Questions – Parshah Devarim
Devarim 1
How should we read the words “To all Israel?” Is there something unique in this specific name of the group? (Appears only in Devarim and three later verses beyond the Humash.)
Why is it significant that Devarim begins with the Israelites in the Aravah?
We are told that the Israelites are only eleven days away from Horeb (Sinai). Is this the shortest route or is there one that is even shorter? And yet it took them 40 years. Could they have come this far earlier and turned back or did their travels have to keep them from coming this close to the end of their wandering?
Moses begins speaking on “The first day of the eleventh month,” is Shvat. We find ourselves reading this first Parshah of his addresses close to that date in own calendar *This year our daily readings of the Parshah are on the third and the sixth and we read the full Parshah on 8 Shvat, Shabbat).We can understand the entire book of Devarim and all of Moses addresses as occurring between the 1st and 9th of Av. Why don’t we make more of this connection? In my experience we seldom mention the death of Moses in its relationship to Tisha B’Av. Is this your experience? Why might that be?
Did God instruct Moses to address the people as he does in Devarim? 1:3-4 i,plies this, but is this the first we hear of it?
Did God send the people to the Aravah in Shemot? Vaguely? Specifically? Did God actually ever say up to this point, “Go. Take possession of the land!”?
Moses reminds the people that he told them, “I cannot bear the burden of you by myself.” Did he ever actually say this to the people? What is Moses doing here by beginning his speech with a reminder that he delegated his authority over them so that he was not the only center of leadership among them? Did they respond to the new model for leadership “What you propose is good.” Did he present the idea as his own or did he credit Yitro?
In 1:19 Moses describes the desert as הַגָּדוֹל֩ וְהַנּוֹרָ֨א, the great and terrible. Regardless of how we translate this phrase, which is in very simple Hebrew, it appears as a phrase in Torah only this once and even the broader version of the phrase גָּדֹ֖ול וְנֹורָֽא, great and awesome, appears only once in the Humash and this is also in Devarim. The Israelites have complained about conditions in the desert many times, but Moses has never done so. Why does he use this phrase here? See also Devarim 8:15)
In verse 1:20-21 Moses says, “Go up. Take possession..” Did he really? If he did, did he mean it when he said it?
Moses tells the people that God carried them, “as a man carries his son.” Elsewhere God’s care is compared to an eagle that carries it young on its wings (to protect from threats which would only come from below) and in Number 11:12 Moses describes himself as a nursing father to the Israelites. How is this message amplified elsewhere in less concise language?
In verse 1:34 Moses refers to the people’s “loud complaint.” Which complaint is Moses referring to? Could he be referring to more than one incident?
“Because of you the Lord was incensed with me too.” Is this a fair complaint on Moses' part? Is there a cruel irony in his statement that”your little ones… who do not know good from bad, they shall enter it?”
It seems like Moses is referring to the incident where he hit the rock, but he then reverts back to what is a clear reference to the time of the reports of the spies. Before that it seemed like he had been working his way through Israelite history in an orderly way. Why the detour or switchback here (1:40-45).
Devarim 2
You have been skirting the hill country long enough.” Why was it long enough and why did God take note of that at that time? Did it need to happen for a specific amount of time (and if so, why) or had God been inattentive to the time and been jolted somehow back into the human flow of time?
Why does Moses need totell.remind the people that God wanted them to know that the Edomites would be afraid of them? This is a reversal of the situation when Jacob returned to the land and was afraid of Esau.
The Israelites”lacked nothing,” because God cared for them. What did they have?
Why is the presence of the Anakites and Rephidim mentioned? We last heard about them from the ten spies, but they were in the land of Israel. How widely were they distributed? Are we reminded of them by Moses to defend the truthfulness of the ten spies?
The Edomites displaced the Horites. It is God’s plan to replace peoples in their homelands? Where did the Horites God, or were they slaughtered?
We learn of the whole long itinerary of the Israelites in the previous Parshah. Why do we only find out that the wanderings included a 38 year time spent in one place, Kadesh Barnbea? Can we really call this wandering for forty years?
The Caphtorim are mentioned (the Sea People). Was there any part of the area that had not already seen displacement of the original inhabitants? Why is this the way the way that history is told?
In Moses’ account God sent him to make war on Sihon of Heshbon, but Moses wanted to try to move through the land peacefully. Is this the way it happened or the way that Moses wanted to remember it? We didn’t hear that God had “Stiffened the will” of Sihon at the time of the actual conflict. Is Moses making Sihon into a pharaoh figure?
Chapter 3
Moses’ discourse turns into a history of the wars of Israel at this point. Why does he need to say, Sidonian’s called Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir.”?
“Only King Og of Bashan was left of the remaining Rephidim.” Was Og king over a people who were not Rephidim? Who were Og’s people? Were the Rephidim then gone from the land of Israel already? The Rephidim seem like an element of the mythological history of the Israelite world. Why is there an effort made to prove their existence (the size of Og’s bed)?
Jair, son of Manasseh received the whole of the Argob district (That is Bashan)... Why do we need this as the etiology of the place name Jair-Havvoth?
Why is Gad assigned a place east of the Jordan? They had not asked to stay on that side of the river.
Why does Moses need to interject “-I know that you have much livestock -”? (Verse 3: 19)
Reuben and Menasseh are required to serve as shock troops until the rest of the tribes are able to occupy the land assigned to them. This doesn’t really happen. Certainly not right away. When did they actually get to return to their assigned territory? Did they fulfill their obligation?
Moses uses all this triumph as an object lesson for Joshua, telling him that if he fights with God’s support he has nothing to fear. He says, “Do not fear them, …” Can one realistically ask this of someone?
