The book of Deuteronomy as a whole is structured on the model of a covenant, and represents Moses’ renewal of the Sinai covenant with the next generation, who would enter the Promised Land and there create a covenant-based society. Accordingly, the parsha of Devarim opens with the first two elements of a covenant document: a preamble identifying the speaker and…
If someone who knew nothing about Judaism and the Jewish people were to ask you for a single book that would explain them both – who Jews are and why they do what they do – the best answer would be Devarim. No other book so encapsulates and dramatises all the key elements of Judaism as a faith and way…
…the Education Companion section (directly below, in grey). Educational Companion Torah Trivia: this week’s answer Sefer Devarim gains its name from the second word in the first passuk of the book (see Devarim 1:1). It’s also known as Mishneh Torah (Devarim 17:18), which literally means “the repetition of the Torah”, as Moshe spends the majority of this book retelling the…
…his life he stood before the assembled people, and delivered the series of addresses we know as the book of Deuteronomy or Devarim, literally “words.” In these addresses, he reviewed the people’s past and foresaw their future. He gave them laws. Some he had given them before but in a different form. Others were new; he had delayed announcing them until…
…What is striking about the book of Devarim, set entirely in the last month of Moses’ life, is how it shows the aged but still passionate and driven leader, turning to the twin tasks of generativity and keeper of the meaning. It would have been easy for him to retire into an inner world of reminiscence, recalling the achievements of…
The Parsha in a Nutshell The entire book of Devarim is structured like a covenant. It represents Moshe’ renewal of the Sinai covenant with the next generation, who would soon enter the Promised Land and there create a covenant-based society. Accordingly, the parsha of Devarim opens with the first two elements of a covenant document: an introduction pinpointing the speaker…
At the beginning of the book of Devarim, Moses reviews the history of the Israelites’ experience in the wilderness, starting with the appointment of leaders throughout the people, heads of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. He continues: I charged your judges at that time: “Hear the disputes among your people and judge fairly, between one person and another, whether the…
I have argued before, in the case of Vayikra and Bamidbar, that the Hebrew names of the Mosaic books, even though they seem uninformative, in fact convey important insights into the nature of the book. The same is true about the book of Devarim. The book of Devarim is known in English as Deuteronomy from the Greek deuteros nomos, or…
…a transaction. A covenant is a relationship. Or to put it slightly differently: a contract is about interests. A covenant is about identity. It is about you and me coming together to form an ‘Us’. Rabbi Sacks, ‘Morality’, Chapter 4 We have reached the Torah portion of Nitzavim (near the end of the book of Devarim) in which Moses, at…