Devarim
Deuteronomy 1:1–3:22
Isaiah 1:1–1:27
The whole of our book from now until the High Holy Days is a recapitulation of the journey from Egypt, as Moses prepares to hand off and pass away while the people move on and pass over. There is an aspect of nostalgia, a thread of admonition (Moses truly wants these people to succeed!) and a whole lot of instruction. All of this leads to the ultimate goal: the return of the people to the Promised Land, and establishment of the divinely structured development of the holy community.
Moses clouds his urgency with history: Speaking in the name of God, he starts them on their journey with a story, citing geography to remind them of their goal. Moreover, he keeps pushing at them, saying, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain” (1:6); “You have been skirting this hill country long enough; now turn north” (2:3); and “Up now! Cross the wadi Zered!” (2:13), hurry up, it’s time to go.
The rush is tempered by the need for a new perspective. Moses recounts the incident with the spies again, the people’s regret and the disaster following. Even in quoting his own distress, “I cannot bear the burden of you by myself” (1:9), he is preparing them for their impending independence. He points out, though, that God, too, has been watching over them, that they have lacked nothing in their wanderings over the past 40 years.
There is a midrash on the Sh’ma (I know, I’m a bit early in invoking that here), which explains the reason for the abrupt insertion.
The rabbis say: It is like the case of a king who betrothed unto himself a noble lady with two precious stones; when one of them was lost the king said to her: “You have lost one, take care of the other.” So God betrothed Israel unto Godself with the words, “We will do, and obey” (Exodus 24:7). When they lost the “We will do” in making the Golden Calf, Moses said to them: “You have lost the ‘We will do,’ observe then the ‘We will obey.’” Hence the force of Hear O Israel.
As I read this midrash for the first time, it struck me that it was Israel that did the betrothing, not God. The people offered their actions and their obedience but found that, even in the short term, the promise made in the first flush of excitement could be replaced with concern and a desire to take matters into their own hands.
How familiar this sounds! How often do we rush to change things that might unfold in their own good time were we to trust more? Indeed, we have lost the immediate and total immersion of the possibilities inherent in divine revelation.
But in turning aside for that moment, in dropping the first stone, we allow not only for the possibility of free will but for the true engagement of every individual. And for personal and communal responsibility, which of course can lead to communal salvation.
No longer, Moses is saying, will God treat you as small children, caring for your every need. Now is the time to pick up the second stone and move forward into the potential of who you may become, with this heavy but luminous guide.
The people at Sinai, in a way, recapitulated the fall from the Garden of Eden: Told not to do something critical to maintain the tentative new relationship they’d begun with the Creator, they did it anyway. In creating the rift, they developed a new form of co-creation, one that seems easier, given our human natures.
Now is the moment for change, says Moses. This time, God is wiser — the people go into the brave new world fresh (a new generation) and with the promise that it will be a magnificent undertaking. So we, too, can look upon our challenges as opportunities for rebirth, reconnection and renewal.
As Moses said, “Fear not and be not dismayed.”
Rabbi Elisheva Salamo is the spiritual leader of Keddem Congregation in Palo Alto.