פרשה: כי תשא · עלייה: שישי (יסוד)

שמר לך, "Observe for yourself, etc.!" How does the term "observe" apply to the subject matter of this verse? If the Torah refers to the commandment G'd is about to reveal as something Moses is to "observe" as Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra suggests, why would G'd select this commandment of not concluding a covenant with the seven Canaanite nations rather than any other of the many commandments as something for Moses to be very careful about? After all, Moses had already been told that it was not he who would conquer these nations What point was there in warning him specifically not to conclude such a covenant?

Perhaps there is a lesson here about how true repentance works. Seeing the Israelites had become guilty of worshiping an idol, the תקון, rehabilitation, for such a sin required that they destroy everything even remotely connected with idolatry if they wanted to attain complete atonement for their sin. This required that they cultivate a strong abhorrence for all forms of idolatry starting already now, long before they would displace the idolatrous Canaanites and destroy any vestiges of idol worship the Canaanites had been guilty of. The verb שמר may perhaps be understood in the sense that Jacob used it when he heard Joseph's dream with the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowing down to him. At that time (Genesis 37,11), Jacob had begun to look forward to the way this dream would become fulfilled. The Israelites (including Moses) were now meant to look forward to the time when they could carry out the commandment G'd was about to give them.

Alternatively, G'd implied that as long as the Israelites had not become guilty of making a molten image He would not have bothered to command them to keep a physical and cultural distance from the Gentile nations and their abominations. Seeing they themselves had become victims of the impulse to worship an idol, G'd now had to give the people this law in order to ensure that they would not again be tempted to succumb to idolatry. The words שמר לך, are a reminder that the law was due to something the Israelites themselves had done.

A moral-ethical approach sees in the word לך "for yourself" a reference to Moses; G'd hinted to Moses that the words: "I am going to drive out before you the nations, etc." are not a reference to what would happpen in the immediate future, but refer to the distant future, to messianic times. It corresponds to the statement of our sages in Bamidbar Rabbah 19,13 which describes the Jews (the generation which perished in the desert) as saying that: "the same Moses who has redeemed us from Egypt will redeem us in the future." G'd told Moses to be looking forward to that time, i.e. שמר לך. You may find support for this interpretation when you consider that the promise contained in the line "I will drive out before you, etc.," has never been fulfilled during the time the Israelites travelled in the desert.

פן תכרות ברית, "lest you enter enter into a covenant, etc." The Torah stresses that although the Canaanites would be prepared to accept the seven Noachide laws as a pre-condition to such a covenant, the Israelites must not conclude such a covenant with them. The reason is that these nations would display an irresistible temptation to engage in idolatry with their former deities as they do not truly believe in G'd, a fact which is evident to every student of Kabbalah. וזבחו לאלוהיהם, "they will offer meat-offerings to their deities," and they will invite you to participate in such meals. We have been taught in Avodah Zarah 8 that a Jew is considered as having participated in such a meal from the moment he has accepted the invitation to participate based on the word מזבחו. In chapter four of his treatise Hilchot Shechitah, Maimonides prohibits Jews from eating meat slaughtered by a Gentile even if he does not worship idols and the slaughter was performed under the supervision of a Jew. G'd detests the fact that a Gentile slaughters a beast. [Maybe in order to qualify for the right to kill animals for food, man must have demonstrated his superiority to the beast by observing at least the seven Noachide commandments. Ed.]

את חג המצות תשמור, "you are to observe the festival of unleavened bread." The reason that the Torah chose to mention this commandment at this point is the need for the Israelites to rehabilitate themselves from the sin of idolatry. The Zohar volume 4 page 40 states that the spiritual equivalent of leavened matter is an alien deity. This is the reason G'd has so insistently and repeatedly warned us about keeping or eating leavened matter on the festival of Passover. In this instance, G'd instructed us concerning the observance of all the festivals. The reason may be that all the major festivals are rooted in the Exodus experience of the Jewish people. Inasmuch as the sin of the golden calf elevated that idol to the redeemer which took the Israelites out of Egypt, all festivals are a reminder of the Exodus. G'd repeated the legislation because it contained elements which demonstrated that he who observed these commandments expressed his opposition to idolatry by doing so. He also mentioned Sabbath observance since the observance of the Sabbath counteracts the previously performed idolatry. Just as idolatry cancels all merits one ever accumulated by performing G'd's commandments, so the observance of the Sabbath is considered as observance of all the commandments and a form of rehabilitation for the idolatry one was guilty of previously. Compare my comments at the beginning of Parshat Vayakel.

כי אוריש גוים מפניך, "For I will dispossess nations from your presence, etc." In the event that you would feel empathy with the nations whom you displace, G'd assures us that we would not even see the remnants of these nations, i.e. מפניך, "out of the sight of your face."

והרחבתי את גבולך, "and I will expand your borders, etc." This may be understood in accordance with Gittin 57 which claims that the boundaries of the land of Israel will expand in direct proportion to the Jewish population in the country. The sages base this on Jeremiah 3,19 where the land of Israel is described as ארץ צבי, as comparable to the deer. The skin of the deer is exceptionally elastic.