DEUTERONOMY דברים

Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Old Testament, was written in the form of a farewell address by Moses to the Israelites before they entered the Promised Land of Canaan. The speeches that constitute this address recall Israel’s past, reiterate laws that Moses had communicated to the people at Horeb (Sinai), and emphasize that observance of these laws is essential for the well-being of the people in the land they are about to possess.

The title Deuteronomy, derived from Greek, thus means a “copy,” or a “repetition,” of the law rather than “second law,” as the word’s etymology seems to suggest.

Although Deuteronomy is presented as an address by Moses, scholars generally agree that it dates from a much later period of Israelite history. An early edition of Deuteronomy as it exists today has been identified with the book of the Law discovered in the Temple of Jerusalem about 622 BC (2 Kings 22:8; 2 Chronicles 34:15). This early edition, corresponding roughly to chapters 5–26 and 28 of Deuteronomy as it now stands, expresses a cultic liturgy. Chapters 5–11 contain an introductory speech by Moses, largely hortatory. In chapters 12–26, laws are reiterated that the people are exhorted to obey. The section closes with a report of the formulation of a Covenant between God and his chosen people.

Chapter 28 recounts in elaborate detail the blessings or curses that will come upon the people, depending on their response to laws that explicate their covenantal obligations. This arrangement of materials corresponds to the liturgy of Covenant renewal festivals that were celebrated in Israel’s premonarchic period. Within this cultic context very ancient laws were preserved and transmitted.

Shema Yisrael (or Sh’ma Yisroel or just Shema) (Hebrew: שמע ישראל; “Hear, [O] Israel”) refers to the most important prayer in Judaism that is recited every morning and evening during Jewish prayers. Its twice-daily recitation is a religious commandment (mitzvah) for observant Jews. The full “Shema” prayer comprises Deuteronomy 6:4–9, 11:13-21, and Numbers 15:37–41.

The text of the first part of the Shema is as follows:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. [1] 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

The two-fold message of the prayer is, first, that God is One, and, second, that each person should love God with all one’s heart, soul, and might. Jesus considered the Shema to be part of the greatest commandment: “And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, ‘Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord'” (Gospel of Mark 12:29 KJV). Jesus added that the second commandment is to love one’s neighbor as oneself. Jesus also refers to the Shema in the Gospel of John 10:30.

The Talmud is a record of rabbinical discussions pertaining to Jewish law, biblical interpretation, ethics, customs, and history. It is the basis for all codes of rabbinical law and is much quoted in other Jewish literature.

The Talmud has two basic components: the Mishnah (c. 200 C.E.), the first written compendium of Judaism‘s Oral Law; and the Gemara (c. 500 C.E.), a rabbinical discussion of the Mishnah and related writings that often ventures into other subjects and expounds broadly on the Hebrew Bible. Printed editions of the Talmud also contain later commentaries from rabbinical authorities through the Middle Ages. The terms Talmud and Gemara are often used interchangeably.

The Mishnah forms the core of the Talmud. It is a compilation of legal opinions and debates of leading rabbis of the second century. The rabbis of the Mishnah are known as tannaim, meaning roughly “sages.” Since it sequences its laws by subject matter instead of by biblical context, the Mishnah discusses individual subjects more thoroughly than the Midrash, and it includes a much broader selection of halakhic (legal) subjects than the Midrash. The Mishnah’s topical organization thus became the framework of the Talmud as a whole.

In the three centuries following the redaction of the Mishnah, rabbis throughout Palestine and Babylonia analyzed, debated and discussed that work. These discussions form the Gemara (גמרא). The rabbis of the Gemara are known as amoraim (sing. amora אמורא). Gemara means “completion,” from gamar גמר : Hebrew to complete; Aramaic to study.

Much of the Gemara consists of legal analysis. The starting point for the analysis is usually a legal statement found in a Mishnah. The statement is then analyzed and compared with other statements in a dialectical exchange between two (frequently anonymous and sometimes metaphorical) disputants, termed the makshan (questioner) and tartzan (answerer).

The Plains of Moab are mentioned in three books of the Hebrew Bible (Numbers, Deuteronomy and Joshua) as an area in Transjordan, stretching along the Jordan “across from Jericho“, and more specifically “from Beth Jeshimoth to Abel Shittim” (Num. 33:49). Here is the last Station of the Exodus and the place from which Moses climbs up on Mount Nebo “to the top of Pisgah“, where he dies (Deut. 34:1).