P199 Parash 44 D’varim (Words) D’varim/Deuteronomy 1:1 – 3:22
2014-2015 CYCLE
P199 Parash 44 D’varim (Words) D’varim/Deuteronomy 1:1 – 3:22
Synopsis
–On the 1st of Shevat (37 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 40-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 God is giving them as 44 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 God; 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 God decreed that
the entire generation of the Exodus shall die out in the desert. "Also against
me," says Moses, "was God angry for your sakes, saying: You, too, shall not go
in there."
Moses also recounts some more recent events: the refusal of the nations of Moav
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 Menasseh; and Moses'
message to his successor, Y'hoshua, who will take the people into the Land and
lead them in the battles for its conquest: "Fear them not, for the Lord your
God, He shall fight for you.". Moshe goes over what land is being given to us by
the Lord. But, he also tells us what is not ours. |