(2) You must destroy all the sites at which the nations you are to dispossess worshiped their gods, whether on lofty mountains and on hills or under any luxuriant tree. (3) Tear down their altars, smash their pillars, put their sacred posts to the fire, and cut down the images of their gods, obliterating their name from that site. (4) Do not worship your God יהוה in like manner, (5) but look only to the site that your God יהוה will choose amidst all your tribes as God’s habitation, to establish the divine name there. There you are to go, (6) and there you are to bring your burnt offerings and other sacrifices, your tithes and contributions,*your … contributions Lit. “the contribution(s) of your hands.” your votive and freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks. (7) Together with your households,*Together with your households Moses couches both the celebration and allocation of harvests in terms of Israelite society’s basic social and economic unit. The phrasing of vv. 12, 18 conspicuously omits mention of the householder’s (primary) wife. This means that she is authorized to carry out such activity in case her husband is unavailable. The wording also tacitly includes the case of a woman (typically a widow) whose household is not headed by a man. Cf. 5.14 and note at 5.6; see further the Dictionary under “house.” you shall feast there before your God יהוה, happy in all the undertakings in which your God יהוה has blessed you. (8) You shall not act at all as we now act here, each of us as we please, (9) because you have not yet come to the allotted haven that your God יהוה is giving you.
(10) When you cross the Jordan and settle in the land that your God יהוה is allotting to you, and [God] grants you safety from all your enemies around you and you live in security, (11) then you must bring everything that I command you to the site where your God יהוה will choose to establish the divine name: your burnt offerings and other sacrifices, your tithes and contributions,*your … contributions See note at v. 6. and all the choice votive offerings that you vow to יהוה. (12) And you*you See note at v. 7. shall rejoice before your God יהוה with your sons and daughters and with your male and female slaves, along with the [family of the] Levite in your settlements, for he has no territorial allotment among you. (13) Take care not to sacrifice your burnt offerings in any place you like, (14) but only in the place that יהוה will choose in one of your tribal territories. There you*you See note at v. 7. shall sacrifice your burnt offerings and there you shall observe all that I enjoin upon you. (15) But whenever you desire, you may slaughter and eat meat in any of your settlements, according to the blessing that your God יהוה has granted you. The impure and the pure alike may partake of it, as of the gazelle and the deer.*gazelle … deer I.e., animals that may be eaten (cf. 14.5; Lev. 11.1ff.), but not specified (Lev. 1.1ff.). (16) But you must not partake of the blood; you shall pour it out on the ground like water. (17) You may not partake in your settlements of the tithes of your new grain or wine or oil, or of the firstlings of your herds and flocks, or of any of the votive offerings that you vow, or of your freewill offerings, or of your contributions.*your contributions See note at v. 6. (18) These you must consume before your God יהוה in the place that your God יהוה will choose—you*you See note at v. 7. and your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, and the [family of the] Levite in your settlements—happy before your God יהוה in all your undertakings.
באחד שבטיך [BUT IN THE PLACE WHICH GOD SHALL CHOOSE] IN ONE OF YOURTRIBES — namely in the allotment of Benjamin (in whose territory the Temple stood). But above (v. 5) it states, “the place which God… shall choose from all your tribes”? How can this be reconciled with that? In the following manner: when David bought the threshing-floor from Araunah the Jebusite (II Samuel 24:24) to build the Temple thereon, he collected money from all the tribes; however, the threshing-floor itself was situated in the territory of Benjamin (Sifrei Devarim 62:3).
One verse says, “In one of your tribes” (Deuteronomy 12:13). Another verse says, “In all of your tribes.” (Deuteronomy 12:14). “In one of your tribes” refers to Judah and Benjamin. “In all of your tribes” refers (to Jerusalem), which belongs to all of Israel. And what was in the territory of Judah? The Temple Mount, the Chambers of Stone, and the outer courts. And what was in the territory of Benjamin? The Temple itself, the Hallway, and the Holy of Holies, and a triangular extension that went around [the space where the altar was built]. Benjamin merited to host God’s Might, as it says, (Deuteronomy 33:12), “And God rests upon his shoulders.”
3) Until here (Vayikra 17:5) Scripture speaks of consecrations which were dedicated at the time that bamot (temporary altars) were interdicted and he offered them outside (instead of within), their punishment being stated (to be karet). Where is the exhortation against this? In (Devarim 12:13) "Take heed unto yourselves lest you offer up your burnt-offerings in every place that you see. (Devarim 12:14) "but in the place, etc."
בכל מקום אשר תראה IN EVERY PLACE THAT “THOU” SEEST — i.e., that enters thy mind, but thou mayest offer anywhere by the command of a prophet, as, for instance, Elijah did on Mount Carmel (where he gathered the Israelites to offer sacrifices there to God instead of to Baal)(1 Kings 18:21 ff.) (Sifrei Devarim 70:3).
השמר לך פן תעלה עולותיך בכל מקום, “Take heed not to offer your burnt offerings at any place;” the reason why the Torah is so insistent that offerings not be brought other than at a central location, is that seeing the Israelites are supposed to make at least three pilgrimages a year to the Temple in Jerusalem, if they were legally able to offer the sacrifices that they need to offer also on private altars, many would use that as an excuse not to make the pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Once they would get into the habit to offer sacrifices to Hashem on private altars, it would be a small step to also offer some sacrifices, such as calves, to other “deities.” [As we saw once Jerobam erected these calves by blocking the highways to Jerusalem to pilgrims. (Compare Kings I chapter 12) Ed.]
As it is written: “And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years: Seven years he reigned in Hebron, and thirty-three years he reigned in Jerusalem” (I Kings 2:11). In the first year that David reigned in Jerusalem he brought the Ark there from Kiriath Jearim. The Ark was therefore in Kiriath Jearim for twenty years. When the thirty-three years of David’s reign in Jerusalem are added to these, there are a total of fifty-three years from the destruction of Shiloh. During all of these years, and at the beginning of Solomon’s reign, the Tabernacle was in Nov and Gibeon (see I Kings 3:4). And with regard to the construction of the Temple in the time of Solomon, it is written: “And he began to build it in the second day of the second month, in the fourth year of his reign” (II Chronicles 3:2), which was the 480th year following the Exodus (see I Kings 6:1). When the forty years in the wilderness, the fourteen years that the Tabernacle stood in Gilgal, and the fifty-seven years that the Tabernacle stood in Nov and Gibeon, which totals 111 years, are subtracted from the 480, there remain for Shiloh 370 less one years in which the Tabernacle stood there. § The mishna teaches that when Shiloh was destroyed and they arrived at Nov and Gibeon, private altars were permitted and offerings of lesser sanctity could be eaten in any city in Eretz Yisrael. The Gemara asks: From where are these matters derived? they are derived as the Sages taught: The Jewish people were told that when they enter Eretz Yisrael they would be permitted to sacrifice on private altars, “for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance” (Deuteronomy 12:9), during which time those altars would be prohibited. The Gemara interprets the verse: “To the rest”; this is a reference to Shiloh. “The inheritance”; this is a reference to Jerusalem. One may ask: Why does the verse divide them into two terms, i.e., “rest” and “inheritance”? It is in order to give permission to sacrifice on private altars during the period between this one and that one. Therefore, it was permitted to sacrifice on private altars during the period of Nov and Gibeon.
In his famous book Guide for the Perplexed, Moses Maimonides argues that sacrifices were an early form of worship given to the Jewish people so that they could learn how to serve God without feeling different from all other peoples surrounding them. Slowly, Maimonides says, the people learned that “the sacrificial service is not the primary objective of the commandments but that prayer is a better means of obtaining nearness to God.” Agreeing with the early Rabbis, Maimonides emphasizes that the superiority of prayer is that “it can be offered everywhere and by every person.” (A Torah Commentary for Our Times, UAHC Press, 1990, p. 100)
On one occasion when [Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai and his disciple Rabbi Yehoshua] were leaving Jerusalem, the latter gazed upon the destroyed Temple and cried out, “Woe to us! The place where Israel obtained atonement for sins is in ruins!” Rabbi Yochanan said to him, “My son, be not distressed. We still have an atonement equally efficacious, and that is the practice of benevolence.” (Avot d’Rabbi Natan 4)