44: Devarim
Welcome to TLDR Torah: a synopsis of the weekly parsha based on Robert Alter’s translation, plus a question to spur your Shabbat dinner (or any!) conversation.
Parsha Devarim (Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22)
TLDR:
If you missed the first 4 books of the Torah, you’re in luck. In the last book, Devarim, Moses summarizes the good, bad, and the ugly. A very careful reading will reveal that there’s some editorializing, but Devarim is generally a close account of what happened to the Israelites up to the point of entering Canaan.
I apologize for getting this one out so late. I couldn’t come to grips with the fact that we’re up to the final book.
Moses recounts how he appointed chieftains for each of the tribes to govern the people in a semi-decentralized way. He omits mention of Jethro, his father-in-law who came up with the idea.
Moses recalls how the people decided to send spies into Canaan (in the first telling, God told the people to send the spies), and their refusal to enter the land led to his own punishment to die before getting there.
For 38 years they wandered through the wilderness without provoking the local people until the entire original slave generation had died out.
And then the successful conquests begin, starting with Sihon the Amorite king. Borrowing language from Passover, God “hardened his spirit and toughened his heart” so that Sihon battled the Israelites and lost.
Next up: Og, king of Bashan. The Israelites destroyed all fortified, sixty towns despite being protected with high walls and double gates. (Og is described in a mythological way, as one of the last giants with a massive bed, and appears in other inscriptions from the 500 - 600s BCE).
Following the conquest, Moses describes how he gave Manasseh, Rueben and Gad parts of the land on condition of being the vanguard troops to conquer Canaan.
Question:
Devarim has been described as Moses’ “farewell address” or “valedictory speech.” I think the most apt comparison is an outgoing President’s State of the Union. Delivered by a leader, partially intended for this generation and for their legacy, the speech is an accounting of what happened and what’s to come. In this case, Moses’ audience is the Israelite community about to enter the land, and later generations who will be reading the books of the Torah. Why then, does he start the narrative with his appointment of judges? There’s a one-sentence mention of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and no mention at all of Pharaoh. Just something along the lines of “we started our journey to the land God promised, and I couldn’t handle the struggles of governance so I appointed judges.” He then scolds the people about the spy episode, briefly covers 38 years of wandering, and describes the recent conquests in greater detail. How might you have started the same speech, and why did Moses choose to do it this way?