Or HaChaim on Deuteronomy 26:17/אור החיים על דברים כ״ו:י״ז

1 את ה׳ האמרת היום להיות, "You have distinguished Hashem this day to be a G'd for you, etc." The reason the Torah added the word היום, "this day," may be understood in conjunction with what we learned in Ketuvot 110 that "anyone who lives in the diaspora is considered as if he did not have a G'd." The words את ה׳ האמרת היום apply only to people who are in the Holy Land. Even though at that precise moment the Israelites were still on the land that used to belong to Sichon and Og, this was considered part of the Holy Land seeing that it had been conquered by the whole nation at the command of their prophet Moses. We have discussed and proved this point in connection with our commentary on Numbers 32,3. Seeing that the land in question was no longer part of the diaspora, the Israelites could truly claim to have adopted the Lord as their G'd, and G'd in turn adopted them as His exclusive people.

2Another meaning of this verse may be based on the Zohar volume one page 108 according to which the other countries on earth have been assigned by G'd to a respective שר, minister, who is in charge of them on G'd's behalf. The land of Israel and its people on the other hand are not subject to any delegate of G'd but are ruled over directly by G'd Almighty. In Psalms 17,2 David phrased it thus: "My judgment will proceed from directly in front of Your eyes." In other words, we are not subject to the authority of any of G'd's deputies.

3Still another thought which may be concealed in our verse is that Hashem, the attribute of Mercy, will participate in judgment of the Jewish people. While it is true that G'd judges everyone and every nation according to their just deserts, i.e. להיות לך לאלוקים, in your case, G'd the merciful will cause the Israelites to say (to acknowledge) that His judgment is fair, i.e. they will bless the Lord even when they experience what appears to them to be a harsh judgment.

4וללכת בדרכיו, "and to walk in His ways, etc." Moses compliments the Jewish people that they walk in G'd's paths even in matters G'd has not specifically commanded. As soon as they have divined what it is that He would want them to do, they do so of their own accord. Specific examples are such good practices as visiting the sick, burying the dead. The Israelites learned from G'd visiting Abraham or burying Moses that these were virtues He wants us to practice though there is no specific commandment ordering us to do so. Israel's walking in the paths of G'd extends both to חוקיו, His statutes, the laws that appear to have no rationale, as well as מצותיו ומשפטיו, His other commandments and His social laws, i.e. the laws governing inter-personal relationships, relationships which are to be administered by terrestrial courts. ולשמע בקלו, "and by listening to His voice;" this is a reference to Torah study. The reason the Torah describes this as G'd's "voice" may be understood with reference to Sifri, 115 where the author asked: "how do we know that if one studies Torah from the mouth of a minor scholar this is equivalent to one's hearing the Torah from G'd's own mouth? Answer: it says in Deut. 15,5 אם שמע תשמע בקול ה׳ אלוקיך (compare Rashi on that verse). Why did the Torah mention Torah study as the last of the virtues Israel is to practice? This is to inform us that even if a person has mastered all the disciplines of Judaism, is thoroughly familiar with all the laws and precepts, he is still obligated to make study of the Torah part of his daily program. It is a commandment all by itself. As long as man lives he has never fully discharged his obligation to engage in the study of Torah as we know from Numbers 19,14: זאת התורה אדם כי ימות באהל. We may translate this as: "this is the obligation to study Torah. It extends until man dies while engaged in its study."