(יא) כִּ֚י הַמִּצְוָ֣ה הַזֹּ֔את אֲשֶׁ֛ר אָנֹכִ֥י מְצַוְּךָ֖ הַיּ֑וֹם לֹֽא־נִפְלֵ֥את הִוא֙ מִמְּךָ֔ וְלֹ֥א רְחֹקָ֖ה הִֽוא׃(יב) לֹ֥א בַשָּׁמַ֖יִם הִ֑וא לֵאמֹ֗ר מִ֣י יַעֲלֶה־לָּ֤נוּ הַשָּׁמַ֙יְמָה֙ וְיִקָּחֶ֣הָ לָּ֔נוּ וְיַשְׁמִעֵ֥נוּ אֹתָ֖הּ וְנַעֲשֶֽׂנָּה׃(יג) וְלֹֽא־מֵעֵ֥בֶר לַיָּ֖ם הִ֑וא לֵאמֹ֗ר מִ֣י יַעֲבָר־לָ֜נוּ אֶל־עֵ֤בֶר הַיָּם֙ וְיִקָּחֶ֣הָ לָּ֔נוּ וְיַשְׁמִעֵ֥נוּ אֹתָ֖הּ וְנַעֲשֶֽׂנָּה׃(יד) כִּֽי־קָר֥וֹב אֵלֶ֛יךָ הַדָּבָ֖ר מְאֹ֑ד בְּפִ֥יךָ וּבִֽלְבָבְךָ֖ לַעֲשֹׂתֽוֹ׃ (ס)
(11) Surely, this Instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach.(12) It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?”(13) Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who among us can cross to the other side of the sea and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?”(14) No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it.
Duties of the Heart, Eighth Treatise on Examining the Soul 3:164
(164) Through this, it is proper for you, my brother, to understand that the primary intended purpose in the mitzvot which involve the body and the limbs, is to arouse our attention on the mitzvot of the heart and mind, because they are the pillars of the service and they are the roots (and foundations) of the torah, as written: "You shall fear the L-ord, your G-d, worship Him, and cleave to Him.." (Devarim 10:20), and "Rather,[this] thing is very close to you; in your mouth and in your heart to do it" (Devarim 30:14), and "And now, O Israel, what does the L-ord, your G-d, demand of you? Only to fear the L-ord, your G-d, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, and to worship the L-ord, your G-d, with all your heart and with all your soul" (Devarim 10:12).
Sforno on Deuteronomy 30:11:3
You can easily observe this commandment even in the Diaspora where you may not have any Torah scholars nearby.
Ibn Ezra:
לא מעבר לים היא, “neither is it beyond the ocean;” this refers to the Mediterranean, which man cannot cross as even if he had a ship, the surface of the waters are dark and he would get lost at night.
Ramban
The meaning of "because this commandment". Refers to the whole torah. And this is correct because of the whole torah it says (Deuteronomy 8:1) "All the commandment which I [God] command you today". But "this commandment" refers to repentance. Because [the verses] "you will return in your hearts" (Deuteronomy 30:1) and "you will return to the Lord your God" (Deuteronomy 30:2) [prove that] the commandment (to return) that He commanded us to do [is a commandment]. And it was said indirectly to hint at the promise because it will be this way in the future. And the reason to say this is because if your wanderers be in the edges of the heaven and you are in the hands of the nations you will be able to return to God and to do all I [God] command to you today. Because this thing is not too esoteric or distant for you, but rather is very close to you to do it in every time and in every place. And this is the meaning of "in your mouth and in your heart to do it": That they should confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors with their mouths and return in their hearts to God and welcome onto themselves today the torah to do it the generations as it is mentioned (Deuteronomy 30:2) "you and your children with all of your heart" as I have explained there.
Rabeinu Bachya on Deut 30:14
בפיך ובלבבך לעשותו, “with your mouth and your heart to perform it.” The Torah mentions three things here; the mouth, the heart, and the performance. All the laws of the Torah are included therefore as belonging to one of these three categories. There are commandments which require to be fulfilled by use of the mouth; others can be fulfilled by means of the heart only; still others require “performance,” i.e. the involvement of other organs and parts of our bodies. This is what may have prompted our sages in Avot 1,20 to state that “the world stands on three things, on Torah, on service to the Lord, and on the performance of deeds of loving kindness.” When the sages said: “on the Torah,” they meant on our engaging our mouth in the service of the Lord; when they said: “on service to the Lord,” they meant that our hearts had to be involved in fulfilling the commandments. Commandments which require the participation of our heart rank higher than those which can be discharged by means of only our mouths. This is the reason that when someone who is engaged in studying Torah (using his mouth to serve the Lord) must interrupt his studies when it is time to perform a commandment requiring our heart, i.e. the reading of the first line of the Kriyat Shema. (compare Shabbat 11) According to Rabbi Yehudah haNassi (Berachot 13) it is only the first verse in that paragraph which requires the kind of concentration that one must interrupt regular Torah study in order to perform it properly.
Mitzvah-performance which necessitates the mouth is ranked higher than the performance of commandments which involve other parts of our body such as offering sacrifices. (Tanchuma Tzav 14) This is based on Leviticus 7,31 seeing it does not say זאת התורה , עולה וגו' but זאת התורה לעולה, למנחה, וגו', “i.e. that there are viable or even superior alternatives to the offering of sacrificial animals. Ed.] This is the reason the word ובלבבך has been written in the middle of the three categories, to emphasize its centrality, the fact that it is the most important of the three. This is why performance, i.e. with the limbs and organs of the body, has been written only at the end of the verse.
Nachmanides, at the end of verse 11 writes as follows: the words בפיך ובלבבך refer to the subject of penitence, repentance, a commandment spelled out in verse 2 of our chapter. When the Torah speaks of this repentance it draws attention to the fact that it is not so difficult to fulfill this commandment.
Mitzvah-performance which necessitates the mouth is ranked higher than the performance of commandments which involve other parts of our body such as offering sacrifices. (Tanchuma Tzav 14) This is based on Leviticus 7,31 seeing it does not say זאת התורה , עולה וגו' but זאת התורה לעולה, למנחה, וגו', “i.e. that there are viable or even superior alternatives to the offering of sacrificial animals. Ed.] This is the reason the word ובלבבך has been written in the middle of the three categories, to emphasize its centrality, the fact that it is the most important of the three. This is why performance, i.e. with the limbs and organs of the body, has been written only at the end of the verse.
Nachmanides, at the end of verse 11 writes as follows: the words בפיך ובלבבך refer to the subject of penitence, repentance, a commandment spelled out in verse 2 of our chapter. When the Torah speaks of this repentance it draws attention to the fact that it is not so difficult to fulfill this commandment.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
What Moses meant in those extraordinary words, “It is not in heaven…nor is it beyond the sea,” was: Kinderlach, your parents trembled when they heard the voice of God at Sinai. They were overwhelmed. They said: If we hear any more we will die. So God found ways in which you could meet Him without being overwhelmed. Yes, He is creator, sovereign, supreme power, first cause, mover of the planets and the stars. But He is also parent, partner, lover, friend. He is Shechinah, from shachen, meaning, the neighbour next door…. When you cannot see Him, it is because you are looking in the wrong direction. When He seems absent, He is there just behind you, but you have to turn to meet Him. Do not treat Him like a stranger. He loves you. He believes in you. He wants your success. To find Him you do not have to climb to heaven or cross the sea. His is the voice you hear in the silence of the soul. His is the light you see when you open your eyes to wonder. His is the hand you touch in the pit of despair. His is the breath that gives you life.
Rabbi Avi Weinstein, "No Deposit, No Return."
In [Deuteronomy 8:1] the people of Israel are exhorted to do the commandment as a condition for entering the land. While in [Deuteronomy 30:11-14], Israel is exhorted to keep the commandment as an antidote to exile. If we return to God, then God returns to us, and therefore we will return together to the land that was promised.
Nachmanides [aka Ramban, 13th c. Spain] says that in Deuteronomy 8, the commandment is referring to the entire Torah and that the singular is used to emphasize that it represents all of God’s word. In Deuteronomy 30 however, he said it is referring to only one commandment, to return to God, for this is the one thing that is never beyond reach, but "rather near to you is the word, exceedingly, in your mouth and in your heart…"
This is what change is all about–Nahmanides is empowering us to remember that we can always resolve to be different irrespective of where we live, what we have or who we have become. It is always close; it is always within reach because it is within all of us.
§ We learned in a mishna there (Kelim 5:10): If one cutan earthenware oven widthwise into segments, and placed sand between each and every segment, Rabbi Eliezer deems it ritually pure.And the Rabbis deem it ritually impure. And this is known as the oven of akhnai.
The Gemara asks: What is the relevance of akhnai, a snake, in this context? Rav Yehuda said that Shmuel said: It is characterized in that manner due to the fact that the Rabbis surrounded it with their statements like this snake, which often forms a coil when at rest, and deemed it impure.
The Sages taught: On that day, when they discussed this matter,
(1) Rabbi Eliezer answered all possible answers in the world to support his opinion, but the Rabbis did not accept his explanations from him. After failing to convince the Rabbis logically,
(2) Rabbi Eliezer said to them:
If the halakha is in accordance with my opinion, this carob tree will prove it.
The carob tree was uprooted from its place one hundred cubits, and some say four hundred cubits.
The Rabbis said to him:
One does not cite halakhic proof from the carob tree.
(3) Rabbi Eliezer then said to them: If the halakha is in accordance with my opinion, the stream will prove it. The water in the stream turned backward and began flowing in the opposite direction.
They said to him: One does not cite halakhic proof from a stream.
(4) Rabbi Eliezer then said to them: If the halakha is in accordance with my opinion, the walls of the study hall will prove it. The walls of the study hall leaned inward and began to fall.
Rabbi Yehoshua scolded the walls and said to them: If Torah scholars are contending with each other in matters of halakha, what is the nature of your involvement in this dispute? The Gemara relates: The walls did not fall because of the deference due Rabbi Yehoshua, but they did not straighten because of the deference due Rabbi Eliezer, and they still remain leaning.
(5) Rabbi Eliezer then said to them: If the halakha is in accordance with my opinion, Heaven will prove it. A Divine Voice emerged from Heaven and said: Why are you differing with Rabbi Eliezer, as the halakha is in accordance with his opinion in every place that he expresses an opinion?
Rabbi Yehoshua stood on his feet and said: It is written: “It is not in heaven” (Deuteronomy 30:12).
The Gemara asks: What is the relevance of the phrase “It is not in heaven” in this context? Rabbi Yirmeya says: Since the Torah was already given at Mount Sinai, we do not regard a Divine Voice, as You already wrote at Mount Sinai, in the Torah: “After a majority to incline” (Exodus 23:2). Since the majority of Rabbis disagreed with Rabbi Eliezer’s opinion, the halakha is not ruled in accordance with his opinion.
Rabbi Natan encountered Elijah the prophet and said to him: What did the Holy One, Blessed be He, do at that time, when Rabbi Yehoshua issued his declaration? Elijah said to him: The Holy One, Blessed be He, smiled and said: My children have triumphed over Me; My children have triumphed over Me.
Rabbi Bradley Artson, "On this Day God Calls to You"
Some look to religion to transmit a sense of the majesty of the past. Traditions, because they come to us from a purer time, embody fragile vessels carrying remnants of a lost insight.
Such a view of Judaism correctly perceives the treasures of our ancestors’ seeking and recording their relationship with God. But it errs in transforming the record of that search into a type of fossil, a brittle relic that can only be passed from hand to hand, without any direct contribution from the viewer.
Such an idolization of the past removes God from the theater of our own lives, and threatens to trivialize the worth of our own continuing journeys, to ignore the harvest of our own insight and response. The Torah itself rejects this excessive veneration of the past.
In clear terms, Moses tells the Jewish People, "You stand this day, all of you, before the Lord your God . . . to enter into the covenant of the Lord your God, which the Lord your God is concluding with you this day . . . that He may establish you this day as His people and be your God."
Three times, Moses stresses the phrase, "this day," emphasizing the contemporaneity of God’s outreach to the Jewish People. Rashi notices this repetition, and comments that the chorus of "this day" indicates that, "just as this day enlightens, so will God enlighten [the Jewish People] in the future."