613 Mitzvot
Negative Mitzvah 30
Not to imitate the ways of other nations

The context of this mitzvah is a series of prohibitions against sexual perversions and idolatrous practices. Then YHVH says:

You shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my ordinances, and do them; that the land, where I am bringing you to dwell, may not vomit you out. You shall not walk in the customs of the nation, which I am casting out before you: for they did all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. But I have said to you, You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey." I am YHVH your Elohim, who has separated you from the peoples. You shall therefore make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean fowl and the clean: and you shall not make yourselves abominable by animal, or by bird, or by anything with which the ground teems, which I have separated from you as unclean for you. You shall be holy to me: for I, YHVH, am holy, and have set you apart from the peoples, that you should be mine.” (Vayikra/Leviticus 20:22-26)

YHVH wants us to walk in His ways and not the ways of the nations. He has made us separate from the peoples. He wants us to be holy, because He is holy. We belong to Him, not the world. Notice that one aspect of this holiness is making the distinction between clean and unclean.

Vayikra (Leviticus) 18:3
You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived: and you shall not do as they do in the land of Kena’an, where I am bringing you; neither shall you walk in their statutes.

Rashi said concerning this verse, "the practices of the Egyptians and the Canaanites are the most degenerate of all nations, and that place, in which Israel dwelled, is the most degenerate of all [Goshen]." There may be times when we may be tempted to go back to our old sinful ways.

“Therefore don’t be partakers with them. For you were once darkness, but are now light in YHVH. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is well pleasing to YHVH. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them.” (Ephesians 5:7-11)

that you no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of YHVH. For we have spent enough of our past time doing the desire of the Gentiles, and having walked in lewdness, lusts, drunken binges, orgies, carousings, and abominable idolatries. (1 Kefa/Peter 4:2-3)

The B'nei Yisra'el were not to follow after the actions of the nations they were about to conquer, whom Rashi said were the most degenerate of all nations. In the same way, we are not to learn new ways that are contrary to His Torah.

Why does the torah tell us not to follow after the statutes (chukkah) of the nations even after telling us not to follow their practices? How are statutes (chukkah) different than practices (ma'aseh)? Rashi wrote, "What did Scripture leave over, that it did not state? But these are their traditions, matters that are etched for them." A chukkah (statute, tradition) is a prescribed way of doing things while a ma'aseh (practice, actions, doings) are just deeds in general. Our mitzvah uses the word chukkah, a prescribed way of doing things.

But notice our mitzvah tells us not the follow the customs (chukkah - prescribed ways) of THE NATION, which YHVH is driving out. There were seven nations that He was driving out of Kena'an. Is He refering to a specific nation? Concerning Vayikra (Leviticus) 18:3, Rashi quotes Rabbi Meir saying, "These are the ways of the Amorite (Emori), which the Sages have enumerated." For YHVH had told Avraham that his people would not return to the Land from Egypt until the fourth generation, "for the iniquity of the Emori is not yet full." (Bereshit 15:16). It may be that the Emori [Amorites] were the most generate of all the seven nations. So the Torah portrays them as the example of how NOT to live.

Colossians 2:8
Be careful that you don’t let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Messiah.

Yirmeyah (Jeremiah) 10:2
Thus says YHVH, Don’t learn the way of the nations, and don’t be dismayed at the signs of the sky; for the nations are dismayed at them.

Romans 12:2
Don’t be conformed to haOlam hazzeh (this world), but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of YHVH.

YHVH doesn't want us to imitate the ways of the world because He has set us apart from the ways of the world, and He wants us to be holy, set apart, distinct.