The question of observing the Torah was never in Yahwism a purely and strictly formal question, at least if we are speaking of the sacred books that describe the way of the Torah. The Book of Deuteronomy is no exception...
The question of observing the Torah was never in Yahwism a purely and strictly formal question, at least if we are speaking of the sacred books that describe the way of the Torah. The Book of Deuteronomy is no exception: for all its religious intensity and tension, it still does not remain at the level of purely religious formalism. In any case, the focus of attention is first of all the inner state of the person, although the prescriptions connected with it may seem completely unsystematic.
Take, for example, the prohibition against remarrying the woman from whom one was previously divorced. What does it have to do, for example, with the command not to enter a debtor's house when demanding repayment of a debt? Or with paying a hired worker on time? Or with the rule prescribing that one should not gather the whole harvest down to the last berry or the last ear of grain, so as to leave something for the poor who pass by? In fact there is a connection here, but it must be sought not at the level of legal formulations, but at the level of the spiritual state from which the behavior described by these norms flows. To leave something for the poor requires generosity. The same generosity is needed in order not to break into the house of someone who owes you something, and in order to pay on time those whom you have hired - especially when there is some opportunity to delay payment. For such generosity to become the norm of life, however, something more is needed.
What is needed is that inner, spiritual wholeness in which a person is aware of his real self and accordingly of his real life as well. The very life that, according to the Savior's words, does not depend on the abundance of one's possessions. This wholeness allows a person to make decisions and commit actions that he does not later regret, even if they turn out to be mistaken. Of course, one can and must repent of a committed sin, but repentance is not regret over the committed sin; it is work connected with overcoming its consequences, inner and outer. This is where the prohibition against remarrying the one from whom one was formerly divorced becomes understandable: when leaving, leave; when parting, part. Otherwise there is life in the past, phantom pains and phantom joys. Everything that is as far as possible from the Kingdom.
24 Of Divorce, Deu 24:1-4.
New - married men discharged from the war, Deu 24:5.
Of pledges, Deu 24:6, Deu 24:10-13.
Of man - stealers, Deu 24:7.
Of the leprosy, Deu 24:8-9.
Of daily wages, Deu 24:14-15.
None to be punished for another's sin, Deu 24:16.
Of justice and mercy to the widow, fatherless and stranger, Deu 24:17-22.
24:1 Some uncleanness - Some hateful thing, some distemper of body or quality of mind not observed before marriage: or some light carriage, as this phrase commonly signifies, but not amounting to adultery. Let him write - This is not a command as some of the Jews understood it, nor an allowance and approbation, but merely a permission of that practice for prevention of greater mischiefs, and this only until the time of reformation, till the coming of the Messiah when things were to return to their first institution and purest condition.
24:4 May not - This is the punishment of his levity and injustice in putting her away without sufficient cause, which by this offer he now acknowledgeth. Defiled - Not absolutely, as if her second marriage were a sin, but with respect to her first husband, to whom she is as a defiled or unclean woman, that is, forbidden things; forbidden are accounted and called unclean, Jdg 13:7, because they may no more be touched or used than an unclean thing. Thou shalt not cause the land to sin - Thou shalt not suffer such lightness to be practised, lest the people be polluted, and the land defiled and accursed by that means.
24:5 Business - Any publick office or employment, which may cause an absence from or neglect of his wife. One year - That their affections may be firmly settled, so as there may be no occasions for the divorces last mentioned.
24:6 Mill - stone - Used in their hand - mills. Under this, he understands all other things necessary to get a livelihood, the taking away whereof is against the laws both of charity and prudence, seeing by those things alone he can be enabled both to subsist and to pay his debts. Life - His livelihood, the necessary support of his life.
24:10 Thou shalt not go in - To prevent both the poor man's reproach by having his wants exposed, and the creditor's greediness which might be occasioned by the sight of something which he desired, and the debtor could not spare.
24:11 The pledge - He shall chuse what pledge he pleases, provided it be sufficient for the purpose.
24:12 Thou shalt not sleep - But restore it before night, which intimates that he should take no such thing for pledge, without which a man cannot sleep.
24:13 Bless thee - Bring down the blessing of God upon thee by his prayers: for though his prayers, if he be not a good man, shall not avail for his own behalf, yet they shall avail for thy benefit. It shall be right - Esteemed and accepted by God as a work of righteousness, or mercy.
24:15 At this day - At the time appointed, weekly or daily.
24:16 Not put to death - If the one be free from the guilt of the others sin, except in those cases where the sovereign Lord of life and death, before whom none is innocent, hath commanded it, as Deu 13:1-18 Jos 7:24. For though God do visit the father's sinsupon the children, Exo 20:5, yet he will not suffer men to do so.
24:17 Raiment - Not such as she hath daily and necessary use of, as being poor. But this concerns not rich persons, nor superfluous raiment.