Parashat Devarim - Insights and Questions
Read the biblical text and try to understand it on your own, before reading the commentary.
The people of Israel stand at the edge of the promised land. Almost forty years of wilderness behind them, the Jordan before them, and Moshe knows that he will not cross over with the people into the land.
At this moment he opens his great farewell address.
Moshe returns to the stations that turned a group of slaves into a nation: the appointment of the judges, the arrival at Kadesh Barnea, the sending of the spies and the fear that paralyzed an entire generation. The spies brought from the fruit of the land and even reported that it was good, but the people chose to listen to the description of the giants and the fortified cities. Fear overcame faith, and the route from Chorev to Kadesh Barnea was eleven days long, yet the entry into the land was postponed, and in the fortieth year the new generation stood at the edge of the land.
After the years of wandering a new generation arrives. It learns that not every land may be conquered: Israel is forbidden to provoke the descendants of Esav, Moav and Amon. But when Sichon king of the Emori and Og king of Bashan go out to war, they are defeated, and their lands are given to the tribes of Reuven, Gad and half the tribe of Menasheh.
Yet even one who has already received his portion is not permitted to rest. He must cross over armed ahead of his brothers, until the rest of the tribes also receive their inheritance. At the close of the parasha Moshe turns his gaze to Yehoshua and teaches him to look at the victories that have already happened, and to draw courage from them for the wars ahead.
Sometimes the real distance is not measured in kilometers
The parasha notes:
“Achad asar yom meChorev derech har Se’ir ad Kadesh Barnea” (Deuteronomy 1:2), eleven days from Chorev by way of Mount Se’ir to Kadesh Barnea.
And yet, the people of Israel are now in the fortieth year of the journey.
This is a powerful interpretive insight: a person can travel a route of eleven days, arrive at the threshold of opportunity, and still remain far from the destination for years because of fear, mistrust and inner unreadiness. Sometimes a person does not need a shorter road, they need to become the kind of person who is able to reach its end.
Even accurate information can lead to a destructive conclusion
The spies themselves reported that the land was good, as described in Deuteronomy 1:25. The problem was not a lack of information, but the interpretation given to it.
That same report included the fruit of the land and the statement that the land was good, but also a description of a great people and large fortified cities. The question was what gets center stage.
This is a strikingly current interpretive idea: fear does not always invent facts. Sometimes it simply takes a true fact, enlarges it until it fills the entire screen, and makes the rest of the picture disappear.
A real leader does not try to be the only person in the room
Moshe says:
“Lo uchal levadi se’et etchem” (Deuteronomy 1:9), I am not able to bear you alone.
He appoints judges and distributes responsibility. This is not an admission of failure, but an expression of leadership maturity.
An interpretive insight: a weak leader may fear talented people around him. A great leader understands that his success is not measured by how much everything depends on him, but by how many other people he managed to set on their feet.
Power without limits is not a mission
In chapter 2 Israel is commanded not to provoke the descendants of Esav, Moav and Amon, and not to conquer their lands. Not every place that can be conquered may be conquered, and not every power in your hand is meant to be used.
This is a deep message: strength is not only the ability to go out to war. Strength is also the ability to walk past something you are capable of taking, and not to take it because it does not belong to you.
You cannot rest while your brothers are still fighting
Reuven, Gad and half the tribe of Menasheh receive a portion on the eastern side of the Jordan, but they are commanded to cross over as an armed vanguard ahead of the other tribes until everyone inherits the land, as detailed in Deuteronomy 3:18-20.
The interpretive insight here is sharp: private success does not exempt anyone from public responsibility. As long as your brother is still on the way, your own story has not ended either.
Yehoshua receives courage through memory
Moshe does not merely tell Yehoshua to be brave. He directs him to what his own eyes have already seen in the victories over Sichon and Og, and teaches him to draw conclusions about the future from the past, as detailed in Deuteronomy 3:21-22.
Before a great challenge we tend to ask: will I succeed this time? The parasha offers a different question: which moments in my life already prove that I have greater strengths than I feel right now?
The same memory can be a prison or wings
Parashat Devarim opens with two facts placed almost side by side: the eleven days of travel from Chorev to Kadesh Barnea, and immediately afterward the Torah notes that Moshe speaks in the fortieth year (Deuteronomy 1:3). Placing them next to each other creates a dramatic gap between the short route and the years of waiting in the wilderness.
When Moshe describes the sin of the spies, the people say:
“Acheinu hemasu et levavenu” (Deuteronomy 1:28), our brothers have melted our heart.
They saw the land through the eyes of others. They let a story that someone told them decide for them what they were capable of doing.
By contrast, at the close of the parasha Moshe turns to Yehoshua and says to him:
“Einecha haro’ot” (Deuteronomy 3:21), your eyes are the ones that have seen.
It is worth noticing the contrast: the generation that remained in the wilderness looked through the eyes of the spies. The leader who would bring the people into the land was required to look through his own eyes.
This is an interpretive idea, not a quotation from the Sages: it may be that the whole of Parashat Devarim is built around the question of who determines your picture of reality. Is it voices that melt the heart, or the things you have already seen yourself that proved it is possible to move forward?
Parashat Devarim is not only a summary of past journeys. It teaches that the past can become a prison, but it can also become a road map. Moshe tells the new generation where their fathers fell, not in order to leave them in guilt, but so that they will not have to fall again in the same place.
Sometimes a person is not forty years away from the destination. They are only one story away, the story they believe. The moment a person stops listening to the weakening voices and remembers what their own eyes have already seen, the road can open again.
Questions on Parashat Devarim
- Why does the Torah place an eleven day journey side by side with a speech delivered in the fortieth year? Can a person stand very close to their destination and still be far from it inwardly? (Deuteronomy 1:2-3)
- Why does Moshe begin the speech of his life with a list of places? Is the geography of the parasha actually a coded map of human failures? (Deuteronomy 1:1)
- Why does Moshe wait until after the victories over Sichon and Og before opening his words of rebuke? Can you criticize a person only after restoring their sense of capability? (Deuteronomy 1:4)
- What does it mean that Moshe began to explain the Torah specifically outside the land? Do we sometimes grasp the meaning of the destination only while still standing beyond the border? (Deuteronomy 1:5)
- Why were the people of Israel told to leave Mount Chorev, the very place where they received the Torah? Can even a holy place become a place that prevents progress? (Deuteronomy 1:6-7)
- Why does Moshe bless the people for their great number, and immediately afterward say that he cannot carry them alone? Does a great blessing also create a great responsibility? (Deuteronomy 1:9-12)
- Why did Moshe ask for men who were wise, understanding and known, yet the description of the appointment mentions only the wise and the known? Where did the understanding ones disappear to? (Deuteronomy 1:13-15)
- Why does the first command to the judges deal with listening before it deals with ruling? Does justice begin not with knowing the answer but with the ability to listen? (Deuteronomy 1:16)
- Why does the Torah warn the judge against fearing human beings? Can fear distort the truth even without a bribe and without personal interest? (Deuteronomy 1:17)
- Why does Moshe not present himself as a leader capable of solving everything? Is his greatness revealed precisely in the moment he acknowledges the limits of his own strength? (Deuteronomy 1:9-18)
- Why did the idea of sending the spies sound reasonable and even good in Moshe’s eyes, yet lead to disaster? Can a decision be entirely logical and still be dangerous? (Deuteronomy 1:22-23)
- How is it possible that the spies reported the land was good, and yet the people refused to go up? Do human beings decide according to the facts, or according to the emotion the facts arouse in them? (Deuteronomy 1:25-26)
- Why did the great complaint take place inside the tents and not in a public square? Does history change precisely in the private conversations that no one sees? (Deuteronomy 1:27)
- How did a people who saw the exodus from Egypt manage to interpret their rescue as an expression of hatred? What makes a person turn love into a threat when they are afraid? (Deuteronomy 1:27)
- Why do the people say that their brothers melted their heart? Is fear a force that passes from person to person faster than facts and evidence? (Deuteronomy 1:28)
- Why did the description of the giants overpower the fruit of the land that the spies were holding in their hands? Is the threat we imagine stronger than the good we can actually touch? (Deuteronomy 1:25-28)
- Why did the memory that God carried Israel as a father carries his son fail to create trust? Does a great experience from the past not guarantee faith in the present? (Deuteronomy 1:31-32)
- What is the deep difference between Calev, who was faithful to a particular path, and Yehoshua, who was chosen to lead the future? Is there a difference between the courage to stand against the majority and the courage to lead an entire people? (Deuteronomy 1:36-38)
- Why, after the people heard that they would not go up to the land, did they suddenly decide to go out to war? Is what looks like repentance sometimes an attempt to restore our own sense of control? (Deuteronomy 1:41)
- Why did the ma’apilim fail even though they were now ready to fight? Can the right act at the wrong time become the wrong act? (Deuteronomy 1:41-44)
- What does the description that Israel dwelt in Kadesh many days, like the days they had already dwelt, mean? Does the parasha describe a state in which time passes but the person remains in the same inner place? (Deuteronomy 1:46)
- Why does the statement that it is enough to stay or to circle one place appear twice in the parasha? Does the book of Devarim warn against two kinds of being stuck: stuck inside holiness and stuck inside failure? (Deuteronomy 1:6; 2:3)
- Why, before Israel receives permission to fight, does the Torah tell that other nations also managed to defeat peoples considered giants? Is this an attempt to break the myth that giants are invincible? (Deuteronomy 2:10-12; 2:20-23)
- Why are the people of Israel commanded not to harm Edom, Moav and Amon precisely as they become a strong nation? Is the first test of real power knowing where it must not be used? (Deuteronomy 2:4-9; 2:18-19)
- Why does the Torah take the trouble to record the measurements of the bed of Og king of Bashan? Is the bed a historical detail, a symbol of the world of giants, or an attempt to show that the thing which frightened everyone finally became an exhibit from the past? (Deuteronomy 3:11)
Daily Aliyot
Parashat Devarim - First Aliyah
At the gateway to the promised land, Moshe halts the people and opens his farewell address. Not a battle and not a miracle, but the last words of a faithful shepherd, placing in the people's hands the tools to survive and to succeed.
Parashat Devarim - Second Aliyah
Facing the people, Moshe recalls the appointment of judges and the principles of justice, revealing the weight of leadership: humility on one side, responsibility and the courage to do justice on the other.
Parashat Devarim - Third Aliyah
Just before entering the land, Moshe returns to the sin of the spies. The report from the field was positive, yet fear and negative talk seeped into the hearts and the people refused to go up. Against them all, Caleb recalls the opposite path: loyalty and courage.
Parashat Devarim - Fourth Aliyah
One of the most painful points of the wilderness journey. After the sin of the spies, Israel is punished and forbidden to enter, then tries to repair it through its own initiative and go up to fight. But without the backing of God's will the attempt fails, and they sit in Kadesh many days.
Parashat Devarim - Fifth Aliyah
Moshe continues to describe the journey through the wilderness, around Edom, Moab, and Ammon. Three nations close to Israel that must not be fought, and a deep foundation for the Torah's view of boundaries: not everything accessible may be taken. Then the miracle of forty years without lack, and the approach to Sichon king of Cheshbon.
Parashat Devarim - Sixth Aliyah
In this aliyah we are in the midst of the wars that opened the conquest of the eastern side of the Jordan: the battle against Sichon king of Cheshbon and after it the battle against Og king of Bashan. A complete victory, the conquest of fortified cities, and the beginning of the settlement of Reuven, Gad, and half of Menasheh.
Parashat Devarim - Seventh Aliyah
Moshe describes the division of the eastern side of the Jordan among Reuven, Gad, and half the tribe of Menasheh, the condition to cross as vanguard before their brothers in the war over the land, and the words of encouragement to Yehoshua: what God did to Sichon and Og He will do to all the kingdoms, for He fights for Israel.