Komentarz do Powtórzonego Prawa 30:11

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.⁶⁷Above 8:1. Rather [the expression used here] this commandment refers to [the commandment of] repentance aforementioned, for the verses, and thou shalt bethink thyself;⁶⁸Above, Verse 1. and thou shalt return unto the Eternal thy G-d⁶⁹Ibid., Verse 2. 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 heaven⁷⁰Above, Verse 4. 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,⁶⁹Ibid., Verse 2. for the thing is not hard, nor far off from you, but rather very nigh unto thee⁷¹Further, Verse 14. 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 it⁷¹Further, Verse 14. meaning that they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers⁷²Leviticus 26:40. 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,⁷³Above, Verse 2. as I have explained.⁷⁴Ibid., and in Verse 6.

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)