devarim: a man of few words
Hey friends,
Welcome to Devarim :) I'm feeling really grateful for the Torah cycle this week. It's so nice to have study practice like this that just keeps moving on, when in real life I feel like I'm trying to follow these incredibly helpful direction signs posted on the local walking trail (yes, there is a sign in the second photo!)
I'm going to be very brief this week. To be totally honest, I have a long weekend off from work. I had planned to spend this morning working on the newsletter but I am filled with a powerful desire to not look at the computer (my full time job now is staring at a computer and typing words or commenting on other people's words.)
But! Here are my slightly-edited study notes on Devarim 1:5-6 (which I also studied this week with The Torah Studio):
On the other side of the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this Teaching. He said:
Our God haShem spoke to us at Horeb, saying: You have stayed long enough at this mountain.
Start out and make your way
Some brief comments:
הואיל/"undertook"
Rashi interprets as התחיל/"he began". He connects this to Bereishis 18:27, where Avraham says "I have begun to speak to my lord, though I am dust and ashes". But Avraham says this in the middle of his argument with haShem over the destruction of Sodom, not at the beginning. He has already convinced haShem to forgive Sodom if there are fifty innocent, and now Avraham is arguing for saving the city even if only 45 people there are innocent.
Similarly, when Moshe begins to expound this Torah, he begins after Sinai, not with the creation of the world or the flood or Avraham or Yaakov or or or.
Two directions my thoughts are going:
There are no true beginnings. Even the opening of Bereishis hints at worlds created before our own (note: find linkable source)
This Torah begins once you're arguing for as few people to suffer as possible
The Torah begins after the Torah is given: the key to Torah is not receiving it, but living it
באר/"expounded"
What does "he expounded this Torah" mean -- why not "said" or "taught"? Midrash Tanchuma:
בְּסוֹף אַרְבָּעִים שָׁנָה שֶׁיָּצְאוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל מִמִּצְרַיִם, הִתְחִיל מְפָרֵשׁ הַתּוֹרָה בְּשִׁבְעִים לָשׁוֹן, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: בֵּאֵר אֶת הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת. הַפֶּה שֶׁאָמַר, לֹא אִישׁ דְּבָרִים אֲנֹכִי, אָמַר אֵלֶּה הַדְּבָרִים
at the end of forty years when Israel went out from Mitzrayim, he began to explain the Torah in seventy languages, as it is written: "he expounded this Torah." The mouth that said "I am not a man of words", said "These are the words" (Devarim 1:1)
Two points
Moshe did not teach the Torah in just one language, but in seventy. Even with the emphatic this Torah, Moshe in fact teaches these Torahs: Torah in all the languages a person at that time might speak.
The mouth that said "I am not a man of words", said "These are the words"
The mouth that said "I am not a man of words", said "These are the words"
רב לכם שבת/"you have stayed long enough"
While the pshat is "you have stayed long enough" a very literal read is something like "great for you dwelling [in this mountain]". Sifrei Devarim explains:
Much reward has accrued to you by dwelling in this mountain: Upon it you accepted the Torah upon yourselves, I appointed for you seventy elders, officers of thousands, officers of hundreds, officers of fifties, and officers of tens, I made for you the mishkan and its vessels
Two points
I think it is interesting that the Torah and mishkan are in the same list as the political/military organization of the society. In Sifrei Devarim, this organization comes directly from haShem. But in Devarim itself, according to Moshe, the Israelites themselves chose their leaders: "Set for yourselves men of wisdom, discernment, and knowledge for your tribes and I will place them as your leaders." Organizing our own communities is haShem organizing our communities, and organizing our communities is sacred just as the Torah and mishkan are.
Why leave? If so much reward has come from staying at this mountain, why not stay longer? It's interesting that Sinai here is referred to as Khorev, a word that speaks of desolation, destruction, and waste. There's growth in desolation, but only if we ultimately turn away from it (please read Xava deCordova's piece on the Joy of Tisha B'Av).
"turn" is actually the next word in the verse: "much reward to you from dwelling at this mountain, פנו/turn and make your way...."
Conclusion
I want to leave you with a quote from my study this week that is just incredibly Jewish. From the Midrash Tanchuma referenced earlier:
אֵלֶּה הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר דִּבֵּר מֹשֶׁה וְגוֹ'. אָמְרוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל, אֶתְמוֹל אָמַרְתָּ, לֹא אִישׁ דְּבָרִים אֲנֹכִי, וְעַכְשָׁו אַתָּה מְדַבֵּר כָּל כָּךְ
"These are the words that Moshe spoke..."
Israel said: "Yesterday, you said I am not a man of words and now you have all this to say??"
nu, she kept saying she had two thoughts and listing three....
Good shabbos,
ada