Parashat Devarim

Torah Portions

Devarim (“Words”) is the first Torah portion in the Book of Deuteronomy, the final book of the Torah. In it, Moses recounts events from the Israelites’ travels in the desert, like the appointment of judges, the sin of the spies, and the wars with the Emorite kings Sihon and Og.

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Multitudes

TANAKH

In recounting the events of the previous decades, Moses recalls commenting on how numerous the people of Israel have become. He describes the growth both as a blessing and as a burden on his leadership.

Thereupon I said to you, “I cannot bear the burden of you by myself. Your God יהוה has multiplied you until you are today as numerous as the stars in the sky.— May יהוה, the God of your ancestors, increase your numbers a thousandfold, and bless you as promised.— How can I bear unaided the trouble of you, and the burden, and the bickering!

Deuteronomy 1:9-12

Justice in Judgement

TANAKH

Moses explains to the people how he has delegated power to a hierarchy of judges. He emphasizes that he has charged them with ensuring their judgments are ethical and fair.

I charged your magistrates at that time as follows, “Hear out your fellow Israelites, and decide justly between one party and the other—be it a fellow Israelite or a stranger. You shall not be partial in judgment: hear out low and high alike. Fear neither party, for judgment is God’s. And any matter that is too difficult for you, you shall bring to me and I will hear it.”

Deuteronomy 1:16-17

The End of a Generation

TANAKH

After the sin of the spies, the people of Israel are doomed to wander in the wilderness until the passing of the entire generation that sinned. As Moses reminds the following generation of their history, he describes the moment when the last of their forebears had died.

The time that we spent in travel from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the wadi Zered was thirty-eight years, until that whole generation of warriors had perished from the camp, as יהוה had sworn concerning them. Indeed, the hand of יהוה struck them, to root them out from the camp until they were finished off. When all the warriors among the people had died off,

Deuteronomy 2:14-16

Moses and Words

MIDRASH

Parashat Devarim begins the book of Deuteronomy, which largely consists of lengthy speeches by Moses to the people of Israel before his death. Midrash Tanchuma, a medieval collection of midrash, contrasts Moses’s oration in Deuteronomy with his hesitancy about his own ability to speak when his prophecy began back in the book of Exodus.

(Deut. 1:1:) “These are the words that Moses spoke….” Israel said, “Yesterday you said (in Exod. 4:10), ‘I am not a man of words.’ And now you are speaking so much?” Rabbi Isaac said, “If you are impeded in your speech, recite the Torah and you will be healed, [as] Moshe already studied all of the Torah.” (Deut. 1:1, cont.:) “Through the wilderness, in the Arabah near Suph.” This text is related (to Is. 35:6), “Then the lame shall leap like a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall shout for joy.” Come and see. When the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses (in Exod…

Midrash Tanchuma, Devarim 2:1

Reconciling Accounts

COMMENTARY

In Parashat Devarim, Moses recounts many of the narratives of the book of Numbers, including the story of the sin of the spies. As 13th-century Spanish scholar Ramban discusses, certain important details of Moses’s telling do not exactly match the version in the book of Numbers.

ALSO THE ETERNAL WAS ANGRY WITH ME, FOR YOUR SAKES. He is stating: “Behold, the sin you committed then in the affair of the spies withheld from you the good Land, and yet you continued to sin another time [i.e., at the waters of Meribah] until you prevented me as well, from crossing [the Jordan].” For Moses wanted to mention simultaneously that the punishment of all who were prevented from passing into the Land, was caused by their sins. Also in order to mention here the matter of Joshua, that he would cross over because he followed G-d wholeheartedly as did his colleague [Caleb], and…

Ramban on Deuteronomy 1:37:1

Brothers’ Blessings

MIDRASH

While the people of Israel go to war against several nations in their time in the wilderness, God instructs them to be careful to avoid fighting with the descendants of Esau in Seir. Devarim Rabbah, an early medieval midrash on the book of Deuteronomy, discusses Esau and Israel’s entangled relationship.

Another matter, what is “You [have circled] enough…”? Rabbi Aḥa said: If you harm him, you are really harming yourselves. How so? His father blessed him with one blessing: “By your sword you will live” (Genesis 27:40), and he blessed Jacob with ten blessings. From where is this derived? As it is written: “God will give you from the dew of the heavens” (Genesis 27:28). If his blessing is void, your ten blessings will be void – “you have circled enough…”

Devarim Rabbah 1:18

Moses’s Voice

COMMENTARY

The book of Deuteronomy, beginning with Parashat Devarim, almost entirely comprises speeches made by Moses to the people of Israel. Contemporary scholar Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg explores the psychological qualities that emerge from this literary form.

He is the narrator of the saga, and he tells it with quiet emphasis on his own role in it. Most strikingly, he recounts his own past speeches to the people, in his own words—as he now remembers them. What comes to light is not only his perspective on the nation’s shared history but also his idiosyncratic memory of his own words, of his own voice echoing through time. This reflexivity gives new voice to Moses’ inner world. More precisely, it gives voice to the intersubjective world created between himself and his people…

Moses; A Human Life, 5 "Moses wrote his own book" 3-5

The Leadership of Followers

CHASIDUT

In Moses’s reproachful retelling of the episode of the spies, the people of Israel urged him to send the scouts ahead into the promised land, and he approved the idea. Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter, the leader of the Gerer Chassidic community at the turn of the 20th century, derives a lesson about the relationship between leaders and followers from those verses.

(Devarim 1:23) “And it was good in my eyes” (to send spies to Eretz Yisrael). The question is asked, why is this mentioned in the rebuke that Moshe is giving Bnei Yisrael? It seems that this too is a reason for rebuke, for Bnei Yisrael had actually caused it to appear a good idea in Moshe’s eyes! This is apparent from the pasuk (Devarim 1:12), when Moshe says: “How can I carry the burden of the nation on my own?” Rashi explains that Bnei Yisrael were elevated over and above their judges (their leaders were held accountable for the actions of Bnei Yisrael if they were able to prevent them)…

Sefat Emet, Deuteronomy, Devarim 4:3

Og the (Reasonably) Giant

JEWISH THOUGHT

In describing the defeat of Og, king of Bashan, Parashat Devarim mentions the site of his monumental iron bed. While many traditional sources amplify the fantastical size and superhuman strength of Og, Rambam, the great rationalist scholar of the 12th century, argues that the Og of the Torah is only unusually, and not unreasonably, large.

What Scripture says about Og, “Behold, his bedstead was an iron bedstead, nine cubits its length,” etc. (Deut.), does not belong to this class of figures, for the bedstead (eres, comp. arsenu, Song of Sol. 1:16) is never exactly, of the same dimensions as the person using it; it is not like a dress that fits round the body; it is always greater than the person that sleeps therein; as a rule, is it by a third longer. If, therefore, the bed of Og was nine cubits in length, he must, according to this proportion, have been six cubits high, or a little more…

Guide for the Perplexed, Part 2 47:2

illustration of the word "Elleh" (these), the first word of Devarim, from harley_ms_5710_f110v, Bible with masorah magna and parva. Courtesy British Library Harley 5710.