Moshe warns Benei Yisrael in Parashat Re’ei (12:29-30):

When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you are going there to dispossess, and you dispossess them and reside in their land, take heed lest you be drawn after them after they are destroyed before you, and lest you appeal to their gods, saying, “Just as these nations served their gods – I will do the same.”

The obvious question arises as to why Moshe feared that Benei Yisrael might be “drawn after” pagan gods specifically after the annihilation of these gods’ followers.  Moshe in fact emphasizes in these verses that Benei Yisrael might be tempted to embrace these doctrines “after they are destroyed before you.”  Wouldn’t the defeat of the Canaanite peoples prove the futility of their religious cults?  Shouldn’t the successful campaign serve as yet another compelling argument in favor of the belief in the one, true God, and proof of the fallacy of paganism?

            The Sifrei, cited by Rashi, indeed explains that Moshe here urges the people to learn the proper lesson from their victory over the Canaanites.  His point is precisely to instruct that they should recognize the underlying cause of their triumph – the contrast between the unlimited power of the Almighty and the futility of pagan worship.

            Others, however, explained differently.  Netziv, in his Ha’amek Davar, claims that Benei Yisraelmight erroneously perceive the Canaanites’ pagan worship as a key ingredient to survival in Eretz Yisrael. Even though the Canaanites were defeated by Benei Yisrael, the fact remains that they lived in the land successfully for a number of centuries.  What concerned Moshe was the possible assumption that prosperous living in the land depends upon pagan rituals, as evidenced by the hundreds of years of Canaanite presence.  He therefore reminded them that pagan worship has no intrinsic value whatsoever and contributes nothing to enabling a people to dwell peacefully and flourish in the land.

            Rav Shimshon Refael Hirsch posited a much different approach, claiming that that Benei Yisrael’s attraction to paganism which Moshe feared stems from pangs of guilt that might surface in the wake of their vanquishing of the Canaanites: “You could imagine yourselves as owing something to the land and to the previous inhabitants driven out and dispossessed on your account.  You could be caught by the erroneous idea that it was up to you to carry on their mode of life in their land.”  Moshe thus impresses upon the people that they do not owe anything to the idolatrous culture of the Canaanites whose land they would possess, and they must therefore resist the instinct to memorialize that culture and lifestyle.

            Finally, Rav Eliyahu Dessler, in his Mikhtav Mei-Eliyahu (vol. 2, p. 113), cited this verse as an example of the potency of negative influences, the powerful effect of exposure to sinful ideas and conduct.  Benei Yisrael’s encounter with pagan nations threatened to draw them to idolatry despite their resounding victory over those peoples, for such is the nature of spiritually hostile influences.

Courtesy of Yeshivat Har Etzion - www.etzion.org.il