ואשר לא ראו את מוסר, “and who have not witnessed Your chastisement;” Moses will furnish the details immediately.

ואשר עשה לחיל מצרים, “and what He did to the army of Egypt;” [Moses adds in verse 6, that G-d had killed Datan and Aviram. These two actions do not appear to be related to one another, neither in the manner in which either party met its death, nor in the quantity of people involved in each action.] Why did Moses treat them in such a manner? He wished to demonstrate how both the earth and the ocean collaborated with G-d. The Egyptians did not drown in the regular manner but the waves piled up upon them forcing them below. [In the case of Datan and Aviram, though they stood far away from Korach, they were also swallowed by the earth which strained to carry out what it perceived to be G-d’s will.] Onkelos pays tribute to the astuteness with which nature cooperated with G-d, i.e. חכימא מיא, “the waters acted with wisdom.”

ואשר עשה לכם במדבר, “and what He did for you in the desert;” this is a reference to the manna. (Ibn Ezra)

ואת בתיהם, “and their houses.” Wives, children, and their young infants went to their deaths.

למען תחזקו, “in order that you will remain strong;” Moses does not mean that the commandments should be performed in order to strengthen the Israelites’ bodies; it is never recommended that we serve the Lord for the sake of reward on this earth. (Avot, 1,3) What he meant was that performance of the commandments as a whole punctiliously, would ensure that their stay on the ancestral land they were about to be given would endure for many years. (verse 9)

כי הארץ אשר אתה בא שמה וגו :”for the land that you are about to come to, etc.; ”the nature of that land requires that you observe G-d’s commandments.

This land is not like Egypt where all the farmer had to do was to plant the seed and nature would take over automatically, as the Nile would irrigate the seedlings and the crops would grow. Therefore: והיה אם תשמעו. “It will be as a result of your hearkening, etc, I will direct My rain to the land that needs it. (vv. 11:13-14)

והיה אם לא כארץ מצרים היא, “it is not like the land of Egypt;” Rashi explains as follows: Cham, Noach’s youngest son had built Tzoan in Egypt and Chevron in Canaan. When Rashi commented on Genesis 12,6, that the Canaanite was still living in that land, it means that the Canaanites at that time were in the process of capturing that land from Shem, Cham’s older brother. They did so by proceeding from the north of the land, which had been part of Shem’s ancestral land and that of his descendants. The lower, i.e. more southerly part of what is now the land of Israel had belonged to Cham. Chevron belonged to that part of the land of Canaan. This too has been explained by Rashi.

ארץ הרים ובקעות, “a land of hills and valleys.” No one was able to irrigate his fields by drawing on the waters from the rivers. Seeing that you will depend on rainfall at the appropriate season, you will do well to observe the commandments properly.

דורש אותה, “He cares for it constantly;” He examines the people’s morals in that land especially carefully.

מרשית השנה, “from the beginning of the year;” the word ראשית appears here without the customary letter .א

ועד אחרית שנה, right until the end of the year. He is entitled to bless the fruit of the land even after it has reached their storage places in their homes. We know that from the promise in Deut. 28,8, יצו ה׳ את הברכה באסמיך, “the Lord will command the blessing in your barns.”

ואספת דגנך, “you will gather in your grain harvest.” Even though you have been commanded to study Torah day and night, you have permission to go about your business in the full meaning of the word [not as in the desert when your bread came down from heaven and you were totally free to devote yourselves to Torah study. Ed.]

פן יפתה לבבכם, “lest your heart be fooled;” the root פתה appears in this sense in Job 5,2: “passion slays the fool.” Moses warns the people not to be misled by the urges of their heart and commit foolishness. If the root of this word would be פתוי, “temptation,” Moses should have written: יפותה, as in Proverbs 25,15.

ועבדתם אלהים אחרים, “you will worship other deities.” Rabbi Yossi queries why these deities are called elohim in the Torah seeing that they are idols.He said it so that the gentiles would not have a pretext to say that if these “deities” had been called by their individual names in the Torah, instead of simply “non gods,” this would be proof that G-d had had need of them for some purpose at some time. [Our author dealt with this problem already in his commentary on Exodus 20,3, the main point of which was that the translation “other gods,” is incorrect, and it should be translated as: “deities” worshipped by others.”]

According to the Sifri on the word אחרים, that word could be translated as “exchangeable,” if the owner of a golden idol finds himself hard up, he will sell the golden one and exchange it for something similar made of silver, etc.

ואבדתם, “you will become lost,” the reference is to exile, similar to when the prophet Isaiah 27,13 refers to the exiles from Ashur returning to their homeland as האובדים בארץ אשור, “the ones who were lost in the land of Ashur.”

על לבבכם, “in your hearts;” the word על usually translated as “on, above, etc.,” also appears quite a few times as meaning “next to, beside,” the author cites Exodus 40,3 as an example where the Torah writes: וסכותה על הארון, which is translated as: “you shall screen the ark,” i.e. the dividing curtain before or beside the Holy of Holies screens the Ark from view. In our verse the meaning would be that G-d’s word shall always be close to our hearts.

למען ירבו ימיכם וימי בניכם, “so that you will live long and your children will live long, etc..” Women are also obligated to put mezzuzot on their homes when no man shares the home they live in. This is logical, seeing that they too wish to enjoy long life. (Talmud, Kidushin, folio 31.)

כי אם שמור תשמרון, “for if you diligently keep all these commandments;” the word כי is used here instead of the word: אלא, “but.” ואבדתם מהרה, “if you do not keep the commandments now, you will not have to go into exile as you will not even enter the Holy land in the first place. The condition for entering is that you have a record of keeping the laws of the Torah.

ראה אנכי נותן לפניכם, “Behold, I set before you;” up until now Moses had concentrated on the need to revere the Lord; from now on he concentrates on spelling out specific commandments.

ונתתה את הברכה, “you shall set the blessing;” verbally, as the author has explained in Deuteronomy 27,11-14; another example can be found in Leviticus 16,21: ונתן אותם על ראש השעיר, “he will place them on the head of the he-goat” (the sins of Israel).

על הר גריזים, “next to Mount Gerizim.” The word על meaning “next to,” is also used in this sense in Exodus 40, 3 וסכות על הארון, “you shall screen the ark.” So also Leviticus 24.7: And thou shalt put pure frankincense with each row.

אחרי דרך מבא השמש, “behind the way of the going down of the sun.” Rashi’s commentary on this phrase is that the people travelled a tremendous distance on that day. According to the Talmud, tractate Sotah, folio 36, the Israelites on that day, after having crossed the river Jordan, would have marched 60 mil to Mount Gerizim and Mount Eyval. After having performed all the commandments they were to perform there, on that day they would then march back to Gilgal where they would spend the night as detailed in Joshua 8,30-35 as well as in Sotah 36. [I am not sure if our author questions the literal meaning of the Talmud concerning this. Ed.]

מול הגלגל, “facing Gilgal;” The reason why Moses pinpoints the location is because the chain of mountains is long, and Moses wished to give precise directions.