Bar-Ilan University
Parashat Shoftim 5772/August 25, 2012
Parashat Hashavua Study Center
Lectures on the weekly Torah reading by the faculty of Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. A
project of the Faculty of Jewish Studies, Paul and Helene Shulman Basic Jewish Studies Center, and the
Office of the Campus Rabbi. Published on the Internet under the sponsorship of Bar-Ilan University's
International Center for Jewish Identity. Prepared for Internet Publication by the Computer Center
Staff at Bar-Ilan University.
930
Pinchas Haliwa
On the term Tamim in the Torah
This week's reading presents the following demand to counter all sorts of manifestation of
magic (Deut. 18:9-13):
When you enter the land that the Lord your G-d is giving you, you shall not
learn to imitate the abhorrent practices of those nations. Let no one be
found among you who consigns his son or daughter to the fire, or who is an
augur, a soothsayer, a diviner, a sorcerer, one who casts spells, or one who
consults ghosts or familiar spirits, or one who inquires of the dead. For
anyone who does such things is abhorrent to the Lord, and it is because of
these abhorrent things that the Lord your G-d is dispossessing them before
you. You must be wholehearted (tamim) with the Lord your G-d.
Why is the Torah's attitude towards these things so negative, and how is the normative
instruction in the command to be "wholehearted with the Lord your G-d" an alternative to
them?

Mr. Haliwa is an attorney and a lecturer at Ashkelon College.
The answer lies in understanding the full gamut of meanings implied by "wholehearted" or
in Hebrew, tamim. This concept appears in the Torah in four contexts, all of them pointing
towards one shared meaning—completeness.1
1. Sometimes the term tamim describes a complete unit pertaining to numbers, as in:
"You shall count off seven weeks. They must be complete" (Lev. 23:15); "Thus the
sun halted in midheaven, and did not press on to set, for a whole day" (Josh. 10:13).
2. Sometimes it describes the physical perfection of an offering suitable for sacrifice, as
in: "Your lamb shall be without blemish, a yearling male" (Ex. 12:5); "one male lamb,
in its first year, without blemish" (Num. 6:14). If a number is used in describing the
age of the animal to be sacrificed, then the term tamim refers to the requirement
that the offering be whole in body, without blemish.
3. Another aspect of tamim describes behavior that has no moral flaws, and this is one
of the characteristics ascribed to G-d, as we read: "The Rock!—His deeds are
perfect" (Deut. 32:4), yet it is also an attainable human ideal, as in the depiction:
"Noah was a righteous man; he was blameless" (Gen. 6:9); "Happy are those whose
way is blameless" (Ps. 119:1).
4. Another way the term is used gives it a normative status in the form of a positive
command. The first appearance of the term in this sense appears in G-d's words to
Abraham: "Walk in My ways and be blameless" (Gen. 17:1). Likewise, in this week's
reading, Moses sets a general norm of behavior for the people at large: "You must
be wholehearted with the Lord your G-d." As we said, all four ways of using this
term have in common the idea of completeness, presented in the biblical texts on
two levels: the one, technical and the other, substantive.2 Numerical or physical
completeness may be required on the technical level, while on the spiritual level
absolute adherence to G-d is required. To achieve this closeness to G-d, the believer
is instructed to behave in two ways: one, to observe all the commandments of the
Torah, and the other, to oppose any manifestation in society or religious life that
poses a threat to achieving the Torah's objectives. Perceived as most threatening to
1
For further reading on the concept of tamim, see P. Haliwa, '"Tamim Tiheye `im H' Elohekha," the
significance of this command in Scripture and in biblical exegesis throughout the generations', Beit
Mikra 2 (181), 2005, pp. 109-124.
2
On the nexus between the physical and the spiritual, see Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch's
commentary on Deuteronomy 18:13.
this end is what the Torah calls idolatry (avodah zarah)3 or abhorrent practice
(to`evah).
While Scripture takes an unequivocally negative attitude towards any sort of pagan worship
or idolatry,4 two primary categories can specifically be noted:
1. Mantic—a system of actions by which one can divine the will of the gods and future
events.
2. Magic—a series of devices and actions whose purpose is to influence that which is
about to happen and direct its course.
Notwithstanding the typological distinction made by scholars, the close affinity between
these two varieties of pagan worship and the fact that they both concern the future justify a
single, continuous discussion, also in the eyes of those scholars who accept this distinction.5
Yehezkel Kaufman6 explains that divining and consulting the dead or acts of magic are not
defined in Scripture as "consulting other gods," rather, as an "abhorrent act" in and of itself,
something which Scripture opposes insofar as it is the product of human pride and trusting
one's ability to know the will of G-d (mantic) or to influence either His actions or future
events (magic). Aside from clearly rejecting worship of the pagan gods themselves, the
Torah disapproves of and forbids Israel to resort to the means and techniques by which all
sorts of magicians seek to enlist the gods to serve human purposes. The proscriptions
against engaging in pagan "wisdom" are presented as prohibitions standing on their own
and separate from the prohibition against worshipping pagan gods, which itself is not
necessarily tied to any religious belief.7
That the ancients believed in the supernatural powers of various kinds of magicians and
sorcerers, alongside believing in many gods, is evidenced by several biblical passages. For
example, notice that Pharaoh's attempts to solve his dreams do not include turning to the
gods of Egypt, rather to Egypt's magicians and wise men. Joseph, in contrast, presents the
3
E. Samet, "Ki lo nahash be-Ya`akov: Mahloket ha-Rambam ve-Hakhmei Provence be-Hagdarat Issur
ha-Nihush," Mahanaim 14 (2003), pp. 43-45.
4
P. Arzi, "Keshafim (Witchraft)," Encyclopedia Mikra'it (Biblical Encyclopedia), IV, Jerusalem 1963, pp.
349-350.
5
B. Oppenheimer, Ha-Nevuah ha-Kedumah be-Yisrael, Jerusalem 1973, p. 281.
6
Y. Kaufmann, Toledot ha-Emunah ha-Yisraelit, vol. 1, Jerusalem-Tel Aviv 1964, pp. 295-374.
7
Oppenheimer, loc. cit., p. 281.
approach that sees all future events as stemming from a single G-d. Joseph stresses that he
does not see himself as a magician with the ability to solve dreams by virtue of his own
powers, rather as a messenger of G-d bringing a message to Pharaoh. Saul's consulting a
soothsayer is perceived as a cardinal sin that leads to his death, as we read: "Saul died for
the trespass that he had committed against the Lord in not having fulfilled the command of
the Lord; moreover, he had consulted a ghost to seek advice, and did not seek advice of the
Lord; so He had him slain" (I Chron. 10:13-14). Nebuchadnezzar is described as using
magical techniques in order to arrive at decisions regarding the direction of his military
campaign: he consults idols (teraphim), considers an animal's liver as a means of foretelling
the future, and shakes arrows (Ezek. 21:26). The sailors on the boat Jonah set sail with to
flee from the Lord cry out, each to his god, but at the same time they also cast lots in order
to discover "on whose account this misfortune has come upon us" (Jonah 1:8).
The Israelite faith, which emerged in a cultural milieu deeply imbued with magic and mantic
activity, had to fight uncompromisingly against faith in supernatural powers and many gods.
Faith in a single, monotheistic deity stood in diametrical opposition to any belief in a
multiplicity of gods or demons, and therefore monotheism fought unrelentingly against any
action of foretelling the future, magic, or sorcery derived from pagan views. Evidence of the
beginning of the struggle against such things can be found in Tractate Nedarim. Rav saw in
the timing of the command to Abraham to walk blamelessly in G-d's ways the beginning of
the ongoing battle against idolatry, especially fortune-telling as one of its manifestations. At
the same time Rav also informs us of the full meaning and scope of the instruction,
notwithstanding the practical difficulty in implementing it. Abraham, who had just begun to
explore the avenues of his faith, did not fully perceive at this stage how much would be
demanded of him in totaly giving himself over to his new faith. In the midrash, Rabbi Judah,
citing Rav, presents the case thus (32a):
When the Holy One, blessed be He, said to our Father Abraham, "Walk
before me and be perfect," he was seized with trembling. "Perhaps," he
said, "there is still aught shameful in me!" But when He added, "And I will
make my covenant between Me and you," his mind was appeased. And He
brought him forth abroad. Now Abraham had said to him, "Sovereign of the
Universe! I have gazed at the constellation which rules my destiny, and seen
that I am not fated to beget children." To which [G-d] replied: "Get away
from your astrological speculations:
influences."
Israel is not subject to planetary
According to Rav, the great man of faith who stood alone in his belief in a single G-d, facing
the pagan world, had not completely freed himself of the beliefs which made up his cultural
milieu, which distinguished between belief in a multiplicity of gods and the independent and
separate belief in pagan "wisdom." Therefore Abraham did not accurately perceive any
religious flaw in consulting astrology while still believing in monotheism, and he, like others,
wittingly (or unwittingly) grasped at that same age-old human instinct.8
The great
innovation Rav attempted to convey to us is that "Israel is not subject to planetary
influences."
The Lord's people do not run their lives by mystical or transcendental forces, and in this
respect their faith is different from that of all other religions. While other peoples can
continue to occupy themselves with astrology and attempts to foretell the future, the
people of Israel are required to occupy themselves with practical performance of
commandments in the present, whose observance guarantees their survival in the future, as
an instance of the saying, "You will be drawn close or will be made distant by that which you
do" (Eduyot 5.7). The Torah's values teach us to secure the future by our actions in the
present, and not to secure the present by means of the future; therefore it tells us, "Lo,
there is no augury in Jacob, no divining in Israel" (Num. 23:23).
The positions of Maimonides and Nahmanides:
Despite the connection between the notion of being "wholehearted" or "blameless" and the
various forms of divining the future that are mentioned in this week's reading, Maimonides
does not include the normative instruction to be tamim in his list of the Torah's 613
commandments:
All the above matters are falsehood and lies with which the original idolaters
deceived the gentile nations in order to lead them after them. It is not
fitting for the Jews who are wise sages to be drawn into such emptiness, nor
to consider that they have any value as [implied by Numbers 23:23]: "Lo,
there is no augury in Jacob, no divining in Israel"…For these reasons, when
the Torah warned against all these empty matters, it advised [Deuteronomy
18:13]: "You must be wholehearted with the Lord your G-d."9
8
On the nature of the landscape into which Abraham was born see Maimonides, Guide for the
Perplexed, Part III, chapter 29; and Ran on Nedarim 32a.
9
Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Avodat Kokhavim, 11.16, and in his epistle to the Jews of
Yemen.
Nahmanides, who did include this in his compilation of commandments of the Torah,10
discusses the absence of this commandment in the list compiled by Maimonides, and
reconciles his omission as follows: "Perhaps the Rabbi thought it was a general behest that
included all the commandments, to follow in the ways of the Torah, just as it is said, 'Happy
are those whose way is blameless,' who follows the Lord's Teaching; and therefore he did
not include it in his reckoning."
According to this approach, there is no doubt about the legal validity of this commandment;
quite the contrary, Maimonides sees it as an instruction providing sweeping procedural
guidance affecting the way all the commandments of the Torah are observed.
As for the relevance of this instruction, the protean nature of foretelling the future, changing
its form according to the time and place, makes its influence felt all the more so in every era,
even among those who believe in G-d and mistakenly think that some person has superior
powers to reveal the hidden future. In his struggle against fortune-telling, Isaiah says to the
people: "Oh, cease to glorify man" (2:22), and Jeremiah praises them who trust in the Lord
as opposed to trusting in man: "Thus said the Lord: Cursed is he who trusts in man…Blessed
is he who trusts in the Lord" (17:5-7). Society can only become refined and pure by fortunetelling disappearing in time to come: "For there shall no longer be any false vision of
soothing divination in the House of Israel" (Ezek. 12:24).
Translated by Rachel Rowen
10
Hasagot ha-Ramban le-Sefer ha-Mitzvot shel ha-Rambam, Levine-Epstein edition, shikhekhat he-
asin (positive commandments omitted), eighth commandment.