east and set in the west. If you can make the sun rise in the west and set in the east I will worship you. If you are unable to do this, the one who gave me the power to burn the idols will also give me the power to kill you.” Upon hearing this Nimrod consulted with his advisors and asked them what to do with Avram? Thereupon the advisors told him: “this is the one concerning whom we have told you that he will become the founder of a nation which will take over the entire universe including the hereafter. Now the only thing you can do is to do to him what he has done to those idols which he burned.” Upon hearing the advice of his councilors Nimrod immediately threw Avram into a fiery furnace. At that point, G’d was filled with mercy for the boy and He saved him. This is the meaning of His words to Avram: “I have taken you out of the fire of the Casdim.”
When Avram was three years old he left the cave. When he looked around he began to wonder who had created heaven and the earth and himself. At first he began praying to the sun all day long. Then, at night, when he saw the moon, he began to pray to the moon as he had concluded that the position of the moon in the sky was proof that the moon had created it and the stars as well as earth and himself. He considered the stars as servants of the moon. When the moon disappeared in the morning and the sun rose in the East he began to realise that the phenomena he had observed thus far had only been tools in the hands of someone mightier than either of them. He now went to his father Terach and asked him who had created heaven earth and himself? Terach answered him: “my god created all these phenomena.” Thereupon Avram asked his father to show him this god who supposedly was powerful enough to have created all these phenomena. Terach brought him one of his idols. Avram could not accept that this idol had any power at all. He went to his mother asking her similar questions. He asked his mother to cook a fancy dish so that he could offer it to one of the idols hoping it would be accepted as an offering. He placed the food in front of Terach’s biggest idol. The idol did not respond at all, neither by sign or movement of his eyes or other organs. At that point, Avram had some divine inspiration and he said of these idols פה להם ולא ידברו, עינים להם ולא יראו, “they have a mouth and are unable to speak, they have eyes but are unable to see” (Psalms 115,5). He seized the idols and burned them. He took the largest idol outside and placed the fire in his hand. When his father came home and wanted to know what had happened, Avram accused the biggest idol of having burned the others. Terach accused Avram of having burned his idols. Avram claimed to be innocent accusing the largest idols of having burned the others in a fit of fury. Thereupon his father said to him: “my son, you are foolish, how can any of these lifeless idols do such a thing? I myself have made these idols out of wood.” Thereupon Avram said to his father: “I wish you would hear yourself talk. If they have no power why did you tell me that they have created heaven and earth?” Terach then went to Nimrod and told him that his son had burned both his own and Nimrod’s idols. Nimrod sent for Avram and asked him why he done such a thing. Avram denied having done anything and blamed the largest of the idols for having burned the others. Thereupon Nimrod also challenged him by saying: “since when do these idols possess a spirit of life enabling them to act?” Avram then told Nimrod more or less the same as he had told his father, adding: “why do you reduce the god who has created heaven and earth to a wooden image and you worship such an image?” Thereupon Nimrod told Avram that he personally had created heaven and earth and that both heaven and earth were under his control.
Thereupon Avram said to Nimrod: “You are able to create? when I came out of the cave I saw the sun rise in the east and set in the west. If you can make the sun rise in the west and set in the east I will worship you. If you are unable to do this, the one who gave me the power to burn the idols will also give me the power to kill you.” Upon hearing this Nimrod consulted with his advisors and asked them what to do with Avram? Thereupon the advisors told him: “this is the one concerning whom we have told you that he will become the founder of a nation which will take over the entire universe including the hereafter. Now the only thing you can do is to do to him what he has done to those idols which he burned.” Upon hearing the advice of his councilors Nimrod immediately threw Avram into a fiery furnace. At that point, G’d was filled with mercy for the boy and He saved him. This is the meaning of His words to Avram: “I have taken you out of the fire of the Casdim.”
Ibn Ezra
Behold, there is none that showeth, none that heareth the words of the idols; for they have mouths but speak not (Ps. 115:5)