“ולא תסור מכל הדברים אשר אנכי מצוה אתכם היום ימין ושמאול, ללכת אחרי אלהים אחרים לעבדם” – “And do not turn away from any of the words that I command you this day, right or left, to follow the gods of others, to worship them.”
The posuk begins that one should not turn away from any of the words – referring to not turning away from any of the mitzvos of the Torah. Why does the posuk switch at the end, and say that one should not worship avodah zarah, which is only one of the mitzvos of the Torah? Moreover, the pesukim before this do not even warn about serving avodah zarah, as the only mention of avodah zara is in 27:15 “ארור האיש אשר יעשה פסל ומסכה” – which is a warning not to “make” avodah zarah – but does not discuss worshipping avodah zara.
There are two types of people who transgress the words of the Torah. There are those who have emunah in Hakodosh Boruch Hu, however, their yetzer hara overpowers them, and gets them to transgress the Torah. When the yetzer hara does not overpower them, they do heed the mitzvos of the Torah, and when they transgress the Torah, they recognize that what they did is prohibited. Then there are people whose yetzer hara get them to transgress the words of the Torah hakdosha, however, they refuse to admit to themselves that their actions were improper. They therefore come up with new “shitos”, to explain that what they are doing is correct. Coming up with new shitos will ultimately bring one to worship avodah zara. The posuk here is speaking about those who make for themselves new shitos to explain why they are turning away from the Torah hakdosha. Thus, the posuk says, that one who turns away from all the words of the Torah, meaning that he comes up with explanations and shitos as to why he is not actually following all the words of the Torah, he will ultimately come to worship avodah zara.
This fits in well with the words of the posuk, as the posuk says that one must not turn away from any words, “right or left” – meaning one should not be more to the right, more machmir (stringent), or more to the left, more meikil (lenient). One whose yetzer hara overcomes him, is never “machmir” rather he is always meikil. Thus, the Torah is telling us that we are speaking about one who comes up with new shitos, and at times those shitos are “machmir” – but since it is coming from an evil source, it is improper and wrong, and will bring him to serve avodah zara.
The Torah is teaching us here that we must follow the directive of the Shulchan Aruch, and the chachomim. One should not come up with his own shitos, even if they are more machmir, rather one must follow the mesorah. Elul is a month when we must fix ourselves, and now is a good time to rededicate ourselves to the mesorah – to the psak that we must follow.
