If you’ve ever heard the end to Beethoven’s 5th
Symphony, you have experienced something similar to the end of Deuteronomy.
Beethoven just doesn’t seem to want it to end, and he can’t seem to choose just
one ending. It goes on and on and on!
This week’s Torah portion begins the ending of the Torah,
which will take another several weeks to actually complete. We have the last
law of the Moab covenant, instructing the Israelites about a ritual of bringing
their first fruits to the priest, once they are in the Land. And then the ending
begins! We are told to erect pillars on a mountain and build an altar, and then
the tribes divide up between two mountains to pronounce a series of blessings
and curses. The blessings will come about if we stick to the covenant, and the
curses will come about if we stray from God’s path.
This ritual of pronouncing blessings and curses serves as a
seal on the covenantal promises the people and God make with each other. But
this “sealing” is just one ending among many yet to come. We still have many
pronouncements and warnings, poetry and blessings awaiting us. It seems that
this parasha as well as the ones in the weeks ahead are here to command our
attention and to sustain that attention. Moses even has to tell us to be quiet
this week. “Silence! Hear O Israel!,” Moses says in 27:9, “Today you have become the people of the Lord
your God: Heed the Lord your God. . . .”
So my question for us then is – what does it take for us to
pay attention? Does an ancient text have the power to leave a lasting enough
impression that we can sustain our loyalty and devotion to its words? Do all of
these endings, with their warnings of curses and promises of blessings do the
trick?
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