Parshat Va’etChanan
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Overview

Moshe prays

· Moshe asks again to be able to enter the Land

· Hashem becomes angry at him for continuing to ask

· He tells Moshe to ascend to a mountain where he can see the Land.

Decrees and ordinances

· Moshe instructs Israel: "so you may live…"

· Do not add to or subtract from the Law

· Cling to Hashem that you might live.

· Remember and teach your children.

Moshe reminds the people of Sinai.

· Hashem spoke out of the fire on the mountain.

· No form, only sound. Do not create any form of a creature in earth or heaven.

· Hashem removed you from the crucible of Egypt.

Moshe may not enter the Land

· Hashem was angry at Moshe because of the people.

· Moshe warns the people, who are about to cross the Jordan, not to forget the covenant.

· Gd is a jealous Gd.

Exile and return

· If the people disobey, they will be dispersed, but He will regather them.

· He will not utterly abandon His people, but will wait for them to repent.

Hearing His voice

· Moshe reminds them that they heard His voice.

· He took them a nation from the midst of a nation, unlike anything ever before.

Cities of refuge Moshe set three cities of refuge on the east side of the Jordan:

Ten Commandments
You were afraid, so I (Moshe) heard Hashem for you:

Fire, cloud, smoke

· Moshe reiterates the Sinai experience with the fire, cloud, and thick smoke.

· The people were afraid, so the elders asked Moshe to ascend and hear for them.

· Hashem told Moshe to tell the people to return to their tents, but that he was to stand before Hashem and receive the entire commandment for them.

· Do not stray to the left or to the right.

Shema
Hear, O Israel: Hashem is our Gd, Hashem is the One and Only. You shall love Hashem, your Gd, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your resources. And these matters that I command you today shall be upon your heart. You shall teach them thoroughly to your children and you shall speak of them wile you sit in your home, while you walk on the way, when you retire and when you arise. Bind them as a sign upon your arm and let them be ornaments between your eyes. And write them on the doorposts of your house and upon your gates.
– Dvarim 6:4-9

Prosperity in the Land

· You will come into cities and houses already built, orchards already planted, cisterns already carved out for you.

· Do not to forget to fear Hashem.

· Do not follow after gods of the inhabitants.

· Teach your children about the Exodus, the commandments, and to fear Gd.

Nations being dispossessed

· Seven nations: Hittite, Girgashite, Amorite, Canaanite, Perizzite, Hivvite, Jebusite

· Utterly destroy them; do not seal a covenant with them nor show them favor.

· Do not intermarry with them.

Destroy their idols and places of worship.

For you are a holy people to Hashem, your Gd; Hashem, your Gd, has chosen you to be fore him a treasured people above all the peoples that are on the face of the earth. Not because you are more numerous than all the peoples did Hashem desire you and choose you, for you are the fewest of all the peoples. Rather, because of Hashem’s love for you and because He observes the oath that He swore to your forefathers did He take you out with a strong hand and redeem you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. You must know that Hashem, your Gd – He is the Gd, the faithful Gd, Who safeguards the covenant and the kindness for those who love Him and for those who observe His commandments, for a thousand generations. And He repays His enemies in his lifetime to make him perish; He shall not delay for His enemy – in his lifetime He shall repay him. You shall observe the commandment, and the decrees and the ordinances that I command you today, to perform them.
– Dvarim 7:6-11

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2011WCNN