json/Midrash/Halakhah/Sifrei Devarim/English/Sefaria Community Translation.json

{
    "language": "en",
    "title": "Sifrei Devarim",
    "versionSource": "https://www.sefaria.org",
    "versionTitle": "Sefaria Community Translation",
    "versionTitleInHebrew": "תרגום קהילת ספריא",
    "actualLanguage": "en",
    "languageFamilyName": "english",
    "isBaseText": false,
    "isSource": false,
    "direction": "ltr",
    "heTitle": "ספרי דברים",
    "categories": [
        "Midrash",
        "Halakhah"
    ],
    "text": [
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        [
            "1. Eleven days from Horev via Mt. Seir to Kadesh Barnea - and is it really an eleven-day journey to Kivrot Hataavah, and from Kivrot Hataavah to Hatzerot? It is no more than a three-day journey, as it says (Numbers 10:33), \"They went from the mountain of the Lord three days' journey\"! Rabbi Yehudah says: \"And did Israel walk an eleven-day journey in three days? It is in fact a forty-day journey, as it says regarding Elijah (1 Kings 19:8) 'He arose and ate and drank; and with the strength from that meal he walked forty days and forty nights as far as the mountain of God at Horev'! After he said it was impossible, go back to the first matter.\""
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            "\"<i>The LORD will dislodge</i>\" - The LORD dislodges and no one of flesh and blood can dislodge. \"<i>All [] nations</i>\" Shall I understand it according to its meaning!? Read \"<i>These.</i>\" I only have [proof for] \"These nations\", from where [can it be proven] to include their allies? Read \"<i>These.</i>\" [The <i>heh</i> in <i>ha'eleh</i> is the proof.] \"<i>Before you.</i>\" - You will be gradually growing, and they will be gradually shrinking. So it says (Exodus 23:30) \"<i>I will drive them out before you little by little . . .\", \"I will not drive them out before you in a single year.\"</i> The Words of Rabbi Yitzhak.",
            "Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah said, since Israel are righteous, why are they afraid of the wild animals? Was it not already said (Job 5:23) \"<i>For you will have a pact with the rocks in the field, And the beasts of the field will be your allies.</i>\" If you say, why did Joshua toil so much? Rather it was because Israel sinned that it was decreed upon them, \"<i>I will drive them out before you little by little.</i>\"",
            "\"<i>You will dispossess nations greater and more numerous than you.</i>\" - Greater in height, and more numerous in strength. \"<i>Than you.</i>\" - Even you are great and numerous, but they are greater [in height] than you. Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov says, a parable to a person who says, \"Joe Shmoe is strong.\" But [the speaker] is himself strong. [What did he mean when he said] this one is strong? That this one is stronger than him.",
            "Another explanation of \"<i>Than you.</i>\" - Why is it said again? Wasn't it already said, \"<i>Seven [nations] greater and more numerous than you.</i>\" What is the text teaching with \"<i>Than you</i>\"? It teaches that the Amorites, one of the seven nations, was great and strong enough to match all of Israel. So it says (Amos 2:9)\"<i>Yet I Destroyed the Amorite before them, Whose stature was like the cedar’s. And who was stout as the oak.</i>\""
        ],
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            "",
            "\"And the curse, if you do not hearken\": From this we can learn that Moses did not command the Jews until his last days when he was about to die and had witnessed all the miracles. Therefore it states \"After he had smitten...(Devarim 1:4)\"."
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            "",
            "Another explanation: If one has merited to learn Torah, he merits for himself as well as for all his future descendants."
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        [
            "",
            "\"You shall observe shemittah. And this is the word of the shemitah: Every creditor shall release his claim\" - As long as you have shemittah (of fields) you must observe shemittah (of releasing claims)."
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        [
            "\"It should not be difficult in your eyes to send him away ... for double the wages of a hired worker he has labored for you\": From here it was taught that a hired worker works by day while a hebrew slave works both by day and by night.",
            "\"And the L-rd you G-d will bless you\": I might think even if you sit idle? Therefore the verse continues: \"in all that you do\"."
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            "",
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            "From here it was taught: One may fulfill his obligation [of rejoicing] with meat of voluntary sacrifices. I might have thought [that one can likewise fulfill his obligation] with fowl and meal-offerings? Therefore it states \"Only...\" [to exclude this]."
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        [
            "",
            "",
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            "(\"then you shall arise\": immediately)"
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            "",
            "",
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            "(Variantly: A fox to his right and to his left [and plans his activities accordingly])."
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            "(Devarim 20:3) \"And he shall say to them \"Hear, O Israel, who is the man that is fearful and faint-hearted...and the officers shall continue\": Why was all this stated? So the cities of Israel should not be desolate. As Rabban Yochanan ben Zakai has said: Come and see how G-d cares for human dignity.When one [soldier] returns, the others would say \"maybe he has just built a house\" or \"maybe he has betrothed a woman\". All had to bring proof besides the fearful one whose situation was evident. He heard shields clashing and was scared, blaring trumpets and was shaken, he sees swords being wielded and loses control of his bodily functions."
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            "",
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            "(We are hereby taught that peace is offered for two days, and a third day before the battle. And so it states: (I Samuel 30:1) \"And David Remained in  Tziklag for two days.\" And gentile cities are not besieged fewer than three days before the Sabbath, (so that the siege not extend into the Sabbath); but if the siege began, it is not interrupted. This is one of three lessons taught by Shammai the Elder: A sea voyage is not begun fewer than three days before the Sabbath. When is this so? For a long voyage, but for a short one, it is permissible.)"
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        [
            "",
            "",
            "",
            "",
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            "This tells me only if there are many and all are loved or hated. Whence do I derive (that the same applies) even if there are only two? From \"two wives\".",
            "",
            "",
            "",
            "",
            "\"And they bear him sons\": Where the sons are his, excluding these who are not his sons. "
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            "",
            "",
            "",
            "",
            "(Variantly: Just because he used his father's money he must die?!  Only he is judged based on his future behavior -  better he die while [relatively] innocent and not for more severe sins. His father desired a captive woman and brought the devil into his home and caused his son to be rebellious. The result will be that he will kill him in an unnatural way, as it states (v. 22) \"And if there be in a man a sin whose judgment is death, then he shall be put to death...\").",
            "",
            "",
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            "",
            "\"And he does not listen to them\": This teaches that he is flogged in the presence of three."
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            "",
            "",
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            "\"and you shall not make unclean your earth\": for doing so results in the desecration of G-d's name."
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            "(Geese and hens that rebelled (i.e. flew away) and nested in an orchard — must be sent. If they nested in a house — one is exempt from sending.",
            "\"fledglings or eggs,\": I would understand: the minimum of \"fledglings\" — two; the minimum of eggs — two. Fledglings have a purpose and eggs have a purpose, to exclude dead fledglings and winnowed (non-viable) eggs, for these have no benefit. If there is only one chick or one egg in the nest, he must send, for it states \"if there chance before you a bird's nest\" - in any event.) ",
            " \"on the way in any tree or on the ground\": on the way is in public property, excluding if they were tied up.",
            "[Variantly: \"Send\": Scripture speaks of a clean bird. — But perhaps it speaks of an unclean bird too? It is, therefore, written (Ibid. 14:11) \"Every clean bird you may eat\": This is a prototype, viz.: Wherever \"bird\" is mentioned in Scripture, a clean bird is understood (unless specified otherwise) as R' Yoshia has stated. If after sending he turned his face away from it he is exempt from sending further.]"
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            "\"wool &amp; linen together\": but each by itself is permitted."
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        [
            "\"And now he has made a libelous accusation...and these are the signs of my daughter's virginity\": So we have witnesses who contradict his [the husband's] witnesses.",
            "R' Yehuda says: He is not held culpable unless he has cohabited.",
            "(This teaches that the defendant has the first word.)"
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            "",
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            "(I only know in the city, how do I know in the field as well? Therefore it states: \"And if in the field the man find the betrothed maiden and lie with her\".)"
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            "(\"And let your camp be holy\": Sanctify it. From here it was taught that a person should not enter the Temple Mount with his walking-stick, shoes, or dust on his feet.)"
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            "",
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            "(\"that [kidnapper]\": to exclude one who steals one who is half-slave-half-free.)"
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            "(\"of the earth\": This excludes tenant-farmers, renters, holders of confiscated land, and robbers of land do not bring first-fruits, as it states \"the first-fruits of your soil\".)"
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            "",
            "",
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            "(\"and he saw our pain\": as it states (<i>Exodus 1:16</i>): \"And you see on the birthstool...\"",
            "\"and our toil\": as it states (<i>Exodus 1:22</i>): Every son that is born shall you cast in the river\". <small>Aggadah</small>).",
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            "\"And you shall rejoice\": at a time of joy."
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            "Variantly: \"When the Most High caused nations to inherit\": When the Lord caused the nations to inherit the world, he apportioned to them the purgatory, as it says (Ezekiel 32:23-30) \"Assyria is there with all her company ...  Elam and all her masses ... all the princes of the north and all the Sidonians are there\". And who will receive the wealth and honor of all these? Israel! Therefore it states \"He set the bounds of the peoples\"."
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    ],
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        "Paragraph"
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}