הרנינו גוים עמו, "O nations, sing the praises of His people!" When the Jewish people are loyal to their traditions, to the Torah, then the nations of the world sing their praises. They admire the fact that even when exiled, the Jewish people hold fast to their beliefs and do not try to assimilate themselves (compare Rashi). Alternatively, the word הרנינו is derived from רנה in the sense of "proclamation," i.e. the nations everywhere will proclaim about this people that the Lord has avenged their blood. The word would be used here in the same manner as in Kings I 22,36 ויעבור הרנה, "a shout went through (the camp)."
כי דם עבדיו יקום, "for He will avenge the blood of His people." Moses prophesied in these verses about the troubles which would befall the Jewish people during our exile and all the bloodshed that the people would become victims of at the hands of their host nations. They would lose their money through violence, both physical and through discriminatory legislation. These events have been specifically forecast by Ovadiah 10 as being perpetrated by Yaakov's brother Esau (the Edomites) when he wrote: "for the outrage (violence perpetrated) to your brother Yaakov, disgrace shall engulf you and you shall perish forever." In anticipation of this retribution, Moses says "He will avenge the blood of His people."
וכפר אדמתו עמו, "and He will appease His land and His people." According to both Onkelos, Ibn Ezra, and Rashi, the words אדמתו עמו are to be understood as אדמתו ועמו, "His land and His people."
The Midrash (Sifri on our verse) understands the words as if the Torah had written וכפר אדמתו על עמו, "its land will be atonement for its people."
According to Ketuvot 111 the meaning is that if a Jew is buried in the land of Israel, his sins will be transferred to the soil, i.e. the land of Israel will act as a Mikveh, a ritual bath, cleansing him from his impurities. The wording there is "that being buried in the land of Israel is equivalent to being buried beneath the Holy Altar." This is an extension of the verse "You shall build an altar of earth for me" (
Exodus 20,
24). This is also understood to be the meaning of the sages' comment that the reason God created Adam out of earth was that the place which would serve as the means of his atonement was his origin. [by making him out of earth, God facilitated his eventual atonement when he would return to earth. Ed.] This is the advantage of ארץ ישראל, that it is the palace of the King (God) and therefore is also known as ארץ ה', (
Joshua 22,
19). It is also known as נחלת ה', "the Lord's heritage." Anything outside the boundaries of the land of Israel is always referred to as something "outside, external." The Scriptures refer to such countries as חוצות, (
compare Proverbs 8,26 where the word ארץ and חוצות appear side by side to make this distinction and is even called אהלי רשע "tents of the wicked," in Psalms 84,11).
In the parlance of our sages in Gittin 8, any land outside the land of Israel is referred to as ארץ העמים. To make the distinction crystal clear, the sages decreed ritual impurity on any produce imported from these countries and even its airspace was considered as ritually impure, so that by having traversed it one needs to purify oneself. The only exception to this ruling was Syria because it adjoins the land of Israel. I have already mentioned this in connection with 31,16 אלוהי נכר הארץ.
וכפר אדמתו עמו; this means that the Jewish people will purify their land of the corpses of the enemies (Ibn Ezra). The word וכפר therefore has to be understood in the sense of וטהר, "and it purifies." The word also appears in that sense in Ezekiel 39,16 וחטאת אותו וכפרתהו. Ezekiel speaks specifically of וטהרו הארץ, "they (the Israelites) will cleanse the earth" (of these bodies of the slain pagans who were killed during the final confrontation with Gog and Magog preceding the messianic age).
ואין אלוהים עמדי, "and there is no other deity with Me." (verse 39). God says this versus the pagans who had taunted the Israelites to ask their deities to help them. Seeing the nations had spoken of deities in the plural, God had to emphasize the uniqueness of His being in the singular, having no assistants or junior partners. When God said: "I kill and I revive," He specifically referred to the Jews whom He had killed, (allowed to be killed) pointing out that He would revive them. [since that is so, even their "death" was not a regular death. Ed.] Our sages in Sanhedrin 91 claim that here we have incontrovertible proof from the Torah that there will be a resurrection. They said further that just as when the Torah speaks about God being a Healer, this is demonstrated by someone who had first been afflicted with disease or injury, so describing Himself as someone who brings to life also implies that the person brought to life had first died.
This is made plain in Samuel I, 2,6 where Chanah speaks about God being ממית ומחיה, מוריד שאול ויעל, "killing and reviving,"' consigning to the grave (nether regions), and to raise up again.
The reason that the sages felt called upon to spell out that the Torah speaks about one and the same person being killed and revived, is that from the words מחצתי ואני ארפא, "I have struck with injury and I will heal," (32,38) the impression could have been formed that God speaks about two different individuals; the sages wanted to make clear that this is not the case. Seeing that God employs the past tense in that verse, it is clear that He speaks about the same person He had first struck down being healed again.
There are many people who are wondering why such an important concept as that of the resurrection has not been spelled out in the written Torah in detail. Seeing that the Torah has spelled out in detail many less important concepts, sometimes repeating them several times, the failure to spell out the concept of resurrection of the dead is considered especially puzzling. The fact is that Torah addresses first and foremost terrestrial matters of concern to us. When you recall the Torah's report of the creation you will note that the description of the creation of light on the first day was condensed to a minimum, seeing that this light was not significant in terrestrial terms. When the Torah returns to that subject on the fourth day of creation, it goes into greater detail seeing that this light, the sun's and the moon's, is of concern to our life on earth. Similarly, even on the third day, the Torah explained details about the coming into existence of vegetation as it grows in areas of our human habitat. David follows a similar pattern when he describes the original light as merely עוטה אור כשלמה, "something God draped over His universe, much like a mantle" (
Psalms 104,
2). He also gives short shrift to the מים העליונים, "the waters in the celestial regions," contenting himself with writing המקרה מים עליותיו, "Who sets the rafters of His lofts in the waters," (
Psalms 104,
3) whereas he becomes far more specific when discussing the waters in our globe. Compare verse 6 in the same psalm: "You made the deep cover it as a garment, the waters stood above the mountains, They fled Your blast; You set bounds they must not pass so that they never again cover the earth." The עליות which David speaks of are the universes we call outer space, whereas the psalmist elaborates on waters which exist in our terrestrial universe. Hence, in verse 6 of that same psalm, David was so much more specific.
There are numeous more verses of that nature. All the targets described by Moses in the Torah are primarily of interest to our physical existence on earth. These targets man can attest to, i.e. see if God's promises were fulfilled provided he (the people) acted in accordance with the Torah's laws, or if the nation fell victim to the dire threats if they did not. When people realise that these targets have been met and realised, they will be more likely to accept on faith promises which by their very nature cannot be proven while they are one earth. For the reasons mentioned, the Torah understandably was very brief in its allusions to matters whose fulfillment lies beyond our present life on earth. The life of disembodied souls in the celestial regions while awaiting the resurrection, has similarly been alluded to only in the vaguest manner. The average reader may not even notice these allusions whereas the elite may notice their significance. The truth is that the written Torah was given to and for the multitude who do not concern themselves overly with abstract matters, matters of interest primarily to the intellect rather than to the senses.
If you will take an analytical look at the words, or rather the letters in the words (verse 39) סתרה ראו עתה כי, you will find that the respective final letters in these four words spelled backwards spell out the tetragrammaton. We have stated repeatedly that whenever this name appears backwards, it is an allusion to the attribute of Justice also contained in that name. In this instance, it is a hint of the retribution in store for the Gentile nations at the time of the redemption. Immediately after this allusion (verse 41), Moses refers directly to ותאחז במשפט ידי אשיב נקם לצרי, "I shall sharpen My flashing sword and My hand grasps judgment. I shall wreak vengeance upon My enemies."
You will find a total of 18 sequences in the written Torah in which the tetragrammaton has been spelled either forward or backward either in the last letters of the words or the first letters of the words of a sequence of four words, such as the ones we showed you in verse 39. Seeing that our verse (39) is the last of these 18 examples, I have used the opportunity to list all of them and to elaborate a little about them.
The following is the sequence in which these 18 groups of four words each appear in the Torah; I am listing first four examples in which the first letters of the respective words read forward spell the tetragram 1) (
Genesis 1,
31) יום הששי ויכולו השמים. 2) (
Genesis 38,24-25) יהודה הוציאוה ותשרף היא. 3) (
Exodus 4,
14) ידבר הוא וגם המה. 4) (
Deut. 11,
2) ידו החזקה וזרועו הנטויה. These are the four examples in which the letters of the tetragram appear in the proper sequence, i.e. right to left and as the first letters in each of the words. The next 4 examples refer to the last letters of the four words respectively, but they too are read from right to left. They are: 5) Genesis 19,13) .פנ'י ה-' וישלחה-ו ה-'. 6) (
Ex. 3,
13) ל-י מ-ה שמ-ו מ-ה. 7) (
Deut. 24,
8) נק-י יהי-ה לבית-ו שנ-ה. 8* מ-י יעל-ה לנ-ו השמימ-ה, (
Deut. 30,
12). The next 10 examples all feature the sequence of the letters of the tetragram from left to right, i.e. backward. (sometimes these letters are at the beginning of the words in question, sometimes at the end, such as in our example in the verse above). In all these examples the allusion is to the attribute of Justice. You can figure these out for yourselves by looking at: 9) Genesis 11,9 ו-משם ה-פיצם י'-ה;ה-ארץ it is clear from the context that the attribute of Justice had been poised to strike at all these people at that time. The same is true of 10)
(Genesis 44, 3-4) ה-מה ו-חמוריהם ה-ם י-צאו. The Torah already alludes to the impending crisis when the goblet will be found in Binyamin's sack.
[I am only pointing to the verses now without elaborating. Ed.] Exodus 4,15; Exodus 4,14; Exodus 4,3; Exodus 16,7; Exodus 26, 21-22; Numbers 1,51 (compare commentary by author). Numbers 5,18 (compare commentary by author). Numbers 14,24-25 (compare commentary by author). Numbers 14,43. Finally, there is our verse here completing the ten occasions when he Torah provides allusions that the attribute of Justice, as an appendix of the tetragram, was invoked by God. By way of contrast, the eight examples we quoted first, in which the respective letters of the tetragram appear in their usual order, i.e. from right to left, are indications that the subject matter is the attribute of Mercy. Seeing that between them we have a total of 18 such 4-word sequences, the easy way to remember this is by reference to the short line חי ה'.