Devarim ("Words")

Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22  

 

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 God 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. These judges were forbidden to show any favoritism whatsoever and had to meet certain qualifications of the highest level. Moses recalls 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 would die out in the desert. "Also against me," says Moses, "was God angry for your sake, saying: You, too, shall not go in there." (Deut. 1:37)  

 

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 Lord your G-d, He shall fight for you." (Deut. 3:22)  

 

This Shabbat is also known as "Shabbat Chazon" the Sabbath of vision, as it is the Shabbat immediately preceeding Tisha B'Av.  

 

Additional Limmud (Learning)

Tisha B'Av (the 9th of the month of Av, July 21-22, 2018)

A day of fasting and mourning on the Jewish calendar, five terrible things happened on Tisha B'av: 1. The decree that our forefathers would wander for forty years in the desert; 2. AND 3: The destruction of both the First and Second Temples; 4. The fall of the Jewish rebel city of Betar (ending the great revolt against Rome in 135 CE); and 5.The plowing over with salt of the Temple grounds. Over the course of Jewish history, other tragedies have occurred on this day, including Crusades, Pogroms and the expulsion of Spanish Jewry in 1492.  

 

The five major prohibitions of Tisha B'av are:

• Eating and drinking in any quantity, including rinsing out the mouth
• Bathing and washing (even just hands, beyond the knuckles
• Anointing (oil and cosmetics)
• Wearing leather shoes
• Having sex, including any intimate contact.

The study of Torah is also not done, since study brings the heart joy. Certain sorrowful sections are exceptions, like Eicha (The Book of Lamentations), which is chanted in sorrowful trope. Note that Tisha B'av cannot be commemorated on Shabbat, which is always to be a day of joy, so it begins on Saturday night, the 10th of Av this year.