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The Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit
Midrash
Parshat HaShavua This parasha series is dedicated PARASHAT
KI TAVO "And God Shall Return You to
Egypt in Boats" By Rav Mordechai
Sabato A.
The central section of parashat Ki
Tavo is the blessings and curses of chapter 28. This section concludes the unit
begun in parashat Re'eh, where Moshe already mentions the blessing and the
curse: "Behold, I place before you today a blessing and a curse." In our
parasha, the blessings and the curses are given in detail.
In this shiur I would like to focus
on a single verse - the conclusion of the list of curses: And God shall return you to Egypt in boats
on the way that I told you that you shall never see
again and you shall be sold there to your enemies
but there will be no purchaser.
(28:68)
This verse is clearly not a natural
continuation of the verses that precede it. The previous section describes the
dispersal of the Jews among all the nations and the dangerous fate that will
befall them there: And God will scatter you among all the peoples, from one
end of the earth to the other; and there you shall serve other gods, which
neither you nor your fathers have known, wood and stone. And among these nations you shall find
no ease, neither shall the sole of your foot have rest; but the Lord shall give
you there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and despair of heart; and your
life shall hang in doubt before you; and you shall fear day and night, and have
no assurance of your life: in the morning you shall say, "Would that it were
evening!" and in the evening you shall say, "Would that it were morning!" for
the fear of your heart with which you shall fear, and for the sight of your eyes
which you shall see. (28:64-67)
Our verse, on the other hand, speaks
only of exile in Egypt, and this is a different punishment than that described
in the previous section. It is clear that verse 68 begins a new punishment from
the style in which it opens - "And God will return you" - which parallels the
opening style of the previous section - "and God will scatter you."
Furthermore, the commentaries have
noticed that chapter 30 continues chapter 28. Chapter 30 begins: "And when all
of these things shall befall you, the blessing and the curse which I have placed
before you, ... among all the nations into which the Lord your God has driven
you." This verse relates to the
state of the Jews after the curse described in chapter 28 befalls them, and
describes the Jews as dispersed amidst all the nations, exactly as was detailed
in verses 64-67 of chapter 28. This is repeated two verses later: "The Lord your
God shall return your captivity and have mercy on you, and will return and
gather you from all the nations amongst whom the Lord your God has scattered
you" (30:3). This is exactly the language of chapter 28:64. We see that chapter
30 returns to chapter 28:64-67 and ignores the situation described in verse 68.
This again emphasizes the anomaly of this verse.
The singularity of this verse can be
demonstrated by comparing the verses at the end of chapter 28 with the threat of
exile of chapter 4.
The similarity of these two sections
is not coincidental. Chapter 4 concludes the first speech of Moshe in Sefer
Devarim. Chapter 28 concludes the second speech. Both speeches close with the
basic principle that the inheritance of the land is not guaranteed
unconditionally. Sin will lead to exile even though the people have been living
in the land for many years.
The similarity of the two chapters
is expressed in an additional point. After the threat of exile in chapter 4, the
Torah adds the promise of repentance and redemption (verses 29-30). This element appears absent from the
rebuke in Devarim 28, which concludes with the threat of exile to Egypt. However, this observation is not
accurate. As we mentioned, the natural continuation of chapter 28 is chapter 30,
which revolves around the promise of repentance and redemption. Here, too, the
similarity of chapter 4 to chapter 30 is apparent.
Against the background of the
similarity between chapter 4 and chapters 28 & 30, the anomaly of verse 68
which concludes chapter 28 is all the more apparent - for it is completely
absent from chapter 4. Similarly, in the chapter of rebuke in Sefer Vayikra
(parashat Bechukotai), the threat of exile is mentioned: "And I shall disperse
you among the nations" (Vayikra 26:33), but there is no parallel to verse 68 of
our chapter, which warns of exile to Egypt.
In conclusion, this element of exile
described in verse 68 is unparalleled and unconnected to what precedes it and
what follows it. What then does the Torah wish to tell us by concluding chapter
28 specifically with the threat of exile to Egypt? B.
In order to answer this question, we
must examine closely the language of the verse and notice the points which
distinguish this threat from the description of exile in the previous section. I
would like to make four points.
Taken together, these four points
teach us that the threat of return to Egypt is not a threat merely of exile. The
threat here expresses, as it were, the cancellation of the election of the
Jewish people. The Jews belong to God by virtue of the exodus from Egypt, "for
the children of Israel are My servants, My servants are they, for I have taken
them out of the land of Egypt." God's returning the Jews to Egypt cancels, it
would seem, their being taken out of it by Him. Therefore the Torah emphasizes
in this verse the aspect of slavery: "and you shall be sold there to your
enemies for slaves." Slavery in
Egypt totally contradicts service of God. The return to Egypt represents the
return to the state of the Jews before they were redeemed by God from the house
of bondage, whereby He acquired them as His people. That is why the Torah uses
the language "and God will return you" - which is in contradistinction to the
language of being taken out from there.
This point is emphasized if we
examine the conclusion of the curses: "These are the words of the covenant which
God commanded Moshe to enact with the Jews in the land of Moav, aside from the
covenant which He enacted with them in Chorev" (verse 69). The covenant in the
land of Moav completes the covenant of Chorev, Sinai. The covenant in Chorev
begins with the words, "I am the Lord your God who has taken you out of the land
of Egypt, the house of bondage" (Shemot 20:2, Devarim 5:6). The covenant of Moav
ends with the words, "and God will return you to Egypt in boats... and you shall
be sold there to your enemies as slaves." The two verses parallel each other.
The covenant is based on the exodus of the people from Egypt, the house of
bondage, via God's salvation. Non-compliance with the conditions of the covenant
will lead to their being returned by God to slavery in
Egypt.
Reading our verse against the
background of the exodus from Egypt can explain the purpose of the word "in
boats" in our verse. In the limited context of the verse, the word refers to
boats which carry slaves. However, viewing it in the wider context of the verse
as we explained, this word should be seen as a contrast to the splitting of the
sea. The exodus from Egypt took place against the background of the great
miracle of the splitting of the sea, which allowed the Jews to flee Egypt by
crossing the sea on dry land. Our verse emphasizes that their return to Egypt
will not be accompanied by another miracle of the splitting of the sea, but
rather will be accomplished by boats, which are in fact boats of slavery. While
the exodus was accomplished by the exalted state of walking on dry land through
the sea with the waters as a wall on their right and on their left, their return
to Egypt will be on boats - and this contrast expresses the distinction between
redemption and bondage.
This explanation also clarifies the
Torah's emphasis that the return to Egypt will be "on the way that I told you
that you shall never see again." This refers to the route by which the Jews left
Egypt, about which they had been promised that they will not see it again. Our
verse teaches that this promise as well was conditional. Non-compliance with the
conditions of the covenant would cancel this promise. God, who took them out of
Egypt, will send them back to Egypt on the very same path by which they had
left, and this in order to emphasize the significance of this return.
C.
In the previous section, we
explained that the expression "the way that I told you that you shall never see
again" refers to a promise that was given to the Jews when they left Egypt.
However, in the Mekhilta this verse is explained not as a promise but as a
prohibition. In three places, the Torah commands Israel not to return
to Egypt, as is written, "For as you have seen Egypt today, you shall not see
them again for eternity" (Shemot 14:13). And it is written, "And God said to
you, Do not return upon this way again" (Devarim 17:16). And it is written, "And
God shall return you to Egypt by boat on the way that I said to you that you
shall never see again" (Devarim 28:68).
The Sages apparently saw these three
verses as expressing a prohibition of returning to Egypt. Leaving aside for the moment the verse in
our parasha, let us look at the two others.
"Moshe said to the people: Fear not; stand and witness salvation
of God which He shall do for you today, for as you have seen Egypt today, you
shall not see them again for eternity" (Shemot 14:13). In the context of the
story of the exodus of Egypt, there can be no question that the literal meaning
of the verse is a promise and not a prohibition.
On the other hand, the verse in
Devarim 17:16 appears clearly to express a prohibition: "But he [i.e. the king]
shall not accumulate horses, nor return the people to Egypt, in order to
accumulate horses, for God has said to you, 'Do not return upon this way
again.'" The verse appears to claim that this prohibition had been given to the
Jews previously. Where was this prohibition given?
The sages in the Mekhilta (Massekhta
De-pischa 12) asked this question: "Where was it said? 'For as you have seen Egypt today...'"
This midrash agrees with the previous Mekhilta in viewing the verse in Shemot as
a prohibition. As we have already pointed out, this is not in accordance with
the simple explanation of the verse. Ibn Ezra and Ramban (both on Devarim 17:16)
agree that the verse in Devarim is not referring back to the verse in Shemot.
What, then, is the source of the previously-promulgated prohibition referred to
in Devarim 17:16?
Let us set this question aside for
the moment and return to the third verse, that in our parasha. We have already mentioned that in
context this verse hints at a promise that the Jews will not return to Egypt.
However, if we examine carefully the language of this verse, we will see that it
is based on elements taken from the two previous verses. The general style of
the verse is based on Devarim 17:16, where it states, "And God has said to you,
Do not return upon this way again." In both verses, the subject is the way, the
path that leads to Egypt. However, in Shemot 14:13 the subject is not seeing the
Egyptians themselves. Nonetheless, the verb "to see" found in our verse is taken
from the verse in Sefer Shemot. We see that the Torah itself has combined the
two elements of the return to Egypt, the prohibition and the promise. We now
need to understand what is the significance of this combination of two different
elements. Why does Devarim 28:68, a verse whose content is clearly a promise,
contain language drawn from Devarim 17:16, whose subject is a
prohibition? D.
In order to understand this, we have
to first understand the reason for the prohibition to return to Egypt. The
Rambam (Sefer Ha-mitzvot, prohibition #46) writes, "We were forbidden to dwell
in the land of Egypt forever, so that we shall not learn from their heresy and
not follow their evil actions." The Ramban (Devarim 17:16) writes likewise:
The reason for this commandment is that the Egyptians
and the Canaanites were very evil and sinners before God, as is written, "Like
the actions of the land of Egypt, where you have dwelled, you shall not do, and
like the actions of the land of Canaan..." (Vayikra 18:3). God wishes that
Israel should not learn from their actions and He destroyed the Canaanites and
commanded that they shall not live in our land, and concerning the Egyptians He
commanded that we should not return to their land.
This explanation presents two
difficulties. Firstly, not only the Egyptians and the Canaanites were very evil
and sinners before God. The reason the Torah mentions specifically these two
nations was only because they were the nations with which Israel was familiar in
the past or about to come to know. Secondly, the verse does not prohibit
dwelling in Egypt, but the return to Egypt: "And God has said to you: Do not
return upon this way again."
It would seem that the reason for
the prohibition is similar to the reason for the promise. Just as God has
promised the Jews that they will not return to Egypt on this way as an
expression of the eternal nature of the election of Israel and its becoming the
nation of God, so too God prohibited the people to return to Egypt by the same
road in order that they not express a rebellion against God and a return to the
patronage of Egypt.
The relationship between God and His
people is mutual. God grants His patronage to the people, and the people accept
upon themselves God's patronage. God promises not to remove His patronage from
His people and not to return them to slavery in Egypt, and the people commit
themselves not to remove themselves from the patronage of God and not to return
themselves to the patronage of Egypt. The non-return to Egypt by the same path
expresses these two aspects - both the promise of God and the prohibition that
applies to the people. Both of them have a common source.
This, it seems, is what the Torah
wishes to teach in our verse. In
the context of chapter 28, it expresses a promise (more exactly, the
cancellation of a promise). But its language is combined from the verses of the
previous sections in Devarim and in Shemot, one of which is a prohibition and
one of which is a promise. The Torah wishes to express that God's promise not to
return the people on this way to Egypt is the flip side of the people's
prohibition not to return by this path to Egypt.
We can now return to the verse in
Devarim 17, which seemed to refer back to a previous prohibition which we could
not find. Indeed, the verse in Devarim 17 is referring to the verse in Shemot
14, although the verse in Devarim is a prohibition and the verse in Shemot is a
promise. This is not a problem, for
both the prohibition and the promise are two sides of the same coin.
Hence, the verse in Devarim 17 not
only refers to the verse in Shemot 14, but also explains and clarifies it by
deepening its meaning. In Devarim 28, the verse already encompasses this new
complex meaning, based on the combination of the two aspects of the return to
Egypt into one idea. E.
One question remains. If, indeed,
the return to Egypt and the sale there into slavery signify the cancellation of
the election of Israel and the return to the state before the exodus, then this
verse contradicts the promise of the eternity of the selection of Israel and the
immutability of God's kingship over the Jews. This promise is found in many
places in the Torah and is a basic principle in the faith of Israel.
The answer to this question is found
in the last words of our verse, which I have ignored until now: "And you shall
be sold there to your enemies as slaves BUT THERE WILL BE NO PURCHASER." In the restricted context of this verse,
these words serve to deepen the severity of the punishment. The status of the
Jews will be so bad that even when they wish to be sold in order to find
sustenance, no purchaser will be found. However, within the wider context of the
verse, a deeper understanding arises.
The verse hints at a promise. Once God has acquired the people through
the exodus from Egypt, no other purchaser will be found, even if the people wish
to be sold. The depths of the punishment contain the depths of the consolation.
Although our chapter ends with punishment, it contains within itself the hint to
a great consolation. |