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.
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.
