ועתה ישראל, after you have seen the decree of G’d to exile you if you sin, be on guard to meticulously observe His commandments without adding to them or detracting from them. An addition or a detraction will both have destructive consequences for you.

ולא תגרעו ממנו לשמור, a person should not make the mistake made by King Solomon that he can ignore a prohibition since he knows the reason for the prohibition and can create conditions when such a prohibition would not be justified. [the Torah had forbidden a king to marry too many women, warning that these could lead him astray. Solomon relied on his wisdom not to lead him astray and ignored the Torah’s law with disastrous consequences for his kingdom. Ed.]

עיניכם הרואות, Moses reminds the people that they had observed the truth of this with their own eyes when their brethren, in their lust, not meaning to commit idolatry, had nevertheless done so, as they had been overcome by their libidos at the time so that they succumbed to seduction. The Torah testifies that their original sin had “only” been to whore with the daughters of Moav. (Numbers 25,1) The Torah, in outlawing sexual relations with non Jews had added that if this law was ignored the result would be intermarriage, idol worship by the children of such a marriage, etc. (Exodus 34,16) Every Israelite who indulged his lust for a Moabite girl had considered himself immune to such a warning. They proved to have been wrong, with the loss of 24.000 Israelites as a result. G’d had wiped out everyone of them who had worshipped Baal Peor. They had been tricked into it without realising it.

ואתם הדבקים בה' אלוקיכם חיים כלכם היום, you have all been smart enough to avoid a lure which would end up in your committing an idolatrous act.

כי היא חכמתכם, observance of the laws of the Torah is your true wisdom and will enable you to resist the lures and challenges by the heretics.

כי מי גוי גדול אשר אלוקים קרובים אליו, for it will pay you to be considered intelligent and wise in the eyes of the gentiles seeing that G’d is close to us בכל קראנו אליו, whenever we call upon Him. This teaches the gentiles that we are the chosen people. If the gentiles would consider you as being fools this would be a desecration of G’d’s name for they would then ask derisively: “is this the nation that claims to be G’d’s special nation?” (compare Ezekiel 36,20)

ומי גוי גדול אשר לו חקים ומשפטים צדיקים, the reason that you will be considered as so wise in the eyes of the gentile nations is because you observe the commandments and statutes of G’d. There is no other nation in existence that can boast such a set of laws which by themselves point the way to G’d’s existence and His wonderful ways. Who else has social laws which have neither been designed for the benefit of the judges nor for the benefit their bureaucracy and their clerks, but serve one interest only the dispensation of justice and fairness? Our sages phrased it thus: “what is justice for one is at the same time fairness, righteousness for the opposing party.” (Sanhedrin 6). Restitution of stolen property to the victim is justice, having returned stolen property makes the erstwhile thief once more a צדיק, a righteous person.

רק השמר לך, even though I have said that you are wise people in the eyes of the gentile nations, be careful not to absorb the views of the wise men of those nations who deny the existence of G’d the Creator and His ability and His supervision of the universe He has created. They may try to convince you with all kinds of intelligent sounding theories.

פן תשכח את הדברים אשר ראו עיניך, The reason why G’d has cautioned you to be so much on your guard is that you might forget the evidence of your own eyes, at Mount Sinai, as well as in Egypt and at the Sea of Reeds, and as a result be misled by your mental eyes when interpreting the Torah. This was the purpose of miracles which challenged your intellect, to show you that commonly held concepts are not necessarily true. [perhaps the author has in mind the first such miracle Moses experienced when he observed with his physical eyes that the burning bush did not burn up and turn into ashes. The Israelites, when observing the spectacle of fire within the ice of the hail, the seventh plague, collectively experienced another challenge to the concept that fire and water are totally incompatible with one another. Ed.]

והודעתם לבניך, you must therefore relate these experiences you had with your own eyes to your children who have not seen such miracles.

כי לא ראיתם כל תמונה, this is in contradiction to a category of philosophers believing that beyond the celestial phenomena we observe in the sky there are none that are more substantial and influential, and these are the only ones which existed since prehistoric days.

תמונת כל סמל, something that would reflect the belief of those who hold that every perishable, ephemeral phenomenon in this world has a counterpart in the celestial regions which it is derived from, and that people made themselves replicas of what they thought the original looked like.

חלק ה' אלוקיך אותם לכל העמים, He arranged for them to appear in a manner appropriate for the needs of each respective nation, according to their individual differences. This very fact proves how wrong those are who believe in the universe’s existence being the result of “the big bang,” i.e. forces, sources of energy, which operated without design, happenings which are totally random, haphazard. How could zodiac signs be of significance unless a superior intelligence had arranged for them? (compare Maimonides, Moreh Nevuchim 20,2 quoting Aristo.)

ואתכם לקח, to walk in His paths and to cleave to Him. Seeing that this is so, you have no need for depending on messages the gentiles perceive as being contained by their horoscopes.

כי אנכי מת, I have to warn you very insistently, seeing that I will not be crossing the Jordan with you. Compare Deuteronomy 31,29 where Moses predicts the corruption of the people at some point after his death.

אש אוכלה הוא, a fire which consumes other fire, thereby destroying the soul together with the body.

א-ל קנא, [I am paraphrasing the author here. Ed.] Jealousy is based on someone observing that something contractually exclusively his, as for instance the, fidelity of his wife- is being offered or provided for someone else. If a master’s servant provides the services he is supposed to provide only for his master to others, this arouses the master’s jealousy. If a Jew in any shape or form makes available to idolatrous cults the services he is supposed to perform for G’d, he arouses G’d’s jealousy.

להכעיסו, to cause the benevolent presence of G’d to remove it self from Israel, in order to clear the way for the people to be just like the gentile nations, free of the yoke of the Torah’s commandments.

ועבדתם שם אלוהים מעשה ידי אדם, when Jews find themselves outside of the land of Israel against their will and in the course of time they are invited by member of their host country, they are not guilty of deliberately performed idolatrous practices. (Avodah Zarah 8).

אשר לא יראון, because they do not do what they do out of their own free will, as do the members of the host nations who by fashioning the same kinds of sculptures or drawing similar pictures do so as an act of admiration for the idols they worship. When the members of the host countries make such sculptures they mean to draw attention to the force in the universe which is responsible for such phenomena in our day and age. [in the author’s time, art, generally, was legitimate only if it claimed to represent matters compatible with the dogmas of the Church, for instance. Ed.] The members of the host countries labour under the mistaken belief that the “originators” of the phenomena they worship produced what they produced out of their own volition; they do not realise that these “originators” had been programmed to do this by G’d the Creator. They pray to these phenomena thinking that these have the power to help them. Moses, representing G’d, says that the fact is that no phenomenon in this physical universe is able to do anything unless it has first been sanctioned by G’d.

ומצאת, even though you will not have a Temple at your disposal once you are exiled, not any of its sacred vessels.

כי תדרשנו בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך בצר לך, the reason why you will be able to find your way to G’d is that your conditions in exile will be so tough that you will turn to G’d sincerely with all your heart and all your soul.

באחרית הימים, at the end of your exile, as Moses had predicted in Deut. 30,1-2.

כי שאל נא, the proof of what I said that G’d will not forget the covenant made with your forefathers is that at Mount Sinai during the revelation all of you had been elevated to the level of prophecy. When I took you to be My people this did not mean that each and everyone of you by their own merits had deserved to be elevated to that spiritual status. I did this on account of the patriarchs. The difference between you and the gentile nations is that although the exceptional gentile may have experienced prophetic insights, there never has been a nation who have experienced something similar as a whole nation as you did at Mount Sinai.

או הנסה אלוקים, even though G’d from time to time may have seen to it that certain people among the gentiles escaped what seemed like imminent disaster, such instances were limited to a few select individuals;

במסות באותות, all of which proved that your good fortune was not due to some coincidence but had been planned by G’d.

ובזרוע נטויה, ready to inflict further chastisements to demonstrate that that if the afflicted person did not respond with penitence You would continue to discipline him.

אתה הראית, G’d has shown you all this.

לדעת, for you to know and understand beyond any doubt כי ה' הוא האלוקים, that Lord is the G’d Who is responsible for every phenomenon in the universe, that He has created it.

ליסרך, to bring you to the level of prophecy on the occasion of your receiving the Torah, Your experience at that time paralleled the experience of the prophet Eliyahu at the same mountain in Kings I 19,11 when he first experienced a tremendously powerful wind, etc. He also, like you experienced the fire (Kings I 19,12), before being addressed by G’d.

ותחת כי אהב את אבותיך, having done all this because He loved your patriarchs, ויבחר בזרעו, He chose the descendants of only one of them (Yaakov) .

ויוציאך בפניו, by performing a series of miraculous deeds

ממצרים, from Egypt; להוריש, G’d intended to take you out of slavery, a state in which you would not have been able to appreciate His intentions.

לתת לך את ארצם, which is really G’d’s favourite land, one that is always ready to help its inhabitants to achieve their perfection on earth.

וידעת היום, it behooves you therefore to understand how these miracles confound any theological theories that are not in agreement with Jewish tradition.

והשבות אל לבבך, having carefully examined all these factors you are to establish firmly in your heart which is the truth, namely כי ה' הוא האלוקים, that the Lord known to us as Hashem is the true G’d, the word itself indicating that He is victorious in any competition who make similar claims because He is eternal. His fame extends both בשמים, in the celestial spheres above, as well as על הארץ מתחת, for you will realise that the very order which exists among celestial phenomena, their predictability to the second, is proof that Someone is guiding them, has programmed them.

אין עוד. You will also realise that it is quite inconceivable that there could be more than One such supreme authority over all these phenomena. Among disembodied spiritual forces it is quite impossible for two such forces to co-exist as equals. One such force, power, must be superior to the other.

ושמרת את חקיו, Once you have understood all this you will naturally observe all of G’d’s statutes. Jeremiah 10,7 already expressed this as a given when he asked (rhetorically) מי לא ייראך מלך הגוים, “who would not be in awe of You, King of the nations?”

ואת מצותיו אשר אנכי מצוך היום, כל הימים, the reason you will be observing these laws for all time is that the religion will not be renewed or altered, ever.

אז יבדיל משה שלש ערים, after he had concluded with his introduction to the detailed discourse on the Torah. The reason why he set aside these cities at that time was to show the Israelites how the observance and carrying out of G’d’s commandments is of such supreme importance, and that he, though about to depart the earth, wanted to perform at least this commandment, the observance of which is linked to the land of Israel.

וזאת התורה, the theoretical, philosophical part of the Torah. The word זאת refers to what has just been concluded.

אלה העדות, what follows are the practical, tangible aspects of the Torah.

ויירשו את ארצו, they inherited his country after having conquered land that had been inhabited, suitable for settlement. This land would offer the opportunity to observe all of G’d’s commandments in it. They would not need to fear invaders, etc. This is where Moses began his review of the Torah and his speech of warning the people of the importance of remaining loyal to G’d.