Tafsiran Ulangan 31:26: Rashi, Da'at Zekenim, Ibn Ezra & Sforno

לקח — The grammatical form and its meaning are the same as in (Exodus 20:8) זכור; (Deuteronomy 5:12) שמור; (Jeremiah 2:2) הלוך‎.

לקח את ספר התורה הזה, “take this book of the Torah!” according to a Midrash, on this date, the seventh day of the month of Adar, Moses personally wrote 13 Torah scrolls one each for the twelve tribes. He read out of each one before each of the tribes passages of warning, exhorting them to observe the Torah meticulously. He read to the men and women separately, warning them to treasure their Torah scroll and protect it from all hazards. Moses took the thirteenth Torah scroll and deposited it in the Holy Ark next to the second set of Tablets. This interpretation is based on the text of this verse, which appears portray him as instructing the priests to do so, [as being “only” a Levite he had no access to the Holy Ark inside the tabernacle. Ed.] Other commentators suggest that the archangel Gavriel descended from the heavenly regions and took the thirteenth Torah scroll back with him to those regions. The reason for this was to acquaint the residents of those regions with the greatness of Moses. This exegesis is based on Deuteronomy 33,21: צדקת ה' עשה ומשפט עם ישראל, “He executed the righteousness of the Lord and His ordinances with Israel.” Not only this, but the righteous in those regions read from this Torah scroll every Monday and Thursday, every Sabbath and on every New Moon and the festivals. In the first chapter of the tractate Baba batra, folio 14 there is reported a dispute between Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehudah, about whether the Torah scroll was deposited inside the Holy Ark or next to it.

so that it may remain there as a witness against you i.e., against all of Israel, in which the kohanim are included.

מצד ארון ברית ה׳ [TAKE THIS BOOK OF THE LAW AND PUT IT] AT THE SIDE OF THE ARK OF THE COVENANT OF THE LORD — The sages of Israel differ about it (the meaning of the phrase “at the side of the Ark”) in Treatise Bava Batra 14a. Some of them say: A board projected from the Ark outside it and there it (the song) lay, whilst others say that it lay at the side of the Tablets within the Ark.