פרשת עקב תש"ד - ואכלת ושבעת וברכת

כל המצוה — Explain this in its plain sense: EVERY COMMANDMENT. — And a Midrashic explanation is (taking it to mean, “the whole of the commandment … shall ye be heedful to do”): If thou hast once made a beginning with a meritorious deed, carry it out to the end, because it bears the name only of him (it is attributed only to him) who does the last part of it, as it is said, (Joshua 24:32) "And the bones of Joseph which the children of Israel brought up from Egypt they buried in Shechem”. But did not Moses alone busy himself with them to bring them up (cf. Exodus 13:19)? But because he had no opportunity to complete this (to inter them), the children of Israel completed it, it was called by their name (Midrash Tanchuma, Eikev 6).

התשמר מצותו [THAT HE MIGHT KNOW WHAT WAS IN THY HEART] WHETHER THOU WOULDST KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS — viz., the commandment that ye should not put Him to the test, and that you should not doubt Him (i.e. His ways).

a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates; a land of olive-trees and honey;

And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God hath led thee these forty years in the wilderness, that He might afflict thee, to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments, or no.

לנסותך, to test you if, seeing that you did not have to work hard for a livelihood, you would in return carry out His will.

And thou shalt consider in thy heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee.

and in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bore thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came unto this place.

And thou shalt eat and be satisfied, and bless the LORD thy God for the good land which He hath given thee.

And it stated, "And you will eat, and be satiated and bless," since you will remember the work of Egypt and the affliction of the wilderness. And when you will eat and be satiated in the good land, you will bless God about it. And our rabbis (Berakhot 48b) received the tradition that this is a positive commandment - and its explanation is that you shall bless the Lord, your God. And so [too], "and you will make a parapet for your roof" (Deuteronomy 22:8); and so [too] "and you will make a Pesach sacrifice to the Lord, your God" Deuteronomy 16:1); [and so too,] "And you will take from the beginning of all the fruit of the land" (Deuteronomy 26:2); and there are many [other examples] like this. And the explanation of "about the good land" is as [if it were written], "and about the good land." He commanded that you should bless Him at every time about the satiation and the land that He gave you - that he gave it as an eternal inheritance to you, and you will be satiated from its goodness. But behold, the obligation of this commandment is in every place.

And thou shalt eat and be satisfied, and bless the LORD thy God for the good land which He hath given thee.