Thoughts at Parasha Dewarim and the the 5. Book of Torah

Today we find ourselves in the week in which a new book of the Torah will be read this coming Shabbat. It is the book of Devarim. Devarim means retrospective and recalls everything that has happened and what is and remains of utmost importance. We are also speaking of the Mishneh Torah, the repetition of the Torah. With the words of Devarim, we all enter this important phase of our own personal development, and at the same time, we, as a Jewish people, are called upon and prepared to confront the contents of the Torah once again and move forward with it. Devarim also marks the beginning of Yeshayahu’s vision and the Book of the Prophets. The parashah begins right at the beginning: „These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel in the wilderness, opposite Suf, between Paran and between Tophel and Laban and Hatzeroth and Di-Zahab.“ Then comes a remarkable sentence in the second pasuk. It speaks of eleven days‘ journey from Choreb on the way to Se’ir to Kadesh Barnea. Se’ir refers to Edom, and this is important. The concluding remark is that it was the fortieth year, in the eleventh month of the moon, on the first day of the moon, that Moses spoke to the sons of Israel. According to rabbinic reckoning, the eleventh month is the month of Av, and we will find ourselves in this very month next Shabbat Chazon. It is important to study every word of the Torah and realize that, on the one hand, we have the task of taking possession of the land given to the Jewish people by the Canaanites, but, on the other hand, to consider that it is Hashem alone who makes all this possible, and our inner predispositions that enable the realization of what Hashem has planned for us all.