Reflections from Rabbi Ellis

This week we read the second section in the book of Devarim and continue Moshe’s telling of the story of Israel. The Parsha is a direct address from Moshe, with some of the most memorable prose of the whole Torah:

.וְאַתֶּם֙ הַדְּבֵקִ֔ים בַּי-הֹ-וָ֖-ה אֱ-לֹהֵיכֶ֑ם חַיִּ֥ים כֻּלְּכֶ֖ם הַיּֽוֹם

“All of you who cling to G!d are alive today.”

וּמִי֙ גּ֣וֹי גָּד֔וֹל אֲשֶׁר־ל֛וֹ חֻקִּ֥ים וּמִשְׁפָּטִ֖ים צַדִּיקִ֑ם כְּכֹל֙ הַתּוֹרָ֣ה הַזֹּ֔את אֲשֶׁ֧ר אָנֹכִ֛י נֹתֵ֥ן לִפְנֵיכֶ֖ם הַיּֽוֹם

“Who is a great nation that has righteous laws and ordinances like the Torah that I give to you today.”

And of course, quite possibly the most important sentence in the whole Torah,

שְׁמַ֖ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל יְ-הֹ-וָ֥-ה אֱ-לֹהֵ֖ינוּ יְ-הֹ-וָ֥-ה ׀ אֶחָֽד

“Hear of Israel the Lord is our G!d, the Lord is one.”

While we have all the wonderful new statements about G!d, the Torah and their relationship with Israel, the most important thing we learn about our relationship comes from something that is restated in this week’s Parsha.

This week Moshe repeats the Ten Commandments, and when does, he changes the language. He does not rewrite them, there are still ten commandments, but he does choose to restate them as opposed to repeating them. Why?

Moshe was at Sinai, and he heard the Ten Commandments directly from G!d. He is also the person who wrote them down in the Torah in the book of Shmote. So, it is clear any changes that occur when he repeats them here in our Parsha are not due to a failure of transmission or uncertainty about what was said. After all, if he wanted to, he could have just checked what he had written down earlier.

G!d spoke the Ten Commandments to the Children of Israel forty years earlier, the people who heard it are almost all dead now. The generation that Moshe is speaking to have a completely different identity than those that had heard them at Sinai. Moshe is speaking to a proud nation born in freedom and security, that knows not the sting of slavery and never heard the voice of G!d. Moshe now at the end of his life is tasked with transmitting the Torah to people that are completely different from those who heard it firsthand. Further though these people didn’t hear the Ten Commandments from G!d, they did hear it from their ancestors, probably many times.

Moshe is tasked with keeping the Torah relevant and meaningful for the Children of Israel and so he restates it rather than repeating it. While staying true to the meaning and structure of the Torah he tells it to the new generation in a language that they can understand.

This week we learn from Moshe that the eternal nature of the Torah gives us the ability to state it in many ways, that it is able to adapt to the times while staying true to its values. Finally, we see that every teacher must transmit the Torah in a way in which his students will be able to receive it.

Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi Yehoshua Ellis