Komentaryo sa Deuteronomio 27:26: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Rashi, Ibn Ezra & Ramban

“Cursed be he who will not uphold the terms of the Teaching” [27:26]. Cursed be the person who does not want to keep the commandments with their whole heart. He must have in his thoughts to fulfill the commandment and should believe that God commanded the commandment. Therefore, when he fulfills commandments, he should be happy to keep it, because God has commanded it. Our sages learn from this verse that the one who lifts the Torah scroll in the synagogue must show the Torah scroll with the writing to the people so that they should see the writing.¹⁷Ramban, Deuteronomy, 27:26. Rabbi Yudin son of Simon said: The verse says, “return, O Israel to the Lord your God” [Hosea, 14:2]. This means repentance. When someone does something like worshiping foreign gods, God forgives him.¹⁸Pesikta de Rav Kahana, 24.4.

Our sages say in the Pesikta. “Return, O Israel to the Lord your God” [Hosea, 14:2]. A parable. A person embarrasses his friend before many people. Afterwards, he wants to ask forgiveness. The friend responds: you have shamed me before many people. Bring together many people and ask my forgiveness. However, the Holy One is not like this. When someone worships foreign gods and says many bad things about the Holy One, the Holy One said: be pious and have regret in your heart, even if no person knows anything, but Myself. Then I will forgive your sins. This is the verse that says, “to the Lord your God.” That is to say, only repent so that God knows and no person knows. That is, you should have regret in your heart and speak quietly with your mouth that you will never again commit that sin.¹⁹Pesikta de Rav Kahana, 24.12.

However, repent with joy, with your whole heart, since the person is obligated to fulfill each commandment with joy and happiness, with a joyous heart, as the verse says in this portion, “because you would not serve the Lord your God in joy” [28:47]. This means, the curses that are written in this portion will come upon those who fulfill the commandments and are not joyous in doing them. The Holy One pays a double reward when the person fulfills a commandment with joy.²⁰Bahya, Deuteronomy, 28:47.

אשר לא יקים [CURSED BE] HE THAT DOES NOT UPHOLD [ALL THE WORDS OF THIS LAW TO DO] — Here (in these words) he included the entire Torah under a curse and they took it upon them pledging themselves by an execration and an oath.