כי ימצא בקרבך, after Moses instructed the people to appoint judges in each city so that each court would judge primarily people who lived in its vicinity, Moses continues with the trial of an idolater, something that is not judged locally, in the town where he lives, but in the town in which he committed the crime. Subsequently, Moses deals with the problem of disagreements among members of the court, or several courts with one another. Such disagreements are also not to be judged locally but “in the place that the Lord has chosen,” (verse 8) i.e. the same court in which an elder who refuses to submit to the majority view of his colleagues is to be judged.

לעבור בריתו, the covenant embracing all the commandments, for worshipping idols is an offence considered as equivalent to having violated all of the Torah’s commandments.

אלוהים אחרים, independent ones, having no relation to Hashem whatsoever, but disembodied beings. ולשמש או לירח, which are physical bodies;

אשר לא צויתי, which I had not appointed to act independently of My will. This is in contrast to the philosophers of idolatrous religions who believe that G’d had appointed His agents to be in charge of a city each, within which they have power over life and death without reference to their Master. The inhabitants of each such city are under the illusion that by pleasing the local agent of G’d, their “patron saint,” their fates will be affected beneficially.

את האיש ההוא או את האשה ההיא, no mention is made in this connection of the idolatry being the result of seduction, the victim being foolish and knowing what he or she did, so that there is no need to convict him or her in the location where he or she committed the offence to teach the people who were aware of the sinner’s opinions that the truth is the opposite of what the sinner thought.

אל שעריך, to the public place where the idolatrous act was performed. By convicting and executing the idolater the public would have to admit that the deity worshipped by the convicted sinner was either unable or unwilling to save his life.

על פי שנים עדים או שלושה, even if the charge is idolatry, the entire testimony is disqualified if one of the witnesses is found to be inadmissible. We do not rule that seeing there are a sufficient number of reliable and legally admissible witnesses left, we proceed with the trial on that basis.

כי יפלא ממך, even though you have appointed competent judges in each town and city, in order that each court would dispense justice in its home base, if a doubt arises as to what the correct ruling is according to reliable tradition, the local court is not to hand down a ruling according to their opinion when it is not supported by authentic tradition, but the problem should be submitted to the Supreme Court, Sanhedrin. The same holds true when the judges in the local court were deadlocked.

והאיש אשר יעשה בזדון, who deliberately hands down a ruling to be applied forthwith, which is against that handed down by the Supreme Court, ומת האיש ההוא, he is to be executed at the behest of the Supreme Court, and thereby all the people will hear about it and the absolute authority of the Sanhedrin will be preserved and the people will remain in awe of it.

אשימה עלי מלך ככל הגויים, a monarch whose authority will be transferred from him to his biological heir after his death throughout the generations. This is quite different from judges, each of whom is appointed for his lifetime, with his heirs having absolutely no claim to succeed their father. The people were commanded to appoint such a hereditary position of king after they had conquered and settled in the land of Israel, the principal reason being to ensure that the Jewish people would not be like a flock without a shepherd, (Moses’ words in Numbers 27,17.) The fact is that G’d disapproved of a hereditary type of monarchy such as is customary among the gentile nations, so that He stipulated that if the people insisted on appointing a king who would start a dynasty, the initial king had to be approved not only by the people but by G’d’s representative on G’d’s behalf, as we know from Samuel I 8,18. The restrictions in appointing the original king were designed to ensure that such a king could not lead the people away from G’d’s Torah; on the contrary, they are meant for the people to see in him a shining example of Torah-observance, which in turn would inspire their own piety. Seeing that when the people asked Samuel for a king their purpose was far from what the Torah had legislated having a king for, the people were suitably punished as per the verse in Samuel I 8,18 that we referred to earlier. The prophet Hoseah 13,11 describes G’d granting the people’s wish as stemming from the fact that He was angry at them. Summing up, we may view the permission to appoint a king as being in the same category as the permission for a soldier to marry a physically attractive prisoner of war. G’d, the master psychologist, knows that sometimes in order to become wise enough to appreciate the Torah’s prohibitions, an individual, or even a whole nation, must find this out by having chosen in their own wisdom to ignore the Torah’s preferences. David’s experiences with his son Avshalom, born to such a prisoner of war whom he married because he was initially physically attracted to her, bears this out. In fact, his experience with his son Adoniah was not much better. (compare Tanchuma Ki Teytze, section 1).

למען ילמד ליראה, in the philosophical, ethically instructive passages of the Torah acquainting us with the marvelous characteristics of G’d and His reluctance to interfere with man’s free choice. Such knowledge must lead one to revere G’d ever more.