[Avodah] Holy Smokes

[Akiva Miller via Avodah]

R' Ben Bradley wrote:

> The odd thing about v'nishmartem me'od l'nafshoseichem is
> that it's a 'blank pasuk'. Ie despite sounding like a tzivui
> which we'd need Chazal to define more precisely it is in
> fact not brought anywhere in Chazal at all. Not in halacha
> nor aggadeta. Rishonim don't say much if anything about it
> either as far as I recall.

This surprised me so much that I looked it up. Here's what I found:

These words are from Devarim 4:15. The only comment of the Torah
Temimah is: "This is brought and explained above, in the pasuk Ushmor
Nafsh'cha (#9)."

So I look at Devarim 4:9, and the Torah Temimah quotes a lengthy story
from Brachos 32b, which references both pesukim (4:9 and 4:15). The
comments of the Torah Temimah that I found particularly relevant to
RBB's comment are found in the second and third paragraphs in Torah
Temimah #16, and I will quote them here:

> The Maharsha writes here, "This pasuk is about forgetting
> the Torah, and these pesukim have nothing at all to do with
> a person protecting his own nefesh from danger." According
> to him, the tzadik of that story said what he said to the
> government official merely to get out of the situation,
> because the pasuk is really not about Shmiras Haguf. Further,
> the fact that it is a common saying, for people to quote the
> pasuk V'nishmartem Me'od L'nafshoseichem for any physical
> danger - according to the Maharsha that's a mistake.
>
> But isn't it the explicit opinion of the Rambam, who wrote
> in Rotzeach 11:4, "It is a Mitzvas Aseh to remove any
> michshol which could be a Sakanas Nefashos, and to be very
> very careful about it, as it is said, 'Hishamer L'cha,
> Ushmor Nafsh'cha Me'od.'" So it is explicit that the language
> of these pesukim *is* about protecting one's body.

At first glance, this seems to go against what RBB wrote. BUT: Even
according to the Rambam as cited by the Torah Temimah, it seems to me
that the most one can say is that Ushmor Nafsh'cha (Devarim 4:9) talks
about physical danger; we don't necessarily know that about
V'nishmartem (Devarim 4:15), and it is not clear to me why the Torah
Temimah closes that paragraph referring to "THESE pesukim" (hapesukim
ha-ayleh).

Akiva Miller