לא תוסף עליו, “do not add thereto;” the letter ס here has the vowel tzeyre under it.עליו, additional numbers of sheep, goats of bulls to the offerings. Neither must you add other categories of offerings, such as your sons or daughters.

ולא תגרע ממנו, “neither are you to detract from the number of animal species that I have authorized for of offerings”.

כי יקום בקרבך נביא, “if a prophet arises in your midst;” this subject is introduced here as the subject of idolatry will follow thereafter.

ובא האות והמופת, “and the sign or wonder predicted will come to pass;” the letter ו in the word והמופת means: “or.”We have a similar construction in Exodus 21,15, where the line: ומכה אביו ואמו, means: “anyone who strikes his father or his mother.” Similar constructions occur in Exodus 21,17, and in numerous other places in the Torah. The Sifri quotes a Baraitha in which Rabbi Akiva is cited as saying that we must not be misled into believing that G-d would interfere with the position of sun or moon in order to comply with the wishes of a false prophet. What is meant in our verse is that a true prophet, who has in the past performed miracles, and had thus legitimised himself by having performed such miracles, has become a heretic and the people now believe him, not knowing that he has become a heretic. If such a prophet would call on the people to perform acts of idolatry, he must not be believed, regardless of the fact that at one time he was a legitimate prophet. No true prophet is to be believed if his message entails violating laws of the Torah, regardless of how many times he had in the past demonstrated that he was a true prophet, unless when he did so he said that he suggested such a violation only as a one time emergency measure due to exceptional circumstances. If you were to ask, that seeing that G-d knew in advance that such a prophet would turn into a heretic, so why did He equip him with prophetic powers in the first place?The Torah answers this question by telling us that it is G-d’s way of testing our faith in Moses’ Torah being the one and only Torah He has given us, and that it will not undergo changes in the course of history. (verse 4) This is even more true, when the socalled prophet performs acts by a slight of hand which deceive the onlookers into believing that he had performed miracle. The same is true if such a charlatan knows how to trick you into believing that you had heard things in the name of the Lord, things which he had never heard from G-d. Do not let either your eyes or your ears deceive you when the subject is the inviolability of the laws of the Torah. You must follow only the revealed word of G-d as handed down by Moses in the Torah.

לא תשמע אל דברי הניא ההוא, “do not listen to the words of that “prophet;” it is illogical to believe that such a prophet’s miracle could override My commandments to you, seeing that I have warned you of the possibility of such false prophets arising already before any such person did in fact claim to be My prophet.

כי מנסה “for He is testing;” I already explained the meaning of this “test.”

הישכם, the letter י in this word has the vowel chirik.

כי דבר סרה, “for something perverse;” he falsified the message he claimed to have received from Me,” What he did was to lead you astray from revering Me. Where is the warning to such a false prophet not to practice his perversion given? It has been spelled out in the words of the Torah, with which he his familiar, “do not listen to him!” (Exodus 23,13) (Compare Torah sh’leymah by Rabbi Menachem Kasher item 182 on that verse.)

אחיך בן אמך, “your brother, the son of your mother.” The same applies to “your brother, the son of your father;” the reason why the Torah chose as its example the brother, son of your mother,” is that normally the bonds to one’s mother are closer, and one is in the same house with one’s mother all the time, while the father is in the field or elsewhere outside the house, earning his livelihood. Moreover, brotherly love to one another is often tainted by the fact that one has to share the father’s inheritance with one’s brother of the father, but not with a brother of the same mother.

לא תאבה לו, “you shall not consent to him (his suggestion) according to Rashi the root of the word is אהב, Hence the meaning of the line is: “do not profess to love him;” we have a similar construction when the Torah asks us to love our fellow human beings as thyself in Leviticus 19,18. ולא תשמע אליו, “and to not even listen to him.” If he pleads with you to forgive him, in order not to report his criminal suggestions to the authorities, although as a rule the Torah teaches us not to abandon a person in need, (Exodus 23,5), in this instance this rule is to be ignored. Even though we are not to indulge in reciprocal hatred when the hatred has been initiated by the other person, in this instance we must react differently and prevent the spread of idolatry by enabling such a person to convert naive people to his seduction.

באבנים ומת, “with stones so that he will die.” The stoning is to continue until the false prophet or seducer will die. If the first rock did not kill him then more rocks will be hurled at him. (Sifri) Where did the Torah issue its warning against such seducers who had not claimed to be prophets able to perform miracles? Compare verse 12 and how it is explained in the Talmud tractate Sanhedrin folio 63.

ולא ידבק בידך מאומה מן החרם, “none of the loot shall cleave to your hand lest it appear that you wanted to “take the spoil and seize the booty.” (Isaiah 10.6). (B’chor shor)

ורחמך, “and He will have compassion on you.” The letter ר in the word ורחמך has the vowel chirik, followed by the vowel patach under the letter ח, and the semi vowel sh’va, under the letter .מ

והרבך, “and He will cause you to multiply” in another city [to compensate for the destruction of the idolatrous city.]