The following is a brief summary of a thought said over by R' Frand in his shiur this evening. I have attempted to reproduce this vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistencies are the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.
In Emor 22:31, the Torah states "Ushmartem Mitzvosai Va'asisem Osam" - a command from G-d that we should both be "shomer" (loosely translated as we should watch the mitzvos) as well as "oseh" (translated for our purposes as we should do the mitzvos). Rashi on the spot asks the obvious question - why do we need both concepts of ushmartem and va'asisem? Rashi answers that "ushmartem" teaches us that we need to learn the rules and aspects of the mitzvot and "va'asisem" means that we should do the mitzvot.
In offering another take on the double language, R' Frand mentioned an interesting thought on "ushmartem". He said over that the Chasam Sofer said that the use of the word "ushmartem" is linked to Yaakov's knowledge of what was going on with Yosef in Parshas Vayeshev where it is written "V'aviv Shamar Es Hadavar" - that Yaakov was aware of what was occuring between Yosef and his brothers and remembered it. This is the meaning of "ushmartem" in Parshas Emor - not only should we know about the mitzvot, but we should be constantly aware of the opportunity to do them.
R' Frand then told an interesting story that he himself had been told by an attendee at one of his shiurim. As told by R' Frand, this person had been together with his father on Sukkos when it began to rain before a meal. Under the rules dealing with rain on Sukkos, we know that with the exception of the first day of Sukkos, any time that it is raining so hard that we would be uncomfortable eating in the Sukkah, there is no miztva to eat in the Sukkah and we are instructed to eat inside rather than out in the Sukkah. This person's father was not content to eat inside because of the rain. Instead, the man stood by the window, constantly peering up at the sky to see if perhaps the rain had stopped and they could go out and eat in the Sukkah.
R' Frand related that this level of desire to fulfill the mitzva of Sukkah, to be aware and keep in the back of one's mind the need to do mitzvot, is the meaning of the word "ushmartem" in this week's parsha. We should hope that we too can keep this in our minds and always have an awareness of mitzvot that we can potentially fulfil.
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