Jake Nussbaum: Devarim Beginning the Review of the Torah

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 Jonathan Sacks, z/l: Devarim Tzedek: Justice and Compassion

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.