ספורנו — כי תאמר בלבבך / לא תירא מהם / זכר תזכר

Q — Rashi reads "כי תאמר בלבבך רבים הגוים האלה ממני..." as "shema" — "lest you say": the Torah is *forbidding* Israel from voicing this thought, and "לא תירא מהם" is the corrective. But the wording isn't a clean prohibition. Is there a reading where "כי תאמר" is descriptive — the thought is allowed, even appropriate, just differently framed?

A — Sforno reads it precisely that way. "Rabim ha-goyim ha-eleh mimeni — eichah uchal lehorisham" is a natural, even truthful, reaction. The Torah doesn't forbid the saying; it specifies the *posture* in which the saying must occur. "Lo tira mehem" doesn't cancel "ki tomar" — it qualifies its emotional content. The chiddush reframes the verse: "כשתאמר איכה אוכל להורישם בהיותם רבים ממני, לא תאמר זה על צד שתירא מהם אלא על צד שתכיר שזה היה נמנע לולא ה' שהיה לך." Say it humbly: this *would* be impossible without Hashem — and then cite the precedent: "זכר תזכר את אשר עשה ה' לפרעה" — they too "היו רבים וחזקים ממך ונתנם בידך והאבדת את שמם." Recognizing the natural impossibility is the necessary first step toward trusting the supernatural intervention. Suppressing the recognition is not bitachon; it's denial.