Va'etchanan (ואתחנן — Hebrew for “and I pleaded,” the first word in the Parshah) is the 45th weekly Torah portion (Parshah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the second in the book of Devarim. It constitutes Devarim 3:23–7:11. Jews in the Diaspora generally read it in late July or August.
view of the Dead Sea from Mount Nebo
Contents
[hide]
1 Summary
1.1 Moshe asked to see the land
1.2 Arguments to obey the law
1.3 Cities of refuge
1.4 The Ten Commandments
1.5 The Shema
1.6 Further exhortation to obey YHVH
1.7 Instructions for conquest
2 Commandments
3 Haftarah
4 The Weekly Maqam
5 Further reading
6 External links
Summary
Moshe asked to see the land
Moshe pleaded with YHVH to let him cross over and see the land on the other side of the Yarden River. (Dev. 3:23–25.) But YHVH was wrathful with Moshe on account of the Yisra’elites and would not listen, telling Moshe never to speak of the matter again. (Dev. 3:26.) YHVH directed Moshe to climb the summit of Pisgah and gaze about to look at the land. (Dev. 3:27.) And YHVH told Moshe to give Y’hoshua his instructions and imbue him with strength and courage, for Y’hoshua was to lead the people and allot to them the land. (Dev. 3:28.)
Arguments to obey the law
Moshe exhorted the Yisra’elites to heed YHVH’s laws, not to add anything to them, and not to take anything away from them, so that they might live to enter and occupy the land that YHVH was giving them. (Dev. 4:1–2.) Moshe noted that in the sin of Baal-peor, YHVH wiped out every person who followed Baal-peor, while preserving alive those who held fast to YHVH. (Dev. 4:3–4.) Moshe argued that observing the laws faithfully would prove to other peoples the Yisra’elites’ wisdom and discernment, for no other great nation had a YHVH so close at hand as YHVH, and no other great nation had laws and rules as perfect as YHVH’s. (Dev. 4:6–8.)
“The mountain was ablaze with flames” (Dev. 4:11.)
Moshe urged the Yisra’elites to take utmost care not to forget the things that they saw, and to make them known to their children and children’s children: How they stood before YHVH at Horeb, the mountain was ablaze with flames, YHVH spoke to them out of the fire, and YHVH declared to them the Ten Words. (Dev. 4:9–13.) At the same time, YHVH commanded Moshe to impart to the Yisra’elites laws for them to observe in the land that they were about to occupy. (Dev. 4:14.)
the moon
Because the Yisra’elites saw no shape when YHVH spoke to them out of the fire at Horeb, Moshe warned them not to make for themselves a sculptured image in any likeness whatever — the form of a man, woman, beast, bird, creeping thing, or fish. (Dev. 4:15–18.) And when they looked up and saw the sun, moon, stars, and heaven, they were not to be lured into bowing down to them or serving them, for YHVH allotted those things to other peoples, but YHVH took the Yisra’elites and brought them out of Mitsrayim to be YHVH’s very own people. (Dev. 4:19–20.)
Moshe said that YHVH was angry with him on account of the Yisra’elites, and YHVH swore that Moshe would not enter the land but would die in the land east of the Yarden. (Dev. 4:21–22.) Moshe cautioned the Yisra’elites not to forget the covenant that YHVH concluded with them, and not to make a sculptured image, for YHVH is a consuming fire, an impassioned Elohim. (Dev. 4:23–24.)
Moshe called heaven and earth to witness against the Yisra’elites that should they make for themselves a sculptured image when they were in the land, then YHVH would scatter them among the peoples, leaving only a scant few alive. (Dev. 4:25–27.) There in exile they would serve man-made YHVHs of wood and stone, that would not be able to see, hear, eat, or smell. (Dev. 4:28.) But when they were in distress and they searched for YHVH with all their heart and soul, returned to YHVH, and obeyed YHVH, then they would find YHVH, even there. (Dev. 4:29–30.) For YHVH is a compassionate YHVH, Who would not fail them, let them perish, or forget the covenant that YHVH made with their fathers. (Dev. 4:31.)
Moshe invited the Yisra’elites to consider whether in any time or space any people had ever heard the voice of a mighty one speaking out of a fire and survived, or any mighty one had taken one nation from the midst of another by prodigious acts and awesome power as their Elohim had done for them in Mitsrayim before their very eyes. (Dev. 4:32–34.) Moshe said that it had been clearly demonstrated to them that YHVH alone is Elohim and there is none beside YHVH. (Dev. 4:35.) Moshe thus admonished them to observe YHVH’s laws and mitzvot, which Moshe enjoined upon them that day, that it might go well with them and their children, and that they might long remain in the land that YHVH was assigning to them for all time. (Dev. 4:40.)
Cities of refuge
Then Moshe set aside three cities of refuge on the east side of the Yarden to which a manslayer who unwittingly slew a person without having been hostile to him in the past could escape and live: Bezer among the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead among the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan among the Manassites. (Dev. 4:41–43.)
The Ten Words
Moshe summoned the Yisra’elites and called on them to hear the laws and rules that he proclaimed that day, to study them and observe them faithfully. (Dev. 5:1.) At Horeb, YHVH made a covenant with them — not with their fathers, but with them, the living, every one of them. (Dev. 5:2–3.) YHVH spoke to them face to face out of the fire on the mountain. (Dev. 5:4.) Moshe stood between YHVH and them to convey YHVH’s words to them, for they were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain. (Dev. 5:5.) YHVH said the Ten Words:
1768 Decalogue parchment by Jekuthiel Sofer
· “I YHVH am your Elohim.” (Dev. 5:6.)
· “You shall have no other Elohim beside Me. You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters below the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them.” (Dev. 5:7–9.)
· “You shall not swear falsely by the name of YHVH your Elohim.” (Dev. 5:11.)
· “Observe the Shabbat and keep it kadosh.” (Dev. 5:13.)
· “Honor your father and your mother.” (Dev. 5:16.)
· “You shall not murder.”
· “You shall not commit adultery.”
· “You shall not steal.”
· “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (Dev. 5:17.)
· “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not crave your neighbor’s house, or his field, or his male or female slave, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” (Dev. 5:18.)
YHVH spoke these words to the whole congregation at the mountain, with a mighty voice out of the fire and the dense clouds, and YHVH inscribed them on two tablets of stone, which YHVH gave to Moshe. (Dev. 5:19.) When the Yisra’elites heard the voice out of the darkness and saw the mountain ablaze with fire, the tribal heads and elders asked Moshe to hear all that YHVH had to say and then tell the people, and they would willingly obey. (Dev. 5:20–24.)
The Shema
the V'ahavta (Dev. 6:5–9.) in Hebrew
And Moshe imparted YHVH’s instruction, the Shema and V'ahavta, saying: “Hear, O Israel: YHVH our Elohim, YHVH is one. And you shall love YHVH your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words, which I command you this day, shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when thou rise up. And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house, and upon your gates.” (Dev. 6:4–9.)
Further exhortation to obey YHVH
Moshe exhorted the Yisra’elites, when YHVH brought them into the land and they ate their fill, not to forget the El who freed them from bondage in Mitsrayim, to revere and worship only YHVH, and to swear only by YHVH’s name. (Dev. 6:10–13.) Moshe warned the Yisra’elites not to follow other Elohim, any Elohim of the people about them, lest the anger of YHVH blaze forth against them and wipe them off the face of the earth. (Dev. 6:14–15.) Moshe warned the Yisra’elites not to try YHVH, as they did at Massah, but to keep YHVH’s mitzvot and do what is right in YHVH’s sight, that it might go well with them, that they might be able to possess the land, and that all their enemies might be driven out before you them. (Dev. 6:16–19.) And when their children would ask the meaning of the mitzvot, they were to answer that they were slaves to Pharaoh in Mitsrayim, and YHVH wrought before them marvelous and destructive signs and portents, freed them with a mighty hand to give them the land, and then commanded them to observe all these laws for their lasting good and survival. (Dev. 6:20–24.)
Instructions for conquest
Moshe told the Yisra’elites that when YHVH brought them to the land and dislodged seven nations before them — the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites — the Yisra’elites were to doom them to destruction, grant them no terms, and give them no quarter. (Dev. 7:1–2.) The Yisra’elites were not to intermarry with them, for they would turn the Yisra’elites’ children away from YHVH to worship other Elohim, and YHVH’s anger would blaze forth against the Yisra’elites and wipe them out. (Dev. 7:3–4.) The Yisra’elites were to tear down their altars, smash their pillars, cut down their sacred posts, and consign their images to the fire. (Dev. 7:5.)
The Yisra’elites were a people consecrated to YHVH, and YHVH chose them from all the peoples on earth to be YHVH’s treasured people. (Dev. 7:6.) YHVH chose them not because they were the most numerous of peoples, but because YHVH favored them and kept the oath YHVH made with their fathers. (Dev. 7:7–8.) Moshe told them to note that only YHVH is Elohim, the steadfast El who keeps His covenant faithfully to the thousandth generation of those who love YHVH and keep YHVH’s mitzvot, but who instantly requites with destruction those who reject YHVH. (Dev. 7:9–10.)
tefillin for the arm
a mezuzah
Mitzvot
According to Maimonides and Sefer ha-Chinuch, there are 8 positive and 4 negative mitzvot in the parshah.
· Not to desire another’s possession (Dev. 5:18)
· To know that YHVH is one (Dev. 6:4)
· To love YHVH (Dev. 6:5)
· To study Torah (Dev. 6:7)
· To say the Shema twice daily (Dev. 6:7)
· To bind tefillin on the arm (Dev. 6:8)
· To wear tefillin on the head (Dev. 6:8)
· To put a mezuzah on each door post (Dev. 6:9)
· Not to test the prophet unduly (Dev. 6:16)
· Not to make a covenant with idolaters (Dev. 7:2)
· Not to show favor to them (Dev. 7:2)
· Not to marry idolaters (Dev. 7:3)
view of the Dead Sea from Mount Nebo
Contents
[hide]
1 Summary
1.1 Moshe asked to see the land
1.2 Arguments to obey the law
1.3 Cities of refuge
1.4 The Ten Commandments
1.5 The Shema
1.6 Further exhortation to obey YHVH
1.7 Instructions for conquest
2 Commandments
3 Haftarah
4 The Weekly Maqam
5 Further reading
6 External links
Summary
Moshe asked to see the land
Moshe pleaded with YHVH to let him cross over and see the land on the other side of the Yarden River. (Dev. 3:23–25.) But YHVH was wrathful with Moshe on account of the Yisra’elites and would not listen, telling Moshe never to speak of the matter again. (Dev. 3:26.) YHVH directed Moshe to climb the summit of Pisgah and gaze about to look at the land. (Dev. 3:27.) And YHVH told Moshe to give Y’hoshua his instructions and imbue him with strength and courage, for Y’hoshua was to lead the people and allot to them the land. (Dev. 3:28.)
Arguments to obey the law
Moshe exhorted the Yisra’elites to heed YHVH’s laws, not to add anything to them, and not to take anything away from them, so that they might live to enter and occupy the land that YHVH was giving them. (Dev. 4:1–2.) Moshe noted that in the sin of Baal-peor, YHVH wiped out every person who followed Baal-peor, while preserving alive those who held fast to YHVH. (Dev. 4:3–4.) Moshe argued that observing the laws faithfully would prove to other peoples the Yisra’elites’ wisdom and discernment, for no other great nation had a YHVH so close at hand as YHVH, and no other great nation had laws and rules as perfect as YHVH’s. (Dev. 4:6–8.)
“The mountain was ablaze with flames” (Dev. 4:11.)
Moshe urged the Yisra’elites to take utmost care not to forget the things that they saw, and to make them known to their children and children’s children: How they stood before YHVH at Horeb, the mountain was ablaze with flames, YHVH spoke to them out of the fire, and YHVH declared to them the Ten Words. (Dev. 4:9–13.) At the same time, YHVH commanded Moshe to impart to the Yisra’elites laws for them to observe in the land that they were about to occupy. (Dev. 4:14.)
the moon
Because the Yisra’elites saw no shape when YHVH spoke to them out of the fire at Horeb, Moshe warned them not to make for themselves a sculptured image in any likeness whatever — the form of a man, woman, beast, bird, creeping thing, or fish. (Dev. 4:15–18.) And when they looked up and saw the sun, moon, stars, and heaven, they were not to be lured into bowing down to them or serving them, for YHVH allotted those things to other peoples, but YHVH took the Yisra’elites and brought them out of Mitsrayim to be YHVH’s very own people. (Dev. 4:19–20.)
Moshe said that YHVH was angry with him on account of the Yisra’elites, and YHVH swore that Moshe would not enter the land but would die in the land east of the Yarden. (Dev. 4:21–22.) Moshe cautioned the Yisra’elites not to forget the covenant that YHVH concluded with them, and not to make a sculptured image, for YHVH is a consuming fire, an impassioned Elohim. (Dev. 4:23–24.)
Moshe called heaven and earth to witness against the Yisra’elites that should they make for themselves a sculptured image when they were in the land, then YHVH would scatter them among the peoples, leaving only a scant few alive. (Dev. 4:25–27.) There in exile they would serve man-made YHVHs of wood and stone, that would not be able to see, hear, eat, or smell. (Dev. 4:28.) But when they were in distress and they searched for YHVH with all their heart and soul, returned to YHVH, and obeyed YHVH, then they would find YHVH, even there. (Dev. 4:29–30.) For YHVH is a compassionate YHVH, Who would not fail them, let them perish, or forget the covenant that YHVH made with their fathers. (Dev. 4:31.)
Moshe invited the Yisra’elites to consider whether in any time or space any people had ever heard the voice of a mighty one speaking out of a fire and survived, or any mighty one had taken one nation from the midst of another by prodigious acts and awesome power as their Elohim had done for them in Mitsrayim before their very eyes. (Dev. 4:32–34.) Moshe said that it had been clearly demonstrated to them that YHVH alone is Elohim and there is none beside YHVH. (Dev. 4:35.) Moshe thus admonished them to observe YHVH’s laws and mitzvot, which Moshe enjoined upon them that day, that it might go well with them and their children, and that they might long remain in the land that YHVH was assigning to them for all time. (Dev. 4:40.)
Cities of refuge
Then Moshe set aside three cities of refuge on the east side of the Yarden to which a manslayer who unwittingly slew a person without having been hostile to him in the past could escape and live: Bezer among the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead among the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan among the Manassites. (Dev. 4:41–43.)
The Ten Words
Moshe summoned the Yisra’elites and called on them to hear the laws and rules that he proclaimed that day, to study them and observe them faithfully. (Dev. 5:1.) At Horeb, YHVH made a covenant with them — not with their fathers, but with them, the living, every one of them. (Dev. 5:2–3.) YHVH spoke to them face to face out of the fire on the mountain. (Dev. 5:4.) Moshe stood between YHVH and them to convey YHVH’s words to them, for they were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain. (Dev. 5:5.) YHVH said the Ten Words:
1768 Decalogue parchment by Jekuthiel Sofer
· “I YHVH am your Elohim.” (Dev. 5:6.)
· “You shall have no other Elohim beside Me. You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters below the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them.” (Dev. 5:7–9.)
· “You shall not swear falsely by the name of YHVH your Elohim.” (Dev. 5:11.)
· “Observe the Shabbat and keep it kadosh.” (Dev. 5:13.)
· “Honor your father and your mother.” (Dev. 5:16.)
· “You shall not murder.”
· “You shall not commit adultery.”
· “You shall not steal.”
· “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (Dev. 5:17.)
· “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not crave your neighbor’s house, or his field, or his male or female slave, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” (Dev. 5:18.)
YHVH spoke these words to the whole congregation at the mountain, with a mighty voice out of the fire and the dense clouds, and YHVH inscribed them on two tablets of stone, which YHVH gave to Moshe. (Dev. 5:19.) When the Yisra’elites heard the voice out of the darkness and saw the mountain ablaze with fire, the tribal heads and elders asked Moshe to hear all that YHVH had to say and then tell the people, and they would willingly obey. (Dev. 5:20–24.)
The Shema
the V'ahavta (Dev. 6:5–9.) in Hebrew
And Moshe imparted YHVH’s instruction, the Shema and V'ahavta, saying: “Hear, O Israel: YHVH our Elohim, YHVH is one. And you shall love YHVH your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words, which I command you this day, shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when thou rise up. And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house, and upon your gates.” (Dev. 6:4–9.)
Further exhortation to obey YHVH
Moshe exhorted the Yisra’elites, when YHVH brought them into the land and they ate their fill, not to forget the El who freed them from bondage in Mitsrayim, to revere and worship only YHVH, and to swear only by YHVH’s name. (Dev. 6:10–13.) Moshe warned the Yisra’elites not to follow other Elohim, any Elohim of the people about them, lest the anger of YHVH blaze forth against them and wipe them off the face of the earth. (Dev. 6:14–15.) Moshe warned the Yisra’elites not to try YHVH, as they did at Massah, but to keep YHVH’s mitzvot and do what is right in YHVH’s sight, that it might go well with them, that they might be able to possess the land, and that all their enemies might be driven out before you them. (Dev. 6:16–19.) And when their children would ask the meaning of the mitzvot, they were to answer that they were slaves to Pharaoh in Mitsrayim, and YHVH wrought before them marvelous and destructive signs and portents, freed them with a mighty hand to give them the land, and then commanded them to observe all these laws for their lasting good and survival. (Dev. 6:20–24.)
Instructions for conquest
Moshe told the Yisra’elites that when YHVH brought them to the land and dislodged seven nations before them — the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites — the Yisra’elites were to doom them to destruction, grant them no terms, and give them no quarter. (Dev. 7:1–2.) The Yisra’elites were not to intermarry with them, for they would turn the Yisra’elites’ children away from YHVH to worship other Elohim, and YHVH’s anger would blaze forth against the Yisra’elites and wipe them out. (Dev. 7:3–4.) The Yisra’elites were to tear down their altars, smash their pillars, cut down their sacred posts, and consign their images to the fire. (Dev. 7:5.)
The Yisra’elites were a people consecrated to YHVH, and YHVH chose them from all the peoples on earth to be YHVH’s treasured people. (Dev. 7:6.) YHVH chose them not because they were the most numerous of peoples, but because YHVH favored them and kept the oath YHVH made with their fathers. (Dev. 7:7–8.) Moshe told them to note that only YHVH is Elohim, the steadfast El who keeps His covenant faithfully to the thousandth generation of those who love YHVH and keep YHVH’s mitzvot, but who instantly requites with destruction those who reject YHVH. (Dev. 7:9–10.)
tefillin for the arm
a mezuzah
Mitzvot
According to Maimonides and Sefer ha-Chinuch, there are 8 positive and 4 negative mitzvot in the parshah.
· Not to desire another’s possession (Dev. 5:18)
· To know that YHVH is one (Dev. 6:4)
· To love YHVH (Dev. 6:5)
· To study Torah (Dev. 6:7)
· To say the Shema twice daily (Dev. 6:7)
· To bind tefillin on the arm (Dev. 6:8)
· To wear tefillin on the head (Dev. 6:8)
· To put a mezuzah on each door post (Dev. 6:9)
· Not to test the prophet unduly (Dev. 6:16)
· Not to make a covenant with idolaters (Dev. 7:2)
· Not to show favor to them (Dev. 7:2)
· Not to marry idolaters (Dev. 7:3)
