Deuteronomy · Chapter 30

And it shall be, when all these words come upon you — the blessings and the curses that I have set before you — and you take them to heart among all the nations to which Hashem your God has exiled you,

AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS, WHEN ALL THESE THINGS ARE COME UPON THEE. I have already mentioned that this chapter refers to the future, for all its subjects have not happened and have not been created, but they are destined to take place.

והשבות אל לבבך, you will be able to distinguish the truth between apparently contradictory phenomena. When you become the victim of what has been predicted for the sinners, you will realise how far you had strayed from G’d’s Torah, i.e. from G’d Himself. בכל הגויים, while you are still in exile.

והיה כי יבאו עליך כל הדברים, "It will be when all these things will come upon you, etc." Why did the Torah speak about "all these things," instead of merely writing: "when the blessing or curse will come upon you?" ... Perhaps we can understand this better in light of Berachot 54 that "one must recite a benediction when he experiences something he perceives as a blessing as well as when he experiences something which appears to him as evil." The Talmud there on folio 60 goes so far as to say that even when we experience something which we perceive as evil we must accept it joyfully. ... This is what the Torah has in mind when it introduces this verse with the word והיה which always has a joyful connotation. Moses could not have made this point if he had written only: "when the blessing or the curse come upon you." I would then have read the words "the blessing" as referring to the word והיה, which implies something joyful. The words: "or the curse," I would have understood as belonging to what follows, i.e. something that might lead to penitence but not something that the Israelite would acknowledge as being meant for his own good. When having a second look at our verse I have realised how much G'd's fondness for the Jewish people is reflected here. When referring to the blessing the Torah writes: כי יבאו עליך, when the blessing will come upon you," whereas when writing about the curse the Torah writes: והקללה אשר נתתי לפניך, "the curse which I have presented before you." This is another reason why the introduction והיה כי יבאו עליך כל הדברים האלה is necessary. ... Had Moses not used this formulation we would have interpreted the word לפניך as applying both to the blessing and to the curse in equal measure. Only the introductory words enable us to realise that the nature of the curse will be different from the blessing. Do not worry about the fact that the Torah writes הדברים "the things" in the plural, whereas the blessing is mentioned in the singular. There are many examples in the Torah of constructions such as this. הברכה והקללה, "the blessing or the curse, etc." There is no need for the Torah to tell us that G'd will welcome Israelites with open arms if they sin and return in penitence before G'd has withdrawn the blessings they have become used to. The message of our verse is that even if the Israelites sinned so much that G'd has brought the curses upon them, He will still assist them in their penitence though it is due only to the afflictions the people have experienced. We have to explain the need for the Torah to mention the blessing at this juncture altogether. It would have sufficed to write the word הקללה, "the curse," as this is the catalyst that sparks repentance. Perhaps the Torah describes some of the thought processes which preceded the penitence of the Israelites. As long as the Israelites had not sinned and had experienced blessings in abundance they had not attributed it to their lifestyle. They had taken such blessings fo...

“And it will be when all these things come upon you, etc.” It is worth contemplating that at first the verse says among all the nations where the Lord your God has cast you [hidichkha], and afterward it says among all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you [hefitzkha]. For there is a distinction between the language of scattered you and the language of cast you, because scattered you refers to exile, while cast you refers to the commandments. For when Israel is in the lands of the nations, they are cast away from the commandments, both because of what is written in the rebuke (Deuteronomy 28:36), And there you shall serve other gods, and because most commandments are dependent on the land [of Israel]. Through this casting away, Israel might come close to falling into error and saying that the Holy One, blessed be He, no longer desires their deeds at all, in the manner that is stated (Isaiah 1:11), What need have I of your many sacrifices, says the Lord. Through this, they might despair completely of redemption, for they will say that the Holy One, blessed be He, cast them away from the commandments with full intention. But this is an error on their part, for the Holy One, blessed be He, did not intend primarily and at first but to scatter them, to disperse them from one another, for the gathering of the wicked is harmful to them (Sanhedrin 71b). However, being cast away from the commandments follows incidentally from the scattering, and the Blessed Name did not primarily and initially intend to cast them away from the commandments. And this is the intention in this portion, And it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall bring them back to your heart. That you will ponder in your heart, and what is this thing that the Lord your God has driven you there. For you might think that the Lord your God has deliberately and primarily driven you away from the commandments because He desires neither you nor your observance of His commandments anymore. And through this, you will despair of repentance, as you will say, “If God desired us, such things would not befall us from His blessed hand.” Regarding this, He says that you are thinking erroneously about God, and it is not so. Rather, He greatly desires your commandments forever. And by this, the matter will be tested, as it is written: And you shall return to the Lord, etc. For as soon as you resolve in your heart to return in complete repentance to God — even though you have not yet performed the appropriate deed in practice, as it doesn’t yet say here and you shall do all His commandments as it says later — with this, He points with a finger, saying: “See how you are mistaken in your thinking. Not only does He greatly desire your commandments, but even as soon as you return to the Lord and listen to His voice according to all that I command you today with all your heart and all your soul.” The essence of listening to God’s voice is with all your heart alone, that God sees in you signs of purity that your heart is sincere toward God, though the hindrance is that you cannot actually perform all His commandments. And nevertheless, immediately, the Lord your God will return your captivity and have compassion on you, and will return and gather you, etc. The two mentions of “v’shav” [and he will return] that appear one after the other — the first one speaks of the forgiveness of previous sin called “shvutcha” [your captivity/rebellion], like the wayward daughter (Jeremiah 31:21), and like he went on rebelliously in the way of his heart (Isaiah 57:17), and like Return, backsliding Israel (Jeremiah 3:12), and many others like these. Regarding this it says, And the Lord your God will return your captivity and have compassion on you, because even your captivity/rebellion that is attributed to you, meaning the sin, will be transformed into merit, as our Sages said (Yoma 86b) that through repentance, intentional sins become like merits. This is what is meant by and have compassion on you, which is an expression of love. That is to say, the Holy One, blessed be He, will love your captivity/rebellion because the intentional sins will be, in His blessed eyes, like merits, and He will love them greatly. And the second speaks of the return of Israel from exile, this is what is meant by and [God] will return and gather you from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you there. Not as you thought that the Lord your God has driven you away with the primary and initial intention to drive you away from observing the commandments, but rather primarily and initially the Lord intended to scatter you; however, being driven away from the commandments was an incidental consequence of the scattering. Nevertheless, if your outcasts are at the ends of heaven, because truly you are driven away from the commandments, but this should not be attributed to Him, blessed be He, but rather to yourself, and it is called your outcasts, because you did this and caused this expulsion for yourself both internally and externally. And even though you caused yourself to be driven far away from the place of fulfilling commandments, nevertheless from there the Lord will gather you, and from there He will take you. From there He will gather you refers to the ingathering of exiles, and from there He will take you to Himself to assist you in observing the commandments. And He will bring you to the land, etc., and He will do good to you and make you numerous than your fathers [me’avotecha]. The interpretation of me’avotecha does not mean more than your fathers, for right afterward it says as He rejoiced over your fathers, suggesting not more than them but equal to them. Rather, me’avotecha [read here as, from your fathers] is to tell you that since you have prepared your heart toward the Lord, but your thoughts have not yet been actualized because you have not yet fulfilled the commandments, therefore your own merit is not sufficient to do good to you and multiply you, but rather the merit of your fathers is what has stood for you to benefit you and multiply you. This is what is meant by me’avotecha, that this benefit flows to you from your fathers. Nevertheless, since your heart is complete with the Lord and you have resolved in your heart to perform all the commandments of the Lord in practice when the opportunity for a commandment comes to you, correspondingly the Lord will complete it for you. “And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord.” This means He will place in your heart to serve Him out of love, not fear, because one who serves out of love serves God with joy. However, as long as the Holy One, blessed be He, does not take revenge on your enemies, you constantly fear your enemies, lest they return to fight against you, and therefore your heart is not free to serve God with joy. Therefore, the Lord your God will inflict all these curses upon your enemies and upon the foes who persecuted you, and from then on you will be confident that they will not come against you again, and the righteous will rejoice when he sees vengeance (Psalms 58:11). From that point on, you will be prepared to perform all of God’s commandments with joy, even in practice. This is what is meant by, And you will return and obey the voice of the Lord and do all His commandments. At that time, you will not need the merit of your forefathers. This is what is meant by And you, for the matter depends on you alone. Then the Lord will again rejoice over you as He rejoiced over your forefathers, because you will be equal to your forefathers, as you will have your own merit, and on the mountains you shall not eat, as our Sages of blessed memory interpreted (Sanhedrin 81a) from the verse on the mountains he has not eaten (Ezekiel 18:6), meaning that one does not rely on the merit of his forefathers. Through this explanation, many questions in the course of this section are resolved, as is clear to anyone who understands with a little contemplation.

and you return to the fear of Hashem your God and obey His Word, according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul,

AND THOU SHALT RETURN UNTO THE ETERNAL THY G-D, AND HEARKEN TO HIS VOICE ACCORDING TO ALL THAT I COMMAND THEE THIS DAY, THOU AND THY CHILDREN. The meaning thereof is that you will return with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and you will take it upon yourself and upon your children throughout their generations to do according to all that I command thee this day, just as they did at the second redemption [i.e., the redemption from Babylon], as it is written, and they entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in G-d’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of G-d, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Eternal our G-d, and His ordinances and His statutes. Or it may be that the expression that I command thee this day, thou and thy children is like “command you — to you and to your children,” similar to the expression ‘v’atah tzuveitha’ [meaning lecha tzuveithi — “to you I ordered that the command be given”]. So also, and they dealt ill ‘othanu’ means lanu (“to us”). And in my opinion there is in this matter a great secret; for it alludes to that which the Rabbis said, “The son of David [i.e., the Messiah] will not come until all souls in the guf are exhausted.” I have already spoken of this matter.

ושבת עד ה' אלוקיך, your repentance will have as its exclusive purpose to henceforth carry out only G’d ‘s will to the extent that He has revealed it. Our sages in Yuma 86 have said of this type of repentance that “it reaches right up to the throne of G’d’s Majesty.” ושמעת בקולו ככל אשר אנכי מצוך היום, instead of listening (abiding by) man-made laws as you were in the habit of doing. אתה ובניך, also the children of this generation will recognise this. Jeremiah 31,33 refers to “everyone knowing Me,” i.e. G’d, adding למקטנם ועד גדולם, “from their early youth till their reaching adulthood.” בכל לבבך, without any reservation. ובכל נפשך, without allowing the “natural,” evil urge inspired temptations to sidetrack you by downplaying the importance of some of G’d’s legislation

ושבת עד ה׳ אלוקיך, "And you will return unto the Lord your G'd." The expression ושבת is stronger than והשבת אל ללבך, as I explained. The former does not refer to repentance but to a reinforcing of the faulty life-outlook of the sinning Jew who finds himself in exile. The Torah makes this plain by adding the words עד השם.

ושבת עד ה’ אלוקיך...בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך...ושב ה’ אלוקיך את שבותך, “and you will return unto the Lord your G’d with all your heart and with all your soul. Then the Lord your G’d will bring back your captives, etc.” You have already become familiar with the statement of our sages in Avodah Zarah 5 “that the son of David (redeemer) will not come until all the souls in the bodies have expired;” this is based on Isaiah 57,16: “until a belated spirit from Me envelps them and the souls which I have made.” The meaning of the whole verse is that G’d will not be angry at the Jewish people forever, nor will He remain furious indefinitely by not redeeming the people, seeing that a spirit יעטוף מלפני, “certain spirits emanate from Me belatedly,” and the souls which I have created enter the body at this stage of history. [Rashi understand the word כי in that verse as meaning “when.” Ed.] The word יעטוף is a kind of “being late,” such as when it occurs in Genesis 30,42 “for the ones born late belonged to Lavan.” [If I understand correctly, the author understands that just as the evil spirit enters man at birth, whereas the urge to do good does not enter him until he is of age, (13), so one cause of his corruption is due to the belated entry of the יצר הטוב. This affords G’d an opportunity to find some excuse for man’s (the Jewish people’s) behavior and to redeem them after a sufficient interval. Ed.] Nachmanides, in commenting on our verse, focuses on the reason why the verses 2 and 3 appear sequentially, i.e. the words נפשך ושב follow each other. He understands the first verse as saying that if all the Jewish people (“all your souls,” כל נפשך) become penitents) only then will the redemption occur, i.e. G’d will bring back your captives (ושב ה’ אלוקיך את שבותך). The meaning is that totally new (renewed) souls will enter the bodies of the Jewish people. This is why the Torah here stresses אתה ובניך, i.e. this תשובה movement must embrace not just a single generation. These two words are an allusion to the whole people of Israel (historically speaking). We find yet another pronouncement on this subject by our sages in Yevamot 62, in which this conclusion is arrived at from the same verse in Isaiah, and the Talmud adds that immediately after this statement [actually immediately preceding this statement, Ed.] the prophet continues with the words ואמר סולו סולו פנו דרך, “Pave (a road,) pave a road, clear a path!” The prophet paints the scenario which alone will clear the way to the final redemption. ושב וקבצך מכל העמים, ”then He will bring you back collectively from all the nations to which He scattered you.” I have already mentioned (29,27) that the previous paragraph speaks of the period of the first Temple when the people sinned by committing idolatry and they were punished by being banished to ארץ אחרת, a different country, and the ten tribes were cast out, הנדחים, by King Shalmanesser of Assyria to Chalach, Chavor on the river Gozan and the cities of Media (Kings II 17,6). This passage proves that our assumption was right, seeing it commences where the last passage had left off, i.e. the נדחים, the outcasts of King Shalmanesser, by referring (verse 1) i.e. “to which the Lord your G’d had cast you out there.” Clearly, it speaks of the exile to which the ten tribes had become doomed. They represented the bulk of the Jewish people. Having dealt with the ingathering of the ten tribes from their exile, the passage continues speaking about yet another ingathering, the countries to which the tribes of Yehudah and Binyamin had been exiled where we have been enslaved by people who hated us and persecuted us. These people are the Arabs and Edomites. We are scattered throughout their countries until this present day and this is why the Torah speaks of “the countries to which the Lord your G’d has scattered you” (verse 3). In that verse the Torah addresses us. The Torah twice mentions ושב, “He will bring back,” to hint that there will occur two separate ingatherings, one of the ten tribes and one of the tribes Yehudah and Binyamin. Concerning these ingatherings we read in the prophecy of Isaiah 56,8: “I will gather still more to those already gathered.” It appears therefore, judging by the syntax of the text in our verses, that the principal ingathering of the tribes who will do penitence will be that of the ten tribes, the ones described as אשר הדיחך ה’, “whom the Lord cast out.” G’d assures the ten tribes that repentance will immediately trigger their return to their homeland. After having dealt with the redemption of those tribes, the Torah adds ושב וקבצך, (verse 3) that there will occur a second ingathering, that of the tribes of Yehudah and Binyamin. This is why the Torah had employed the expression והפיץ, “He scattered,” seeing that these two tribes are scattered all over the globe. After that, the Torah once more addresses the נדחים, the ones who had been cast out, i.e. the ten tribes, assuring them that even if they had been scattered in the meantime to the ends of the earth, G’d would not fail to gather them in and bring them back to their homeland which they would once again inherit. Actually, we find allusions to three separate “inheritances” here. The third will outrank the former two inheritances, will encompass more territory than the Israelites controlled during the glorious days of King Solomon. Moreover, G’d promises the people that the evil urge will be banished and that such emotions as envy and jealousy will disappear from among them. This is the meaning of verse 5: ”He will do good to you and make you more numerous than your forefathers and circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring to love the Lord your G’d with all your heart, etc.” The meaning of the words ואתה תשוב, “and you will return,” in verse 8, is that the penitence of which G’d speaks is an assurance, a promise by G’d to the people.

ושבת עד ה' אלוקיך, “and you will return unto Hashem your G’d;” the meaning of the term “return” is that you will henceforth hearken to His commandments in accordance with what Moses commands the people on that day. It also means that you will commit both yourself and the people for whose education you are responsible, i.e. your children as long as they are minors, to walk in the path of Torah. Alternately, the word ובניך, “and your children” in our verse may mean the same as it means when the Torah speaks of לך ולבניך, ”for you and your children,” that when G’d dispenses His blessing this automatically includes your children. (Compare Deut. 12,40; 12,25; 12,28) [As if the Torah had written ולבניך instead of ובניך. Such grammatical anomalies occur sometimes. Ed.]

ושבת עד ה' אלוקיך, “and (then) you will return to the Lord your G–d;” elsewhere (Deut.23,15) it says in indirect speech: ושב ה' אלוקיך את שבותך ורחמך, “and the Lord your G–d will return with your captives and have mercy on you. Why does this have to be repeated? In the Talmud, tractate “Yuma”, folio 86, the Talmud says that repentance is important as it hastens the arrival of the redemption. This is based on Isaiah 59,20: ובא לציון גואל, ”and the Redeemer will come to Zion,” why? The verse continues with ושבי פשע ביעקב, “when the sinners among Yaakov have repented.” Rabbi Yossi bar Yehudah added that when a person transgresses a commandment once he is forgiven. By the time he transgresses a fourth time he is no longer subject to forgiveness. He bases himself on Amos 2,6: “thus said the Lord; for three transgressions of Israel, for four I will not revoke it (evil decree);” this is how the Talmud in tractate Yuma folio 86 understands that verse. I heard a reason for this attributed to Rabi Meir Levi, who stated that access to the Lord is guarded by three different “fences.” The first is overwhelming noise, the second is fire, and the third is a region of strong wind; finally there is a region in which almost inaudible sound is heard; (Compare Kings I 19, 11-12) in each region of these fences there are angels. When a person sins for the first time, the angels in the first region obstruct such a person’s access to commit further sins. This results in his obtaining forgiveness [as without this he would continue to sin having started to do so. Ed.] This process continues in varying degrees if he commits a second or third sin [without having repented in the interval. Ed.] When he sins a fourth time, having already breached the fences separating him from the Presence of G–d three times, he is no longer subject to forgiveness, as we know from Isaiah 65,3-7: “the people who provoke My anger who continually, to My very face, sacrifice in gardens and burn incense on tiles etc. etc. such things make My anger rage, like fire blazing all day long and I will not stand idly by but will repay deliver their sins into their bosom and the sins of their fathers as well.” In other words, G–d is patient until sinning has become a pattern of the sinner’s lifestyle before He reacts irrevocably.

then Hashem your God will restore the captivity of your exile, and He will have mercy upon you, and He will return and gather you from all the nations to which Hashem your God has scattered you.

ושב ה' אלהיך את שבותך THEN THE LORD THY GOD WILL TURN THY CAPTIVITY — To express this idea it ought to have written והשיב את שבותך, “then He will bring back thy captivity”. But our Rabbis learned from this that, if one can say so of God, His Divine presence dwells with Israel in all the misery of their exile, so that when they are redeemed (i.e. when He speaks of their being redeemed), He makes Scripture write “Redemption” of Himself (i.e. He makes it state that He will be redeemed) — that He will return with them (Megillah 29a). Furthermore the following may be said in explaining the strange form ושב ... את, — that the day of the gathering of the exiles is so important and is attended with such difficulty that it is as though He (God) Himself must actually seize hold of each individual’s hands dragging him from his place (so that God Himself returns with the exile), as it is said, (Isaiah 27:12) “And ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel”. We find, however, the same expression in connection with the gathering of the exiles of other nations also, as e.g. (Jeremiah 48:47): ושבתי שבות מואב "And I shall bring back the exiles of Moab".

ושב וקבצך , during the ingathering of the exiles.

ושב ה׳ אלוקיך את שבותך, "and the Lord your G'd will will bring back your captives, etc." This is a reference to some of the sanctity which the Israelites had lost to their captors, i.e. Satan, as a result of their sins. The word ושב refers to the bodily return of the Jews from exile, whereas the words ושב השם refer to the invisible part of the exile of the people, i.e. parts of their holy souls.

ושב ה' את שבותך, “the Lord will return with you from your captivity;” in chapter29,27, G-d had been described as expelling His people from the Holy Land to any other land, now, if the people have repented their wrongdoings, He promises to bring them back and remain with them.

If your exile should be at the ends of the heavens, from there Hashem your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you near.

"At the edge of the heavens" — corresponding to the land of Israel.

Though you may be dispersed unto the ends of the heavens, from thence will the Word of the Lord gather you together by the hand of Elijah the great priest, and from thence will He bring you by the hand of the King Meshiha.

And Hashem your God will bring you into the land that your ancestors possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will do good to you and multiply you more than your ancestors.

אל הארץ אשר ירשו אבותיך וירשתה, “to the land which your forefathers had inherited, and you will inherit it.” Our sages in Seder Olam (chapter 30, an ancient historical text) have explained that the words: “which your forefathers inherited, and you will inherit it,” mean that whereas they inherited it twice, they did not (need to) inherit it a third time. The first time the people inherited the land and sanctified it by their presence was under Joshua. This sanctification remained effective only until their expulsion and the destruction of the Temple. The second sanctification (and inheritance) occurred during the time of Ezra. That sanctification was for all times so that after the present exile there is no need to inherit and sanctify the land once again. This is how my teacher Rabbi Shlomo Aderet, may his light shine, explained this matter to me. It is possible to explain our verse as meaning that whereas the first and second inheritance by the Jewish people extended only to the land of Israel, the third inheritance will include entitlement to any part of the globe. This is what the Torah means in our verse when it writes: “He will do good for you, and increase you more so than for your forefathers.” This is why the expression “inheritance” is used by the Torah in connection with the period of the first two Temples, but not in connection with the future. The expression used in that connection clearly envisages an additional distinction the Jewish people will enjoy then. This is similar to what our sages (Shir Hashirim Rabbah 1,37) expounded on as the reason why whenever we read about the word שירה in the Bible it is feminine, except when the song refers to events in the future, such as in Psalms 96,1 or Isaiah 26,1. It is the nature of a woman to become pregnant and give birth and to experience the same procedure time and again. The redemption of the Jewish people in the future will be a final redemption, something not needing to be repeated. This is why, when the Bible speaks of such times, the song sung then will be a masculine song, i.e. שיר חדש. It is the function of the male to inherit his father’s property absolutely, once and for all, as distinct from when daughters receive such an inheritance, as an emergency and interim measure. (Compare Ezekiel 48,33: שער יששכר אחד, שער זבולון אחד, “the gate of Issachar — one; the gate of Zevulun — one.”) Midrashim link the verse in Ezekiel with Zecharyah 13,8 describing the destruction of two thirds of the inhabitants of Israel. Midrash Tanchuma Shoftim 9 on the words לתת להם ולזרעם אחריהם, “to give to them and to their descendants after them,” breaks up this verse into three sections. The words לתת להם refer to the people leaving Egypt; the word ולזרעם refers to the immigrants in the time of Ezra, the word אחריהם refers to the eternal redemption. In a Midrash in Devarim Rabbah (not found in our editions, see Pesikta Zutrata on Deut.1,8), לתת להם refers to the people leaving Egypt, ולזרעם refers to the immigrants to Babylonia, אחריהם refers to the returnees during the messianic epoch.

And Hashem your God will remove the dullness of your heart and the dullness of the heart of your children, so that you will love Hashem your God with all your heart and with all your soul, for the sake of your life.

AND THE ETERNAL THY G-D WILL CIRCUMCISE THY HEART. It is this which the Rabbis have said, “If someone comes to purify himself, they assist him” [from on High]. The verse assures you that you will return to Him with all your heart and He will help you. This following subject is very apparent from Scripture: Since the time of Creation, man has had the power to do as he pleased, to be righteous or wicked. This [grant of free will] applies likewise to the entire Torah-period, so that people can gain merit upon choosing the good and punishment for preferring evil. But in the days of the Messiah, the choice of their [genuine] good will be natural; the heart will not desire the improper and it will have no craving whatever for it. This is the “circumcision” mentioned here, for lust and desire are the “foreskin” of the heart, and circumcision of the heart means that it will not covet or desire evil. Man will return at that time to what he was before the sin of Adam, when by his nature he did what should properly be done, and there were no conflicting desires in his will, as I have explained in Seder Bereshith. It is this which Scripture states in [the Book of] Jeremiah, Behold, the days come, saith the Eternal, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers etc. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Eternal, I will put my Law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it. This is a reference to the annulment of the evil instinct and to the natural performance by the heart of its proper function. Therefore Jeremiah said further, and I will be their G-d, and they shall be My people; and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying: ‘Know the Eternal;’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them. Now, it is known that the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth and it is necessary to instruct them, but at that time it will not be necessary to instruct them [to avoid evil] for their evil instinct will then be completely abolished. And so it is declared by Ezekiel, A new heart will I also give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will cause you to walk in My statutes. The new heart alludes to man’s nature, and the [new] spirit to the desire and will. It is this which our Rabbis have said: “And the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say: ‘I have no pleasure in them’ — these are the days of the Messiah, as they will offer opportunity neither for merit nor for guilt,” for in the days of the Messiah there will be no [evil] desire in man but he will naturally perform the proper deeds and therefore there will be neither merit nor guilt in them, for merit and guilt are dependent upon desire.

"And Hashem your God will circumcise" — for to Him are ordained all prior deeds. And after He said [that] you will return to heed His voice, He will help you and will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring — unlike the circumcision of the flesh, which you are obligated to perform yourself.

ומל ה' אלוקיך את לבבך ואת לבב זרעך, לאהבה, He will open your eyes so as to remove every erroneous conceptions which have prevented you from recognising the theological truth of all aspects of the Jewish religion. Once these “blinds” have been removed from your eyes you will realise that everything G’d has done was out of His love for you, and had to be done למען חייך, in order to ensure that you will be part of eternal life after your body dies.

ומל ה׳ אלוקיך את לבבך, And the Lord your G'd will circumcise your heart, etc." In view of the Torah already having described the Israelites as having done תשובה why would G'd have to circumcise their hearts? Besides, what does the Torah mean in verse 8 ואתה תשוב ושמעת בקול השם, "and you will return and hearken to the voice of G'd?" This seems to contradict the statement in verse 2? Moreover, the words ואתה תשוב after G'd has circumcised our hearts make no sense at all. What can still be lacking in the process of penitence once G'd has circumcised our hearts? I have already pointed out in my commentary on כי תבא that there are three categories of blessings and punishments concerning three different parts of Torah observance. There is a separate reward and punishment for 1) Torah study, 2) observance of the negative commandments, 3) performing the positive commandments. In accordance with this, the process of repentance must also include all these three areas of Torah observance. The words ושבת עד ה׳ אלוקיך refer to the Jews beginning to study the Torah again. This is why the Torah continues with the words "and you listen to His voice." Seeing that the Torah does not mention anything else in that context it is clear that the subject of ושבת is your return to Torah study. The words ושב ה׳ את שבותך ושב וקבצך, are a promise that the people will be redeemed by the merit of Torah study (Zohar volume three page 72). We also have it on the authority of Jeremiah 9,12 that the disaster struck the Jewish people as a result of their abandoning Torah. This is why when they rectify this error and devote themselves once more to Torah study G'd will gather them in and bring them back to ארץ ישראל. Concerning the failure to keep the negative commandments the Torah says: "and G'd will circumcise your hearts." We are familiar with the concept that the foreskin of the heart is a hyperbole for doing what is forbidden and a love for the forbidden. G'd now says לאהבה את ה׳ אלוקיך "in order to love the Lord your G'd." In response to the Israelites learning to love G'd, He in turn, will take care of all our troubles. He will deliver our enemies into our hands and He will afflict all our enemies with the curses mentioned previously. Concerning the performance of the positive commandments as part of the Israelites' repentance the Torah writes: "you will return….and carry out all the positive commandments, etc." The additional reward accruing to the people as a result is described in verse 9 "G'd will make you abundantly successful in your various endeavours, etc."

ומל ה' אלוקיך את לבבך, “the Lord your G’d will circumcise your heart, etc.” Nachmanides writes on this verse: “this means that the Lord will remove the ‘foreskin’ covering the people’s heart”, a simile for desires of sexual and other varieties which are described as ערלת הלב. We know that someone who is captive to such desires is known as ערל, from Jeremiah 9,25 where the prophet describes the Jewish people as being of uncircumcised heart [although they do not have a foreskin on their sexual organ. Ed.] Just as the removal of the foreskin of that organ helps to restrain excessive sexual urges, so the removal of its equivalent covering of the heart will control the cravings responsible for committing other sins. G’d assures the people in that verse in Jeremiah that a time will come when such obstacles to obedience to G’d’s laws will be removed. [Although what the author wrote here is the gist of what Nachmanides writes, it does not represent an accurate translation of his words. Ed.]

ומל ה' אלוקיך את לבבך, “the Lord your G’d will circumcise your heart, etc.;” we have a principle that if someone takes the first step in the direction of purifying himself he will experience a Divine assist during his continuing efforts in that direction. Moses assures the repentant sinner that Hashem will assist by removing hindrances, metaphorically described as a foreskin that are strewn on the path to one’s rehabilitation. Nachmanides writes that from the wording of the text it would appear that starting with the creation of man, he was free to act as he saw fit; [in the sense of “without interference on the part of the Creator”. Ed.] As long as the Torah that we received at Mount Sinai will be in force, this situation will continue, the reason being that G’d wants to have a reason to reward us for having chosen freely to obey Him, as opposed to the angels who do not possess such a choice. However, in the days after the Messiah will have arrived it will become natural for man to make the right choices, the heart no longer pining away for things that are not appropriate for man. This is what Moses meant when he spoke about a “circumcision” of the heart occurring. The urge for things forbidden is considered as a ערלה, a foreskin. At the time of the Messiah man will recapture the innocence possessed by the first man, Adam, before he had eaten from the tree of knowledge. [By the way, Adam had been created without a foreskin, so that the foreskin with which most of his descendants are born are a reminder of some impediment to purity having becoming a “normal” condition in man. Ed.] Man will revert to being a “parve” being, in the sense that there is no greater tendency to do good than to do evil or vice versa. From that time and on, everything will depend on man’s will. He will only need to will himself to be good in order to succeed. There will be no Satan trying to block his way.

And Hashem your God will place all these curses upon your enemies and upon those who hate you who pursued you.

על אויביך ועל שונאיך, both against those who oppose you openly and attack you, as well as against those who hate you only in their hearts without translating their hatred into hostile action. According to Jeremiah 30,11 G’d will eliminate all those nations.

על אויביך ועל שונאיך, “against your enemies and those who hate you.” The former are the Ishmaelites, Arabs; the latter refer to the descendants of Esau. The prophet Micah (Micah 5,8) speaks of “your hand shall prevail over your foes, and all your enemies shall be cut down.” This is a reference to the two nations to which we are enslaved and amongst which we are scattered. This is why the sages in Baba Batra 73 refer to two geese in a story related by Rabbi Bar bar Chana. The story goes as follows: “I once walked in the desert and we saw these two geese which lost their feathers due to their excessive obesity. I extracted a continuous thin line of honey from them. I said to them: “are we going to have a share in the world to come?” One of them lifted its body, whereas the other lifted its flank.” When Rabbi Bar bar Chana came to Rabbi Eleazar (and told him of his experience) the Rabbi said to him that the meaning is that in the future the Jewish people will have to render an accounting. Thus far the Talmud. [The fact is that the entire story does not appear in our editions of the Talmud. Rabbi Chavell claims he has found it in a similar form in Agadot haTalmud. Ed.] The meaning of the whole story is that the sage (Rabbi Bar bar Chana) saw in his mind, while in an isolated part of the world, i.e. the desert, that these two Empires, that of the Mohammedans and that of the Romans, attained tremendous power in this world. This was symbolized by the obesity of the geese. When the Rabbi asked them: “are we not going to have a share in your prosperity in the future?,” the meaning of the words: “one of them lifted its wings” is a reference to Ishmael This was a symbol that the Ishmaelites will flee to us in the future and take refuge under the wings of the Shechinah. They will give us their beasts to use as sacrifices to the Lord on their behalf. This is the meaning of Isaiah 60,7: “all the flocks of Kedar shall be assembled for you (the Jewish people); the rams of Nevayot shall serve your needs.” This indicates that these Ishmaelites will convert to Judaism. It also is an allusion to the fact that they will wear phylacteries, seeing the phylacteries have been compared to wings (Shabbat 49). Concerning the other goose which raised its rump, this is a reference to Edom, whose protective angel had dislocated Yaakov’s hip joint in the nocturnal encounter described in Genesis 32,26. It is also an allusion to the commandment of circumcision, i.e. that in the time under discussion these people would convert and circumcise themselves. There is no need to add that at that time political and moral sovereignty will be restored to the Jewish people. This is the symbolism portrayed by the fatness of these two geese and the honey which dripped from them. As to the words of Rabbi Eleazar that the Israelites would be called upon to give an accounting at that time, the meaning is that they will have to give an accounting for not having become penitents during all the preceding years, and have tarried so long before living as true Jews. The reason the term אויב is applied to the Roman Empire, whereas the term שונא is applied to the Islamic Empire, is that the former is a term describing fiercer hatred and animosity than the word שונא. אויב is an enemy who is full of hatred in his heart, knows no mercy. A שונא, on the other hand, though he too inflicts hurt and death, tempers it with a degree of mercy. Proof of this found in Isaiah 47,6: ”but you showed them no mercy. Even upon the aged you made your yoke exceedingly heavy.” [actually in that chapter the prophet speaks of the cruelty of the Babylonians, not the Ishmaelites. Ed.] The very etymology of the word אויב, reflects that it refers to unrelenting hatred; it is derived from אבוי, a word which has the same letters as אויב, and means “woe.” The reason that the Torah mentions אויביך before speaking of שונאיך, [when we would have expected the Torah to describe matters in an ascending order, Ed.] is that it wanted to link the שונאיך to the pursuit, i.e. אשר רדפוך, “who have pursued you.” This nation has traditionally uprooted our exiles wherever their rule extended. The reason they are referred to by the term שונא, “someone who hates,” is that G’d Himself describes His relationship with Esau with the words: “I have hated Esau,” (Maleachi 1,3). Midrash Mishley confirms this when explaining the words (Proverbs 30,23) “because of the loathsome woman when she becomes married.” The “loathsome, hateful one,” is understood to be a reference to Esau. The verse from Scripture cited as proof is also the one from Malachi I,3. The final words in that verse in Proverbs, i.e. ושפכה כי תירש גברתה, “and when a slave-woman inherits her mistress” (another phenomenon confounding Solomon who describes such phenomena as intolerable), is a reference to Ishmael, seeing his mother Hagar was the slave-woman of Sarah.) Seeing that the attitude of the Ishmaelites towards the Jews is more hostile than that of the Edomites, the Torah describes them as “your enemies.” This is confirmed by the popular saying: “rather under the Edomites than under the Ishmaelites.” [The idea is that if Jews have a chance which exile to choose they would invariably prefer to live under the yoke of the former. Ed.] G’d, when describing for how long He will hold generations responsible for the deeds of their forefathers, says ועל רבעים לשאוני, “and to the fourth generation concerning those who qualify for the term שונאי, “those who hate Me” (Exodus 20,5). Concerning G’d’s אויביו, “His enemies,” however, we read in Psalms 37,20: ואויבי ה' כיקר כרים כלו בעשן כלו, “and the enemies of the Lord shall be consumed like meadow grass consumed in smoke.” The verse teaches that nothing at all will remain of these “enemies.” This is why they are compared to the fat of the fat sheep which goes up completely in smoke (on the altar). Solomon refers to both of these nations as “two daughters,” mentioning that both are destined for Gehinom, hell. This is what he meant when he wrote in Proverbs 30,15 that “the leech has two daughters, ‘give give’!;” He compared Gehinom, the place where judgment is meted out to the souls of the wicked, to a leech which is a blood-sucker. Concerning these two nations the prophet in Isaiah 66,17 wrote: “those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves to enter the groves;” the former who sanctify themselves are the Edomites whose habit it is to shake their fingers in different directions. The latter are the Ishmaelites whose habit it is to bathe their hands and feet (to cleanse them) but not their hearts, which is their essence. The prophet in that verse continues אחר אחד בתוך, and alludes to the manner in which the Edomites sanctify themselves in the center of the garden. Alternatively, these last three words may be an allusion to the day of their judgment, a day already appointed for that purpose. One of these nations will be judged on a Friday preceding the onset of the Sabbath, whereas the other will be judged immediately after the Sabbath, the Sabbath remaining “in the center;” when the prophet describes one of these people as “consuming swine,” he refers to the Edomites, whereas the ones described in that same verse as eating reptiles and mice, are the Ishmaelites. The verse concludes by saying: “they will perish together.”

But you shall return and obey the Word of Hashem and do all His commandments that I command you this day.

ואתה תשוב, not from the root שוב to return, but from the root ישב, i.e. you will sit at ease, undisturbed. Compare Isaiah 30,15 בשובה ונחת. This period will be ushered in by the arrival of the Messiah after the hostile nations have been eliminated. Moses contrasts what will happen to those nations and what will happen to the Jewish people at that time. G’d will never exile you again. All this has been spelled out by Jeremiah 4,1 when he said:אם תשוב ישראל....אלי תשוב....ולא תנוד, “if you return Israel….return to Me, and you do not waver, …nations shall bless themselves by you, etc.” ועשית את כל מצוותיו אשר אנכי מצוך היום, not adopting any new religious rites or philosophies.

ועשית את כל מצותיו אשר אנכי מצוך היום, “and you will carry out all His commandments which I command to you this day.” After having spoken about Israel’s repentance, and their return to the Holy Land, the Torah now speaks of the commandments being commanded “this day;” we find a similar formulation already in verse 2 of our chapter where the repentance had also been featured. All of this is to focus on the fact that the essence of repentance is to accept the Torah as governing our lives. This is why whenever repentance is mentioned the reference to the commandments of the Torah is appended. The prophet Jeremiah employs a similar style when he writes (Jeremiah 2,17) “is this not what has happened to you for forsaking the Lord your G’d at the time He led you on the way?” “The way” is the path of Torah. This was the path which earlier generations of Jews observed and their lives were successful.

And Hashem your God will make you abundant in all the work of your hands, in the offspring of your womb, in the offspring of your livestock, and in the fruit of your land, for good; for Hashem will return to rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your ancestors.

The sense of "and He will make you abundant" is that [this abundance comes] because He places the curses upon your enemies. "As He rejoiced over your fathers" — who inherited the land; for it is with those exiled from it that He speaks.

'והותירך ה, He will grant you success beyond any success you have ever enjoyed previously. לטובה...הכתובה בספר התורה הזה, as He said when He said: והתהלכתי בתוככם והייתי לכם לאלוקים ואתם תהיו לי לעם, “I shall walk freely in your midst and will be your G’d and you will be My people” (Leviticus 26,12) This promise will be fulfilled when כאשר ה' ישוב לשוש עליך...לטוב כי תשמע, as He had once delighted in your forefathers (the patriarchs). This time the good you will experience at G’d’s hands will not be due to the merit of the patriarchs but will be due to the fact that your repentance is so wholehearted and unreserved. Due to your unreserved repentance your former demerits will be converted into merits, seeing that it was, after all, these demerits and what followed that have become the catalyst of your eventual return to G’d. You will enjoy G’d’s goodwill just as did the patriarchs.

כאשר שש על אבותיך, ”as He used to take delight in your forefathers.” This is a reference to the generation who inherited the Holy Land. G-d is addressing the exiles at this point.

כי ישוב ה' לשוש עליך לטוב כאשר שש על אבותיך, “when Hashem will return and rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your forefathers.” It is possible that this verse alludes to the time when the King will return with His bride (the Jewish people), i.e. an allusion to the time of the redemption. At that time He will provide you with all the benefits accompanying such a return to favor. Should you inquire when exactly all this would happen, the Torah adds: “when you will hearken to the voice of the Lord your G’d to observe, etc.” The Jewish people are always expected to make the first move towards reconciliation with G’d, i.e. observing His commandments. Immediately G’d notices this, He in turn will hasten the rapprochement. Our fortunes depend on our becoming penitents. All this has been expressed in unmistakable language by Malachi 3,7: “שובו אלי ואשובה אליכם, “return to Me and I will return to you.” The letter ה at the end of the word אשובה in that verse is a reference to the final letter in the tetragrammaton, the attribute which created the universe.

When you obey the Word of Hashem your God, to observe His commandments and His statutes that are written in this book of the Torah, when you return before Hashem your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

"Written in this Book of the Torah" — for the essence of all the commandments is there. And though they require explanation by tradition, [the Torah] will not be observed unless the heart is whole; hence [the verse says] "with all your heart," for the commandment of observance is with the heart.

כי תשמע בקול...כי תשוב, “if you will listen to the voice of Hashem.....and return to the Lord;” we learn here that the time for the redemption from exile depends on two factors, a) penitence, b) performance of the positive commandments and avoiding the transgressions listed in the negative commandments. הכתובה, “which has been recorded in writing; we would have expected this word to be in the plural mode as it covers multiple laws. Instead we find a singular feminine mode. This is not something unique; for instance we find something analogous in Exodus 17,12 where Moses’ hands are described as remaining steady, i.e. ויהי ידיו אמונה.

For this commandment that I command you this day — it is not hidden from you, nor is it far away.

לא נפלאת הוא ממך [FOR THIS COMMANDMENT …] IS NOT נפלאת FROM YOU i.e. is not concealed from you, just as it is said, (Deuteronomy 17:8): כי יפלא which is rendered in the Targum by “If there be concealed [from thee]”; and (Lamentations 1:9): ותרד פלאים which means, she went down into concealment, i.e. being covered and bound in the place of concealment.

FOR THIS COMMANDMENT. The meaning thereof is that it refers to the entire Torah. But the correct interpretation is that when he refers to the entire Torah, he says [as above] Every commandment which I command thee this day. Rather [the expression used here] this commandment refers to [the commandment of] repentance aforementioned, for the verses, and thou shalt bethink thyself; and thou shalt return unto the Eternal thy G-d constitute a commandment, wherein he commands us to do so. It is stated in a future tense [rather than in the imperative] to suggest, in the form of a pledge, that it is destined [that Israel will repent]. And the sense thereof is to state that if thy outcasts be in the uttermost parts of heaven and you are under the power of the nations, you can yet return to G-d and do according to all that I command thee this day, for the thing is not hard, nor far off from you, but rather very nigh unto thee to do it at all times and in all places. This is the sense of the expression, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it meaning that they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers by word of their mouth, and return in their heart to G-d and accept the Torah upon themselves this day to perform it throughout the generations, as he mentioned, thou and thy children with all thy heart, as I have explained.

"Wondrous" — [that is,] hidden, or a matter of wonder that you would find burdensome to do.

כי המצוה הזאת, and the reason that I said in verse 1 that the repentance must be wholehearted and among the nations, i.e. while you are still in exile, is so that it can trigger your salvation. For, indeed this commandment, i.e. the one to return to G’d in sincere penitence אשר אנכי מצוך היום, Moses reminds the people that in the list of sacrifices in Leviticus 5,5 et al, where various kinds of sin and guilt offerings are listed as means to expiate for the error committed, the essential refrain is always “והתוודה אשר חטא,” that the guilty person first confesses his mistake, his sin, even the one committed inadvertently. Compare also Numbers 5,6-7) לא נפלאת היא ממך, so that you would need to ask the prophets in order to understand it correctly. ולא רחוקה היא, so that you have to ask the leading Torah scholars of your generation who live a long way from you to explain how to observe this commandment. You can easily observe this commandment even in the Diaspora where you may not have any Torah scholars nearby.

כי המצוה הזאת אשר אנכי מצוך היום, "For this commandment which I command to you today, etc." Why did the Torah have to write the word "today?" Besides once the Torah had told us that the Torah is not hidden from you, is it not clear that it is not very distant? Why did the Torah bother to write לא רחוקה היא? Why did the Torah have to remind us that Torah is not beyond the ocean? Even if it were, it is an accessible location and we could have secured it by means of ships! Perhaps the Torah refers to two factors which contribute to failure of Torah observance by the people. 1) Ignorance of what is written in the Torah. 2) The difficulty in keeping the commandments. Moses told the people that although prior to his going up on Mount Sinai the Torah had indeed been in the heavens it was no longer in heaven but accessible to all. He told the people that it was not in a distant land or across the sea, i.e. that although he personally had not been favoured by G'd to keep these commandments on holy soil, they would be more fortunate. When Moses asked the rhetorical question: "it is not across the ocean so that you would have to ask who would cross the ocean to get the Torah for you," he lamented his own inability to even cross the Jordan to be able to keep the Torah commandments applicable on the other bank. He portrayed the Jordan as an insurmountable obstacle for him, much like crossing an ocean. Nonetheless, the principal meaning of this line is that there are no valid excuses for not observing Torah. It is easily accessible. The reason the Torah added the word "today" is the imminence of the Israelites crossing the Jordan.

כי המצוה הזאת, “for this commandment, etc.” In this instance the word המצוה refers to the entire Torah, just as it did in Deut. 8,1 where the Torah spoke of כל המצוה. לא נפלאת היא, “it is not hidden.” The Torah is not so mysterious and mystical that you cannot fulfill its commandments. This is why Moses added immediately: “it is not in heaven.” Neither is it beyond the ocean. All these comparisons are only variations of the words לא נפלאת. The ocean that Moses speaks about here is the great ocean, which is dark and beyond man’s ability to navigate (Ibn Ezra). Moses does not refer to seas which man is able to navigate [with the existing means of navigation, Ed.] The words compare such an ocean to “heaven,” neither of which is accessible to man.

“For this commandment, etc., is not too difficult for you.” And afterward it does not say “for you” and simply states and it is not far, behold, there is room for me to interpret this section in two ways: either regarding the general commandments of the Torah, or regarding repentance, which was mentioned above. First approach, regarding all the commandments of the Torah. In every commandment, there are two aspects: the first is the action itself, doing the commandment in practice; the second is the intention of the commandment, to understand and comprehend the secrets of the Torah which God has hidden from the nations, as it is written The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him (Psalms 25:14). And it is written He has not dealt thus with any nation; and as for His judgments, they have not known them (Psalms 147:20). For God has hidden the secrets of the Torah from the nations and entrusted them to Israel, therefore it says, it is not too wondrous for you. For if it should cross your mind to say, “How can I perform the commandment without intention, like a donkey carrying books?” To this it responds that this is not the case, rather it is not too wondrous for you. For if the works of God are wondrous to the nations, they are not wondrous to you, as it is written Wondrous are Your works, and my soul knows it well (Psalms 139:14). For the tablets are the work of God and are indeed wondrous to the nations, but my soul knows it well, for You have heard my prayer, Do not hide Your commandments from me (Psalms 119:19), which refers to the secrets of the Torah. And regarding the practical performance, it says and it is not far — not only from you but from all nations it is not far, for God did not command you to bring from afar any commandment. For regarding sacrifices, our Sages said (Vayikra Rabbah 27:6) that the Holy One, Blessed be He, said, “I did not trouble you to bring a sacrifice from species that are not in your possession, but only from cattle and sheep that are in your possession, etc.” And from these, you can infer about all the commandments that the Holy One, Blessed be He, did not command you to bring something from afar for a commandment, but only things that are readily available to you. And he returned and explained in sequence. For what I said, It is not hidden from you, refers to the wisdom given from heaven, for The Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth comes knowledge and understanding (Proverbs 2:6). And lest you say that God gave the practical performance of commandments to earth but not wisdom, which is still in heaven, about this he says It is not in heaven, etc. For both the practice and the contemplation and way of understanding — God has given everything to earth. And what I said, Nor is it far off, about this he says, Nor is it beyond the sea. For I did not command you to bring something from beyond the sea for a commandment, because the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it. In your heart is the place of contemplation and wisdom, and in your mouth is the place of action. For even when you don’t have the opportunity to perform a commandment, you can fulfill it with your mouth, as our Sages said (Menachot 110a): “Whoever engages in the study of the law of the burnt offering is considered as if he had offered a burnt offering, etc.” This applies to all other commandments — that one who studies them is considered as if he had performed them. This is the meaning of in your mouth and in your heart to do it. For you can render the offerings of our lips (Hosea 14:3), and it is as if you had actually performed them. Similarly, even if one intended in his heart to perform a commandment but was prevented and did not do it, the Holy One, blessed be He, considers it as if he had done it (Berakhot 6a). This is the meaning of in your mouth and in your heart to do it. The second way is. That the statement for this commandment refers to repentance, which was mentioned in the previous section. And about this [repentance] it says, it is not too wondrous for you, meaning you have no excuse to say that you did not know that the Holy One, Blessed be He, accepts the repentance of sinners. For you know the concept of repentance better than all the nations, since Israel and repentance preceded the world (Pesachim 54). And therefore, when God created repentance, you were also there. And if the nations need encouragement toward repentance, like the people of Nineveh, behold, you do not need encouragement for it, because the secret of repentance has been revealed to you from the beginning of time, and it is not too wondrous for you. For it is not in heaven, that you should say: ‘Who will go up to heaven for us and fetch it for us?’ This means that God does not ask from us that a sinful and rebellious person should trample His courtyards and ascend to heaven to ask God if He will accept us in repentance, because this secret has already been revealed to you. Or, this relates to what was stated above: and you will return to the Lord your God. If you might say: “If my sins have caused the Divine Presence to depart from the lower realms and ascend on high, then I will return to Him, but He will not return to me, because I caused this distance. So how can I return to the Lord? I would need to ascend to heaven and return to Him, blessed be He. Thus, knowledge is too wondrous for me — where shall I go to find His spirit, blessed be He?”To this it responds: It is not too wondrous for you — even for you the matter of repentance to the Lord is not wondrous, and you do not need to ascend to heaven to reach Him, blessed be He. Rather, when you prepare your heart to return to Him, blessed be He, then He, blessed be He, will return to you, to bring His Divine Presence down to you. And it is not distant. According to what our Sages said (Yoma 86b), “Who is a true penitent? One who has the opportunity to commit the same sin again and refrains from doing it.” Rav Yehudah demonstrated: “With the same woman, in the same place, at the same time.” Therefore, if someone sinned with a woman overseas, you might think that he has no remedy until he crosses the seas to the place where he sinned, through the same gateway he passed through, and this might prevent him from repenting. Regarding this, the verse states that this is not the case, because the matter is very close to you, in your mouth — the confession, and in your heart — the regret, and this is sufficient for you. For your mouth and your heart are the place of the sin, as it was a foolish heart that led you astray, and they are also the place of rectification through repentance, which is likewise “in the same place.” The phrase “with the same woman” was mentioned only as an enhancement of the matter, but the essence of repentance does not depend on this. And there are those who say that he spoke about repentance. From the perspective of God’s exaltedness, repentance is truly wondrous beyond wonder, for any husband who divorces his wife will not take her back after she has been defiled. So how could the exalted and lofty King draw near to Him sinful people who have turned away from Him and strayed after foreign gods? But from you meaning from your angle, it is not wondrous, as it is said He remembers that we are dust (Psalms 103:14). Because from the material angle, there is no righteous person on earth who does good and does not sin (Ecclesiastes 7:20). Therefore, it is proper that He accept your repentance. And perhaps this is why it says it is not in heaven, because it is not found among the spiritual heavenly hosts, but rather in you, a person born of dust. Therefore, from your angle, repentance is an appropriate and acceptable matter, in the way that has been explained.

כי המצוה הזאת אשר אנכי מצוך היום, “for this commandment that I command you on this day, etc.” Nachmanides writes that the proper interpretation of our verse is that Moses here does not refer to the entire Torah, as if he did he should have spoken about כל המצות or a similar expression. Moses refers to the commandment to repent of one’s sins that was the last commandment discussed. The reason why this commandment had not been couched as such, i.e. Moses using the imperative mode שוב instead of ושבת, for instance, is that he wants to assure the people by means of this allusion that repentance in the near or even distant future, will be a natural when it does finally occur, and it cannot be hastened by being draconically commanded. If it were, it would not be the real thing, would only be lip service. The reason that Moses uses exaggerations such asאם יהיה נדחך בקצה השמים, “if you were to find yourselves cast out at the edge of heaven, etc.,” seeing that actually you will find yourselves among other nations that are your unwilling hosts, is that he makes the point that however physically distant you may be from your homeland, and however mentally absurd you would consider the chances of regaining your former stature, repentance is welcome, and will be able to overcome otherwise insurmountable obstacles. This is also why Moses adds the words בפיך ובלבבך לעשותו, If you commence your repentance with your lips, and proceed to internalize it in your heart, you will be able to carry it out absolutely.

It is not in the heavens, that one should say: Who will ascend to the heavens for us and take it for us and make us hear it, that we may do it?

לא בשמים הוא IT IS NOT IN HEAVEN — for were it in heaven it would still be your duty to go up after it and to learn it (Eruvin 55a).

"It is not in the heavens" — this is an explanation of "wondrous."

לא בשמים היא, in order to repent you do not need to turn to a prophet who represents heaven...

לא בשמים היא, “it is not in heaven;” it is possible that the reason Moses makes this point is because prior to bringing the Torah to the people it had indeed resided in heaven, and we have quoted arguments offered by the angels opposing its descent to earth. The word היא which we might have considered as redundant, is a reference to the highest level of חכמה, the emanation wisdom, which does indeed reside in heaven. ולא מעבר לים היא, “neither is it beyond the sea.” This is a reference to the great ocean which surrounds all the land mass, an area where this superior wisdom is located. The reason the Torah (Moses) had to refer to it as ים, is that otherwise it would have to be described as תהום, and the Torah would have had to write לא בתהום היא. This is the way Job referred to it when he quoted the deep as saying: “it is not with me” (referring to wisdom compare Job 28,14). It is stylistically more elevating to refer to the ocean as something elevated than as something conjuring up visions of a deep abyss, as does the word תהום. The reason Moses added the word היא to each of these descriptions of different locations is that each time the word היא appears it represents a diminution of the area meant. In order to include the supreme wisdom we spoke of, the planetary system should also have been included seeing it surrounds the ocean. Seeing that the supreme wisdom surrounds the entire visible universe, Moses when referring to parts of it, made this point plain by limiting each part with the word היא, i.e. “it only.”The word הים used here is a reference to the part of the universe inhabited by man. This is why he added: “it is not too far from you,” implying that there are indeed levels of wisdom which are beyond man to attain [even by means of studying the Torah and observing it. Ed.]. We may surmise that Moses used the word היא four times in order to allude to the four basic celestial fundamentals which are emanated from this supreme wisdom. They are alluded to in the names of the patriarchs Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, and David. The vision of the prophet Ezekiel (chapter 1) in which four חיות, beast-like figures equipped with angels, are featured also correspond to these four fundamentals of celestial wisdom emanated to creatures on earth. They are described elsewhere as ארבע אופנים, “four wheels,” an allegorical description of what supports the מרכבה, the chariot the Shechinah is perceived as riding in. Translated into our terrestrial language, these are the four elements which are the constituent parts of all tangible matter on earth. They ensure the continued existence of the terrestrial universe when they are combined in the correct proportions. A Midrashic approach to our verses, based on Eiruvin 55: The words “it is not in heaven,” mean that Torah is not to be found amongst haughty, arrogant people. The words: “it is not beyond the ocean,” mean that Torah is not to be found among people who constantly journey from place to place to make their livelihood, i.e. hawkers. Samuel said that Torah cannot be found among astrologers or professional astronomers, seeing that the Torah writes: “it is not in heaven.” The Torah may be found only among people preoccupied with the pursuit of matters which are oriented toward heavenly concerns. People challenged Samuel, saying to him that seeing he himself was an astronomer how could he make such a statement? He answered: “in all my days I have never looked at חכמה except when I was relieving myself” [at a time when I was forbidden to engage in the pursuit of Torah. Ed.] (compare Devarim Rabbah 8,6). Thus far the Midrash. Concerning these disciplines, i.e. astrology and astronomy, Isaiah warned the people of Israel, saying to them (Isaiah 55,2) “why do you spend money for what is not bread and your toil for that which does not satisfy?” Isaiah meant that his compatriots were wasting their money in order to acquire “wisdom” which would neither satisfy their bodies nor their souls; he added: “give heed to Me, (G’d) and you shall eat choice food and enjoy the richest viands. Hearken and you shall be revived.” Torah is described in Proverbs 4,2 as לקח טוב, “a good purchase.” It is the true food, satisfying those that “consume it.” When Isaiah said תתענגו בדשן נפשכם, “enjoy with your souls the richest foods,” he refers to the “bread” which truly satisfies the soul of man, spiritual food, the Torah. The simile of דשן, something physical, material, is used by the prophet to illustrate in human language the spiritual essence of what Torah supplies to those who study it. Such metaphors for spiritual matters are also found in Psalms 63,6: “milk and fatness satisfy my soul.” Clearly, David does not mean for the soul to be fed milk. All of the above teaches that Samuel did not engage in the study of astronomy at a time when this would have competed with the study of Torah. Seeing that it is forbidden to engage in the speaking of Torah, or even contemplating thoughts of Torah, while one is in the bathhouse or in the toilet, he could use such time to increase his knowledge in other disciplines. Our sages (Menachot 99) said: “go and study Greek philosophy at a time which is neither day nor night.” What they meant was that preoccupation with any disciplines other than Torah study exposes the student to the danger of being influenced by the theologically unsound element, some of which is always found scattered in those texts. This is the reason these disciplines have been compared to silver, seeing that silver invariably contains some impurities unless it has been refined over and over again. Our Torah is compared to such silver, i.e. כסף צרוף. This is what David meant in Psalms 12,7 when he wrote: “the words of the Lord are pure words, silver purged in an earthen crucible, refined sevenfold.” מי יעלה לנו השמימה , “who would ascend heaven for us?” The acronym of these words is מילה from which we find a hint here that only people who have been circumcised have a chance to attain a true appreciation of the unique nature of Hashem. Only the Jewish people who wear the sign of the covenant on their very bodies have a chance to attain such a spiritual level. We also find that even prophets cannot prophesy while in a standing position unless they had been circumcised. As long as Avraham had not been circumcised he always fell down when G’d spoke to him [other than in a dream when he was prostate anyway. Ed.] Compare Genesis 17,3: “he fell on his face.” This was prior to his circumcision. On the other hand, after he had been circumcised and recovered from the effects, and prayed on behalf of the righteous people in Sodom, the Torah speaks of him as עודנו עומד לפני ה', “still standing in the presence of the Lord.” (Genesis 18,22 compare Tanchuma Lech Lecha 20). Bileam, by contrast, prophesied only when in a prone position as we know from Numbers 24,4. Moses also alluded to the inability of the Jewish people in his time to attain a true appreciation of the holy name of G’d. This is why he said to G’d: “if the people will ask me what is His name (the G’d in whose name you claim to speak), what shall I tell them?” He may have meant that the few Israelites who were circumcised at that time would ask such a question. Seeing that המצוה (the term used in our passage for the entire Torah) which bears the seal of the Holy Covenant requires as a precondition of being fulfilled that the persons doing so have been circumcised, the sages of the Midrash (Shir Hashirim Rabbah 2,18) said concerning בצבאות או באילות השדה, “by the Hosts or by the hinds of the fields,” that the word “Hosts” refers to the Upper Hosts as well as the lower Hosts, those on earth who witnessed the covenant (Song of Songs 2,7). The Hosts referred to are the ones which already bear a distinguishing mark, (circumcision) as opposed to those who will only bear this mark in the future. Our verse indirectly refers to the circumcision of our flesh after having openly referred to the circumcision of our hearts with the words: “and the Lord your G’d will circumcise your heart.” This latter circumcision brings in its wake the neutralization of the evil urge. Once this has occurred all organs of a person are eager to play their respective parts in the fulfillment of the Torah’s commandments, something that reason dictates. Being drawn to the name of the Lord will then be a natural state of affairs. This is all alluded to in the words: “who will ascend to heaven on our behalf?” [At such times when you no longer suffer from the evil urge, there is no need for an intermediary, for someone to ascend to heaven in your behalf; you can do it yourself. Ed.] The prophet Jeremiah refers to this state of affairs when he writes (Jeremiah 31,33) “for all of them know Me, from the least of them to the greatest.”

מי יעלה לנו השמימה, “who will ascend to heaven on our behalf?” the respective first letters in these four words, when read separately and consecutively spell מילה, circumcision. It is a hint that it was the merit of the performance of the commandment of circumcision that enabled Moses to ascend Mount Sinai and receive

Nor is it across the sea, that one should say: Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us and take it for us and make us hear it, that we may do it?

"Beyond the sea" — meaning: it is far away. It is possible that this refers to the Great Sea, into whose expanse no person can enter because of the darkness of its waters.

ולא מעבר לים היא, neither, when you are in exile, overseas, do you need to travel to the leading Torah scholars across the ocean in order to become a true penitent. True, there are commandments which are difficult to master without expert guidance, repentance, however, is not one of them.

ולא מעבר לים היא, “neither is it beyond the ocean;” this refers to the Mediterranean, which man cannot cross (as even if he had a ship) because the surface of the waters are dark (and he would get lost at night). (Ibn Ezra).

For the word is exceedingly near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.

כי קרוב אליך BUT [THE WORD] IS [VERY] NEAR UNTO YOU — the Torah has been given to you in writing and orally.

"In your mouth and in your heart" — for the essence of all the commandments is the heart. Some of them have verbal expression in the mouth to strengthen the heart, and some have a physical act so that one will remember with the mouth.

בפיך ובלבבך לעשותו, to recognise with your heart the nature of your sins and the One against Whom you have sinned so that you will express your confession and remorse to Him with your heart and with your lips.

בפיך ובלבבך לעשותו, “with your mouth and your heart to perform it.” The Torah mentions three things here; the mouth, the heart, and the performance. All the laws of the Torah are included therefore as belonging to one of these three categories. There are commandments which require to be fulfilled by use of the mouth; others can be fulfilled by means of the heart only; still others require “performance,” i.e. the involvement of other organs and parts of our bodies. This is what may have prompted our sages in Avot 1,20 to state that “the world stands on three things, on Torah, on service to the Lord, and on the performance of deeds of loving kindness.” When the sages said: “on the Torah,” they meant on our engaging our mouth in the service of the Lord; when they said: “on service to the Lord,” they meant that our hearts had to be involved in fulfilling the commandments. Commandments which require the participation of our heart rank higher than those which can be discharged by means of only our mouths. This is the reason that when someone who is engaged in studying Torah (using his mouth to serve the Lord) must interrupt his studies when it is time to perform a commandment requiring our heart, i.e. the reading of the first line of the Kriyat Shema. (compare Shabbat 11) According to Rabbi Yehudah haNassi (Berachot 13) it is only the first verse in that paragraph which requires the kind of concentration that one must interrupt regular Torah study in order to perform it properly. Mitzvah-performance which necessitates the mouth is ranked higher than the performance of commandments which involve other parts of our body such as offering sacrifices. (Tanchuma Tzav 14) This is based on Leviticus 7,31 seeing it does not say זאת התורה , עולה וגו' but זאת התורה לעולה, למנחה, וגו', “i.e. that there are viable or even superior alternatives to the offering of sacrificial animals. Ed.] This is the reason the word ובלבבך has been written in the middle of the three categories, to emphasize its centrality, the fact that it is the most important of the three. This is why performance, i.e. with the limbs and organs of the body, has been written only at the end of the verse. Nachmanides, at the end of verse 11 writes as follows: the words בפיך ובלבבך refer to the subject of penitence, repentance, a commandment spelled out in verse 2 of our chapter. When the Torah speaks of this repentance it draws attention to the fact that it is not so difficult to fulfill this commandment. The Torah does not demand all sorts of difficult tasks such as ascending to heaven or crossing the ocean for a person to have fulfilled this commandment. All it takes to become a true penitent is the mouth and the heart. It may be performed anywhere; you do not even have to come to Jerusalem and the Temple to have your repentance accepted by the Lord. It is the easiest thing to do, i.e. כי קרוב אליך הדבר מאד לעשותו, “the matter is right at hand for you to carry out.” All you need is to employ your mouth and your heart.

See — I have set before you this day life and goodness, and death and evil.

את החיים ואת הטוב LIFE AND GOOD — the one is dependent upon the other: if you do good, behold, there is life for you, and if you do evil, behold, there is death for you. Scripture goes on to explain how this is:

SEE, I HAVE SET BEFORE THEE THIS DAY LIFE AND GOOD, AND DEATH AND EVIL. He returns to exhort them yet again, to tell them that there are two courses in their hands and it is in their power to walk in whichever they desire, and there is no power below or above that will withhold them or stop them. And he calls heaven and earth to bear witness against them a second time, after he had said,I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish, for now he said, I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and death which are the blessing and the curse, and that I have counselled you that you should choose life, that hou mayest live, thou and thy seed. Thus he is now like someone who has the witnesses sign at the end of all his words. Vayeilech

"Life" — length of days. "Good" — wealth, bodily health, and honor. "Death and evil" — the opposite.

את החיים, eternal life, not just life on earth. ואת הטוב, the pleasant aspects of life on earth. ואת המות, eternal oblivion. ואת הרע, the unpleasant aspects of life on earth.

ראה נתתי לפניך היום את החיים ואת הטוב, “see here, I have placed before you today life and the good.” This verse shows that man has been given the choice to do either good or evil; for, if he did not have a free will, how could the system of reward and punishment be relevant? The way we have to understand the verse is that if you do good you will reap life, if you do evil your “reward” will be death. An alternative explanation of this verse: the words “life and the good, death and the evil,” are a reference to the Torah itself. Torah can be the elixir of life for the righteous; at the same time it could be the source of death for the wicked. Our verse would be similar in meaning to Ezekiel 20,25: “and I also have given to them statutes which are not good and social laws that they cannot live by.” [the words “to them” in the verse refer to the wicked, Sabbath-profaning Jews]. Being in exile due to their sins, and forbidden by their hosts in exile to keep the Torah, makes the continued violation of the Torah a source of the people’s death for non-observance, or for death by their masters for violating local laws and insisting on observing Torah law instead. The Jewish people’s failure to keep Torah while on their own land, ultimately places them in a no-win situation in the land to which they have been exiled. It is also possible to explain the words: “see I have given you life and the good,” to mean that this passage was written as a follow-up of the previous paragraph which dealt with the promise of redemption. Seeing that the time for the resurrection of the dead is understood to be close to that of the redemption i.e. 206 years later, it is appropriate that this verse commences with the word ראה which is an allusion to that time. In view of all this Solomon said in Song of Songs 8,12: האלף לך שלמה ומאתים לנוטרים את פריו, “I have my own vineyard; the thousand silver pieces are yours Shlomoh, and two hundred more to the ones who guarded its fruit.” [I translated the whole verse, using the conventional translation. Ed.] The word ומאתים is understood as if it had been written ו-מאתים, i.e. “plus 206,” the letter ו meaning the digit 6. Solomon would reveal in this verse that the time when the resurrection occurs is 206 years after the 1,000 years [the traditional interval after the first 6,000 years of our universe have been concluded and a period of complete metamorphosis of the universe has begun. Ed.] ]The arrival of Shlomoh, described as someone granted 1000 (years?) is a reference to the coming of the Messiah, also known as Shlomoh, which would occur at the end of the 6,000 years we have mentioned. (The source of this whole exegesis is Nachmanides כתבי הרמב'ן חלק ב עמוד תקטו, Mossad Harav Kook edition, commentary on Song of Songs, edited by Rabbi Chavell) The Messiah, of course, is a descendant of Solomon just as much as he is a descendant of David. The reason why the passage above (verse 14) concluded with the word לעשותו, the same word we find at the conclusion of the Torah’s report of the story of creation (Genesis, 2,3), is that the Torah wants to establish a conceptual linkage to the beginning of conventional time and to the end of conventional time, i.e. the arrival of the Messiah. The Torah wants you to know that from the point of view of natural laws, both points in time are no different from one another. The universe will continue to function normally, according to the rules G’d established at the time of creation also after the arrival of the Messiah. The Talmud in Shabbat 63 stated so explicitly, the wording being: אין בין העולם הזה לימות המשיח אלא שעבוד גליות, “the only difference between this present world and the epoch of the Messiah will be that Israel will no longer be subservient to other nations politically.” The addition of the letter ו at the end of the word לעשתו, instead of לעשות as in Genesis 2,3 is meant to symbolise the number 6, i.e. that the 6th millennium will be no different from the first millennium as far as the conventional laws of nature are concerned. The words ראה נתתי לך היום, are intended to convey that immediately after the 6,000 years the period of the Messiah will commence. During that life the people of Israel will experience all the good that it is possible to experience. The word החיים is synonymous with the life in the world to come, i.e. the life after death and resurrection concerning which we read in Psalms 31,20: “how abundant is the good that You have in store for those who fear You.” the word הרע refers to a category of sinner for whom resurrection will actually spell disaster. They are the ones referred to repeatedly in both Isaiah 66,24 and Daniel (Daniel 12,2) of whom the prophet and Daniel say: “many are those that sleep in the dust of the earth who will awake, some to eternal life, others to reproaches, to everlasting abhorrence.” The view of Maimonides, in his treatise about the resurrection, is that the people resurrected will lead normal lives, will eat and drink and produce children. These functions with which G’d has equipped them will certainly not cease. They will lead exceptionally long lives, after which they will die a physical death and continue a life of the spirit in what we are fond of terming עולם הבא, “the world to come, the hereafter.” This is what is always meant when the sages speak of someone who has been invited to the hereafter, i.e. עולם הבא. Concerning this world the sages wrote (Berachot 17): “in the hereafter there is no eating, no drinking, there are only disembodied spirits, etc.” If these people had been equipped with the organs enabling them to eat and drink and procreate, these organs would be redundant, and G’d does not create anything which does not fulfill its assigned purpose. If you were to query this by saying that Moses and Elijah went without eating and drinking for long periods although they did have a body equipped for eating and drinking, and that therefore what Moses and Elijah were able to do in this world, people could do in the world to come in spite of having bodies, this is not a viable argument. The normal bodily functions of Moses and Elijah were made redundant for a limited period and a specific purpose, so that they were never really redundant seeing they were in use both before and after the period when they were temporarily out of use. The people (souls) who are transferred to the עולם הבא will never have any use for the organs in question. Hence it would not make sense for G’d to equip them with such useless organs. This is why every intelligent person has to believe that in the region we call עולם הבא there are no bodies at all, only souls. This is the view of Maimonides which clearly emerges from his words. However, the sages of the Talmud are of a different opinion. (Nachmanides elaborates on this at the end of the treatise שער הגמול). The experts in Kabbalah believe that there will be no more death after the resurrection of the dead. They base this primarily on Isaiah 25,8 בלע המות לנצח, “He will destroy death forever.” They also refer to Sanhedrin 92 where the Talmud says that “the dead who will return to life will not again turn into dust.” Concerning the world (life) after death, the sages in Berachot 17 say that that a very precious statement made by Rav was that “in the world to come there will not be eating, drinking, no jealousy or competition, but the righteous will sit with their crowns on their heads and enjoy the brilliance emanated from the Shechinah.” This latter statement makes it obvious that the author does hold that there will be bodies in the world to come. This is why the fact that there will not be eating and drinking, etc., had to be mentioned, seeing that if there were not presumed to be bodies this would be obvious to all. Therefore, it is proper for us to believe that there will indeed be bodies in the עולם הבא but that many bodily functions as we know them will cease to operate, just as they ceased functioning for a period in the lives of Moses and Elijah. What all this means is simply that in that world the spiritual powers of the soul will triumph over the body and what are perceived in our world as its needs. If you were to ask why the organs of the body which are not being used should exist, the fact is that they are not really redundant at all. On the contrary, these organs receive the reward for all the effort they put in while on earth in fulfilling G’d’s commandments. Seeing that G’d does not withhold reward from anyone entitled to it, or even shortchanges such a creature (compare Baba Kama 38), He does not want the body to be in a position to complain; therefore He transfers the body to the regions called עולם הבא to enable it to also enjoy these outpourings of the brilliance of the Shechinah. Support for this view comes from Psalms 17,15: ”when one day I awaken, I shall be satisfied with seeing a picture of You.” This means that the people in the world to come will experience satisfaction from beholding the brilliance of the Shechinah while their body is intact.” (Just as the disembodied soul functioned in this terrestrial life, there is no reason to believe that the body cannot function in the celestial life). This is the view of Nachmanides, and he cites proof from a Midrash in Sifri Nitzavim, according to which Moses (his body) was hidden in the regions of the עולם הבא. This does not mean that his body is there at this point in time and that he enjoys a physical existence there now. [The text refers to the body of Aaron, Ed.] The sages made a similar comment about the manner of Rabbi Akiva’s death when they said: “hail to you Rabbi Akiva; your soul exited with the pronouncement of the word אחד (first line of Kriyat Shema), you are ready for immediate entry to life in the עולם הבא.” In Berachot 58 the Talmud, in dealing with benedictions to be recited when one witnesses different events, states that when seeing the tombs of the Jewish people one is to recite: “blessed be the One who let you die in accordance with true judgment and Who will bring you back to life in the world of the future.” Bereshit Rabbah understands the words: “G’d blessed the seventh day and sanctified it” (Genesis 2,3) to mean that G’d blessed the עולם הבא which commences with the seventh millennium. The words: “He sanctified it,” refer to the fact that He allotted it to the Jewish people. This is the meaning of the words מזומן לעולם הבא, “ready for entry into the world to come.”

Behold, I have set before you today life and good. For if you seek life, look to do good in the eyes of the Lord. And if you ask why He did not mention good first, since it is through doing good that one merits life, the answer is that He comes to warn us not to seek to do good in God’s eyes in order to live, but rather to live in order to do good. One should not seek physical life; rather, one should seek life in order to serve the Creator during one’s lifetime, as it is written: Who is the man who desires life, loving days, to see good? (Psalms 34:13). This means one loves days in order to see the good of God in Torah and mitzvot, as it says immediately afterward: to love the Lord your God and to cleave to Him, for He is your life. That is to say, this is the purpose of your life, for the Holy One, Blessed be He, gives you life only for this purpose. And this is what is meant here: to love the Lord your God, etc., and you shall live and multiply. Here, it mentions loving God before you shall live and multiply, while later it says: that you may live, you and your offspring, to love the Lord. There, it puts life before loving God. For indeed, one depends on the other, as love of God brings life, but nevertheless, you should not seek life for your own needs but rather to love God. And if your heart turns away, that you turn your heart to idleness and do not engage all your days in the service of God, blessed be He, then you will be driven away (17), eventually you will be completely driven away from God, and you will worship other gods, for idleness brings about boredom and will remove your heart from God. I have told you today, etc., you will not have length of days, etc. And this is what our Sages of blessed memory said (Avot 3:5), “One who turns his heart to idleness is liable to pay with his life.”

That I command you this day to love Hashem your God, to walk in the ways that are upright before Him, and to observe His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments; and you shall live and increase, and Hashem your God will bless you in the land that you are entering there to possess it.

אשר אנכי מצוך היום לאהבה IN THAT I COMMAND THEE THIS DAY TO LOVE [THE LORD THY GOD] — You have here a description of the “good”, and upon this depends וחיית ורבית THAT YOU MAY LIVE AND INCREASE — here you have life.

"To love" — that is the essence. "To walk in His ways" — that you not deviate from the ways of His deeds and His commandments which He has commanded you, even if you do not know why the statutes and ordinances were given. "And you shall live" [וחיית] is the explanation of "life" [החיים]. "And multiply" [ורבית] is the explanation of "good" [הטוב], for it denotes increase of one's person through children and wealth.

וחיית, forever;

But if your heart turns away and you do not obey, and you go astray and bow down to the idols of the nations and serve them,

ואם יפנה לבבך BUT IF THINE HEART TURN AWAY — here you have evil...

"But if your heart turns away" — for the heart is the essence. "And you are thrust away" — I have already explained it.

I declare to you this day that you shall surely perish; you will not prolong your days upon the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter there to possess it.

כי אבד תאבדון [I TELL YOU THIS DAY] THAT YE SHALL PERISH — here you have death.

"You shall surely perish" — this is the explanation of "death and evil," for they and their children and their wealth will perish. "You shall not lengthen your days" — the opposite of "and Hashem your God will bless you in the land."

כי אבוד תאבדון, for you would perish forever.

I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you this day: life and death have I set before you, blessings and curses — and you shall choose life, so that you may live, you and your children.

העדתי בכם היום את השמים ואת הארץ I CALL AS WITNESSES AGAINST YOU THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH, which exist for ever, and when evil will befall you they will be witnesses that I have warned you regarding all this (cf. Targum Jonathan on). Another explanation of העדתי בכם את השמים וגו׳ I CALL THE HEAVEN [AND THE EARTH] AS WITNESSES AGAINST YOU: The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel, “Look at the heavens which I have created to be at your service; have they perhaps ever changed their character? Has the orb of the sun perhaps ever failed to rise in the East and to give light to the whole world, just as is stated, (Ecclesiastes 1:4—5) “And the sun riseth, and the sun goeth down [and hasteth to its place where it arises]”?! Look at the earth which I have created to be at your service! Has it perhaps ever changed its character? Have you perhaps sown it and it did not bring forth, or have you sown wheat and it brought forth barley?! Now how is it with these that have been made neither with the end in view that they should receive a reward nor that they should suffer a loss — for if they act meritoriously (if they follow the natural laws by which they are governed) they receive no reward and if they were to fail they would receive no punishment? They have never changed their character! You, who if you act meritoriously do receive a reward and if you sin do receive punishment, how much the more so should you obey the commands of your Maker! (Sifrei Devarim 306:1). ובחרת בחיים THEREFORE CHOOSE THE LIFE — I show you these (“I set life and death before thee) in order that you may choose the portion of life. It is like a man who says to his son, “Choose for yourself a good portion of my real estate”, and sets him in the best portion saying to him, “Choose this!” And concerning this it states, (Psalms 16:5) “The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup, אתה תומיך גורלי”, i.e. “You place my hand on the good lot, saying, ‘Choose this!'”

"The heavens and the earth" — because they are enduring; and similarly [Scripture says] "the stone shall be a witness between us" (Josh. 24:27), and similarly "Hear, O mountains, the contention of Hashem" (Micah 6:2). "Life and death" — these are the blessing and the curse; and so you have the [charge] to choose life. "So that you may live" — in body or in remembrance. And Scripture explains that life means love.

so choose life, you will opt for eternal life in order that you may stay alive, you and your seed, to love the Lord your God, when I said to choose life, I did not mean for the sake of the reward. Rather, you should only choose what is truly life, such that you only desire life on earth for this purpose, that you should love the Lord your God by way of your recognizing His goodness and His great magnificence.

העירותי בכם היום את השמים ואת האריץ, "I call as witness against you today both the heaven and the earth, etc." This whole verse appears superfluous in light of verse 15 where Moses asked the people to choose life rather than death. Why did he have to repeat it? Besides why did Mose change the sequence and choice here? In verse 15 the choice was between life and goodness on the one hand and death and evil on the other. Here the Israelites are given choices between life and death and blessing and curse. What did Moses mean when he rephrased what he said in verse 15? Besides, why did Moses not simply exhort the people to "choose life?" We must understand terms such as "good" and "evil" to refer to life in this world. It makes sense therefore that Moses told the people: "I place before you life and death," i.e. reward and punishment in this world. If the Israelites would be good they would live, if they would sin they would die. These are the two choices we have in this world. However, there are two more choices which pertain to the hereafter. Moses calls them ברכה and קללה, respectively, i.e. "blessing or curse." These are not immediate choices, or better, the results of such choices will not become known immediately. The whole approach is similar to what we have in Deut. 28,6: "You are blessed at your arrival (in this world) and you are blessed at your departure (from this world)." As you enter this world without sin so you will leave it without sin (compare Baba Metzia 107). Moses had to separate these two paragraphs from one another in order for us to appreciate that he talks about different domains in each paragraph. When he continues "and you shall choose life," this is the purpose of our existence in this world. Moses means that we should concentrate on immediate problems such as making sure that G'd will grant the necessary rainfall as a result of our observing the commandments. Although earlier (verse 15) Moses mentioned חיים וטוב together, i.e. a reference to choices covering both our terrestrial life and preparing for our hereafter, in our verse here the emphasis is on the here and now.

העידותי בכם היום את השמים ואת הארץ, “I call as witness against you this day both heaven and earth;” witness in the positive as well as in the negative sense of the word. If you will perform the commandments in the Torah heaven and earth will testify on your behalf; if not, they will testify at the heavenly tribunal against you. They will do this by heaven denying the essential rain to make your crops ripen. (Deut. 11,17)

העדותי בכם היום את השמים ואת הארץ, “I call as witness against you this day both heaven and earth.” I have already explained in connection with Deut.4,26 that the reason Moses chose heaven and earth as witnesses was because they endure forever and can always be called upon to testify. Human witnesses, due to their limited life span may no longer be alive when their testimony is required. Another reason for the choice of heaven and earth as witnesses is that they are perceived as signatories to Moses’ words. It is also possible to interpret the choice of heaven and earth as witnesses as due to the fact that they would survive destruction of the Temples seeing that in the seventh millennium (as the author described the meaning of the words היום השביע in Genesis 2,3) only heaven and earth survive the metamorphosis occurring at the end of the 6th millennium. It makes sense therefore that after Moses had spoken of the redemption that he should continue with an allusion to the subject of the resurrection. This then is the meaning of: “see I have given before you this day “the life.” Close upon the heels of the resurrection follows the era known as עולם הבא which Moses alludes to as הטוב, the good.” It became necessary to invite witnesses who are of an enduring nature, remain in the universe forever, as we know from Isaiah 2,11: “none but the Lord shall be exalted in that day,” just as on the first day of creation when there was only heaven and earth. At the time we described nothing but the bare essentials of heaven and earth will remain functional. A Midrashic approach based on Sifri Haazinu: G’d told the people that He had created earth to serve their needs. He asks the people if, perchance the earth became disloyal and produced barley in response to the Jewish farmer sowing wheat? Or, did the heaven which He had similarly created in order to provide the Israelites with light and useful navigational information, etc., ever changed its path so that the expectations of the people were disappointed? Does not the Bible testify of the sun that “the sun rises, shines and sets at the appointed time” (Kohelet 1,8)? G’d reasons that if these planets which do not receive a reward for being loyal and carrying out their appointed tasks do not deviate therefrom, how much more so must the Jewish people who do receive a reward for keeping the Torah, and who do have to fear punishment for failure to keep these laws, be concerned with not deviating from the path of Torah? Keeping these thoughts in mind, Moses suggests to them: ‘better choose for yourself life.” This is the way Rashi explains our verse. This is what David had in mind when he said in Psalms 16,5: “the Lord is my allotted portion and my share; You control my fate.” It is as if David had said to G’d: “place my hand on the fate which spells ‘good.’” G’d Himself is called “Good,” as we know from Psalms 145,9: “טוב ה' לכל, “ or טוב וישר ה', (Psalms 25,8). Both verses equate G’d with “good.” G’d also gave the Jewish people the Torah, which is also known as “good,” as we know from Proverbs 4,2 כי לקח טוב נתתי לכם, “for I have given you a good acquisition.” The reason why the Torah is referred to as a “good acquisition,” is because the Jewish people can hang on to it both in this world and in the world to come. The sages cite our verse as proof for the fact that Torah will be with us in both worlds. This is the meaning of the words in Deut. 5,16: ‘in order that your days on earth will be long.” The Torah refers to a life which is long, infinite, i.e. the world to come. The last words in that verse, i.e. למען ייטב לך, “in order that He will be good for you,” also refer to a world which is totally good, the world to come. Solomon pursues the same approach when he said (Proverbs 24,25) “but those who rebuke the wicked will experience delight, blessings of good (things) will come upon them.” The sages cite our verse as proof of the fact that Torah will be with us in both worlds. This is the meaning of the words in Deut. 5,16: “in order that your days on earth will be long.” The Torah refers to a life which is long, infinite, i.e. the world to come. The last words in that verse, i.e. למען ייטב לך, “in order that He will be good to you,” also refer to a world which is totally good, the world to come. Solomon pursues the same approach when he said (Proverbs 24,25) “but those who rebuke the wicked will experience delight, blessings of good (things) will come upon them.

“So that you may live, you and your descendants.” Here, your descendants is mentioned because it is stated in the Midrash on I have called heaven and earth to witness against you today: “Look at the sun that I created to serve you — has it ever changed its course? etc. And if these [celestial bodies], which were not created either to receive reward or to suffer loss, and which do not show concern for their sons and daughters, have not changed their ways — then you, who were created for reward and punishment, and who care about your sons and daughters, how much more so should you not change your ways.” This is the version that appears in Yalkut Shimoni Parashat Ha’azinu (32:942). And how did the author of this Midrash know to mention sons and daughters in this kal vachomer [a fortiori] argument? Because he found written after this testimony the verse so that you may live, you and your descendants. And he found it difficult to understand why descendants are mentioned in this promise more than in other promises. Rather, this is what the Holy One, Blessed be He, said to him: “If you will not depart from the astrological determinism of your evil deeds for your own sake — because tangible pleasure pressures you not to be concerned about the future — at least do so for the sake of your descendants, for they have no share in this pleasure, but they do have a share in the punishment.” And he said, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day.” For you should look at the daily cycle [of the sun] which serves out of love, so too should you, to love the Lord, etc., and as it is said, But they that love Him be as the sun when it goes forth in its might (Judges 5:31). See the explanation of this entire statement in my small work Orach L’Chaim, discourse 6.

העידותי בכם היום את השמים ואת הארץ, “I call upon heaven and earth this day to bear witness against you;” although Moses had called on heaven and earth as witnesses against the people already once before, here he adds “life” and “death” as an additional dimension to encourage the people to make the right choice when they have to make a decision. “Life” and “Death” are only different words for the concepts of “Blessing” and “Curse.” Moses urges the people to choose wisely, i.e. to choose Life.

To love Hashem your God, to obey His Word, and to draw near to His fear; for He is your life and the length of your days, to dwell upon the land that Hashem swore to your ancestors — to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob — to give to them.

"For He is your life" — in the view of the commentators, this [pronoun] refers back to the voice of Hashem. But in my view, it refers to Hashem Himself, as the Psalmist said: "Hashem is my salvation, and the God of my kindness, and my shield, and my sword."

ולדבקה בו, meaning that all of your activities during life on earth should be focused on giving glory to His name. כי הוא חייך, for your cleaving to Him is your real life, the reason why you will enjoy eternal life; ואורך ימיך לשבת על האדמה, during the transient life on earth, during which through study, serious contemplation of your duties, and your performance of them you will qualify for the life awaiting you in the hereafter. Compare Avot 4,16 where we have been told that life on earth is merely to be viewed as a vestibule to the hereafter, a place in which one makes suitable preparations for eternal life in the Palace.

לאהבה את ה׳ אלוקיך, "to love the Lord your G'd, etc." This passage is a continuation of the thoughts in verse 19 "in order that you may live, you and your offspring." The purpose of this desire for life on this earth must be to learn to love G'd and to obey His commandments. When Moses concludes: "for He is your life, etc." Moses merely reflects that there cannot be a meaningful purpose in life on earth other than to cleave to G'd to the best of our abilities. This makes our life in this world a fitting prelude to our life in the celestial spheres., i.e. ארך ימים. לשבת על האדמה, "to dwell in the land, etc." We have to read this as if the word לשבת had been prefaced with the conjunctive letter ו. Dwelling in the Holy Land is part of the attainment of completeness through performance of all parts of Torah observance. Our sages have so extolled the virtue of dwelling in the Holy Land that they said that anyone who walks in it a distance of four cubits qualifies for a share in the hereafter (Ketuvot 111).

כי הוא חייך, “for He is your life;” a reference to Hashem.