These are the words (1:1). This parashah is read in the synagogue on the Sabbath immediately preceding Tishah B’Av, the annual commemoration of the destructions of the First and Second Temples. Therefore, the haftarah reading (from Isaiah 1:1–27) and many of the rabbinic commentaries focus on images and themes of rebuke, in which Israel is called upon to repent and embrace a higher level of moral and ethical conduct.
Midrash Sifrei D’varim 1 is devoted almost entirely to the subject of rebuke. The midrash explains that Moses wrote the entire Torah, not just “these…words.” If so, the midrash responds, then “these words” must be words of reproof as similarly seen in Amos, Jeremiah, and in reference to King David, “These are the last words of David” (I Samuel 23:1). However, according to Sifrei D’varim 1, in some cases it is God, rather than Moses, who voices criticism. For example, God rebukes the Israelites for complaining about the manna they ate during their trek in the wilderness (Numbers 21:5), asserting that kings would willingly choose to eat such a food for its apparent health benefits. The Israelites’ ingratitude reminds God of another ancestor, Adam, who was given Eve as a helper and mate—but then blamed her for his disobedience in eating the fruit (Genesis 3:12). In this unusual interpretation of Genesis 2–3, the Israelites’ behavior is explained through a comparison with Adam, whom the Rabbis deem cowardly and unjust in attributing his own sin to Eve.
Elsewhere, the Rabbis view rebuke as a vehicle for repentance. In P’sikta D’Rav Kahana 15:5 (Mandelbaum edn.), a late midrashic compilation based on the liturgical cycle of holy days, the midrash for the Shabbat before Tishah B’Av focuses on Israel’s abandonment of the study of Torah and its subsequent disastrous results: the destructions of the First and Second Temples. The Rabbis observe that a person who forsakes God but continues to study Torah will return to God by means of the power of the Torah itself.
It was in the fortieth year (1:3). The Sages understood this phrase to mean that Moses did not rebuke the Israelites until he was about to die. A midrash found in Sifrei D’varim 2 and B’reishit Rabbah 54.3 cites a number of other cases of deathbed rebuke (including Abraham, Isaac, and Joshua), and then explains why one should not reprove another person until one’s death is near. The reasons include avoiding reproaching another person repeatedly, preserving the chastised person from shame in the presence of the rebuker, preventing the individual from holding a grudge against the rebuker, and permitting the rebuked one to leave in peace, “for rebuke should bring about peace.”
Do not harass the Moabites…You will then be close to the Ammonites (2:9, 19). The Rabbis often interpret these verses about Moab and Ammon in relation to Ruth and Naamah, two foreign women who influenced Israelite history. According to the Bible, Ruth, a Moabite, remained faithful to her mother-in-law Naomi after both were widowed, and she adopted Naomi’s people and their way of life. With Naomi’s help, Ruth married Boaz, and became King David’s great-grandmother. Naamah, an Ammonite, was King Solomon’s wife and the mother of Rehoboam, the king of Judah after Solomon (I Kings 14:21). On their behalf, according to BT Bava Kama 38b, God instructed Moses not to wage war against the Moabites or Ammonites: “The idea you have in your mind is not the idea I have in My mind. In the future I will bring forth two doves from them: Ruth the Moabite and Naamah the Ammonite” (also BT Nazir 23b, BT Horayot 10b–11a).
These talmudic passages also note that Lot’s two daughters were the matriarchs of Moab and Ammon through incestuous relations with their father (Genesis 19:37–38). The exegetical etymologies of the names of the offspring, and therefore of the tribes, are significant to the Rabbis. They view the name of the elder daughter’s son (Moab, or “my father”) as a reference to the sinful incestuous act, which explains for them why God forbade war with Moab but did not restrict Israel from harassing this potential enemy. The Rabbis use a Greek word, no doubt familiar from Roman rule, to describe this harassment as the seizure or subjugation of Moab for forced labor, particularly for public works projects. In the case of the younger daughter’s son (Ben-ammi, meaning “son of my people,” and rendered as Ammon), no reference is made to incest. As a result, the Sages explain, God forbade Israel from either warring with or harassing the Ammonites.
—Deborah Green