ושבת עד ה' אלוקיך, “and you will return unto Hashem your G’d;” the meaning of the term “return” is that you will henceforth hearken to His commandments in accordance with what Moses commands the people on that day. It also means that you will commit both yourself and the people for whose education you are responsible, i.e. your children as long as they are minors, to walk in the path of Torah. Alternately, the word ובניך, “and your children” in our verse may mean the same as it means when the Torah speaks of לך ולבניך, ”for you and your children,” that when G’d dispenses His blessing this automatically includes your children. (Compare Deut. 12,40; 12,25; 12,28) [As if the Torah had written ולבניך instead of ובניך. Such grammatical anomalies occur sometimes. Ed.]

ומל ה' אלוקיך את לבבך, “the Lord your G’d will circumcise your heart, etc.;” we have a principle that if someone takes the first step in the direction of purifying himself he will experience a Divine assist during his continuing efforts in that direction. Moses assures the repentant sinner that Hashem will assist by removing hindrances, metaphorically described as a foreskin that are strewn on the path to one’s rehabilitation. Nachmanides writes that from the wording of the text it would appear that starting with the creation of man, he was free to act as he saw fit; [in the sense of “without interference on the part of the Creator”. Ed.] As long as the Torah that we received at Mount Sinai will be in force, this situation will continue, the reason being that G’d wants to have a reason to reward us for having chosen freely to obey Him, as opposed to the angels who do not possess such a choice. However, in the days after the Messiah will have arrived it will become natural for man to make the right choices, the heart no longer pining away for things that are not appropriate for man. This is what Moses meant when he spoke about a “circumcision” of the heart occurring. The urge for things forbidden is considered as a ערלה, a foreskin. At the time of the Messiah man will recapture the innocence possessed by the first man, Adam, before he had eaten from the tree of knowledge. [By the way, Adam had been created without a foreskin, so that the foreskin with which most of his descendants are born are a reminder of some impediment to purity having becoming a “normal” condition in man. Ed.] Man will revert to being a “parve” being, in the sense that there is no greater tendency to do good than to do evil or vice versa. From that time and on, everything will depend on man’s will. He will only need to will himself to be good in order to succeed. There will be no Satan trying to block his way.

כי המצוה הזאת אשר אנכי מצוך היום, “for this commandment that I command you on this day, etc.” Nachmanides writes that the proper interpretation of our verse is that Moses here does not refer to the entire Torah, as if he did he should have spoken about כל המצות or a similar expression. Moses refers to the commandment to repent of one’s sins that was the last commandment discussed. The reason why this commandment had not been couched as such, i.e. Moses using the imperative mode שוב instead of ושבת, for instance, is that he wants to assure the people by means of this allusion that repentance in the near or even distant future, will be a natural when it does finally occur, and it cannot be hastened by being draconically commanded. If it were, it would not be the real thing, would only be lip service. The reason that Moses uses exaggerations such asאם יהיה נדחך בקצה השמים, “if you were to find yourselves cast out at the edge of heaven, etc.,” seeing that actually you will find yourselves among other nations that are your unwilling hosts, is that he makes the point that however physically distant you may be from your homeland, and however mentally absurd you would consider the chances of regaining your former stature, repentance is welcome, and will be able to overcome otherwise insurmountable obstacles. This is also why Moses adds the words בפיך ובלבבך לעשותו, If you commence your repentance with your lips, and proceed to internalize it in your heart, you will be able to carry it out absolutely.

העידותי בכם היום את השמים ואת הארץ, “I call upon heaven and earth this day to bear witness against you;” although Moses had called on heaven and earth as witnesses against the people already once before, here he adds “life” and “death” as an additional dimension to encourage the people to make the right choice when they have to make a decision. “Life” and “Death” are only different words for the concepts of “Blessing” and “Curse.” Moses urges the people to choose wisely, i.e. to choose Life.