Rabbi Larry Kushner once said that Jews hold the Torah to be sacred because it is open to infinite interpretation. The Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) is not sacred because it is the word of God, fixed and unchanging, as fundamentalists declare, it is sacred because as we change our understanding of it changes. This is true for the final book of the Torah, Devarim, or Deuteronomy in English, which we begin reading this Shabbat. Rather than a continuation of the Torah it is a recapitulation of the events and laws described in the previous four books of the Torah. But it is more than that; it is a reinterpretation of many of those events and laws. Commenting on the first verse of our Torah portion, Nahmanides (14th C. Spain) wrote, “that he [Moses] would repeat them [the commandments] in order to clarify them further and to give additional instruction about them.” Moses did this because the Israelites who were about to enter the land of Israel were a new generation. They were not the Hebrew slaves who left Egypt, but a new generation raised in freedom and life in the wilderness. Their understanding was different, so Moses had to reinterpret God’s word for their conditions. So it has continued for the Jewish people throughout history: as our historical conditions change our understanding and interpretation of God’s word change. The Torah remains constant, but our understanding is always developing. This is the tension of Jewish religious thought.
Devarim, Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22, Parshat Hashavua for Shabbat, July 22, 2023
July 21, 2023 by Dean Kertesz • Drashot
Rabbi Larry Kushner once said that Jews hold the Torah to be sacred because it is open to infinite interpretation. The Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) is not sacred because it is the word of God, fixed and unchanging, as fundamentalists declare, it is sacred because as we change our understanding of it changes. This is true for the final book of the Torah, Devarim, or Deuteronomy in English, which we begin reading this Shabbat. Rather than a continuation of the Torah it is a recapitulation of the events and laws described in the previous four books of the Torah. But it is more than that; it is a reinterpretation of many of those events and laws. Commenting on the first verse of our Torah portion, Nahmanides (14th C. Spain) wrote, “that he [Moses] would repeat them [the commandments] in order to clarify them further and to give additional instruction about them.” Moses did this because the Israelites who were about to enter the land of Israel were a new generation. They were not the Hebrew slaves who left Egypt, but a new generation raised in freedom and life in the wilderness. Their understanding was different, so Moses had to reinterpret God’s word for their conditions. So it has continued for the Jewish people throughout history: as our historical conditions change our understanding and interpretation of God’s word change. The Torah remains constant, but our understanding is always developing. This is the tension of Jewish religious thought.