Shalom my JTF friends,
Once again we are heading into the Sabbath and it is time to start studying the portion of the week. This week we are starting the fifth and final book of the Five Books of Moses (Chumash) which we call Devarim (Words) and is called Dueteronomy by the gentile world. Basically this book is a retelling from Moshes perspective of the entire Yetziat Mitzrayim (Going out of Egypt).
Moshe recalls the good and the bad of the entire 40 year production, rebuking the people for their rebellion, and he inspired and motivated them to enter the promised land.
Here is Chabads 'Parsha in a Nutshell'
http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/2254/jewish/Devarim-in-a-Nutshell.htmOn the first of Shevat (thirty-seven days before his passing), Moses begins his repetition of the Torah to the assembled Children of Israel, reviewing the events that occurred and the laws that were given in the course of their forty-year journey from Egypt to Sinai to the Promised Land, rebuking the people for their failings and iniquities, and enjoining them to keep the Torah and observe its commandments in the land that G‑d is giving them as an eternal heritage, into which they shall cross after his death.
Moses recalls his appointment of judges and magistrates to ease his burden of meting out justice to the people and teaching them the word of G‑d; the journey from Sinai through the great and fearsome desert; the sending of the spies and the people’s subsequent spurning of the Promised Land, so that G‑d decreed that the entire generation of the Exodus would die out in the desert. “Also against me,” says Moses, “was G‑d angry for your sake, saying: You, too, shall not go in there.”
Moses also recounts some more recent events: the refusal of the nations of Moab and Ammon to allow the Israelites to pass through their countries; the wars against the Emorite kings Sichon and Og, and the settlement of their lands by the tribes of Reuben and Gad and part of the tribe of Manasseh; and Moses’ message to his successor, Joshua, who will take the people into the Land and lead them in the battles for its conquest: “Fear them not, for the L‑rd your G‑d, He shall fight for you.”
Let us start with some short talks on the topic before we delve into the deeper, longer discussions:
Rabbi Shafier
Rabbi Chaim Richman of the Temple Institute ties the parsha in with the Nine Days...
PS: This year Tish B'Av starts at sunset on this Monday night...