The fifth of the Chumashim, which are the biblical books that make up the Pentateuch, is called Devarim, Deuteronomy, which means the second law or the repetition of the law. In our Chumash many laws are reiterated and, notably, the Ten Commandments. For our Chachamim there is no superfluous word in the sacred text, and therefore they seek and find new teachings in what appears to be a repetition.
Devarim gathers Moshe’s speeches in the last days of his life. The first speech consists of a summary of the trips of our ancestors through the desert, with special emphasis on some outstanding events, such as the episode of the Meraglim, the spies who were sent to investigate the promised land. The apparent purpose of recounting the various experiences in the desert is to highlight the ever-present Divine Providence, which protected the Jewish people throughout the journey.
A large part of this Chumash Devarim is dedicated to Moshe’s second speech which includes, as we already mentioned, the Aséret Hadibrot, the Ten Commandments. A series of additional Mitsvot are also detailed on permitted and prohibited foods, the various festivals, the obligation of tithing, the selection of judges, and other laws. Before Moshe’s third speech begins, a digression is made to alert the people to the blessings and curses they will receive, respectively, as the law is fulfilled or disobeyed.
Moshe’s third speech, which also contains paragraphs written in the form of poetry, underlines the need for unequivocal loyalty to the Creator and the instruction to read the book Devarim, (according to some, only certain chapters of this Chumash) publicly, every seven years in a ceremony called Hakhel. The singing of Moshe (Haazinu), the blessing of Moshe (Vezot HaBeracha), the appointment of Yehoshua as the successor in leadership of the people, and some details of the death of Moshe, lead us to the conclusion of the Torah.
Careful reading of our text reveals that certain groups of laws were omitted from Devarim. Ramban’s father alerts us to the fact that the rules that govern the Kohanim and the Korbanot, which are sacrifices, are not mentioned in our chapters. This is explained by the fact that priests are considered to be very jealous in the performance of their duties and do not need to a repetition of the instructions. On the other hand, on many occasions the exhortation is reiterated to the people not to fall into the cult of idolatry. It was necessary to remind our ancestors insistently about the danger of behaving like all peoples, kechol hagoyim, especially at the beginning of the period of the conquest of the Promised Land. Since the inhabitants of Canaan were idolaters, it was important to warn the Hebrews not to imitate their cult. Despite this, the practice of idolatry constitutes the primary national spiritual problem during the existence of the first Beit HaMikdash.
The opposition to all kinds of idolatry is emphasized because the Torah fundamentally teaches a completely opposite idea: Monotheism. Adín Steinzaltz, a modern thinker and great scholar of mysticism and the Talmud, reminds us that Avraham’s monotheistic formulation, as we noted, is the cardinal notion of Torah and does not constitute a revolutionary idea. Steinsaltz’s perspective with reference to the intellectual development of humanity is based on the fact that in the beginning, humanity affirmed the existence of a single God. That was, after all, the reality of man in Gan Eden, the Garden of Eden. In Bereshit we read about the frequent encounters and dialogues between primitive man and the Creator.
Steinsaltz believes that despite the constant encounter of humans with the divinity, the monotheistic notion of antiquity is primary and primitive. Idolatry constitutes from this prism, a narrow intellectual advance for our species, because it is associated with different natural phenomena that begin to identify with some particular deity. Man becomes aware of what is happening around him, although this leads him to erroneous conclusions regarding the deity. Avraham’s monotheistic teaching is not novel in nature but constitutes a case of rediscovery of a known truth.
Devarim also presents us with some laws that are novel. We read about divorce; the Yibum obligation, which is to marry the widow of a brother who left no children and other rules. Although we meet these laws for the first time in Devarim, we understand that all the Mitsvot were enacted on Mount Sinai or in the Mishkan, which is the Tabernacle, during the first year after the Exodus from Egypt.
Abarbanel raises the question of whether we can consider these discourses by Moshe as an integral part of the authentic word of God. According to the Talmud, for example, the division of the Tanach, the Sacred Scriptures or the Bible, indicates at the same time a hierarchy with respect to the relative Kedusha, sanctity, of each of the parts. Ketuvim, which is the third portion of the Tanach, has a lower degree of Kedusha than the second part called Neviim. The Torah, the Five Books of Moses, is the one with the highest degree of Kedusha, a fact that implies that each word of its text was dictated by the Creator. Abarbanel maintains, for example, that not all of Moshe’s discourses were included in our text. God chose only those that have transcendence, granting them holiness by incorporating them into the Torah. The Torah does not collect or echo all the events that occurred at the dawn of our History. The Torah is a Divine and selective edition of the events considered by Him as instructive and timeless, containing a set of Mitsvot that are indispensable for the emotional and spiritual development of man and to make possible his coexistence with fellow men.
