Commentaire sur Le Deutéronome 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.

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.

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.”

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.

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