Parshat Devarim; Deuteronomy 1:1 -3:22 By: Rabbi Denise L. Eger

We begin the final book of the Pentateuch, Deuteronomy with this week’s portion. Called “Devarim”, the portion shares its name in Hebrew with the entire book. Devarim means words or things in Hebrew. And this book is filled with Moses’ words and many teachings. His final words are directed to the People Israel before his soul his taken by God and he dies on Mt. Nebo looking over the Promised Land. Moses’ words are reminders to the Children of Israel not just of their journey to the edge of Israel but of the covenantal promises God made to them and they made to God. According to the text Moses’ begins his discourse in the eleventh month which would be Shevat counting biblically with Nisan as the first of the year. This is just a month before Moses’ own death which is traditionally marked as Adar 7.

Moses makes this grand final speech and teaching to the people as they are encamped on the steppes of Moab on the eastern side of the Jordan River. We might understand this book of Torah as his ethical will. (An ethical will is a document that shares values, stories, family history and missives from one generation to the next –rather than leaving property or dividing an estate among beneficiaries.) Moshe wants to make sure that the people of Israel and its future leadership does not miss the subtleties of the covenant. He reiterates, restates, and recalls these last forty years. He reminds them of his unique role. He teaches them their history and tries to cajole them to live up to their responsibilities.
Remember those that he is speaking to are not the generation that came out of Egypt. They have died on the journey, in the wilderness. This is a younger generation that will conquer the Promised Land. They did not directly experience many of the miracle of the journey—the fateful night in Egypt when God came down to slay the first born of the Egyptians, the parting of the Red Sea, even the smoke and fire and the voice of God at Mt. Sinai. Thus in the book of Deuteronomy we find the second version of the Ten Commandments, the Shma, the recounting of the people’s infidelities in regards to their relationship with God. He reminds them of the past problems as a way to perhaps avoid future problems! Perhaps they would learn from their parent’s mistakes since it was their parent’s faithlessness that caused the journey of 11 days to turn into a sojourn of forty years. As the opening verses of this portion states, “It is eleven days from Horeb to Kadesh- Barnea by the Mount Seir route,” (Deut.1:2). Horeb is another name for Mt. Sinai and Kadesh-Barnea is where the Children of Israel encamped for most of the forty years in the wilderness. Moses hopes that his final words and final teaching will be heard by this generation that grew up in the wilderness and will become a people in their own land.
The generational gap is real. Each generation has to work out for itself the difficulties and problems that come its way. Even though the generation before experienced many difficulties and perhaps gained tremendous wisdom along the way, youth’s invincible attitudes and sometimes its arrogance often keeps the younger generations from understanding the wisdom gained from its elders. Yes, conditions are different for each generation but general themes of love and faith, friendship and work, war and peace are timeless and belong to no single age or era. Moses’ words try to impart that wisdom to this “wilderness generation”. Like any parent he hopes they are listening!