D’varim
Deut. 1:1 - 3:22
Précis: The Book of Deuteronomy (D’varim – “words”) takes the form of a series of lectures by Moses to the People as they prepare to enter the Land. Together, these instructions constitute Moses’ farewell address. D’varim is sometimes called the “Mishneh Torah”, literally, the “second teaching of the Torah” (this is where we get the Greek name of the Book) because it contains repetitions of previously enunciated laws. The Book has a strong focus on the centrality of the Temple in the Promised Land, as well as many of other rituals found at the center of Jewish life. The Book is also sometimes referred to as the “Priestly Code” by those who ascribe its origin to the Priests of the First Temple era.
Deut. 1:22-26 “Then all of you came to me and said, ‘Let us send men to reconnoiter the land for us and bring back word on the route we shall follow and the cities we shall come to. It looked good in my eyes, and so I selected twelve men, one from each tribe… and they gave us this report: ‘It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving to us.’ Yet you refused to go up and…you sulked in your tents.”
Matt Plen, writing in Torah Sparks (8/12/16) notes that Moses’ account of the story of the spies differs from the version we read in B’midbar (chapter 13). There God commanded Moses to send princes from each of the tribes, and here, Moses states that the idea came from the people. In B’midbar most of the spies return with a negative view of the Land, and actively spread pessimism among the Israelites. In this telling, Moses states that the spies brought a short, positive report about the land, but the people sulked in their tents.
How to reconcile these two different versions? Nahama Leibowitz’s argues that rather than seeing these stories as contradictory, we should think of them in terms of chronology. Moses' speech in D’varim comes 38 years after the sin of the spies, when the people of Israel are ready to take possession of the land. The first time, the people failed. Moses wants to make sure that they succeed this time. So he doesn't stress the sin of the various tribal leaders, but rather the personal responsibility of every member of the community. “The listener,” says Leibowitz, “has the choice of turning a deaf ear to evil words or of allowing himself to be misled by them. It is his duty to resist.”
