פרשת נצבים - וילך תשכ"ב - "הנסתרות לה' א-לוהינו"

The secret things belong unto the LORD our God; but the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

הנסתרת לה' אלהינו THE SECRET THINGS BELONG UNTO THE LORD OUR GOD — And if you say, “But what can we do? Thou threatenest the many (the whole community) with punishment because of the sinful thoughts of one individual, as it is said, (v. 17): “Lest there should be among you a man, [or a woman or a family … whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord …]”, and afterwards it states, (v. 21) “And they will see the plagues of that land”. But surely no man can know the secret thoughts of his fellow! Now, I reply: I do not threaten to punish you because of secret thoughts for these belong to the Lord our God and He will exact punishment from that individual; but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children that we may put away the evil from our midst; and if we do not execute judgment upon them, the whole community will be punished. — There are dots on the words לנו ולבננו to suggest that even for the revealed sins (those committed openly), He did not punish the community until they had crossed the Jordan — from the moment when they took upon themselves the oath on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal and had thus become responsible for one another (Sanhedrin 43b; cf. Sotah 37b).

הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו, I have already explained this on Deut. 26,15 in connection with the curses pronounced at Mount Gerizim and Mount Eyval. It is precisely because sins committed in secret cannot be dealt with by the courts, that the Torah has to go on record that the sinner will still not get away with his sin.

לנו ולבנינו עד עולם, it is up to us to administer the penalties prescribed by the Torah subject to the offender being convicted on the basis of reliable witnesses.

ושם בסתר, there are a total of 12 “curses” corresponding to the 12 tribes, all of the sins mentioned in them being of the type that one commits in private, when one is unobserved and no witnesses are present. I will explain all of them. There are only two of these which are sometimes committed in private and sometimes in public. These are idolatry and striking one’s fellow Jew. This is the reason that the Torah mentions the word בסתר specifically in connection with thee two sins that are listed here. The reason is that for sins committed in public there is no need to utter a curse as people sinning in public are not frightened of the curses either. Not only that, the court has a chance to deal with crimes/sins committed in public. This is the message in 29,28 הנגלות לנו ולבנינו עד עולם, we are forever obligated to deal with publicly committed offenses. Only when crimes are committed in secret do we leave punishment of the sinners to G’d, i.e. הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו, “secretly committed sins are left to G’d to avenge.” (same verse) This includes the whole range of punishments to which the sinner had made himself liable, not only for sins carrying the death penalty.
You will note that the Torah does not write ארור שוכב עם אשת רעהו, as normally when one enters another’s house this does not go unobserved. Sleeping with one’s mother-in-law, however, is different, as both parties usually dwell in the same house. (verse 23). Insulting father or mother (verse 16) is something normally done in one’s parents’ home, where strangers are not present. The same is true of someone moving boundaries in the field; (verse 17) it is done at night away from prying eyes. If the one doing it were to do it in full view of his neighbour, surely he would be challenged. The same applies to misdirecting the blind, (verse 18) or someone sleeping with a beast (verse 21). Naturally, all forbidden sexual unions are naturally performed by consenting adults, each one making sure he or she is unobserved.
Verse 20 speaking of someone sleeping with his father’s wife (former, not his mother) is also something which normally occurs in the male’s home, the place he grew up in, where he is not an intruder. Intercourse with animals clearly occurs in the privacy of the home or the animal’s pen, no one wanting to take a chance at being found out in such depraved behaviour. All other incestuous couplings are presumed to take place at home and with consent of the second party.

the hidden matters … that is, if someone practices idolatry in secret, it is for God our God — meaning, his judgment will be at the hand of God , Who will punish him; but if it be public, then we, and our descendants, are obliged to do what is written in the Torah. (Some have interpreted the verse as follows: “The hidden matters are for God our God, and the revealed matters. It is only for us to act according to the words of the Torah.” But this interpretation contains a non sequitur. What would be the point of mentioning it, in this context?) Having previously said that God “cast them into another land”, Scripture now proceeds to say, “but if you return to God , even though you be outside the Land of Israel, God will restore your exiles.” Rabbi Y e hudah ben David Ḥayyuj, the grammarian, is of the opinion that the first instance of the word “restore” means “grant rest”. The sense of the verse is: “He will provide respite to the captives, and grant them mercy; afterward, he will send them back, and gather them …”.

I have heard it said in the name of Maimonides about this verse that that the words הנסתרות לה’ אלוקינו refer to the fact that mystical dimensions of the Torah, such as the true reason behind the various commandments, are the exclusive domain of the Lord; if man succeeds in revealing even a small portion of such reasons, this does not excuse him from fulfilling the respective commandment in accordance with what the Torah has revealed about it in the text. It is our duty to perform all the commandments as written, even if we are certain that seeing we know the true reason for them this would make performance redundant in our eyes. This is the meaning of והנגלות לנו ולבנינו עד עולם, i.e. “and what has been revealed we are duty bound to fulfill forever more.” While this is a wonderful and profound explanation, it has nothing to do with the text in our paragraph. We must understand the text as related to the previous verse in which the fact that the people have been exiled and apparently abandoned by Hashem has been described.