פרשת ואתחנן תשכ"ח - פן תשכח

"Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently"

S.v. Only take heed to yourself, etc, lest you forget: [After citing Rashi's words above,] but it is not correct at all. Rather this verse, in my opinion, is a negative commandment, [which] it warns about very much. As when it stated that we should be careful with all of the commandments and guard the statutes and the judgments to do them, it went back to state, "However I am warning you very much to be on guard and guard yourself very very much to remember where the commandments came to you from, such that you not forget the stand at Mount Sinai with all of the things that your eyes saw there - the voices and the torches, His glory and His greatness, and His words that you heard from the fire. And you shall inform your children and your children's children for all time [about] the thing that your eyes saw at this great stand." And the explanation of the reason is in order that you should learn to fear Him all of the days, and teach your children for all generations. If so, you shall do this and not forget Me. And behold, before it mentions the [Ten Commandments], it warns with a negative commandment, that we should never forget anything from this stand and never remove it from our hearts. And it [also] commanded with a positive commandment that we should inform all of our progeny from one generation to another [about] everything that was [perceived] there through sight and hearing...

"Only take heed to yourself and watch yourselves scrupulously, so that you do not forget the things that you saw with your own eyes... The day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb..."

And "Only take heed to yourselves and heed your souls exceedingly" is stated in yet another connection, viz., the conclusion (Deuteronomy 4:12): "…but you saw no form, only a voice," and, similarly (Ibid 15): "and heed your souls exceedingly, for you saw no form…" The connotations of "Only take heed to yourselves and heed your souls exceedingly" and "And heed your souls exceedingly" are the same. It is as if one were to say to his neighbor: "Take great care lest you fall into the hole that you are in danger of falling into." This is the intent of the aforementioned phrases. That is: In the beginning it was stated: "For where is there a nation so great whose god is so close to it as the L-rd our G-d in all our callings to Him?" Now one might be caused to err by this and to impute some link or bond to the Blessed One and so come to attribute to His Divinity some corporeal elements. For this reason it is stated: though you witness this [G-d's closeness to you] always, take heed to yourselves, and heed your souls exceedingly, lest you forget that exalted encounter in which the Blessed One came closer to His creations than He had ever come before or than He will ever come thereafter, and still, this did not result in your witnessing any form that you could attribute to Him (for He does not have one); but you heard only "a voice of words" alone... And it is for the same reason that we say in our prayers, in the third benediction of the Shemoneh Esreh, "You are holy," as explained in the Kuzari (3:17). For having said first that He causes the wind to blow and brings down rain and that he heals the sick and releases the bound — so that this does not lead us to attribute any corporeality to His Divinity, we say thereafter that though He does, indeed, perform all these things, He is removed from and exalted above all corporeal factors. And this is, likewise, the intent of (Deuteronomy 4:11): "Only take heed to yourselves…" and its iteration, "And heed your souls exceedingly, for you saw no form… (Ibid 16) lest you become corrupt and make a carved idol." The nexus of these last two verses is strange, and the commentators do not shed any light on it. I understand it as follows: Take great heed of your souls, for though the Blessed One desired to leave the most enduring impression possible of that exalted encounter, to the extent that He originated and created darkness, cloud, mist, flames, and voices — with all this He did not desire to originate and create any form, though this would be indicated for the creation of a more enduring impression of the encounter, visible impressions being etched more deeply into the imagination than audible ones. Just as He originated a created voice, without apprehension as to its superficial suggestion of corporeality, and was not deterred thereby, why should He not have originated a created form to implant that encounter more deeply in their hearts? He was, however, deterred in this case "lest you become corrupt…" For you would think to benefit your souls by making an image of the form that you saw in order to perpetuate the impression of the encounter for your children and grandchildren, but the result will be that your children after you will worship that form or ascribe corporeality to the Blessed One because of it. It is for this reason that this exhortation was repeated many times in this parshah. Add to this the fact that the nations were very much attracted to idol worship in earlier times, and even in the time of the Temple, as our sages have stated (Sanhedrin 102b): "When R. Ashi came to the episode of the three kings [who have no share in the world to come], he said: 'Tomorrow we shall discourse on the subject of our colleagues' [these kings]. Following this Menasheh appeared to him in a dream and said to him: '…If you had lived in that generation, you would have lifted the skirts of your cloak to run to serve idols.'" Now there is no doubt that their penchant for idol worship proceeded from their great wisdom and their ability to employ it for the drawing down of heavenly powers. It did not proceed from their ignorance, for though they were wicked, they were not fools.

"Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord... and make you a graven image, even the likeness of all"

He added, "things"; as the word, "all," is always attached to another word. And see that before, it was written (4:16), "the likeness of all symbols."

"Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget... and make you a graven image, even the likeness of all"