“I pleaded with the LORD at that time, saying, ‘ O Lord GOD,
You who let Your servant see the first works of Your greatness and Your mighty
hand, You whose powerful deeds no god in heaven or on earth can equal! Let me,
I pray, cross over and see the good land on the other side of the Jordan. . . .”
The parasha opens with these painful and personal words from
Moses. And then it launches into Moses’ exhortations to the people to follow
God’s laws and rules when they go into the land without him. The text becomes
liturgical, poetic and philosophical. It is here that we find the Sh’ma “Hear,
Oh Israel, YHVH is our God. YHVH alone. You shall love Adonai your God with all
your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. . . .” And here too, Moses
repeats the Ten Commandments.
The words we see repeated most are various forms of the
following verbs: “sh’ma” or “listen,” “r’eh, or “look,” “chayyim” or “life,” and
“shamor,” or “guard/keep.” These words occur in connection to constant
reminders to follow God’s ways and not to stray.
Moses is so sad and so worried. He made one misstep, and now
he can’t even enter the land. How much the more so are the people in danger of
straying from God’s laws and being exiled. Moses pleads with God at the
beginning, but the entire portion is a plea. Moses is pleading with the people
to not make the same mistakes he did; to treasure the opportunity to live in
the holy land and create a holy community in covenant with God.
As we read this parasha, are we worried, as Moses is? Do we
have hope – not only in the generation of Israelites whom Moses is addressing,
but in our own generations of living Jews? Are we able to see and listen, guard
and keep, and live?
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