RABBI PINCHAS AVRUCH (Torah.org)
“Carry out My laws and safeguard My decrees to follow them; I am G-d, your Lord. You shall safeguard My decrees and My laws, which man shall carry out and by which he shall live – I am G-d.” (18:4-5)
As G-d was about to instruct the Jewish nation about propriety in personal relationships, He exhorted them to avoid the corrupt behaviors of the Canaanites and the Egyptians. He demanded their vigilance in maintaining the sanctity of the different categories of Divine instruction, both the laws (practices which would be dictated by reason, even without the Torah’s commands) and decrees (laws unfathomable by human intelligence). But considering the maxim that the Torah does not repeat any words unnecessarily, why does the Torah seemingly repeat the mandate from the first verse, to safeguard and perform the decrees and laws, in the second verse?
Rashi elucidates that the goal of the second verse is to add “safeguarding” (refraining from negative acts of violation) to protect the logical laws, and “carrying out” (the positive imperative of fulfillment) to the realm of the superhuman decrees. But if the goal was that simple, the second verse should
