Shalom Friends;
This week, our Parshat HaShevua, Devarim is being sponsored by Mutti and Michele Frankel of Ramat Beit Shemesh dedicated in honor of the recent marriage of Yedidya and Racheli. To the Frankel family, many thanks for your sponsorship and your continued kindnesses.
You can celebrate a Simcha — a birth, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a Chassuna or other Simcha event in your life, or commemorate a Yahrtzeit of a loved one, or for whatever other reason by sponsoring a Parshat HaShevua.
Please forward to your relatives and friends and encourage them to sponsor a Parshat HaShevua. And please be in contact with me with any questions, or for further details.
Best Regards,
Moshe Burt
olehchadash@yahoo.com
skype: mark.burt3
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Sefer Devarim opens:
“Eileh HaDevarim asher dibeir Moshe el kol Yisrael…” “These are the words that Moshe spoke to all Israel,… in the Wilderness, in the Plain, opposite [the Sea of] Reeds, between Paran and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth and Di-zahab;” (Rendered to English in The Sapirstein Edition, “The Torah with Rashi Commentary,” Sefer Devarim, Perek 1, posuk 1)
The Artscroll Stone Chumash characterizes Sefer Devarim’s opening posukim (Sefer Devarim, Perek 1, posukim 1-5) as a veiled rebuke (page 939) :
The entire Sefer Devarim was spoken by Moshe in the last five weeks of his life. …Because they [Am Yisrael] were surely confident that they would not succumb to the alien influences and temptations of Canaan, he [Moshe] began his words by reminding them of the long string of sins and rebellions that marked the forty years since [their Yetziyot Mitzrayim] ; if they and their parents could sin when they were surrounded by miracles, surely there would be greater dangers without constant reminders of Hashem’s Presence. But in order not to embarrass or offend his listeners, Moshe did not mention these sins explicitly; [adverb: in a way that is clearly expressed, demonstrated, or formulated] ; instead, he alluded adjective:mentioned or referred to, especially casually or indirectly; aforesaid] to them by using place names or other veiled references. (The Artscroll Stone Chumash citing Rashi and Onkelos)
Rabbi Shmuel Goldin comments, in his sefer “Unlocking The Torah Text,” Sefer Devarim (page 3) :
The opening words of sefer Devarim immediately set this text apart from the other Divinely authored books of the Torah.
Devarim is Moshe’s book. Recorded almost completely in the first person, this sefer consists primarily of Moshe’s farewell addresses to the B’nei Yisrael on the eve of his death and their entry into the land of Canaan.
Tellingly absent from Devarim, until the sefer’s closing perakim (Rabbi Goldin citing Sefer Devarim, Perek 31, posukim 14, 16 and Perek 32, posuk 48), are all variations of the familiar phrase “and Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying…”
Much of the text of Devarim, instead, seems to spring spontaneously from Moshe’s heart.
Rabbi Goldin now procedes to discuss Moshe’s choice of events for review in the first of his farewell addresses to the nation (ibid, pages 17-18) :
Moshe’s choice of events for review… seems arbitrary and difficult to understand.
If, as many commentators suggest (Rabbi Goldin citing Rashi on Sefer Devarim, Perek 1, posuk 1, Chizkuni on Sefer Devarim, Perek 1, posuk 1, and others), Moshe’s primary goal in his first discourse is to chastise the nation for its past sins, why does he limit his opening narrative to the sin of the spies [miraglim]? Why does he omit other national rebellions, such as… the insurrection of Korach?
If, on the other hand,Moshe’s primary intent at this point is not to chastise [verb: to discipline, to criticize severely] but to simply recall shared experiences with the B’nei Yisrael, why does he leave so much out? Why doesn’t he reference the “rest of the journey”; the all-important formative events of Yetziyot Mitzrayim, the Revelation at Sinai, the building of the Mishkan and more? Why does Moshe begin his narrative in the middle of the story, with the departure from Sinai?
Finally, why does Moshe suddenly jump from events which happened thirty-eight years earlier to current experiences [i.e. Hashem’s Command to turn northward from Mount Seir towards the east bank of the Yardein — the entry point into Canaan, avoidance of conflict with inhabitants of Seir, the nations of Moav and Ammon as Hashem Commanded, the military victories of Sichon, king of Chesbon, and Og, king of Bashan and the dispute and compromise with Shevatim Reuven, Gad and half of Menashe regarding their participation in the conquest of Canaan] without so much as an introduction?
What is the connection between the two sets of events, the past and the current, and why do the decades between them disappear in Moshe’s narrative with hardly a mention?
In short, this author might add to that last paragraph of Rabbi Goldin’s questions, as was the title of the Parshat HaShavua for Parshat Chukat: Where’d the thirty-eight years go? A question that, somehow, never gets answered.
Rabbi Goldin continues by offering an approach (ibid, pages 18 -21) of a number of commentators, including Rabbi David Tzvi Hoffman (Rabbi Goldin citing Rabbi Hoffman on Sefer Devarim, Perek 1, posukim 22-28) :
As Moshe views the scene before him, he is overcome by an unrelenting fear. He sees a people surrounded by circumstances uncannily similar to circumstances experienced by their parents close to forty years earlier. Then, as now, B’nei Yisrael stood poised to enter the land of Canaan.
Perhaps, Moshe reasons apprehensively, this generation will fail, as did their parents, on the very brink of success. Perhaps they too will lose heart in the face of the challenges before them, causing Hashem to deny them their national destiny again.
Recognizing the challenge that he confronts, Moshe sets out to capture and compare two corresponding moments in time, separated by decades. Employing parallel language, he introduces… reflections of the past and the present:
The Lord, our G’d, spoke to us in Horev saying: “Tou have dwelt by this mountain [Mount Sinai] long enough! Turn yourselves and journey…” (Rabbi Goldin citing Sefer Devarim, Perek 1, posukim 6-7)
Close to forty years ago, with these words, Hashem launched your parents’ journey towards Canaan.And the Lord said to me: “You have encircled this mountain [Mount Seir] long enough! Turn yourselves northward…” (Rabbi Goldin citing Sefer Devarim, Perek 2, posukim 2-3)
In a powerful effort to underscore the promise and the peril that lies before the people, Moshe relates the failures of the past to the present. He speaks to this generation as if they were complicit in decades-old events, as if they are responsible for the sins of their parents. He then connects those events to the current challenge facing the nation.
Moshe’s goal is… moral instruction. He is desperate that the people learn, not only of the missteps of the past, but of the real possibility of their own failure.
The failures of the past, Moshe argues, can be blamed only on the nation’s shortcomings. And now, once again, all is in place for success. If, Hashem forbid, you fail, you will have only yourselves to blame.
….With sweeping prose and powerful rhetoric he drives home one significant message: We have been here before and we failed then. Do not repeat past mistakes. Seize this moment with courage and strength and, with Hashem’s help, you will succeed.
Rabbi Goldin concludes (ibid, page 22) :
Moshe challenged Am Yisrael with the first words of his farewell:
We have been there before, you and I. Judaism’s history is, after all, replete [adjective: abundantly supplied or provided; filled] with opportunities presented, lost and presented again.
…Hashem afforded you with the opportunity to succeed. Yet, you failed — through lack of belief, an absence of vision, disloyalty to Hashem and His Commandments, and sinat chinam, reasonless hatred among yourselves.
And now, here we are again, at a time when you have returned to the land and your destiny is achieveable.
Will you learn from the past? Will you correct your flaws? Will you succeed where your ancestors failed?
Your fate rests in your hands.
Our generation, here in Israel, and our brethren throughout the world would do well to abide by these understandings of the first words spoken in Sefer Devarim by Moshe Rabbeinu to Kol Klal Yisrael who were about to enter Canaan — what we know as Eretz Yisrael!
May we, the B’nei Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them, that the thrice expelled families of Amona be restored to their rebuilt homes and the oft-destroyed Yeshiva buildings in Homesh be rebuilt, all at total government expense; due to alt-leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized Yassamnik gunpoint. Baruch Hashem that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard is now in his third year at home in Eretz Yisrael and has embarked on a new chapter in his life. May Esther Yocheved bat Yechiel Avraham have an aliyah in Shemayim and may her spirit and memory continue to lift Jonathan to at least 120 years. May the MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem — as with the return in April, 2019, via Russia, of the remains of Zachariah Baumel, as should the remains of the two chayalim from the Gaza War of nine years ago. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and prevent Chas V’Challila the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. And may we soon and finally see the total end to the Communist Chinese corona virus pandemic and all like viruses. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nei Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem Al’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bimhayrah b’yamainu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
Chodesh Tov and Good Shabbos!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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