Commento su Deuteronomio 11:32

AND YE SHALL OBSERVE TO DO ALL THE STATUTES AND THE ORDINANCES. Here, also, he admonishes concerning the statutes and ordinances before mentioning the rest of the commandments, and he cites first the ordinance concerning idolatry and its appurtenances as I have explained in the section of Va’ethchanan.¹¹Above, 4:5. Afterwards he mentions many ordinances concerning a false prophet,¹²Further, 13:2-6. a beguiler,¹³Ibid., Verses 7-12. and an apostate city.¹⁴Ibid., Verses 13-19. And he mentions among the statutes first, the offerings in the Sanctuary, and afterwards, the prohibition of eating anything abominable, and the rest of the commandments.

ושמרתם לעשות, "And you will observe to carry out, etc." Inasmuch as the commandments which Moses is about to convey are all of the kind that can be performed only in ארץ ישראל, Moses applies the term שמירה [usually reserved for the avoidance of violating negative commandments, Ed.] much as we read in Genesis 37,11 that ואביו שמר את הדבר, "his father remained aware of the matter" (Joseph's dream about the brothers and his father and mother bowing down to him). Moses meant by this word that the Israelites should constantly look forward to the opportunity to carry out these commandments although at the time he spoke to them they had no opportunity to fulfil these מצות. He concluded by saying אלה החוקים "these are the statutes." Commandments such as the one to wipe out locations where the Canaanites had worshiped idols, he called "statutes," as they applied only once the Israelites were in that country. They could not carry out this commandment until they had conquered the land.

ושמרתם לעשות את כל החוקים ואת המשפטים, “you are to carefully perform all the statutes and all the social laws.” Here too, Moses mentions the statutes and social laws ahead of other types of legislation. When mentioning these laws in details, he deals first with the need to abolish all traces of idol-worship, just as he had done in Parshat Vaetchanan.