Next Year in Yavneh

(29) When your God ה' brings you into the land that you are about to enter and possess, you shall pronounce the blessing at Mount Gerizim and the curse at Mount Ebal.—

(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 ה' in like manner, (5) but look only to the site that your God ה' 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 votive and freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks. (7) Together with your households, you shall feast there before your God ה', happy in all the undertakings in which your God ה' has blessed you. (8) You shall not act at all as we now act here, each of us as we please,

(1) לא תעשון ככל אשר אנחנו עשים וגו׳ YE SHALL NOT DO AFTER ALL [THE THINGS] THAT WE DO [HERE THIS DAY] — This refers back to what is stated above (Deuteronomy 11:31) “for ye shall pass over the Jordan etc.”, the meaning being: when ye have crossed the Jordan, you are at once permitted to offer on Bamahs, during all the fourteen years of subjugating and dividing the land amongst the tribes: but on these Bamahs you must not sacrifice all that you sacrifice “here this day”,

in the Tabernacle that is with you and that has been anointed and is thus fit to offer sin and guilt offerings and vows and free-will offerings on it, whilst

on a Bamah only that may be sacrificed which has been made the subject of a vow or a free-will offering. And that is the meaning of איש כל הישר בעיניו, “every man whatsoever is right in his eyes” — vows and free-will offerings which you dedicate because it is pleasing in your eyes to bring them, and not because of an obligation imposed upon you, such may you offer on Bamahs, but not sacrifices that are to be offered in consequence of an obligation (sin and guilt offerings) (Sifrei Devarim 65:4; Zevachim 117b).

(1) YE SHALL NOT DO AFTER ALL THAT WE DO HERE THIS DAY, EVERY MAN WHATSOEVER IS RIGHT IN HIS OWN EYES. ... the meaning of the verse is as follows: “When the Israelites were in the wilderness they were commanded to slaughter all their cattle and sheep as peace-offerings before the Tabernacle, but they would perform [the Service of the offerings] in whatever place the Tabernacle was [that is, wherever it halted rather than in a fixed location]. And if someone did not care to eat the meat of bullocks or sheep he was not at all obligated to bring an offering. He was also not obligated to bring firstlings, nor the tithe of cattle and the Second Tithe. Thus a person was not bound, ever to bring an offering to the Tabernacle as an obligation, and even on the festivals they were not obligated to come there.50The pilgrimage on the three festivals depends on the place which the Eternal your G-d shall choose to cause His Name to dwell there. Since that condition was not fulfilled in the desert, they were not yet obligated to observe this commandment. For more on this matter see my Hebrew commentary, p. 399. So also in the wilderness, after the sprinkling of the blood and the burning of the sacrificial fat of the peace-offering [on the altar], the owner might eat it wherever he wished because Scripture did not stipulate a location for it, and therefore they could eat [the peace-offerings both] within the camp and without. Thus there was nothing obligatory upon them in the matter of the offerings; instead every man did that which was right in his own eyes.51Judges 21:25. Therefore he commanded here that after [they would come to] the rest and [to] the inheritance they should not do so. Instead, they are obliged to come to a certain specific place chosen by G-d and bring there the offerings, the tithes, and the firstlings, and eat them there within the precinct before the Eternal.

What our Rabbis have said Zebachim 117a. [based on the verse before us] concerning offerings that are not vowed or freely offered [for example, the obligatory Passover-offering], that they may not be offered on a bamah [a private altar set up by an individual, a practice that was permitted during certain periods prior to the erection of the Holy Temple], See Vol. IV, p. 180, Note 138. is an interpretation based on the redundancy of the verse, as explained in the last chapter of Tractate Zebachim,52Zebachim 117a. [but the plain meaning of the verse is as we have explained above].

(11) then you must bring everything that I command you to the site where your God ה' will choose to establish the divine name: your burnt offerings and other sacrifices, your tithes and contributions, and all the choice votive offerings that you vow to ה'. (12) And you shall rejoice before your God ה' 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 ה' will choose in one of your tribal territories. There you shall sacrifice your burnt offerings and there you shall observe all that I enjoin upon you.

The verse uses this phrase because the Tabernacle was moved from place to place, and one would need to ask where it was at any given time. This verse could not have been written after the Temple was built [in Jerusalem]. And the man De Wette didn’t understand anything, since he wrote that it is a proof that Deuteronomy was written after the Temple was built.

Trsnslation from: Koenigsberg ibid

"Notably Shadal assumes that the verse is not a reference only to Jerusalem, but to every place that the Tabernacle stood before the Temple was built. In this sense, Shadal, based on a different logic than my own, may have intuited what I argue.

(4) Until the Tabernacle was established, private altars were permitted and the sacrificial service was performed by the firstborn. And from the time that the Tabernacle was established, private altars were prohibited and the sacrificial service was performed by the priests. Offerings of the most sacred order were then eaten within the curtains surrounding the courtyard of the Tabernacle in the wilderness and offerings of lesser sanctity were eaten throughout the camp of Israel.

(5) When the Jewish people arrived at Gilgal private altars were permitted, offerings of the most sacred order were then eaten within the curtains, and offerings of lesser sanctity were eaten anywhere.

(6) When they arrived at Shiloh, private altars were prohibited. And there was no roof of wood or stone there, i.e., in the Tabernacle in Shiloh; rather there was only a building of stone below and the curtains of the roof of the Tabernacle were spread above it. And the period that the Tabernacle was in Shiloh was characterized in the Torah as “rest” in the verse: “For you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the Lord your God has given you” (Deuteronomy 12:9). Offerings of the most sacred order were then eaten within the curtains in the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting, and offerings of lesser sanctity and second tithe were eaten in any place that overlooks Shiloh.

(7) When Shiloh was destroyed (see I Samuel 4:18), the Jewish people arrived with the Tabernacle at Nov, and later at Gibeon, and private altars were permitted. Offerings of the most sacred order were then eaten within the curtains in the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting, and offerings of lesser sanctity were eaten in all the cities of Eretz Yisrael.

(8) When the Jewish people arrived at Jerusalem and built the Temple during the reign of Solomon, private altars were prohibited, and private altars did not have a subsequent period when they were permitted. And the Temple in Jerusalem was characterized as “inheritance” in the verse: “For you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the Lord your God has given you.” Offerings of the most sacred order were then eaten within the curtains, i.e., in the Temple courtyard, and offerings of lesser sanctity and second tithe were eaten within the walls of the city, whose legal status was that of the Israelite camp in the wilderness.

referenced by Koenigsberg ibid.: "Notably, the rabbis skip over Mount Ebal entirely, following the Priestly conception of a wilderness Tabernacle being established in Shiloh. Perhaps this was due to anti-Samaritan polemic."

Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai said to him: Give me Yavne and its Sages

(10) (Devarim, Ibid.) "Do not lacerate yourselves" (lo tithgodedu): Do not form opposing factions (agudoth, agudoth), but all of you consolidate into one bond, as in (Amos 9:6) "and He founded His bond (agudah) upon the earth."

On acts of kindness. Once, Rabban [our rabbi] Yohanan ben Zakkai, left Jerusalem, and Rabbi Yehoshua followed after him. And he saw the Holy Temple destroyed. [Rabbi Yehoshua said: Woe to us, for this is destroyed –] the place where all of Israel’s sins are forgiven!2I.e., via the bringing of sacrifices. [Rabbi Yohanan] said to him: My son, do not be distressed, for we have a form of atonement just like it. And what is it? Acts of kindness, as it says (Psalms 89:3), “For I desire kindness, not a well-being offering.”