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Between the Lines Who Wrote Sefer Devarim Devarim 5769 Volume XVI Number 43 Toras Aish Thoughts From Across the Torah Spectrum began to possess Sichon's territory even before Sichon RABBI ABBA WAGENSBERG attacked! When God does battle for us, victory is assured from the outset. © 1987 Rabbi A. Wagensberg & Between the Lines aish.com his week we begin Deuteronomy, the last Book of the Torah, consisting of Moses's final words to the RABBI MORDECHAI WEISS TJewish people before they enter the Land of Israel. In this week's parsha, Moses recalls certain infamous Who Wrote Sefer Devarim events of the previous 40 years, such as the incident 'm always baffled on the differences in style and with the spies. He repeats the words he spoke to the content that appear in the book of Devarim in contrast people at that time: "The Lord your God, has given Ito the preceding four books of our Torah. Any serious ("natan") the land to you. Go up and inherit it" (Deut. student of Torah would notice a host of variations 1:21). between these texts and the obvious question is "Why?" This verse presents a few technical difficulties. Let me explain. First the language is different. First, why does Moses say that God has already given In Devarim, Moshe our teacher often speaks in the first the land to the Jewish people? The Jews have not yet person something that is not found in the first four entered Israel, and thus have not officially taken books of the Torah. Second, there are blatant possession of it. Why, then, is the verb "to give" in the disparities when contrasting the book of Devarim to the past tense ("natan")? Furthermore, why does Moses proceeding books. For example, the differences in the say, "Go up and inherit [the land]" if he knows that the language of the Ten Commandments. The obvious Jews will have to wage war before inheriting it? It seems inclusion of additional words in the text in Devarim as that Moses should have said, "Go up and wage war"! well as a host of laws which do not appear in the We could suggest a way of understanding the preceding books. The section dealing with the blessings upcoming war based on the words Moses spoke to the and rebukes are markedly different. One can therefore nation immediately before the Splitting of the Sea: "God ask the question as to why this discrepancy? Was this will wage war for you" (Exodus 14:14). When God book written by someone else? Is it G-d driven as the promises to wage war for the Jewish people, there is no other books or was it written by Moshe? doubt as to the outcome. Therefore, even though the These questions are indeed the discussion of people are now facing an imminent battle, it is a battle our sages as well. that God has commanded them to fight, so it is already When one reads the commandments of considered a victory. Shabbat as it appears in the book of Shmot and This explains Moses's statement, "God... has Devarim, two divergent languages appear; "Zachor" and given the land to you." The land is essentially already in "Shamor". Which one appeared on the Ten the possession of the Jewish people, even though they Commandments? Or did they both appear? Our Rabbis have yet to go to war against the Canaanite nations. state that these two languages were said at one time, This also explains why Moses says, "Go up and inherit something that no human can achieve. So that each [the land]." If the war is as good as won, the Jews have time the Decalogue appeared, the second language only to inherit the land that God has promised them. was also used. Perhaps this is why Moses concludes the verse by But the questions still abound? What about all saying, "Do not be afraid." The outcome of the battle is the other dissimilarities in the book of Devarim? The guaranteed; there is nothing to be nervous about. additional laws-the additional curses and blessings- how A support to this interpretation appears later in were they written? Were they written and given by G-D the parsha, when Moses recalls the battle the Jewish or was it Moshe's words? people waged against Sichon, the Amorite king (Deut. Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetzky author of the book 2:31-34). First, God told Moses, "Go and inherit "Emes L'Yaakov" develops an interesting approach. He [Sichon's] land" (Deut. 2:31). Then Sichon's army claims that there are times in the Torah that we see the attacked the Jewish forces (Deut. 2:32), after which word written in one way yet we read it in another way. God gave the Jews the victory (2:33). The order of Examples of this can be found in the portion of Ki Tavo, these verses illustrates our point. The Jewish people in which the Torah writes one language, yet we vocalize 2 Toras Aish Hebrew Academy of Greater Hartford. Any comments can be TORAS AISH IS A WEEKLY PARSHA e-mailed to him at [email protected] NEWSLETTER DISTRIBUTED VIA EMAIL AND THE WORLD WIDE WEB AT HTTP://AISHDAS.ORG. RABBI SHLOMO RISKIN FOR MORE INFO EMAIL [email protected] The material presented in this publication was collected from Shabbat Shalom publicly available electronic mail, computer archives and the very year I'm asked why it's necessary to continue UseNet. It is being presented with the permission of the respective mourning with such intensity on Tisha B'Av, the authors. Toras Aish is an independent publication, and does not Eninth day of the Hebrew month Av, marking the necessarily reflect the views of any given synagogue. TO DEDICATE THIS NEWSLETTER PLEASE CALL destruction of both of our Temples. Haven't we returned 973-472-0180 OR EMAIL [email protected] to our homeland after nearly 2000 years of exile? We have even returned to Jerusalem and re-established our it very differently. This phenomenon is referred to as the Holy City as the capital of our re-established State. Yes, axiom of "Kri and Ktiv". He therefore posits the there are still Arab residents who claim Jerusalem as innovative notion that the differences between the text their own; yes, there have been despicable acts of in Dvarim and the conflicting texts in the other sections terror within our "City of Peace;" yes, Jews cannot build of the Torah are just an example of this principle of "Kri a synagogue on the Temple Mount, and even individual and Ktiv", in which one time it appears as we should Jews are forbidden to pray, attracting armed guards read it and the next time it appears as it is written or whenever they move their lips in a way that makes them visa versa. look as though they are praying. Nevertheless, our I believe that perhaps there is another situation is incomparably better than it has been for the explanation to these apparent differences. past two millennia. So why not tone down the intensity In defining how the Torah was given to the of the mourning? Jewish people, the Bais Halevi states that on the My response always cites the Mishnah in Rosh original Decalogue were written the unwritten Torah as Hashanah, which teaches that in ancient times (prior to well ( The Torah shbeal Peh). When the second set of the establishment of a fixed calendar) agents would be tablets were given however, the Oral Torah was sent out to inform the far-flung population the exact day omitted. This omission made the Jewish people an when Rosh Hodesh (the new month) had fallen, so that integral part in the transmission of the Torah. Before the people would know when to celebrate the festivals they were outsiders looking at the text as it appeared in and the Fast of Av. writing. Now that the Oral law was not written, the "And when the Second Temple existed," Jewish people were charged to be intimately involved in concludes the Mishnah, "they would also go out on the the transmission, and they became the conduit for the month of Iyar because of the second Pesach" [for those receiving and the transmission of the Oral Torah. They who had been impure the prior month]. The Rambam, fundamentally became the unwritten law! in his "Interpretations of the Mishnayot," correctly It is this line of reasoning that I believe explains deduces that even during the Second Temple period the blatant disparities from the book of Deuteronomy to the Israelites continued to mourn and fast on Tisha B'Av the other four preceding books. I would like to offer the (B.T. Rosh HaShanah 18a). And Josephus confirms theory that the book of Dvarim is the first example of the this fact. Oral law as interpreted by our teacher Moses. Its Hence, even after the Temple was rebuilt, we importance and value remains equal to the other books still fasted. But this fascinating piece of history still begs but it represents the beginnings of the elucidation and the question. Why mourn when the reasons for expounding of the preceding written Torah and the mourning have been largely removed, when Jerusalem meanings of those words. In essence then, Moshe our has been transformed from a dusty outpost as teacher in the book of Devarim provided the first described by Mark Twain into a thriving religious and example of the exposition of the proceeding books of cultural capital of a great city in a sovereign state? the Torah; the "Torah Shbeal peh", the unwritten Torah.
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