Devarim | Moshe's Last Words

INTRODUCTION

 

These are the words that Moshe spoke to all of Israel on the other side of the Yarden, in the wilderness, in the plain, opposite Suf, between Paran and between Tofel, and Lavan and Chatzerot and Di Zahav.  (It was) eleven days' journey from Chorev by way of Mount Se'ir, until Kadesh Barne'a. 

 

And so it was in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, that Moshe spoke to the people of Israel in accordance with all that God commanded him to convey to them.  This was after he had struck down Sichon the King of the Amorites who dwells at Cheshbon, as well as Og King of the Bashan who dwells at Ashtarot in Edre'i. 

 

On the other side of the Yarden in the land of Moav, Moshe began to explicate this Torah by saying: "God our Lord spoke to us at Chorev saying 'it is long enough that you have dwelt at this mountain.  Turn and travel forward and come to the mount of the Amorite and to all of his neighbors – those that dwell in the plain, the hills, the lowlands, the dry lands and the coast of the sea – the land of the Canaanite and the Levanon, all the way until the great river, the Euphrates.  Behold, I have given you the land, come and possess the land that God pledged to your ancestors, to Avraham to Yitzchak and to Yaakov to give it to them, and to their descendents after them…'" (Devarim 1:1-8).

 

Thus begins Sefer Devarim, the final book of the Torah.  In soaring and often exhortative language, an aged Moshe sketches out the indistinct features of his people's future while lucidly recalling their past.  Forty years have elapsed since the time that he took them out of Egyptian bondage, a generation has lived out its allotted years and has perished, and now the people finally stand ready to possess the new land.  Encamped with them on the Yarden's eastern side, Moshe spends his final months reviewing the teachings with his flock, explicating what had been obscure and introducing the suddenly relevant, inspiring them to be devoted to their God while impressing upon them the grave dangers of idolatry that lurk just beyond the rushing waters.  The words of this Book are confident but guarded, its expressions hopeful but cautious.  Recognizing his imminent demise, Moshe recounts to the people their triumphs and failures, their moments of trust in God's guidance as well as their many reversals.  It is for an eminently good reason that this Book is known as "Mishne Torah," or "Repetition of the Torah," for it constitutes an eloquent retrospect of the people's vicissitudes since the Exodus, as well as a review of the ordinances that God has enjoined upon them.

 

A TRIPARTITE DIVISION

 

            We may in fact conveniently divide the Book of Devarim into three main sections, each one reflecting a different aspect of its contents and each one highlighting a distinct didactic motive.  The first relatively small section of the Book, constituting Moshe's introductory remarks, comprises the initial four chapters.  In this section, Moshe recalls the journey from Sinai, the sending of the Spies, the wilderness experience, and the recent conquest and settlement of the Amorite territories.  He goes on to describe his personal disappointment at being denied entry to the land, but then warns the people that their own success at settling its fertile slopes will be contingent upon their remaining loyal to God's teaching.  His words are primarily expressed in tones of admonishment, and an undercurrent of apprehensiveness can be detected in his measured breaths.  The section concludes with Moshe's partial fulfillment of the Torah's injunction to designate cities of refuge (see Bemidbar 35:9-34), as he selects three cities from the lands east of the Jordan, leaving to his successor the task of designating the corresponding three western cities.

 

            The next section of the Book, comprising its largest component, is Moshe's lengthy explanation of the Torah.  It begins in Chapter 5 with a recollection of the Revelation at Sinai and a restatement of the Decalogue, and goes on to describe the many mitzvot that the people have received.  The various collections of ritual, civil and holiness laws are explicated, and seamlessly woven together with Moshe's tender but forthright locutions of counsel and forewarning.  Underlying the whole section is Moshe's determination to impress upon the people that soon indeed they will face very tangible challenges as they cross the Jordan to enter the land, and that their success will depend upon fortitude, perseverance, and unswerving loyalty to God's instruction.  This central portion of the Book concludes with Chapter 27, verse 8: "Write upon the stones all the words of this Torah, clearly and completely".

 

            The final segment of the Book, from Chapter 27:9 until its conclusion, is perhaps the most exalted and inspiring.  The subject matter is the formal sealing of the covenant with God, but the language is lyrical and poetic.  The section contains many poignant expressions of parting, many intimations of Moshe's end, as if he and the people can bid each other farewell with only the greatest reluctance.  Moshe first details the terms of the Covenant, the so-called "Blessings" and the "Curses" (27:9-29:8), and then convenes the people to ceremoniously accept its provisions (29:9-28).  The Covenant is sealed and Moshe prepares to take his final leave.  He offers his parting oration (30:1-20) and is called upon by God to finally hand over the leadership of the people to Yehoshua's able but trembling hands (31:1-30).  His last remarks conclude with a striking song that spells out Israel's history and destiny with unsettling accuracy (32:1-52), and he then blesses the people and reluctantly ascends to Nevo's summit to die (33:1-34:12).

 

THE OBSCURE OPENING OF THE BOOK

 

            The preamble to the Book's first section – those opening chapters that contain Moshe's urgent admonitions – is the series of puzzling verses with which our Parasha begins.  As we shall see, some of the place names mentioned, such as Tofel and Di Zahav, are otherwise unknown, while concerning the rest it is unclear whether they come together in order to designate a very specific location or rather are an extended list of different places.  This much, however, can be stated with certainty: it is with an unequivocal sense of place and time, geography as well as chronology, that Moshe offers his measured words to the people.  Thus, our first few verses mention a plethora of exact place names as well as a series of at least four time markers to introduce the matter of Moshe's speech:

 

These are the words that Moshe spoke to all of Israel on the other side of the YARDEN, in the WILDERNESS, in the PLAIN, opposite SUF, between PARAN and between TOFEL, and LAVAN and CHATZEROT and DI ZAHAV.  (It was) ELEVEN DAYS' journey from CHOREV by way of MOUNT SE'IR, until KADESH BARNE'A.  And so it was in the FORTIETH YEAR, on the FIRST DAY of the ELEVENTH MONTH, that Moshe spoke to the people of Israel in accordance with all that God commanded him to convey to them.  This was AFTER he had struck down Sichon the King of the Amorites who dwells at Cheshbon, as well as 'Og King of the Bashan who dwells at 'Ashtarot and at Edre'i.  On the other side of the YARDEN in the land of MOAV, Moshe began to explicate this Torah by saying: "God our Lord spoke to us at Chorev saying 'it is long enough that you have dwelt at this mountain…'" (1:1-6).

 

RASHI'S EXPLANATION – WORDS OF CENSURE

 

            But what of these places and these times, why all of the specificity surrounding the matter of Moshe's final addresses, as if we did not know that the people were encamped at the eastern banks of the Yarden (Bemidbar 33:48-49) or that the forty years of wilderness wandering were about to come to an end (Bemidbar 33:50)?  Would it not have been sufficient to indicate that Moshe offered his homilies on the eve of his death as the people were poised to enter the new land?  Let us begin by considering the explanation of Rashi (11^th century, France):

 

These are words of rebuke.  The text recounts all of the places where Israel angered God and therefore the events are recalled only in general terms out of deference for the honor of Israel…(commentary of Rashi to 1:1).

 

As Rashi understands it (and his explanation here is drawn from much earlier Rabbinic sources), these opening lines of Sefer Devarim are intended to set the tone for the whole book.  Moshe's final addresses to the people are underscored by the need to guide and to exhort, to caution and to warn, and therefore he begins by briefly and obliquely referencing all of the locations where Israel betrayed a lack of trust in God or else showed themselves ungrateful for His blessings.  For example, in the WILDERNESS after crossing the Sea of Reeds they cried out impatiently for food (Shemot 16:3), and at the PLAIN they disastrously strayed after the daughters of Moav (Bemidbar 25:1), etcetera.  As Rashi quotes the Mishnaic sage Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai concerning a number of the more obscure geographical references:

 

We have reviewed the entire text of the Torah and have found no mention of places by the names of TOFEL or LAVAN.  Rather, Moshe meant to rebuke them concerning their impetuous words (from the root TiFLa) about the manna that was white (from the root LaVaN), as they said: "our souls are sick of the meager food!" (Bemidbar 21:5)…as for DI ZAHAV, he rebuked them for the calf that they fashioned from the masses of gold (from the root ZaHaV) that He had bestowed upon them…

 

And similarly for Rashi, the time reference, in particular the mention of the "ELEVEN DAYS' journey from Chorev by way of Mount Se'ir, until Kadesh Barne'a" (1:2), is an allusion to the people's greatest failure – the sin of the spies:

 

Moshe said to them: look what you have done!  There is no shorter route from Chorev to Kadesh Barne'a than the route of Mount Se'ir, and it too takes eleven days.  You, however, traversed it in three days' time…for God was so anxious to bring you into the land.  But because you failed, He therefore caused you to circle round the environs of Mount Se'ir for a period of forty years! (commentary to 2:2).

 

Rashi's explanation therefore relates to these place names and times as references to events, thus dispensing with the need to identify either obscure locations ("Tofel, Di Zahav," etc.) or else otherwise unknown durations of time ("eleven days journey from Chorev") that are not mentioned elsewhere.  For Rashi, then, the opening verses of our Parasha provide us with a concise litany of Israel's failures, all of them to be spelled out at greater length in later sections of the Book.

 

RASHBAM'S EXPLANATION – PINPOINTING A PLACE

 

            Rashi's grandson, the Rashbam (Shemuel ben Meir, 12^th century, France), often disagreed with his illustrious grandfather, eschewing Rashi's method of incorporating Midrashic materials in the explication of the text in uncompromising favor of a rigorous and rationalistic approach.  For the Rashbam (who, parenthetically, completed Rashi's commentary on the Talmud after his demise) it is the immediate context that informs the interpretation.  Rejecting Rashi's reading that depended upon a fanciful reinterpretation of place names and an incorporation of non-contextual details, the Rashbam instead understood that our opening verses all describe the same exact location, with each reference coming to more precisely pinpoint its coordinates.  As he remarks:

 

According to the straightforward interpretation, all of the references in this verse are place names, just as we have found elsewhere that the Biblical text offers increasingly more precise data when it wants to indicate where an important event transpired… "on the other side of the YARDEN".  Which side is this? The side opposite "the WILDERNESS," where the people of Israel languished for forty years…and where exactly in that wilderness? In "the PLAIN" of Moav, "opposite SUF, between PARAN and between TOFEL, and LAVAN and CHATZEROT and DI ZAHAV".  All of these are locations according to the straightforward reading…(commentary to 1:1).

 

In other words, suggests the Rashbam, the list of obscure references that opens our Book is not an abridged list of allusions to DIFFERENT EVENTS but rather a full geographic accounting that describes a SINGLE, UNIQUE LOCATION.  While Rashbam's interpretation is certainly more straightforward and elegant than Rashi's, he fails to explain why such geographic specificity is needed.  We might heighten the question by noting that while all of Rashi's references are to events that were preserved in the collective consciousness and remembered by posterity, the special and unique location of Moshe's final addresses, spelled out with such care according to the Rashbam, was not at all guarded by future generations.  We simply do not know exactly where Moshe's words were communicated to Israel, in spite of what is, according to the Rashbam, a very detailed description of the place!

 

Next time, we will explore the implications of the Rashbam's reading, before addressing other aspects of the Parasha that are pertinent to the discussion.

 

Shabbat Shalom