ונחלה לא יהיה לו, “He shall not have an inheritance with Israel.” The word נחלה in verse one refers to distribution of the land of the seven Canaanite tribes being dispossessed in the immediate future, whereas the same word in our verse refers to the land of the remaining three Canaanite tribes, the Kenizi, Keyni, and Kadmoni, which will become part of the land of Israel only in the future. בקרב אחיו, “among his brothers;” this is a reference to his “full” brothers the other sons of Leah. ה' הוא נחלתו, “the Lord is his heritage;” Levi was the tenth of the brothers if one counts from the youngest to the oldest something I have elaborated on in Numbers 18,19. This is why this tribe is described as G’d’s heritage, and this is why the tithes are given to this tribe.

וזה יהיה משפט הכהנים, “and this is to be “dues” of the priests.” The reason this paragraph follows the previous one is that in that paragraph we have been told already that the Levites have no regular heritage, i.e. that they do not share in the distribution of the land. Now the Torah tells us that the statutes defining the portions of the animals slaughtered and the harvest allocated to the priests are in lieu of the “landed heritage” allocated to the other tribes. Our sages in Chulin 132 interpret the words מאת העם, from the people, as “exclusive of the priests.”

מאת זובחי הזבח, “from the animals fit to be eaten;” the priest claims his respective portion from the slaughterer of the animal. אם שור אם שה, “be it an ox or a lamb;” to exclude free-roaming animals from claims by the priests. הזרוע, “the front leg,” of the body, the two upper parts of that leg to the ankle. הלחיים, “the cheekbones,” including the tongue. והקבה, “and the stomach;” some of the interior parts of the animal, i.e. the fourth of the four stomachs. All of these parts are totally devoid of sanctity. This is the reason that these gifts were not listed in Numbers 18,1 where the priests’ shares are listed. In that chapter the Torah discussed matters which had some degree of sanctity, especially animal parts which were part of sacrificial animals. Even though the items listed here were not mentioned specifically in that chapter in Numbers, we can find allusions to them even there. We read in Numbers 18,12: ראשיתם אשר יתנו לה' לך נתתים, “their first which they give to Hashem, to you I have given them.” Sifri Korach 117 understands the word ראשיתם in that verse as applying to the first shearing of the wool of the lambs, whereas the additional words אשר יתנו, “which they are to give,” is interpreted as referring to the parts of the animal mentioned in our verse here; the word לה' is understood as referring to חלה, the part of the dough given to the priests. The significance of just these parts of the animal being given to the priest is as follows: the foreleg represents the hand. The Torah, when describing Pinchas’ deed (Numbers 25,7) which saved the people of Israel, writes ויקח רומח בידו, “he took a spear in his hand.” The hand which performed the deed qualifies for the foreleg of the animal. The cheekbones symbolise the organ used for prayer. Pinchas prayed as we know from Psalms 106,30. Finally, the stomach is the organ which suffered the fatal blow as described in Numbers 25,8. (compare Sifri Korach 117).

Maimonides in Moreh Nevuchim 3,39 describes all three of these organs as being ראשית, something primary of the particular parts of the body.

לעמוד לשרת, “to stand and perform service.” This verse teaches that service in the Temple must be performed while standing. The reason the Torah adds the word בשם before writing the tetragram is that the word בשם is a reference to the attribute of Justice. It occurs in that form repeatedly, such as in Exodus 20,21 אזכיר את שמי, “I allow My name to be mentioned,” or Deut. 12,11 לשכן שמו שם, “to provide a residence for His Name there.” Onkelos also feels that every time that the word שם appears in connection with the name of G’d it indicates the Shechinah, i.e. a form of the attribute of Justice. This verse (“to stand and serve”) is the source of our sages saying that the High Priest would pronounce the 42-lettered name of G’d on the Day of Atonement seeing that day is one when the attribute of Mercy is co-opted to the attribute of Justice. The letter ב and מ in the word בשם equal 42, whereas the letter ש =300 is the numerical value of the tetragrammaton when the aleph bet is read backwards i.e. א=ת, ב=ש, ג=ר, etc. (We have mentioned repeatedly that whenever the letters in the tetragrammaton appear in the reverse order this signifies the Justice aspect of that attribute. Here you would get מצפ'ץ). You will note that this paragraph has 42 words, just as the first benediction of the Shmoneh Esreh prayer (better known as עמידה), prayer-service to be performed while standing.

חלק כחלק יאכלו, “portion for portion they shall eat it.” According to the plain meaning of the text these words mean that the priests shall eat all that is given to them and share it out equitably among themselves, including the skins of the burnt-offerings, and the meat of the sacrifices which were not burned up totally.

לבד ממכריו על האבות, “except for transactions which had been arranged by the forefathers.” If a priest has sold his house which he had inherited from his parents as described in Leviticus 25,33, the other priests cannot deny him his place in the משמר, roster, by saying that seeing he had sold his house and was relatively affluent he was not entitled to share the sacrificial meats with them. This is Ibn Ezra’s interpretation of these words. As to the beginning of the paragraph commencing with the words: “when the Levite will come” (verse 6), this refers to a priest who is a member of the tribe of Levi. The verse does not speak at all about a Levite who is “only” a Levite, seeing the words: “who stands and performs service” could not apply to a mere Levite. When verse 6 continues ובא בכל אות נפש, “and he may come whenever he likes to the place, etc.,” this teaches that a priest may offer his personal sacrifices even out of turn, during the roster of other priests. Similarly, during the pilgrimage festivals Pessach, Shavuot, and Sukkot, every priest is entitled to participate in the sacrificial service and offer the respective offerings of his own on the festival. (Sifri Shoftim 168)

A Midrashic approach: the words חלק כחלק יאכלון mean that the priests share equally, as we pointed out already. This might lead me to believe that on the festivals all the priests are entitled to share equally also in such sacrifices as the daily public offerings, offerings which have nothing to do with the festivals. To tell us that this is not so the Torah added the words לבד ממכריו על האבות, i.e. except for the matters which were sold already in the days of the forefathers, i.e. at the time when King David organised the division of the משמרות, the “rosters,” i.e. that the priests have to take turns, each one belonging to one of 24 groups each of which had 2 weeks of service in the Temple allocated to it. At that time the priests were considered as “having sold” the rights to certain weeks of service to each of these various groups, rosters. (compare Sukkah 55-56). They would say to each other: “you serve during my week and I will serve during your week.” The “sale” was not one in which money changed hands.

We have to ask ourselves that seeing originally every priest was allowed to perform sacrificial service whenever he wanted to, what prompted King David and Samuel to change a system which had been functioning for 400 years? Why did they institute these rosters which limited the periods of service by each priest to 2 weeks a year of which each priest actually served only on a single day of ‘his week?’ Besides, what was the reason for dividing these rosters into 24? According to the Talmud this division was so absolute that a priest could under no circumstances switch, or exchange his membership in one roster to becoming a member of a different roster. We know of the absolute rigidity of this order from Sukkah 56 where the exact division of who was entitled to what is discussed if the festival occurred in the middle of the week, depriving at least one roster of part of its exclusive claim to that week. The place in the courtyard of the Temple where the members of the roster divided their shares was allocated in such a way that all the onlookers could know which roster was the incoming one and which was the outgoing one. The members of each roster were known by names identifying their roster so as to enable easy identification. The Talmud relates that it happened that a member of a roster called Bilgah disgraced itself and that henceforth the authorities punished the entire roster by allocating a place to it during the entire week it was performing its service which made it appear as if this roster was about to finish its service on that day. It appears that the hands of the authorities were severely limited in the kind of punishment they could administer for laxity or deliberate misconduct by its members as these 24 rosters were perceived as paralleling similar rosters among the angels performing the service in the celestial counterpart of the Sanctuary on earth. According to the Sefer Habahir (item 107) there were 3 times 24 such rosters in the celestial regions corresponding to the three verse in Exodus 14, 19-21 each one of which has 72 letters, each if read vertically representing one of the 72-lettered name of G’d. It appears that whereas the “rosters” i.e. procedures in the celestial regions were fixed, G’d created new angels every day who would sing His praises prior to disappearing. The forefathers, i.e. David and Samuel (Taanit 27), in their wisdom decided to pattern service in the terrestrial Sanctuary to reflect as much as possible what they knew about what went on in the celestial spheres. The blessing pronounced by the members of the outgoing roster for the incoming roster included the following passage: “may the One who resides in this House ensure that there is peace and mutual goodwill among you just as peace and goodwill prevails in the celestial regions where there is no jealousy or hatred between the angels, but they all co-exist in peace and comradeship” (Berachot 12). At any rate, we have seen that a great deal of thought was invested by the leaders of earlier generations in arriving at the arrangement of who does what and when in connection with the Temple service.

לא תלמד לעשות, “You shall not learn to do, etc.” Our sages in Sifri Shoftim 170 construe the word לעשות, “to do,” as limiting the injunction of this verse to actually carrying out such abominations. It is permitted to study and investigate the abominations practiced by these pagan nations. One may even teach the subject matter (as theoretical knowledge). We find that the elders of the Supreme Court, Sanhedrin, had to be familiar with all these abominations, even with witchcraft, how else could they have been able to convict people of practicing these arts of wrongdoing? Lack of knowledge of even a single such discipline would disqualify the elders from judging such a case.

לא ימצא בך מעביר בנו ובתו באש, קוסם קסמים, מעונן, נחש, ומכשף וחובר חבר, ושואל אוב וידעוני, ודורש אל המתים. “There shall not be found among you one who causes his son or daughter to pass through the fire; one who practices divinations, an astrologer, one who reads omens, a sorcerer. Or, an animal charmer, one who inquires of Ov or Yidoni, or one who consults the dead.” These two verses enumerate nine different varieties of תועבות, abominable practices which the Canaanites were in the habit of relying on. The Torah lists the practice the Moloch cult first, which involved exposing one’s children to the fire in order to assuage that deity’s feelings. There is no more despicable form of idolatry than to sacrifice one’s own flesh and blood to such cults. Seeing that this practice is so distasteful to G’d, anyone who is guilty of it is subject to the karet penalty (compare Leviticus 20,3). People who violate Torah law by committing any of the other abominations listed here only qualify for 39 lashes, i.e. corporal punishment. After the Torah concluded by warning us not to become guilty of such practices, the Torah continues by emphasising the positive, i.e. asking us תמים תהיה עם ה' אלו-היך, “you shall be wholehearted with the Lord your G’d” (verse 13). The expression מעביר used by the Torah describing the Moloch cult, means that the father makes the child walk between two columns of fire; I explained this already in connection with Leviticus 18,21.

קוסם קסמים, “practicing divinations;” this is a person who takes a staff in his hand and says: “I will go to a certain place, or I will not go to a certain place” as the case may be; this is what the prophet Hoseah spoke about in Hoseah 4,12: ”My people, it consults its stick, its rods direct it.” [The idea is that decisions are based on the stick falling in a certain manner, pointing in a certain direction. Ed.] מעונן, the word can have one of three meanings; 1) it is derived from עונה, a certain period of time. 2) it is derived from עין eye; 3) It is derived from ענן, cloud. If it is derived from עונה this is the way Rabbi Akiva understood it, i.e. that the person (astrologer) says that certain dates in the calendar are propitious whereas others are not. People determine when to engage in certain enterprises and when not, based on such predictions. The sages who differ with Rabbi Akiva claim that the people who practice the form of sorcery described as מעונן engage in sleight of hand, i.e. they deceive our eyes. The third view, relating the word to ענן, cloud, claim that the people engaging in this practice consult cloud patterns and presume to foretell future events based on this. מנחש, “someone who interprets signs,” such as if one’s bread fell out of one’s mouth, what does this portend? Or, if a deer crosses one’s path what does this signify? Some explain the word to mean that such people look at birds and their wings or try and interpret the twittering of the birds. They believe that when Kohelet 10,20 speaks about “for a bird of the skies may carry the sound, and some winged creature may betray the matter,” that Solomon spoke of people who through interpreting the movements of such birds could divine their message.

ומכשף, “a sorcerer.” Nachmanides writes as follows concerning this term: “the Torah includes many different kinds of sorcery all under the heading of מכשף. The following words, i.e. חובר חבר, שואל אוב, שואל ידעוני, דורש אל המתים, are all sub-categories of the heading “sorceress.” It is prohibited to consult any of the above regarding one’s future or how to conduct oneself. It is important to appreciate in the context of this whole subject matter that when G’d created the universe out of “nothing,” He made the celestial beings into leaders of the terrestrial creatures who were below them. He established a kind of hierarchy in which “lower” creatures were subjected to input by “higher” creatures. Eventually, at some point, even these higher creatures become subject to direct input by totally abstract beings, angels, which have been assigned certain tasks by G’d. These angels, when they represent the nations on earth, for instance, may be perceived as the “soul” of their terrestrial protegees. This system is permanent for the duration of the terrestrial universe and the commander-in chief of these angels who represent these nations is the Lord Himself. However, G’d allowed these “protective” angels of the nations to “reverse direction,” (turn their faces around) on occasion in order to head off certain dangers threatening their protegees as a result of planetary, horoscopic forces. Just as the word ענג, “pleasure” when spelled נגע means “plague,” i.e. the reverse of its original meaning, so, without affecting any real changes, by merely turning their faces in a more propitious looking direction, these angels exert positive or negative influence on the fate of their protegees. This concept is reflected in Daniel 2,21 והוא מהשנא עדנ-יא וזמניא, “and He alters times and seasons.” Amos 5,8 spells out an example of this when he says: “who made Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night; who summons the waters of the sea and pours them out on the earth.” His name is “the Lord.” The prophet does not refer to regular phenomena, but to occasions when G’d exploits certain constellations and their relative positions to one another to effect changes for the benefit or detriment of His creatures on earth. By allowing such angels to “turn around” as it were, He minimizes the need for overt interference in the laws of nature. The following is an excerpt of the Sefer Halevanah published by Bergamantzia and explaining the relevance of astrology, that if we observe [over a period of time Ed.] that when the moon faces in a certain direction that our undertakings prosper whereas when the moon faces in a different direction similar undertakings commenced at that time fail, then this is not proof of the independent power of the moon to influence events on earth but reflects indirect guidance by G’d of events on earth as opposed to direct guidance of events which the Jewish people enjoy, i.e. without the need to rely on intermediaries such as horoscopic constellations and what they appear to presage. The fact that G’d equipped the angels presiding over the nations with this ability to “turn their faces” in different directions at different times enables sorcerers to create the impression that they can foretell future events or even influence them. [The author discussed this in connection with Bileam’s prophetic powers, i.e. to be alert to times at which G’d would be angry, so that a curse which came true would be attributed to his powers.] Similarly, expert astrologers who have a high rate of success in their predictions simply exploit the latitude G’d granted to these “agents “ of His in the universe to “turn their faces around” in order to meet the requirements of their protegees on earth. [I trust I portrayed the gist of this correctly. Ed.]. If our sages accused sorcerers of “denying the system of celestial hierarchies,” what they meant is that they ignore G’d’s direct guidance of events in favor of indirect guidance of events by means of intermediaries such as the planetary system, etc. We can understand therefore why the Torah had to prohibit sorcery. Although whatever information these sorcerers come up with, is not an outright falsehood seeing that it is based on known forces in the universe which G’d had created, and they are aware that G’d had created them, sorcerers try to relegate G’d Himself to the farthest domains of heaven. They do not allow for G’d’s benevolent direct supervision of events in this universe. Such considerations also are at the root of the prohibition of כלאים, mixing of certain species. By grafting species which were meant to be separate inviolate species, new forces are added to the universe, forces which may have beneficial or destructive influences on nature, apart from constituting changes in the hierarchy prevailing in this universe. Thus far Nachmanides.

I have read in a volume of astrology published by current astrologers called “letter of Galinus,” that if someone makes an iron replica of the planet Saturn, he should do so at a certain date and time of day or night when the horoscope is in a certain constellation, and if such a person will bury it beneath the store of a certain merchant, that that merchant will lose all his profit from the store. If the person who has constructed such an image at such a time as we mentioned buries it beneath the house of the owner of that store, all that owner’s affairs will turn sour. Anyone with eyes in his head knows that this “science” will lead to destruction of the world as we know it, and that the only way to live on earth is by allowing the forces of nature to guide us instead of trying to bend them to our will. These forces were provided by G’d for the benefit of mankind. (This is part of the quotation from “letter of Galinus).” The author of that volume writes further: “if someone is interested in attracting to himself the spiritual influence exerted by the planet Shabbtai (Saturn), a planet which exercises its domain on the Sabbath, he should eat a minimal amount of meat, diet very frugally, abstain from marital relations, wear black garments, construct a picture of a lion made out of copper and at the hour when the constellation of Saturn and that of the lamb intersect he should slaughter a cat. If he then approaches that idol and serves it and consults it concerning his future he will be given such information. Thus far the “letter of Galinus.” (Compare also Parshat Vayishlach, Genesis 32,30 where the author copied from books on philosophy.) It is clear that the Torah, which is most certainly concerned about our welfare and well being, commands us to do exactly the opposite of what is written in the “letter of Galinus.” On the Sabbath we are to eat well (meat) and drink well (wine), to dress in finery, to engage in marital relations with our wives and in general to call the Sabbath ענג, “a delight,” (Isaiah 58,13). Whereas the philosophy preached by Galinus results in man becoming depressed, adopting the ways of the Torah results in man becoming a happy personality. Instead of wearing black garments, we wear colored garments in order to lift our spirits. Our sages base this on Isaiah 58,13 וכבדתו מעשות דרכיך, a references to garments which lend the wearer distinction in the eyes of others. Rabbi Yochanan, in Shabbat 30, used to refer to his clothing as מכבדי, “that which bestows honor upon me.” Thank the good Lord for having given us enough common sense through study of His commandments, thus saving us from falling victim to such foolish philosophies as those espoused in the book of Galinus. This same Torah has warned us not to pay heed to the constellations in the skies when it wrote (Deut. 4,19) “lest you raise your eyes towards the sky and behold the sun and the moon.” He has, instead, given us the heritage of His commandments, observance of which will result in our accumulating a great reward.

וחובר חבר, “or an animal charmer.” According to Ibn Ezra this is someone who assembles demons and unites them, i.e. charms them; alternatively, it may be a snake-charmer, i.e. someone who can attract all these animals to one single location [pied piper of hamelin. Ed.] (compare Sifri Shoftim 172). ושואל אוב, “one who inquires of Ov.” a type of sorcerer reputedly able to establish contact with the dead and have them manifest themselves on earth. The dead appears to speak out of the armpit of such a person (Kimchi on Samuel I 28,25). There are many differing opinions regarding the authenticity of necro-mancers. Some hold that the story described in Samuel where King Shaul spoke to a manifestation of the dead prophet did not take place, that it is quite impossible to resurrect the dead in such a fashion and that the woman in question recognised King Shaul immediately and put on an elaborate charade. She did not want to let on, and that is why she said to Shaul: “why did you try to trick me seeing that in reality you are King Shaul?” She demonstrated by her remark that when she had “conjured up” the image of the long deceased Samuel she had done so merely by employing her wisdom and knowledge of psychology. It is the manner of every woman practicing this art to hide a live human being who will speak solemnly and with a low voice from his hiding place as described by Isaiah 29,4: “and you shall speak from below the ground, your speech shall be humbler than the sod, your speech shall sound like a ghost’s from the ground.” The woman in the story in Samuel had hidden someone and told Shaul that the speaker was Samuel. When she made that hidden person say: “because you did not execute G’d’s wrath against Amalek,” this was something which was common knowledge and did not prove that Samuel was the speaker. When the Book of Samuel reports Shaul as “speaking to Samuel,“ this only describes that Shaul thought that he was speaking to Samuel. [Actually the Book of Samuel does not even quote Shaul as addressing Samuel at all in these words.] When the woman told Shaul that: “tomorrow your sons and you will be with me,” (i.e. dead) this was all part of her psychology; she had previously instructed the person whom she hid to make this statement as she was well aware that the battle was going badly, and she knew that Shaul was being punished on account of his failure to heed the instructions in his war against Amalek. She considered it likely that he would fall into the hands of the Philistines as an act of retribution.

Others quoted by Rashi believe that the encounter described in the Book of Samuel between King Shaul and the spirit of Samuel was real and that Samuel indeed told Shaul all that is reported there in the text. Our sages in Chagigah 4 agree with the latter opinion. The problem with that interpretation is that if indeed Samuel really appeared to Shaul, how is it that a woman such as this necromancer was able to resurrect the dead by using the “science” called here שואל אוב? The opinion of both Rav Hai Gaon and Rav Saadyah Gaon is that the woman claiming to be a necromancer most certainly did not resurrect Samuel, but that G’d did so. They write as follows according to Kimchi on our verses (end of commentary on verse 25) in the Book of Samuel. This is what the gaonim are reported as having said: it is quite far-fetched to assume that the woman knew the future nor that she knew how to resurrect the dead using methods attributed to necromancers. G’d revived Samuel in order for him to tell Shaul what would happen to him. The woman knew nothing of this at all. This is why she became so frightened and exclaimed: with a loud voice (verse 12-13) “why did you trick me when in fact you are Shaul?!”...she then said: “I have seen “elohim” rise from the earth.” The fact that she had asked in verse 11 “whom shall I raise for you?” was a figure of speech used by necromancers all the time and did not mean that they had the actual power to do so. So far the quote of Rabbi Saadyah Gaon in the commentary by Kimchi.

The text appears to agree with both the opinions expressed in Chagigah and those expressed by these gaonim as well as by what our intelligence dictates, i.e. that Samuel was alive while he spoke to Shaul and that the woman had not brought him to life, seeing that it is not within the power of any ordinary human being to perform such an act. Only G’d Himself, or a prophet especially granted such a power can do this. Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra also agrees with this view.

There is still another view held by a few of the scholars of the Talmud according to which necromancers are indeed able to bring back the dead during the first 12 months after they had died [or at least they know at what time the souls return to those bodies]. We find the following story in Shabbat 152: A certain heretic said to Rabbi Avuhu: “seeing that you people claim that the souls of the righteous are stored beneath the throne of the Lord, how could Samuel appear to Shaul as described in the Book of Samuel? Rabbi Avuhu answered this heretic that what is described in the Book of Samuel took place within less than 12 months after Samuel’s death, and we have a Baraitha according to which the soul of the departed commutes to the body of the righteous departed during the first 12 months after it had left that body. After that time the body disintegrates so that there is nothing for the soul to return to.” You should know that the commuting of the soul described in the Baraitha does not depend on the state of preservation of the body. Even if the body has completely rotted away during the first three days after death, the soul still does the commuting described in the Baraitha. By the same token, if the body has been embalmed and therefore remains intact way beyond the 12 months described in the Baraitha, the soul still ceases commuting to it. The meaning of the words in the Baraitha “its body remains intact,” is simply “the body that the soul was used to inhabit.” It had been its container. This affinity comes to an end after 12 months.

וידעוני, this refers to the skill of introducing the bone of an animal called ידוע into one’s mouth and making it appear as if it could talk independently, using some means of witchcraft to do so (Sanhedrin 65). This animal is also known as בני השדה and is referred to as such in Job 5,23: “for you will have a pact with the rocks in the field and the beasts of the field will be your allies.” The letter א in the words אבני השדה in that verse is superfluous, leading to this interpretation, i.e. that the true reading ought to have been בני השדה. ודורש אל המתים, this refers to people who lift the skull of the dead when consulting them as if they were oracles (compare Sanhedrin 65).

כי תועבת ה' כל עושה אלה, “for anyone who does these is an abomination of Hashem;” anyone of the nine cults mentioned previously. ובגלל התועבות האלה, “and on account of these abominations, etc.,” with which the people perpetrating them disgust the Lord your G’d Who is above all such forces as the planetary constellations and disciplines concerning their movements and influences on terrestrial earth, the very planetary system, גלגל, is apt to be upset. The word בגלל is chosen by the Torah to remind us of the planetary systems. According to Shabbat 151 the function of these systems is to revolve in their orbits without deviating from their assigned paths. The expression also occurs in connection with צדקה, the practice of charity (Deut. 15,10) where we already mentioned that money has a way of “orbiting” from one person to another, especially if the owner is not charitable. The lesson to be learned is that we must detest anything of which we know that G’d detests it. We must be wholehearted in our service of the Lord as per verse 13. This means to serve the Lord without any intellectual reservations, both by fulfilling His positive commandments and by refraining from violating any of the negative commandments. The expression תמים means that one’s exterior, the visible part of a person, should reflect his interior. The verse also implies reciprocity by G’d. If we behave towards G’d sincerely, then He in turn will reciprocate, as for instance in Exodus 34,28: “G’d remained with Moses.” We have a similar verse in Daniel 2,22: “He reveals the deep and the mysterious, knows what is in the dark, and light dwells within Him.” Midrash Eychah Rabbati 1,51 views this as a promise to people who have attained the level of “being wholehearted” with G’d. King David also referred to this theme in Psalms 41,13: “You will support me because of my integrity and let me abide in Your presence forever.”

ואתה לא כן, “as for you, not so.” Moses means: “you who are part of G’d’s direct supervision, are not dependent on all these intermediaries, you have no call to resort to sorcerers, diviners, etc. If you need to know something about the future, G’d will provide a prophet from among your own people (next verse).

This is a tremendous advantage. There is no true prognosis of the future which will not prove deceptive in that it disappoints the people to whom it has been promised except positive promises made by a prophet. This is why prophecy has been compared to grain which has already been sifted from the straw. This is the meaning of Jeremiah 23,28: “how can straw be compared to grain, says the Lord of Hosts?” The prophet compares false prophecy to straw, which, though it may contain a few ears of wheat, is mostly useless, whereas true prophecy is compared to wheat. The reason the prophet does not choose the word חטה, wheat, or דגן, corn, etc., is that the word בר is related to ברר, sifting, separating. In true prophecy the truth has been distilled already, whereas in false prophecy a little truth is submerged in a lot of untruths, chaff. Seeing that when G’d created the universe He divided it into three parts, the תחתיים, the “lower” terrestrial universe, the middle region consisting of the atmosphere and the planetary system, and the “higher” universe containing only disembodied beings, He made man as a combination of all three parts of the universe with input from each. He did so as He wanted to give man wisdom which would enable him to have some knowledge of the future of all parts of the universe. Each part of the universe is equipped with media through which some of the future is disclosed. In the case of terrestrial earth certain birds and demons have been equipped with some such knowledge. Man derives some knowledge of the future originating in the universe of the planets by means of “seers” (astrologers); he derives information about the future derived from the “higher world” by means of the prophets who receive their information of future events through the angels inhabiting those celestial spheres. All prophets except for Moses received their information by means of these celestial intermediaries (Maimonides Hilchot Yessodey Hatorah 6,6). Future events predicted by the “seers” are unreliable; in the words of our sages in Bereshit Rabbah 85,2 based on Isaiah 47,13 החוזים בכוכבים מודעים לחדשים מאשר יבאו עליך, “the scanners of the heaven, the star-gazers, who announce month by month some of what will come upon you.” The word מאשר instead of אשר means that only part of the forecasts of these astrologers will come true. There is no need to tell you that future events divined by means of birds or demons are even less reliable. The only reliable forecast of future events is that made by authentic prophets, seeing that they receive their input from the “highest world.” Seeing that G’d will provide us with such prophets you have no need to consult the dead, etc., to tell the living what is in store (compare Isaiah 8,19).

You should know a general rule, that each part of the three worlds receives whatever knowledge of the future it secures only from the next higher world. The power of being a “higher” world is manifest in that world being able to influence “exchange information” concerning the events in the next lower world. This concept is alluded to in Genesis 28,13 where Hashem is described as standing on top of the ladder. The ladder is a simile for the three levels of the universe. we described. (Compare our author’s commentary on Genesis 28,12 “a rational approach.”) You will then understand why predictions based on demons or birds are inferior, less reliable than those of astrologers, and why predictions based on astrology are less reliable than those of an authentic prophet. The only exceptions to the reliability of authentic prophets are when catastrophes or tragedies are predicted such as by Jonah concerning Nineveh and Isaiah concerning King Chizkiyahu. Such predictions were subject to change as they related to the conduct of the people about whom they were made. If an authentic prophet promises something positive it is 100% reliable.

נביא מקרבך מאחיך כמוני, “A prophet, from among your brethren, like me.” Moses referred to Joshua, seeing he said: “listen to him.” We find that the Book of Joshua 22,11 reports: “the Children of Israel listened to him.” Alternatively, the word נביא in our verse is to be understood as a plural, in which case the additional definition כמוני,” such as myself,” is to exclude prophets who are from the descendants of Esau or Ishmael. We do find that the Israelites described the Edomites, the descendants of Esau as אחיך, “your brethren,” (Numbers 20,14) and therefore there could have been a misunderstanding. The word כמוני, precludes prophets of any but Jewish birth. Prophecy does not exist amongst those nations. There are a total of four distinctions which have been reserved exclusively for the Jewish people; the gift of prophecy; the Torah; Eretz Yisrael; resurrection of the dead. I plan to elaborate on this when discussing the last Parshah on the Torah, seeing that three out of these four distinctions are mentioned in that portion. Another meaning of the word כמוני, is restrictive. Any prophet should emulate me by neither adding nor subtracting anything from the Torah except if he is an established prophet and does so only as a temporary emergency measure. If the prophet declares any Torah law as permanently abrogated the people must not follow his instructions seeing that our faith in prophets is not based on the miracles they perform (Sanhedrin 90, Maimonides Hilchot Yessodey Hatorah 9,1). The reason we acknowledge Moses as a true prophet is that he communicated to us the word of G’d as spelled out in the Torah (Exodus 19,5) (G’d speaking) “Here I come to you in the thick cloud in order that the people hear when I speak to you and they will have enduring faith in you (Moses).” This is the way Maimonides understood this verse.