1st Portion Re'eh Part 1 (Deu 11:26-30)

26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse [those (to be) pronounced in Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal]— 27 the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; 28 the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known [whence it is derived that serving idolatry is tantamount to denying the entire Torah (“the way”)]. 29 When the Lord your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses [The blessers face Mount Gerizim and recite: “Blessed is anyone who does not make an idol,” and then they turn to Mount Ebal and recite the corresponding curse, viz. (27:15): “Cursed is anyone who makes an idol,” etc.]. 30 As you know, these mountains are across the Jordan, westward, toward the setting sun, near the great trees of Moreh [Shechem], in the territory of those Canaanites living in the Arabah in the vicinity of Gilgal.

Rashi’s Commentary

11:26 A blessing and a curse—Those which are later to be recited on Mount Gerizim and on Mount Ebal respectively (cf. v. 29).

11:27 The blessing—With the condition that you should obey.

11:28 If you . . . depart from the way that I command you today by following other gods—You thus learn that he who serves idols departs from the entire path of life that Israel has been commanded. From this passage they (the Rabbis) taught the well-known dictum that he who acknowledges the divinity of an idol is as though he denied the Torah in its entirety (Sifrei Devarim 54:4).

11:29 You are to proclaim . . . the blessings—Understand this as the Targum renders it: יָת מְבָרְכַיָא those who pronounce the blessing.

11:30 As you know, these mountains are across the Jordan—He gave geographical indications regarding them (the mountains).

Westward—This means: behind the passage of the Jordan much further on in a distance, for that is the force of the expression אַחֲרֵי, because wherever the term אַחֲרֵי is used it signifies “greatly separated” (Genesis Rabbah 44:5; cf. Sifrei Devarim 56:1; Sotah 33b).

Across the Jordan, westward, toward the setting sun—i.e. beyond the Jordan towards the west. The accents in the verse prove that they (the words אַחֲרֵי and דֶּרֶךְ) are two unconnected phrases since they bear two separate accents of a different character, viz., the word אַחֲרֵי is marked by a pashta (a disjunctive accent), and the word דֶּרֶךְ is marked by a mashpel (our yetib), and also has a dagesh. If, however, אַחֲרֵי דֶרֶךְ formed one phrase, the word אַחֲרֵי should be marked by a conjunctive accent, a shofar hafuch (our mahpach) and דֶּרֶךְ by a pashta, while the ד of דֶּרֶךְ would be “weak” (i.e. have no dagesh; cf. Rashi on Jos 7:15).

In the vicinity of means, distant from Gilgal (not near Gilgal).