Sefer Devarim, as Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO, OU Kosher, notes in his preface to this volume, is both the final book of the Torah as well as the beginning of interpretation of the Torah, the end of Torah Shebichtavbut also the beginning of Torah Shebe’al Peh. Sefer Devarim, Moshe Rabbeinu’s poignant farewell address to the nation he helped bring into being, bears Moshe’s unique imprint as he looks back on the nation’s formative experiences in the desert and looks forward to its future in the Promised Land.
Echoes of Sinai, the fifth and final installment in Rabbi Ari Kahn’s Echoes of Eden series, calls attention to the ways Sefer Devarim retells, expands on and explains earlier sections of the Torah. For example, the retelling of the Ten Commandments in Sefer Devarim contains many discrepancies with the version in Shemot. The Ten Commandments of Shemot, explains Rabbi Kahn, speak from God’s own perspective, while the Devarim version represents Divine revelation from the human perspective. In Devarim, Moshe recounts the story of the spies, but this account differs in a number of subtle ways from the “original version” of the story in Bamidbar. Noting these nuances, Rabbi Kahn comes to a new interpretation of the entire story of the spies and ends with a methodological point: “The insight we gain from the book of Devarim is what makes Moshe our greatest teacher. As he retells our history and reteaches God’s word, he ensures that the deep philosophical and practical messages of the Torah with which he was entrusted are internalized. Only then does he step off the stage and allow the Jewish people to continue their journey.”
Rabbi Ari Kahn’s Echoes of Eden series, with its unique style of close reading and finding unexpected connections, deserves a place of pride in the libraries of every seeker of the messages Moshe Rabbeinu left behind for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment