The Lord your God is commanding you this day to follow these statutes and
ordinances. You must be careful to follow them with all your heart and all your
soul. Deuteronomy 26:16
“The Lord your God is commanding you this day” – whenever Israel is
engaged with Torah, the Holy One, blessed be He considers them as having
received Torah from Sinai on that day. Midrash Tana’im
Our Sages taught that we must
cherish God’s mitzvot “as if we heard them today,” [Midrash Tana’im,
Deuteronomy 11:32] and in their comment on our verse, they teach that the
practical way of demonstrating our endearment of the mitzvot is to be
engaged with them. Torah study and practice of mitzvot actively demonstrate
Israel’s feeling of continually renewed receipt of receiving Torah.
Our Sages taught that our attitude
towards the Land of Israel, as well, must be one of daily renewal:
(The Land) should not be in your eyes as an inheritance from your
fathers, but you should see it as a gift which was given you now.
Mechilta
d’Rebbi Shimon bar Yoḥai
Applying the comment of Midrash
Tana’im teaches that concerning the Land as well, the practical sign that
the Children of Israel indeed relate to the Land as a gift of God renewed on a
daily basis is being engaged with the Land; through study of the centrality of
the Land to the Nation of Israel, fulfilling the mitzvot which are
dependent upon the Land and practical development.
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