Deuteronomy Cycle Four Devarim 1:1 to 3: 22

Devarim

These are the words that Moses spoke. And Devarim begins.

This beginning is much more than it seems. It’s seen by scholars as a way to introduce an extended if/then monologue that re-explains and re-defines the Exodus from Egypt. It can also be seen… in literature…as a simple dialogue tag. But according to our sages these words mark a major revelation on the part of Moses. They also validate (on one important level) that Moses does reach the Promised Land.

As we read in Talmud…R Johanan asks: How do we know that in the end, the Holy One, blessed be He, gave Moses right? Because it says …And the Lord says, I have pardoned according to thy word. …To explain, it is the spoken word of Moses that has led him into the embrace of God. (And this embrace, according to the Sfas Emet, is the Promised Land.) We also read in Talmud…Raba said in the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, Moses you have revived Me with your words…Quite clearly, according to the sages, it is the spoken word of Moses that revives even God Himself. The spoken word is clearly the prophet’s opening to a God-in-Revival…to that embrace… that promised place of radiance.

I don’t often mention myself in these writings but I have to admit this is huge for me. As a rabbinic student and writer, I tend to like to lurk behind my desk (like now) keeping my ideas for the few who will read this. The spoken word though is not only powerful, it is holy.

There are many other moments in Talmud where the sages speak of the holiness of expressing God’s words publicly. Heschel writes prophetic utterance….is urging, alarming, forcing onward, as if the words gushed forth from the heart of God, seeking entrance to the heart and mind of man, carrying a summons as well as an involvement (The Prophets, p 9). It is this action of word-flow Torah beyond written Torah, to repeat and tell, to describe and excite, that can merge that which is holy to that which is mundane …in the moment, live, here and now. The moment of prophetic word-flow is that of almost, of the last catch of breath right before upper and lower worlds meet. As many of us understand, it revolves around a pure meeting mind-to-mouth. There isn’t a choice. The flow is fast, decisive, and explosive. And the words themselves, if they are pure, strong and heightened create the important white space, the tiny silence in-transmission, experienced by Elijah (according to some teachers) at the same rock where Moses witnesses the essence of God. As some scribes have been known to say…we do not create the letters…we create the silent white space within the letters. So it is this white space that the prophet can therefore make into live experience when he…finally…allows himself to be the Shofar, to be the instrument of God-sound.

What a huge feat for Moses. It wasn’t that long ago, after all, when Moses argued with God about even transmitting His message. In Exodus 4:10 when God is calling on him to save the Israelites from bondage Moses begs God to reconsider...that he is not the man for the job…since he is literally heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue. Rashi interprets this as a speech defect. God then says that Moses will place the words in the mouth of Aaron and that He, God will be with your mouth and his mouth and I will teach you what to do. The beauty of this beginning of Devarim therefore is that Moses has clearly learned that which God has taught. A man with blocked speech becomes a prophet and in order to prophesize must break through this most difficult hurdle. If that isn’t inspirational I don’t know what is.

In my own analysis of the beginning of Devarim, we see all of the above simply through syntax and grammar. Elah hadevarim asher diber Moshe. The noun devarim in the plural passes through man…as the vessel…and becomes dibar… a singular verb. The prophet is the man who can bring the expansive and esoteric God into one action….who can pass words of God through his body and deliver them in an accessible one-ness to the people Israel.

It’s important to also see that the use of specific words within speech can act as pillars. In this parsha the words rav lechem (enough of you) and re’eh (see) …help to create the necessary boundaries. The musical refrain of these specific words offers constraint that the Israelites can emulate. And this constraint forms the necessary vessel that can both transmit and receive the God-language. After all, vibrations are formed with constraint and we are all vibrations within vibrations. We, each one of us, are music, figures of speech, continually touching and touching others, shaping, molding others with all that which comes out of our mouths.

In what seems like a whirlwind of words, therefore, Moses himself becomes and creates the sound-spiral that sweeps-up the Israelites to and into that place of God. Of course, if he stops being that sound-spiral too soon the Israelites would be unable to continue on their path.

And what about the Israelites, the rest of us? Well just like the speaker, the prophet, we also can define our entry to the Promised Land as the ability to listen at many different levels….and act. Lawrence Kushner writes in his book Sparks Beneath the Surface…Rabbi Yishmael maintained that the written Torah spoke in the language of humans but he regarded each word as divinely inspired. Even God’s speaking at Sinai was heard differently by all 600,00 Jews assembled at the foot of the mountain. The ability simply to know what you alone have heard enables the communication to be solid. Acting on your own communication and having faith in it not only further enables the prophet but enables a deeper and more meaningful merge of all messages when we enter olam habah…the time to come.

How can we act on this today? Remember that all of our teachings…Talmud and Torah were once spoken…See words as a vessel to raise sparks. Listen and allow your sparks to be raised. Watch the words you say. Understand that the power of speech is a gift from God…and not to be twisted for human convenience. Just like when you might say a prayer before you eat..try saying a prayer before you speak. Love the force that drives the words through your mouth and to your ears. Love the person you speak to. Know who you are.