Concealing Overt Acts: Looking the Other Way

(24) They will be told, “Because they forsook the covenant that יקוק, God of their ancestors, made with them upon freeing them from the land of Egypt; (25) they turned to the service of other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not experienced and whom [God] had not allotted to them. (26) So יקוק was incensed at that land and brought upon it all the curses recorded in this book. (27) יקוק uprooted them from their soil in anger, fury, and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as is still the case.” (28) Concealed acts concern our God יקוק; but with overt acts, it is for us and our children ever to apply all the provisions of this Teaching.

הנסתרת ליקוק אלקינו THE SECRET THINGS BELONG UNTO THE LORD OUR GOD — And if you say, “But what can we do? Thou threatenest the many (the whole community) with punishment because of the sinful thoughts of one individual, as it is said, (v. 17): “Lest there should be among you a man, [or a woman or a family … whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord …]”, and afterwards it states, (v. 21) “And they will see the plagues of that land”. But surely no man can know the secret thoughts of his fellow! Now, I reply: I do not threaten to punish you because of secret thoughts for these belong to the Lord our God and He will exact punishment from that individual; but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children that we may put away the evil from our midst; and if we do not execute judgment upon them, the whole community will be punished. — There are dots on the words לנו ולבננו to suggest that even for the revealed sins (those committed openly), He did not punish the community until they had crossed the Jordan — from the moment when they took upon themselves the oath on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal and had thus become responsible for one another (Sanhedrin 43b; cf. Sotah 37b).

והנגלות, ”but the sins committed publicly, etc,” dealing with deliberate sins committed in full view of the public must be dealt with by the judiciary by both you and your children, as otherwise such phenomena cannot be eradicated from your midst. This law becomes effective from the moment the Jewish people will cross the river Jordan. From that moment on their acceptance of the covenant with G-d meant that each individual Jew shared in the responsibility for the conduct of each fellow Jew. From that moment on we also became responsible. In order that you should not say that this approach applies forever (under all circumstances), the words והנגלות לנו ולבנינו, “and the publicly committed sins are also the responsibility of us and our children,” have been dotted, i. e. as long as we observe that part of the law, by letting our judiciary punish sinners of sins committed in public, G-d will take care of those that were committed secretly.

[The dots, wherever they appear, have been added by learned scribes long after the Torah had been given, i.e. have been added by human initiative. There are dots only on ten letters, whereas there are eleven sins that were listed in the list of curses as being typical of sins committed secretly in Deuteronomy chapter 27, commencing with verse 15. This is deliberate in order to avoid giving the impression that we are telling G-d how to administer His laws. This is also the reason why the dots which we would have expected over the words ליקוק אלוקינו, where they would have made more sense, appear instead over the words לנו ולבנינו, Ed.]

(1) When all these things befall you—the blessing and the curse that I have set before you—and you take them to heart amidst the various nations to which your God יקוק has banished you, (2) and you return to your God יקוק, and you and your children heed God’s command with all your heart and soul, just as I enjoin upon you this day, (3) then your God יקוק will restore your fortunes and take you back in love. [God] will bring you together again from all the peoples where your God יקוק has scattered you.

(28) Concealed acts concern our God יקוק; but with overt acts, it is for us and our children ever to apply all the provisions of this Teaching.

(9) You stand this day, all of you, before your God יקוק —your tribal heads, your elders, and your officials, every householder*householder Lit. “participant whose involvement defines the depicted situation.” Moses’ description of those present treats their social station as more germane than their gender. Trad. “[all the] men.” See the first note at 1.31. in Israel, (10) your children, your wives, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to waterdrawer— (11) to enter into the covenant of your God יקוק, which your God יקוק is concluding with you this day, with its sanctions;*its sanctions I.e., the curses that covenant violations will entail. (12) in order to establish you this day as God’s people and in order to be your God, as promised you and as sworn to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (13) I make this covenant, with its sanctions, not with you alone, (14) but both with those who are standing here with us this day before our God יקוק and with those who are not with us here this day. (15) Well you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we passed through the midst of various other nations; (16) and you have seen the detestable things and the fetishes of wood and stone, silver and gold, that they keep. (17) Perchance there is among you some man or woman, or some clan or tribe, whose heart is even now turning away from our God יקוק to go and worship the gods of those nations—perchance there is among you a stock sprouting poison weed and wormwood. (18) *In this verse and the next, grammatically masculine singular co-references with gender-inclusive force (cf. v. 17) are rendered in the plural. When hearing the words of these sanctions, they may imagine a special immunity, thinking, “I shall be safe, though I follow my own willful heart”—to the utter ruin of moist and dry alike.*moist and dry alike I.e., everything. (19) יקוק will never forgive that party.*that party Moved up from v. 19 for clarity. Rather, יהוה’s anger and passion will rage against them, till every sanction recorded in this book comes down upon them, and יקוק blots out their name from under heaven. (20) [As for such a clan or tribe,] יקוק will single it out from all the tribes of Israel for misfortune, in accordance with all the sanctions of the covenant recorded in this book of Teaching. (21) And later generations will ask—the children who succeed you, and foreigners who come from distant lands and see the plagues and diseases that יקוק has inflicted upon that land, (22) all its soil devastated by sulfur and salt, beyond sowing and producing, no grass growing in it, just like the upheaval of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which יקוק overthrew in fierce anger— (23) all nations will ask, “Why did יקוק do thus to this land? Wherefore that awful wrath?” (24) They will be told, “Because they forsook the covenant that יקוק, God of their ancestors, made with them upon freeing them from the land of Egypt; (25) they turned to the service of other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not experienced*whom they had not experienced See note at 11.28. and whom [God] had not allotted*allotted See 4.19–20. to them. (26) So יקוק was incensed at that land and brought upon it all the curses recorded in this book. (27) יקוק uprooted them from their soil in anger, fury, and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as is still the case.” (28) Concealed acts concern our God יקוק; but with overt acts, it is for us and our children ever to apply all the provisions of this Teaching.