Va’ethannan

This portion opens with Moses concluding his historical review by recounting how he entreated God to relent and allow him to go into the land with his people. God’s response is that Moses will be permitted to see the land, but only from afar. Moses now ends his first discourse with an exhortation to obey God’s laws. In his second discourse, which constitutes the bulk of the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses communicated a body of laws to the Israelites in preparation for their entry into the Promised Land. Some of these laws repeat laws given earlier in the Torah, but many of them are found only here. Before presenting the laws, Moses delivers a prologue describing the historical circumstances under which God gave them to him for transmission to the people. This section includes a repetition of the Ten Commandments, with some notable differences from the Exodus version. In addition, Moses offers a preamble, presenting the ideological basis for the laws and appealing for their observance. This section includes one of the most famous passages of the Torah: “Shema Yisrael, Adonai elohenu Adonai ehad.”