ספר דברים

Moses prefaces his remarks with the word: ‎ועתה‎, “and now,” ‎to hint that just as G’d in His capacity of Hashem has ‎imposed upon Himself restrictions in as much as He treats you as ‎if you deserved that He consults you before acting, i.e. ‎שואל‎, ‎much as a student who seeks clarification from his teacher, this ‎very characteristic of not acting high-handedly but consulting ‎higher authority first, is a characteristic that G’d expects of you ‎to be practiced unreservedly, i.e. you will prove this in the ‎manner in which you revere Him. This is also what Rashi ‎‎(Leviticus 26,12) where the Torah writes of G’d saying: ‎והתהלכתי ‏בתוככם‎, “I will be walking amongst you,” had in mind, when he ‎paraphrased Moses by saying: ‎אטייל עמכם‎, “I shall go for a walk ‎with you,” i.e. although you will feel so familiar with Me, you ‎must not forget for one moment that in spite of this I must be ‎related to with utmost reverence, ‎יראה‎.‎A third interpretation of our verse, is one that portrays Moses ‎as making maximal demands on the Jewish people, instead of ‎minimal ones, as a superficial reading of our verse would imply.‎ The axiom that the Creator is ‎אין סוף‎, “a Being the extent of ‎whose multifaceted attributes knows no limits,” [my ‎translation, Ed.] includes the inability of His angels to ‎fully comprehend Him also. This is already alluded to in the ‎commentary of Vayikra rabbah Leviticus 24,9 where the ‎author, in trying to explain the line:‎קדושים תהיו כי קדוש אני ‏‎, ‎commonly translated as “strive to be holy for I am holy,” states ‎‎“you will never be able to be as holy as I am, as My holiness will ‎progressively appear to you as just beyond reach, the closer you ‎have come to Me.” Not only that, but as you attain greater ‎insights, you will realise how far beyond I am. At the same time, ‎the more you endeavour to become holy, the more of My holiness ‎will become part of you.‎ ‎