Parshas Devarim

Hi everyone, I hope this helps you go into your Shabbos more prepared and I hope you learn something new!

This week’s Parsha is called Devarim (DE-VAR-IM). Devarim is the first Parsha and the “title tack” in the fifth book of the Torah.

The Parsha begins with a passuk that reads, “These are the words that Moses spoke to all of Israel….” After learning about the exile in Egypt there is an obvious question: if Moses couldn’t speak to Pharaoh, how could he speak to a whole nation?
Before we answer the question let me show you the questionable facts. Back in Egypt, Moses wouldn’t speak before Pharaoh (who is one person) because he wasn’t a good speaker. But Moses speaks to the Jewish people often in the desert and the Jewish people are a whole nation of people. (You might think that Moses didn’t want to speak to Pharoh because he was scared of him, but we know that this cannot be because Moses only feared Hashem.

A tzadik (righteous man) by the name of Rabbi Mordechai Kats zt”l answers this in his book that when the Jewish people were in Egypt, and Moses was going to speak before Pharoh, he wasn’t comfortable speaking in such a place. The reason is because Egypt was a place where people lied and spoke dirty words. But the reason why Moses was able to speak to the Jewish people in the desert was because Moses knew that when Hashem was with them there would be good speech between one another.

The Parsha recalls a time when Moses said to Hashem that he wasn’t able to lead the B’nai Yisroel by himself, (meaning it was too hard.) So Hashem appointed seventy elders to help him. This created a hierarchy.

The reason Moses said this was because Hashem didn’t want the Jewish people to become despondent and say, “How could I ever become as great as Moses?” So Hashem showed them that there are different levels so to speak, of greatness and they can work their way up the “ladder.”

We can see from here that Hashem is always caring about us and is always watching over us. Even when it comes to personal matters like who we can become and how to get there.

May we all recognize that Hashem is always helping us! -Amen.

HAVE A GREAT SHABBOS AND WEEKEND!

Stay tuned for next week’s Parsha called, Va’eschanan (VUH-ES-CHUH-NAN).