The speech that begins with Devarim is well known to us. We know how long the speech was, and where it was delivered. But I want to ask what seems to be a painfully obvious question: Who is the audience for this speech?
It should be clear whom Moshe Rebenu is addressing. The entire previous generation should be gone now. The Midrash describes a Tisha B’Av ritual. Each year, on the...Read more...
The Three Weeks are about what has transpired initially to prevent the nation from entering Eretz Yisrael and then what led to the loss of Eretz Yisrael. We also always read these Parshiot, which are about preparation to go into Eretz Yisrael, during the Three Weeks. They give us a sense of the standard against which we are measured till this day. There are many aspects raised here, but I want to concentrate on the...Read more...
The dominant theme in the Parasha is preparations for the entrance into Eretz Yisrael. We spend all of the second half of the book of Bamidbar and all of Devarim in the last year in the desert, sitting on the brink. Moshe Rabenu can see the land even if he won’t enter it.
So what, then, are the Korbanot doing here? They will be part of the service in the Mishkan in Eretz Yisrael but...Read more...
The Parasha has no real date stamp. Rashi, via the Midrash I will mention soon, connects it to the end of last week’s Parasha. That would mean the rebellion comes right after the episode of the spies during the second year since the exodus. But the verses themselves give no hint.
There is, on the other hand, circumstantial evidence about where it fits. Close to the beginning of...Read more...
