“And it will be when all these things come upon you, etc.” It is worth contemplating that at first the verse says among all the nations where the Lord your God has cast you [hidichkha], and afterward it says among all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you [hefitzkha]. For there is a distinction between the language of scattered you and the language of cast you, because scattered you refers to exile, while cast you refers to the commandments. For when Israel is in the lands of the nations, they are cast away from the commandments, both because of what is written in the rebuke (Deuteronomy 28:36), And there you shall serve other gods, and because most commandments are dependent on the land [of Israel]. Through this casting away, Israel might come close to falling into error and saying that the Holy One, blessed be He, no longer desires their deeds at all, in the manner that is stated (Isaiah 1:11), What need have I of your many sacrifices, says the Lord. Through this, they might despair completely of redemption, for they will say that the Holy One, blessed be He, cast them away from the commandments with full intention. But this is an error on their part, for the Holy One, blessed be He, did not intend primarily and at first but to scatter them, to disperse them from one another, for the gathering of the wicked is harmful to them (Sanhedrin 71b). However, being cast away from the commandments follows incidentally from the scattering, and the Blessed Name did not primarily and initially intend to cast them away from the commandments.

And this is the intention in this portion, And it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall bring them back to your heart. That you will ponder in your heart, and what is this thing that the Lord your God has driven you there. For you might think that the Lord your God has deliberately and primarily driven you away from the commandments because He desires neither you nor your observance of His commandments anymore. And through this, you will despair of repentance, as you will say, “If God desired us, such things would not befall us from His blessed hand.” Regarding this, He says that you are thinking erroneously about God, and it is not so. Rather, He greatly desires your commandments forever. And by this, the matter will be tested, as it is written: And you shall return to the Lord, etc. For as soon as you resolve in your heart to return in complete repentance to God — even though you have not yet performed the appropriate deed in practice, as it doesn’t yet say here and you shall do all His commandments as it says later — with this, He points with a finger, saying: “See how you are mistaken in your thinking. Not only does He greatly desire your commandments, but even as soon as you return to the Lord and listen to His voice according to all that I command you today with all your heart and all your soul.” The essence of listening to God’s voice is with all your heart alone, that God sees in you signs of purity that your heart is sincere toward God, though the hindrance is that you cannot actually perform all His commandments. And nevertheless, immediately, the Lord your God will return your captivity and have compassion on you, and will return and gather you, etc.

The two mentions of “v’shav” [and he will return] that appear one after the other — the first one speaks of the forgiveness of previous sin called “shvutcha” [your captivity/rebellion], like the wayward daughter (Jeremiah 31:21), and like he went on rebelliously in the way of his heart (Isaiah 57:17), and like Return, backsliding Israel (Jeremiah 3:12), and many others like these. Regarding this it says, And the Lord your God will return your captivity and have compassion on you, because even your captivity/rebellion that is attributed to you, meaning the sin, will be transformed into merit, as our Sages said (Yoma 86b) that through repentance, intentional sins become like merits. This is what is meant by and have compassion on you, which is an expression of love. That is to say, the Holy One, blessed be He, will love your captivity/rebellion because the intentional sins will be, in His blessed eyes, like merits, and He will love them greatly.

And the second speaks of the return of Israel from exile, this is what is meant by and [God] will return and gather you from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you there. Not as you thought that the Lord your God has driven you away with the primary and initial intention to drive you away from observing the commandments, but rather primarily and initially the Lord intended to scatter you; however, being driven away from the commandments was an incidental consequence of the scattering. Nevertheless, if your outcasts are at the ends of heaven, because truly you are driven away from the commandments, but this should not be attributed to Him, blessed be He, but rather to yourself, and it is called your outcasts, because you did this and caused this expulsion for yourself both internally and externally. And even though you caused yourself to be driven far away from the place of fulfilling commandments, nevertheless from there the Lord will gather you, and from there He will take you. From there He will gather you refers to the ingathering of exiles, and from there He will take you to Himself to assist you in observing the commandments. And He will bring you to the land, etc., and He will do good to you and make you numerous than your fathers [me’avotecha]. The interpretation of me’avotecha does not mean more than your fathers, for right afterward it says as He rejoiced over your fathers, suggesting not more than them but equal to them. Rather, me’avotecha [read here as, from your fathers] is to tell you that since you have prepared your heart toward the Lord, but your thoughts have not yet been actualized because you have not yet fulfilled the commandments, therefore your own merit is not sufficient to do good to you and multiply you, but rather the merit of your fathers is what has stood for you to benefit you and multiply you. This is what is meant by me’avotecha, that this benefit flows to you from your fathers. Nevertheless, since your heart is complete with the Lord and you have resolved in your heart to perform all the commandments of the Lord in practice when the opportunity for a commandment comes to you, correspondingly the Lord will complete it for you.

“And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord.” This means He will place in your heart to serve Him out of love, not fear, because one who serves out of love serves God with joy. However, as long as the Holy One, blessed be He, does not take revenge on your enemies, you constantly fear your enemies, lest they return to fight against you, and therefore your heart is not free to serve God with joy. Therefore, the Lord your God will inflict all these curses upon your enemies and upon the foes who persecuted you, and from then on you will be confident that they will not come against you again, and the righteous will rejoice when he sees vengeance (Psalms 58:11). From that point on, you will be prepared to perform all of God’s commandments with joy, even in practice. This is what is meant by, And you will return and obey the voice of the Lord and do all His commandments. At that time, you will not need the merit of your forefathers. This is what is meant by And you, for the matter depends on you alone. Then the Lord will again rejoice over you as He rejoiced over your forefathers, because you will be equal to your forefathers, as you will have your own merit, and on the mountains you shall not eat, as our Sages of blessed memory interpreted (Sanhedrin 81a) from the verse on the mountains he has not eaten (Ezekiel 18:6), meaning that one does not rely on the merit of his forefathers. Through this explanation, many questions in the course of this section are resolved, as is clear to anyone who understands with a little contemplation.

“For this commandment, etc., is not too difficult for you.” And afterward it does not say “for you” and simply states and it is not far, behold, there is room for me to interpret this section in two ways: either regarding the general commandments of the Torah, or regarding repentance, which was mentioned above.

First approach, regarding all the commandments of the Torah. In every commandment, there are two aspects: the first is the action itself, doing the commandment in practice; the second is the intention of the commandment, to understand and comprehend the secrets of the Torah which God has hidden from the nations, as it is written The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him (Psalms 25:14). And it is written He has not dealt thus with any nation; and as for His judgments, they have not known them (Psalms 147:20). For God has hidden the secrets of the Torah from the nations and entrusted them to Israel, therefore it says, it is not too wondrous for you. For if it should cross your mind to say, “How can I perform the commandment without intention, like a donkey carrying books?” To this it responds that this is not the case, rather it is not too wondrous for you. For if the works of God are wondrous to the nations, they are not wondrous to you, as it is written Wondrous are Your works, and my soul knows it well (Psalms 139:14). For the tablets are the work of God and are indeed wondrous to the nations, but my soul knows it well, for You have heard my prayer, Do not hide Your commandments from me (Psalms 119:19), which refers to the secrets of the Torah. And regarding the practical performance, it says and it is not far — not only from you but from all nations it is not far, for God did not command you to bring from afar any commandment. For regarding sacrifices, our Sages said (Vayikra Rabbah 27:6) that the Holy One, Blessed be He, said, “I did not trouble you to bring a sacrifice from species that are not in your possession, but only from cattle and sheep that are in your possession, etc.” And from these, you can infer about all the commandments that the Holy One, Blessed be He, did not command you to bring something from afar for a commandment, but only things that are readily available to you.

And he returned and explained in sequence. For what I said, It is not hidden from you, refers to the wisdom given from heaven, for The Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth comes knowledge and understanding (Proverbs 2:6). And lest you say that God gave the practical performance of commandments to earth but not wisdom, which is still in heaven, about this he says It is not in heaven, etc. For both the practice and the contemplation and way of understanding — God has given everything to earth. And what I said, Nor is it far off, about this he says, Nor is it beyond the sea. For I did not command you to bring something from beyond the sea for a commandment, because the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it. In your heart is the place of contemplation and wisdom, and in your mouth is the place of action. For even when you don’t have the opportunity to perform a commandment, you can fulfill it with your mouth, as our Sages said (Menachot 110a): “Whoever engages in the study of the law of the burnt offering is considered as if he had offered a burnt offering, etc.” This applies to all other commandments — that one who studies them is considered as if he had performed them. This is the meaning of in your mouth and in your heart to do it. For you can render the offerings of our lips (Hosea 14:3), and it is as if you had actually performed them. Similarly, even if one intended in his heart to perform a commandment but was prevented and did not do it, the Holy One, blessed be He, considers it as if he had done it (Berakhot 6a). This is the meaning of in your mouth and in your heart to do it.

The second way is. That the statement for this commandment refers to repentance, which was mentioned in the previous section. And about this [repentance] it says, it is not too wondrous for you, meaning you have no excuse to say that you did not know that the Holy One, Blessed be He, accepts the repentance of sinners. For you know the concept of repentance better than all the nations, since Israel and repentance preceded the world (Pesachim 54). And therefore, when God created repentance, you were also there. And if the nations need encouragement toward repentance, like the people of Nineveh, behold, you do not need encouragement for it, because the secret of repentance has been revealed to you from the beginning of time, and it is not too wondrous for you. For it is not in heaven, that you should say: ‘Who will go up to heaven for us and fetch it for us?’ This means that God does not ask from us that a sinful and rebellious person should trample His courtyards and ascend to heaven to ask God if He will accept us in repentance, because this secret has already been revealed to you. Or, this relates to what was stated above: and you will return to the Lord your God. If you might say: “If my sins have caused the Divine Presence to depart from the lower realms and ascend on high, then I will return to Him, but He will not return to me, because I caused this distance. So how can I return to the Lord? I would need to ascend to heaven and return to Him, blessed be He. Thus, knowledge is too wondrous for me — where shall I go to find His spirit, blessed be He?” To this it responds: It is not too wondrous for you — even for you the matter of repentance to the Lord is not wondrous, and you do not need to ascend to heaven to reach Him, blessed be He. Rather, when you prepare your heart to return to Him, blessed be He, then He, blessed be He, will return to you, to bring His Divine Presence down to you.

And it is not distant. According to what our Sages said (Yoma 86b), “Who is a true penitent? One who has the opportunity to commit the same sin again and refrains from doing it.” Rav Yehudah demonstrated: “With the same woman, in the same place, at the same time.” Therefore, if someone sinned with a woman overseas, you might think that he has no remedy until he crosses the seas to the place where he sinned, through the same gateway he passed through, and this might prevent him from repenting. Regarding this, the verse states that this is not the case, because the matter is very close to you, in your mouth — the confession, and in your heart — the regret, and this is sufficient for you. For your mouth and your heart are the place of the sin, as it was a foolish heart that led you astray, and they are also the place of rectification through repentance, which is likewise “in the same place.” The phrase “with the same woman” was mentioned only as an enhancement of the matter, but the essence of repentance does not depend on this.

And there are those who say that he spoke about repentance. From the perspective of God’s exaltedness, repentance is truly wondrous beyond wonder, for any husband who divorces his wife will not take her back after she has been defiled. So how could the exalted and lofty King draw near to Him sinful people who have turned away from Him and strayed after foreign gods? But from you meaning from your angle, it is not wondrous, as it is said He remembers that we are dust (Psalms 103:14). Because from the material angle, there is no righteous person on earth who does good and does not sin (Ecclesiastes 7:20). Therefore, it is proper that He accept your repentance. And perhaps this is why it says it is not in heaven, because it is not found among the spiritual heavenly hosts, but rather in you, a person born of dust. Therefore, from your angle, repentance is an appropriate and acceptable matter, in the way that has been explained.

Behold, I have set before you today life and good. For if you seek life, look to do good in the eyes of the Lord. And if you ask why He did not mention good first, since it is through doing good that one merits life, the answer is that He comes to warn us not to seek to do good in God’s eyes in order to live, but rather to live in order to do good. One should not seek physical life; rather, one should seek life in order to serve the Creator during one’s lifetime, as it is written: Who is the man who desires life, loving days, to see good? (Psalms 34:13). This means one loves days in order to see the good of God in Torah and mitzvot, as it says immediately afterward: to love the Lord your God and to cleave to Him, for He is your life. That is to say, this is the purpose of your life, for the Holy One, Blessed be He, gives you life only for this purpose. And this is what is meant here: to love the Lord your God, etc., and you shall live and multiply. Here, it mentions loving God before you shall live and multiply, while later it says: that you may live, you and your offspring, to love the Lord. There, it puts life before loving God. For indeed, one depends on the other, as love of God brings life, but nevertheless, you should not seek life for your own needs but rather to love God.

And if your heart turns away, that you turn your heart to idleness and do not engage all your days in the service of God, blessed be He, then you will be driven away (17), eventually you will be completely driven away from God, and you will worship other gods, for idleness brings about boredom and will remove your heart from God. I have told you today, etc., you will not have length of days, etc. And this is what our Sages of blessed memory said (Avot 3:5), “One who turns his heart to idleness is liable to pay with his life.”

“So that you may live, you and your descendants.” Here, your descendants is mentioned because it is stated in the Midrash on I have called heaven and earth to witness against you today: “Look at the sun that I created to serve you — has it ever changed its course? etc. And if these [celestial bodies], which were not created either to receive reward or to suffer loss, and which do not show concern for their sons and daughters, have not changed their ways — then you, who were created for reward and punishment, and who care about your sons and daughters, how much more so should you not change your ways.” This is the version that appears in Yalkut Shimoni Parashat Ha’azinu (32:942). And how did the author of this Midrash know to mention sons and daughters in this kal vachomer [a fortiori] argument? Because he found written after this testimony the verse so that you may live, you and your descendants. And he found it difficult to understand why descendants are mentioned in this promise more than in other promises. Rather, this is what the Holy One, Blessed be He, said to him: “If you will not depart from the astrological determinism of your evil deeds for your own sake — because tangible pleasure pressures you not to be concerned about the future — at least do so for the sake of your descendants, for they have no share in this pleasure, but they do have a share in the punishment.”

And he said, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day.” For you should look at the daily cycle [of the sun] which serves out of love, so too should you, to love the Lord, etc., and as it is said, But they that love Him be as the sun when it goes forth in its might (Judges 5:31). See the explanation of this entire statement in my small work Orach L’Chaim, discourse 6.