Commentary for Deuteronomy 30:2

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 soul⁴⁸In Verse 2 before us. 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.⁴⁹Nehemiah 10:30. 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,”⁵⁰The word thou is gramatically difficult, because the verse begins with the accusative thee, and follows with the nominative thou. Ramban offers two explanations: First, that the verse contains two separate thoughts: that you will return to G-d, and that you will accept upon yourself and your children all that He commands us. Second, that the nominative thou is equivalent to the accusative thee [“to you”], and the verse is thus expressing a single thought: “that I command thee this day — to you and to your children.” Ramban proceeds to cite Scriptural examples of similar usage — a nominative in place of an accusative. similar to the expression ‘v’atah tzuveitha’⁵¹Genesis 45:19. Here, too, the nominative v’atah (and you) is to be understood as lecha (“and to you”). [meaning lecha tzuveithi — “to you I ordered that the command be given”]. So also, and they dealt ill ‘othanu’⁵²Above, 26:6. Here likewise the literal meaning of othanu is “us,” but Ramban interprets it in the context of the verse as if it means “to us.” means lanu (“to us”).⁵³So also in the verse before us, atah (you) means lecha (to you). And in my opinion there is in this matter a great secret; for it alludes to that which the Rabbis said,⁵⁴Yebamoth 62a. “The son of David [i.e., the Messiah] will not come until all souls in the guf⁵⁵Here understood as “a storehouse of souls in heaven.” Ramban’s concept is that the final redemption will come when all souls will have been purified and no longer in need of a sojourn on earth. See my Hebrew commentary, p. 479. are exhausted.” I have already spoken of this matter.⁵⁶See Genesis 1:26 (Vol. I, p. 479).

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.”

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.