Does the Book of Devarim have its own unique agenda?

The unique style and content of the book of Devarim, a lengthy account of Moshe’s departing discourse to the Jewish people, has exercised the minds of scholars for many years. Judaism Reclaimed draws upon a wide range of sources in examining the extent to which Jewish tradition recognises Devarim as a distinct prophetic work, with its own particular agenda. In the process it addresses many of the arguments raised by academic critics, such as Richard Elliot Friedman, who suggest that these distinctive features are indicative of different authorship. This post will focus on one aspect of this question – its (re)telling of mitzvot and narratives.

Rabbi S. R. Hirsch explains that the book of Devarim has a specific function: to teach or review all of the mitzvot and guidance most necessary for the Jewish nation’s imminent entry into the land and establishment of civil society. The presentation of the laws of the festivals in the book of Devarim, which differs significantly from that of the earlier books of the Torah, is examined in detail by R’ Hirsch and serves as a basis from which he develops his theory.

R’ Hirsch highlights how this review of the festivals only includes Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot – the three whose meaning and application would be significantly altered by the nation’s entry into Israel. Unlike the other four festivals not repeated in the book of Devarim, the meaning of which derive entirely from the relationship between the Jewish people and God, the festivals chosen for review contain an additional dimension that specifically relates to the land and its seasonal cycle. In addition, Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot include the commandment for the whole nation to make a pilgrimage to the Mikdash in Jerusalem. It was therefore specifically these three festivals which were selected for review by Moshe on the Plains of Moav in preparation for entry to the land.

The parshiyot in the middle of Devarim deal with the establishment of institutions which would be necessary in order to govern the land effectively. R’ Hirsch further suggests that the emphasis on tithes and providing for the poor, which also features heavily in the book of Devarim, would take on particular significance with entry to the land. Until that point, the miraculous sustenance of the Jewish people in the desert had made provision for the poor unnecessary. In his commentary on the book of Devarim, Abarbanel consistently seeks to show how each apparently new commandment is merely an extension of a primary mitzvah previously recorded in the first four books — an extension intended specifically to relate to the new challenge of entering and settling Israel. Entire bodies of law such as torts and sacrificial law, which were to remain largely unchanged after entering the Land, do not feature in Devarim.

Moshe’s retelling of Jewish history from the previous 40 years, which occupy the first eleven chapters of the book of Devarim, can also be seen to conform to this theme. The desert years, in R’ Hirsch’s understanding, were designed as a crash course in order to train the Jewish people to maintain faith in God in matters of both national security and sustenance. This theme features strongly in the narratives of the opening parshiyot of Devarim, which emphasise how faith in God is an indispensable requirement for achieving military success, while the miraculous provision of mannah is also recounted. Crucially, these chapters are not solely concerned with recalling the events of the past 40 years, but are interspersed with didactic messages to be drawn from these recent experiences, and how such messages should be applied when entering the land.

Similarly, the lengthy accounts of the Jews’ military encounters in the desert are punctuated regularly by criticism of the Jews’ lack of faith, and God delivering military success as promised. In chapter 11, Moshe concludes this narrative section by stating that his audience, as witnesses of God’s miraculous demonstrations, bear particular responsibility to maintain loyalty to God; loyalty and obedience which will promote success in the land for generations to come.

Reading the opening narratives of Devarim in this context may also address a number of discrepancies between the way in which the first four books of the Torah describe various events which took place in the desert and how they are subsequently related in the book of Devarim. These inconsistencies, such as the apparent shifting of blame to the nation for initiating the episode of the spies and for their culpability in Moshe being denied entry into Israel, are not simply to be explained by the fact that the events are being retold from Moshe’s subjective perspective. Rather they fulfil a didactic role by highlighting the underlying shortcomings and lack of faith within the nation which contributed to the sins of the spies and set the stage for Moshe’s sin of hitting the rock for which he was prevented from entering the Land.

First posted on Facebook 14 July 2021, here.

The Ten Commandments -- according to Moshe?

The unique dynamics of the book of Devarim are examined in several chapters of Judaism Reclaimed. It emerges already from Talmudic sources that Devarim was arranged and structured by Moshe, rather than being dictated word-for-word by God as was the case for the rest of the Torah. As the Vilna Gaon summarises it: the first four books were God speaking via the throat of Moshe, whereas Devarim was a prophecy recorded subsequently, when Moshe was no longer 'under the influence' of the prophecy which he had experienced earlier.

Building from these sources which indicate that Devarim was composed on the basis of a different type of prophecy from that of the rest of the Torah, we show how this appears to form the basis of Ibn Ezra’s fascinating explanation for the discrepancies between the Torah’s two accounts of the Ten Commandments – in Yitro and Va’etchanan.

The version which appears in Yitro is understood to constitute a word-for-word account of the Ten Commandments as revealed by God. This reflects the more direct divine influence over the content of the first four books of the Torah. When it comes to the repetition of these commandments in Va’etchanan however, writes Ibn Ezra, they are presented and structured by Moshe, even containing elements of his own commentary. This distinction may be alluded to in the Torah’s respective descriptions of its accounts: while Devarim declares “these words God spoke”, the original Yitro text introduces the commandments with “God spoke all these words…”.

To provide one example of how Ibn Ezra applies this principle, the initial version of the Commandments mentions first that one should not covet his neighbour’s “house” and only then his neighbour’s “wife”. This, Ibn Ezra explains, is the proper sequence in terms of the progression of a person’s correct order of life priorities: first to establish a house and then to marry. Moshe however switches the order for didactic reasons, on the basis that the temptation and coveting of a neighbour’s wife naturally begins earlier in a person’s life than jealousy of his house.

But why might God have chosen to communicate the book of Devarim in a different way to the first five books?

Judaism Reclaimed addresses this question through an unusual combination of rabbinic thinkers: Rabbi S. R. Hirsch and the Lubavitcher Rebbe. What emerges is that the 40-year sojourn in the desert represented a spiritual cocoon within which the nation of newly-released slaves was provided with a crash course of intense exposure to direct divine providence, constant miracles and the Torah’s revelation. This miraculous existence was not, however, the Torah’s ultimate goal.

The nation needed to witness God’s presence. But the ideal was to take that intense spiritual existence and be able to apply it to the mundane realities of everyday life in the Land of Israel. The compromises and trade-offs that are required in nation-building. This needed flexibility and “less intense light” of the oral tradition over God’s direct word.

This shift in the mode of relationship between God and the Jews was to be mirrored in a shift in the style and dynamics of the Torah: the rules which govern this relationship. Thus, with the Jews on the threshold of entering the Land, the direct “face-to-face” style of prophecy which had formed the basis for the first four books was supplemented with the final book in which Moshe not only recorded what God had dictated, but was also involved in structuring and explaining its content. This introduction of human involvement in its final book served as an interface to ease the transition and underscore the legitimacy of the greater focus on the Oral tradition which was to take on increased significance for the Jews upon entry to the Land of Israel.

Upon entering the Land of Israel, the Jewish people would no longer relate to God in this direct manner, rather they would be required to fulfil the purpose of creation by “building a home for God in the physical world” — relating to Him through His natural order.

This ultimately represents the Torah’s function. It is not simply a set of detached ideals revealed to perfect “ministering angels” – rather it guides those attempting to build a holy nation and society – battling to realise the Torah’s goal of a holy, refined godly nation with a Torah that could speak to, inspire and refine ALL people wherever they are in that process of human

First posted on Facebook 14 August 2022, here.