Mitzvos as protection from physicality

בפסוק ובכל אשר אמרתי כו' ושם אלהים אחרים לא תזכירו.

On the verse "And in all that I have said to you take heed... and the name of other gods you shall not mention" (Shemos 23:13).

The Sefas Emes opens with the pasuk that warns to be careful in all that Hashem commanded, and not to invoke the names of foreign deities.

כתב רש"י ז"ל לעשות כל המצות אזהרה ע"ש.

Rashi z"l writes that "in all that I have said to you" is a warning to fulfill all the mitzvos — see there.

Rashi explains that this phrase is a general admonition (azharah) obligating us in every one of the mitzvos.

והענין כי כל המצות הם שמירה לאדם והם עצות לתקן האיברים לדבוק עצמו בחיות פנימי של האדם ולא לתור אחר הגשמיות.

And the idea is that all the mitzvos are a protection for a person, and they are counsels to repair the limbs, so that one cleaves to the inner life-force of the person and does not chase after physicality.

Each mitzvah is a safeguard and a piece of guidance for refining the body's limbs, helping a person bond to his inner chiyus (life-force) rather than being drawn after gashmiyus (materiality).

נמצא שהגם שהם מ"ע.

It emerges that even though they are positive commandments (mitzvos asei),

Although these are framed as positive obligations to do,

אבל בלא כח אלו המצות.

nevertheless, without the power of these mitzvos,

without the protective force the mitzvos provide,

הגשמיות והטבע מביאין לידי חטא.

physicality and nature lead to sin.

The pull of the material world and of one's nature would inevitably drag a person into transgression.

והרי הם אזהרה דל"ת ג"כ.

And so they [the positive mitzvos] are likewise a warning of a negative commandment (lo sa'aseh).

Because keeping the positive mitzvos is what guards a person from sin, fulfilling them also functions as a protection against the prohibitions.

וז"ש ושם אלהים אחרים לא תזכירו זה בחי' הסתר הטבע וכח תערובות טוב ורע שיש באדם ע"י חטא הראשון.

And this is the meaning of "the name of other gods you shall not mention" — this is the aspect of the concealment of nature, and the force of the mixture of good and evil that exists in a person through the first sin.

"Other gods" alludes to the screen of nature that hides Hashem, and to the inner intermingling of good and evil that entered man through the sin of Adam HaRishon.

לכן נתן לנו הקב"ה תרי"ג מצות להנצל מזה התערובות:

Therefore HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave us 613 mitzvos to be saved from this admixture.

The full system of taryag mitzvos was given precisely so that a person can extricate himself from the confusion of good and evil and reconnect to his inner vitality and to Hashem.

Summary: Even the positive mitzvos serve as a protective warning, because without them the pull of physicality and nature would lead to sin. The prohibition against "other gods" hints at the concealing screen of nature and the mixture of good and evil that entered man through the first sin; Hashem gave the 613 mitzvos as the means to escape that admixture and cleave to one's inner life-force.