Or HaChaim on Deuteronomy 31:18/אור החיים על דברים ל״א:י״ח

1 ואנכי הסתר אסתיר פני ביום ההוא, "But I will surely hide My face on that day, etc." The difficulty in this verse is that G'd is portrayed as hiding His face after the Israelites have already confessed their sins, and have acknowledged that their troubles were due to G'd having turned His back on them. If all our verse wanted to do was to provide us with the reason why what happened so far had occurred, there is no need for this. We already know that G'd turned His face away as a result of the Israelites flirting with local deities! Moreover, why did Moses repeat the mention of G'd hiding His face, i.e. הסתר אסתיר? Another thing which is puzzling is why Moses used such a long-winded expression as על כל הרעה, followed by כי פנה אל אלוהים אחרים.

2The fact is that our verse does want to provide a reason for G'd's turning away His face. Someone might say that G'd had not judged the Israelites fairly, G'd forbid, for the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 27,8: "assailing them with unchained fury." Sanhedrin 100 states that "man will be measured by the yardstick he himself applied in measuring others."

3G'd will certainly apply fair yardsticks when judging the Israelites. At first glance it might appear as if turning His face away from the Israelites results in their being punished over and above what they deserve, as the Judge deliberately ignores what happens to them. Perhaps this is what our verse means when writing "is it not (only) because my G'd is not in my midst that all these troubles have found me?"

4To ward off such an interpretation of the previous verse, the Torah writes: ואנכי הסתר אסתיר פנים, "and I am surely going to turn away My face;" I am legally entitled to turn away My face from them. This is why G'd had to repeat the word. ביום ההוא, "on that day." On the day they stray after alien gods. The reason the Torah wrote על כל הרעה אשר עשה, is "on account of all the evil it (Israel) has done." This is best understood in light of Chulin 5 that "anyone who admits that idols are independent powers has in fact denied the entire Torah." G'd explains that as soon as the people turned to idols they had in effect turned away from the whole of the Torah, i.e. from G'd. As a result, even if as a result of G'd's turning His face away from them the Israelites would be afflicted with all the curses of the world this would be no different than measuring them with the yardstick by which they themselves had measured others..

5Remember that just as the blessings and rewards G'd has promised are meant for the performance of a string of commandments, etc., so curses and punishments are administered in respect of a string of violations of G'd's commandments. As a result, if someone either transgressed all the commandments bar idolatry, or only committed idolatry, he is deserving of all the punishments as commission of idolatry is considered as equal to committing all other violations. No wonder then that G'd hid His face from His people.