Daphne Lazar Price focuses on the opening promise: “And when you listen to these laws, God will keep the Covenant with you.” The cause and effect of the verse seems straightforward, except for the “eikev” – heel, the lowest and most overlooked part of the body. She references Rashi who compares it to mitzvot that people “tread underfoot.” Yet in God’s eyes, even small, seemingly trivial commandments matter just as much.
Benjamin Mann writes about Deuteronomy 8:10, which is incorporated into the birkat Hamazon: When you have eaten your fill, give thanks to the ETERNAL your God for the good land given to you. He references his students, who question the need for reciting the Birkat Amazon. The answer is in 8:12-14, wherein Moses cautions the people to beware of becoming haughty and forgetting God.
Rabbi Sacks writes about the juxtaposition of 2 verses; one about God’s supremacy, and the other about God’s care for the low and lonely. This juxtaposition is incorporated into the concluding service for Shabbat, reminding us that as we return to our weekday concerns, we should not be so caught up in our own interests that we forget others less favorably situated.
Naomi Graetz observes that Shabbat Nachamu very quickly follows Tisha B’Av, moving us rapidly from devastation to consolation, yet the rapid shift doesn’t quite work. She states that Lamentations emphasizes that “there is no comforter”. This is the defining condition. The lack of a neat resolution is reflected in Moses’ situation: he pleads to enter the land and is refused, without compromise or opportunity for appeal. He does not achieve fulfillment.
Rebecca Good considers Moses at the time when he becomes aware that he will not enter the Promised Land. She writes that when Moses struck the rock, he did what he wanted to do, instead of what God told him to do. Although he had faith in God, he lacked the confidence that God would deliver.
Rabbi Sacks writes about the divergence between the interpretations of Judah Halevi and Maimonides. For Maimonides, the basic principle is faith; a realization that there is a “First Being” who brought everything into existence. According to Halevi, the statement “I am the Lord your God…” is preliminary to the commands, explaining why the Israelites should be bound by the will of God.
Rabbi Mack comments on the tendency to retell events based on how we felt about them, including Moshe. She observes that for many of the events that Moshe recalls, God was originally in charge. How else do we account for the variations between Moshe’s recollection and the original narrative?
Jake Nussbaum writes about Masechet Avodah Zara 25a, which attributes 2 biblical verses to the Sefer haYashar. The question that the sages raise is: what exactly is the Sefer haYashar? Rabbi Elazar wrote that it is Devarim, because of verse 6:18 – “so what is upright and good in the sigh of the Lord…”.
Rabbi Sacks observes that tzedek and its derivate tzedakah appear 16 times in Genesis and 18 times in Deuteronomy, and only a few times in the other books. The root has so many shades of meaning that it is practically impossible to translate. It demonstrates the wide range of meaning between legal justice and the right thing to do.
Rabbi Ruskay considers the challenging text that stipulates that a woman’s vow can be nullified by her father or husband; otherwise, if she breaks it then he is culpable. Rather than skipping over it, she “leans into the text”, considering contemporary contexts. For instance, she quotes the question “what happens to our bodies when we encounter a text that challenges us because of who we are”. She observes, “our tradition is bigger than any single passage.”