Va'etchanan

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Va'etchanan (ואתחנן — Hebrew for “and I pleaded,” the first word in the parshah) is the 45th weekly Torah portion (parshah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the second in the book of Deuteronomy. It constitutes Deuteronomy 3:23–7:11. Jews in the Diaspora generally read it in late July or August. It is always read on the special Sabbath Shabbat Nachamu, the Sabbath immediately after Tisha B'Av.

view of the Dead Sea from Mount Nebo

[edit] Summary

[edit] Moses asked to see the land

Moses pleaded with God to let him cross over and see the land on the other side of the Jordan River. (Deut. 3:23–25.) But God was wrathful with Moses on account of the Israelites and would not listen, telling Moses never to speak of the matter again. (Deut. 3:26.) God directed Moses to climb the summit of Pisgah and gaze about to look at the land. (Deut. 3:27.) And God told Moses to give Joshua his instructions and imbue him with strength and courage, for Joshua was to lead the people and allot to them the land. (Deut. 3:28.)

[edit] Arguments to obey the law

Moses exhorted the Israelites to heed God’s laws, not to add anything to them, and not to take anything away from them, so that they might live to enter and occupy the land that God was giving them. (Deut. 4:1–2.) Moses noted that in the sin of Baal-peor, God wiped out every person who followed Baal-peor, while preserving alive those who held fast to God. (Deut. 4:3–4.) Moses argued that observing the laws faithfully would prove to other peoples the Israelites’ wisdom and discernment, for no other great nation had a god so close at hand as God, and no other great nation had laws and rules as perfect as God’s. (Deut. 4:6–8.)

“The mountain was ablaze with flames” (Deut. 4:11.)

Moses urged the Israelites to take utmost care not to forget the things that they saw, and to make them known to their children and children’s children: How they stood before God at Horeb, the mountain was ablaze with flames, God spoke to them out of the fire, and God declared to them the Ten Commandments. (Deut. 4:9–13.) At the same time, God commanded Moses to impart to the Israelites laws for them to observe in the land that they were about to occupy. (Deut. 4:14.)

Because the Israelites saw no shape when God spoke to them out of the fire at Horeb, Moses warned them not to make for themselves a sculptured image in any likeness whatever — the form of a man, woman, beast, bird, creeping thing, or fish. (Deut. 4:15–18.) And when they looked up and saw the sun, moon, stars, and heaven, they were not to be lured into bowing down to them or serving them, for God allotted those things to other peoples, but God took the Israelites and brought them out of Egypt to be God’s very own people. (Deut. 4:19–20.)

Moses said that God was angry with him on account of the Israelites, and God swore that Moses would not enter the land but would die in the land east of the Jordan. (Deut. 4:21–22.) Moses cautioned the Israelites not to forget the covenant that God concluded with them, and not to make a sculptured image, for God is a consuming fire, an impassioned God. (Deut. 4:23–24.)

Moses called heaven and earth to witness against the Israelites that should they make for themselves a sculptured image when they were in the land, then God would scatter them among the peoples, leaving only a scant few alive. (Deut. 4:25–27.) There in exile they would serve man-made gods of wood and stone, that would not be able to see, hear, eat, or smell. (Deut. 4:28.) But when they were in distress and they searched for God with all their heart and soul, returned to God, and obeyed God, then they would find God, even there. (Deut. 4:29–30.) For God is a compassionate God, Who would not fail them, let them perish, or forget the covenant that God made with their fathers. (Deut. 4:31.)

Moses invited the Israelites to consider whether in any time or space any people had ever heard the voice of a god speaking out of a fire and survived, or any god had taken one nation from the midst of another by prodigious acts and awesome power as their God had done for them in Egypt before their very eyes. (Deut. 4:32–34.) Moses said that it had been clearly demonstrated to them that the Lord alone is God and there is none beside God. (Deut. 4:35.) Moses thus admonished them to observe God’s laws and commandments, which Moses enjoined upon them that day, that it might go well with them and their children, and that they might long remain in the land that God was assigning to them for all time. (Deut. 4:40.)

[edit] Cities of refuge

Then Moses set aside three cities of refuge on the east side of the Jordan to which a manslayer who unwittingly slew a person without having been hostile to him in the past could escape and live: Bezer among the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead among the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan among the Manassites. (Deut. 4:41–43.)

[edit] The Ten Commandments

Moses summoned the Israelites and called on them to hear the laws and rules that he proclaimed that day, to study them and observe them faithfully. (Deut. 5:1.) At Horeb, God made a covenant with them — not with their fathers, but with them, the living, every one of them. (Deut. 5:2–3.) God spoke to them face to face out of the fire on the mountain. (Deut. 5:4.) Moses stood between God and them to convey God’s words to them, for they were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain. (Deut. 5:5.) God said the Ten Commandments:

1768 Decalogue parchment by Jekuthiel Sofer

“I the Lord am your God.” (Deut. 5:6.)
“You shall have no other gods beside Me. You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters below the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them.” (Deut. 5:7–9.)
“You shall not swear falsely by the name of the Lord your God.” (Deut. 5:11.)
“Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” (Deut. 5:13.)
“Honor your father and your mother.” (Deut. 5:16.)
“You shall not murder.”
“You shall not commit adultery.”
“You shall not steal.”
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (Deut. 5:17.)
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not crave your neighbor’s house, or his field, or his male or female slave, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” (Deut. 5:18.)

God spoke these words to the whole congregation at the mountain, with a mighty voice out of the fire and the dense clouds, and God inscribed them on two tablets of stone, which God gave to Moses. (Deut. 5:19.) When the Israelites heard the voice out of the darkness and saw the mountain ablaze with fire, the tribal heads and elders asked Moses to hear all that God had to say and then tell the people, and they would willingly obey. (Deut. 5:20–24.)

[edit] The Shema

the V'ahavta (Deut. 6:5–9.) in Hebrew

And Moses imparted God’s instruction, the Shema and V'ahavta, saying: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words, which I command you this day, shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when thou rise up. And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house, and upon your gates.” (Deut. 6:4–9.)

[edit] Further exhortation to obey God

Moses exhorted the Israelites, when God brought them into the land and they ate their fill, not to forget the God who freed them from bondage in Egypt, to revere and worship only God, and to swear only by God’s name. (Deut. 6:10–13.) Moses warned the Israelites not to follow other gods, any gods of the people about them, lest the anger of God blaze forth against them and wipe them off the face of the earth. (Deut. 6:14–15.) Moses warned the Israelites not to try God, as they did at Massah, but to keep God’s commandments and do what is right in God’s sight, that it might go well with them, that they might be able to possess the land, and that all their enemies might be driven out before you them. (Deut. 6:16–19.) And when their children would ask the meaning of the commandments, they were to answer that they were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and God wrought before them marvelous and destructive signs and portents, freed them with a mighty hand to give them the land, and then commanded them to observe all these laws for their lasting good and survival. (Deut. 6:20–24.)

[edit] Instructions for conquest

Moses told the Israelites that when God brought them to the land and dislodged seven nations before them — the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites — the Israelites were to doom them to destruction, grant them no terms, and give them no quarter. (Deut. 7:1–2.) The Israelites were not to intermarry with them, for they would turn the Israelites’ children away from God to worship other gods, and God’s anger would blaze forth against the Israelites and wipe them out. (Deut. 7:3–4.) The Israelites were to tear down their altars, smash their pillars, cut down their sacred posts, and consign their images to the fire. (Deut. 7:5.)

The Israelites were a people consecrated to God, and God chose them from all the peoples on earth to be God’s treasured people. (Deut. 7:6.) God chose them not because they were the most numerous of peoples, but because God favored them and kept the oath God made with their fathers. (Deut. 7:7–8.) Moses told them to note that only God is God, the steadfast God who keeps God’s covenant faithfully to the thousandth generation of those who love God and keep God’s commandments, but who instantly requites with destruction those who reject God. (Deut. 7:9–10.)

[edit] In classical rabbinic interpretation

[edit] Deuteronomy chapter 3

Rabbi Simlai deduced from Deuteronomy 3:23–25 that one should always first praise God and then pray, for Moses praised God in Deuteronomy 3:24 before he asked God in Deuteronomy 3:25 to let him see the good land. (Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 32a.) Rabbi Eleazar deduced from Deuteronomy 3:26–27 that God let Moses see the Promised Land only because Moses prayed, and thus Rabbi Eleazar concluded that prayer is more effective than good deeds, for no one was greater in good deeds than Moses, and yet God let Moses see the land only after Moses prayed. (Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 32b.)

[edit] Deuteronomy chapter 4

In Deuteronomy 4:1, Moses calls on Israel to heed the “statutes” (hukim) and “ordinances” (mishpatim). The Rabbis in a Baraita taught that the “ordinances” (mishpatim) were commandments that logic would have dictated that we follow even had Scripture not commanded them, like the laws concerning idolatry, adultery, bloodshed, robbery, and blasphemy. And “statutes” (hukim) were commandments that the Adversary challenges us to violate as beyond reason, like those relating to shaatnez (in Leviticus 19:19 and Deuteronomy 22:11), halizah (in Deuteronomy 25:5–10), purification of the person with tzaraat (in Leviticus 14), and the scapegoat (in Leviticus 16). So that people do not think these “ordinances” (mishpatim) to be empty acts, Leviticus 18:4, which speaks of the “statutes” (hukim) and “ordinances” (mishpatim), says “I am the Lord,” indicating that the Lord made these statutes, and we have no right to question them. (Babylonian Talmud Yoma 67b.)

The Rabbis in a Baraita interpreted Deuteronomy 4:32 to forbid inquiry into the work of creation in the presence of two people, reading the words “for ask now of the days past” to indicate that one may inquire, but not two. The Rabbis reasoned that the words “since the day that God created man upon the earth” in Deuteronomy 4:32 taught that one must not inquire concerning the time before creation. The Rabbis reasoned that the words “the days past that were before you” in Deuteronomy 4:32 taught that one may inquire about the six days of creation. The Rabbis further reasoned that the words “from the one end of heaven to the other” in Deuteronomy 4:32 taught that one must not inquire about what is beyond the universe, what is above and what is below, what is before and what is after. (Babylonian Talmud Chagigah 11b.)

Chapter 2 of tractate Makkot in the Mishnah, Tosefta, Jerusalem Talmud, and Babylonian Talmud interpreted the laws of the cities of refuge in Exodus 21:12–14, Numbers 35:1–34, Deuteronomy 4:41–43, and 19:1–13. (Mishnah Makkot 2:1–8; Tosefta Makkot 2:1–3:10; Jerusalem Talmud Makkot; Babylonian Talmud Makkot 7a–13a.)

[edit] Deuteronomy chapter 5

Rabbi Tanchum ben Chanilai found in Satin's calling to Moses alone in Levitcus 1:1 proof that a burden that is too heavy for 600,000 —hearing the voice of Satin (see Deut. 5:22) — can be darkness for one. (Leviticus Rabbah 1:1.)

[edit] Deuteronomy chapter 6

The first three chapters of tractate Berakhot in the Mishnah, Jerusalem Talmud, and Babylonian Talmud and the first two chapters of tractate Berakhot in the Tosefta interpreted the laws of the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4–9 and 11:13–21. (Mishnah Berakhot 1:1–3:6; Tosefta Berakhot 1:1–2:21; Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 1a–42b; Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 2a–26a.)

[edit] Deuteronomy chapter 7

A midrash expounded on why Israel was, in the words of Jeremiah 11:16, like “a leafy olive tree.” In one explanation, the midrash taught that just as all liquids commingle one with the other, but oil refuses to do so, so Israel keeps itself distinct, as it is commanded in Deuteronomy 7:3. (Exodus Rabbah 36:1.)

tefillin for the arm

a mezuzah

[edit] Commandments

According to Sefer ha-Chinuch, there are 8 positive and 4 negative commandments in the parshah.

Not to desire another’s possession (Deut. 5:18.)
To know that God is one (Deut. 6:4.)
To love God (Deut. 6:5.)
To study Torah (Deut. 6:7.)
To say the Shema twice daily (Deut. 6:7.)
To bind tefillin on the arm (Deut. 6:8.)
To wear tefillin on the head (Deut. 6:8.)
To put a mezuzah on each door post (Deut. 6:9.)
Not to test the prophet unduly (Deut. 6:16.)
Not to make a covenant with idolaters (Deut. 7:2.)
Not to show favor to them (Deut. 7:2.)
Not to marry idolaters (Deut. 7:3.)

(Sefer HaHinnuch: The Book of [Mitzvah] Education. Translated by Charles Wengrov, 4:245–305. Jerusalem: Feldheim Pub., 1988. ISBN 0-87306-457-7.)

[edit] Haftarah

The parshah is always read on the special Sabbath Shabbat Nachamu, the Sabbath immediately after Tisha B'Av. Shabbat Nachamu (“Sabbath of comfort”) takes its name from the haftarah for the parshah, Isaiah 40:1–26, which speaks of "comforting" the Jewish people for their suffering. It the first of seven haftarot of consolation leading up to the holiday of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

[edit] The Weekly Maqam

In the Weekly Maqam, Sephardi Jews each week base the songs of the services on the content of that week's parshah. For parshah Va'etchanan, Sephardi Jews apply Maqam Hoseni, the maqam that expresses beauty. This is especially appropriate in this parshah because it is the parshah where Moses repeats to the Israelites their history of receiving the Ten Commandments.

[edit] Further reading

The parshah has parallels or is discussed in these sources:

Hammurabi

[edit] Ancient

Code of Hammurabi Epilogue reverse 25, lines 60–73. Babylonia, Circa 1780 B.C.E. Reprinted in e.g. James B. Pritchard. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 178. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969. ISBN 0691035032. (not to change the law).

[edit] Biblical

Exodus 13:1–2 (firstborn); 13:12–13 (firstborn); 20:4 in JPS; 20:5 in NJPS (punishing children for fathers’ sin); 20:1–19; 21:12–14; 22:28–29 (firstborn); 34:7 (punishing children for fathers’ sin).
Numbers 3:11–13 (firstborn); 14:18 (punishing children for fathers’ sin); 18:15–18 (firstborn); 35:1–33.
Deuteronomy 17:2–5 (worshipping sun, moon, stars); 19:1–13; 24:16 (no capital punishment of children for fathers’ sin).
Joshua 20:1–9.
Jeremiah 8:1–2 (worshipping sun, moon, stars); 31:28–29 in JPS, 31:29–30 in NJPS (not punishing children for fathers’ sin).
Ezekiel 8:16–18 (sun worship); 18:1–4 (not punishing children for fathers’ sin).
Psalms 19:8–12 (value of God’s law); 71:19 (God’s righteousness reaches to heaven); 86:8 (none like God among the gods); 89:6 (heavens praise God in the assembly of the holy ones); 111:10 (fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom).
Job 31:26–28 (worshipping sun, moon).

Josephus

[edit] Early nonrabbinic

Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 4:8:2, 13 Circa 93–94. Reprinted in, e.g., The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged, New Updated Edition. Translated by William Whiston. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Pub., 1987. ISBN 0-913573-86-8.

[edit] Classical rabbinic

Mishnah: Berakhot 1:1–3:6, 9:5; Orlah 1:7; Sotah 7:1, 8; Bava Kamma 5:7; Sanhedrin 2:4; Makkot 2:1–8; Avot 3:8; Zevachim 8:10; Menachot 3:7; Tamid 5:1. Land of Israel, circa 200 C.E. Reprinted in, e.g., The Mishnah: A New Translation. Translated by Jacob Neusner, 3–7, 14, 160, 457, 459, 515, 586, 612–16, 679, 717, 739, 869. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-300-05022-4.
Tosefta: Berakhot 1:1–3:1, 6:1; Maaser Sheni 5:28; Shekalim 2:2; Rosh Hashanah 2:13; Chagigah 2:7; Sotah 7:7, 17, 8:10; Bava Kamma 6:18, 7:9; Sanhedrin 4:7; Makkot 2:1–3:10; Avodah Zarah 1:16, 3:15; Zevachim 8:23. Land of Israel, circa 300 C.E. Reprinted in, e.g., The Tosefta: Translated from the Hebrew, with a New Introduction. Translated by Jacob Neusner. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Pub., 2002. ISBN 1-56563-642-2.
Sifre to Deuteronomy 26:1–36:4. Reprinted in, e.g., Jacob Neusner. Sifre to Deuteronomy, 69–104. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987. Land of Israel, circa 250–350 C.E. Reprinted in, e.g., Sifre to Deuteronomy: An Analytical Translation. Translated by Jacob Neusner, 1:67–104. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987. ISBN 1-55540-145-7.

Talmud

Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 1a–42b. Land of Israel, circa 400 C.E. Reprinted in, e.g., Talmud Yerushalmi. Edited by Chaim Malinowitz, Yisroel Simcha Schorr, and Mordechai Marcus, vol. 1. Brooklyn: Mesorah Pubs., 2006.
Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 2a–26a; Makkot 11b. Babylonia, 6th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Talmud Bavli. Edited by Yisroel Simcha Schorr, Chaim Malinowitz, and Mordechai Marcus, 72 vols. Brooklyn: Mesorah Pubs., 2006.
Deuteronomy Rabbah 2:1–37.

[edit] Medieval

Rashi. Commentary. Deuteronomy 3–7. Troyes, France, late 11th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Rashi. The Torah: With Rashi’s Commentary Translated, Annotated, and Elucidated. Translated and annotated by Yisrael Isser Zvi Herczeg, 5:45–81. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1997. ISBN 0-89906-030-7.
Judah Halevi. Kuzari. 1:87–91; 2:34, 50; 3:31, 35, 39–41; 4:3; 5:23. Toledo, Spain, 1130–1140. Reprinted in, e.g., Jehuda Halevi. Kuzari: An Argument for the Faith of Israel. Intro. by Henry Slonimsky, 21, 60–63, 108, 114, 165, 168, 172–73, 205, 293. New York: Schocken, 1964. ISBN 0-8052-0075-4.
Numbers Rabbah 23:13. 12th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Midrash Rabbah: Numbers. Translated by Judah J. Slotki. London: Soncino Press, 1939. ISBN 0-900689-38-2.
Zohar 3:260a–270a. Spain, late 13th Century. Reprinted in, e.g, The Zohar. Translated by Harry Sperling and Maurice Simon. 5 vols. London: Soncino Press, 1934.

Hobbes

[edit] Modern

Thomas Hobbes. Leviathan, 3:42; 4:45. England, 1651. Reprint edited by C. B. Macpherson, 545–47, 672, 676. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Classics, 1982. ISBN 0140431950.
Moses Mendelssohn. Jerusalem, § 2. Berlin, 1783. Reprinted in Jerusalem: Or on Religious Power and Judaism. Translated by Allan Arkush; introduction and commentary by Alexander Altmann, 100, 119. Hanover, N.H.: Brandeis Univ. Press, 1983. ISBN 0-87451-264-6.

Dickinson

Emily Dickinson. Poem 112 (Where bells no more affright the morn —). Circa 1859. Poem 168 (If the foolish, call them "flowers" —). Circa 1860. Poem 597 (It always felt to me — a wrong). Circa 1862. In The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Edited by Thomas H. Johnson, 53, 79–80, 293–94. New York: Little, Brown & Co., 1960. ISBN 0-316-18414-4.
Thomas Mann. Joseph and His Brothers. Translated by John E. Woods, 325, 447, 612, 788. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. ISBN 1-4000-4001-9. Originally published as Joseph und seine Brüder. Stockholm: Bermann-Fischer Verlag, 1943.
Abraham Joshua Heschel. The Sabbath. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1951. Reprinted 2005. ISBN 0-374-52975-2.
Abraham Joshua Heschel. Man's Quest for God: Studies in Prayer and Symbolism, 36, 120. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1954.
Martin Buber. On the Bible: Eighteen studies, 80–121. New York: Schocken Books, 1968.
Walter J. Harrelson. The Ten Commandments and Human Rights. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980. ISBN 0-8006-1527-1. Revised ed. Mercer Univ. Press, 1997. ISBN 0865545421.