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world admire them and exclaim how wise and understanding this people are. Who truly is so great – explained Moshe – a nation which Hashem is close to whenever we cry out to Him?
We are warned that if we get too used to the Holy Land and begin serving idols, then Hashem will have us expelled from the Holy Land and scattered around the world. This unfortunately came true and throughout our close to 2000 years in exile, we have been scattered all over the world. Thankfully, wherever we have been there have been those who remained loyal to our Torah, which itself has brought much flavour to our religious practice, with Jews from Argentina able to relate to the same Torah as Jews from Algeria, Jews from Ireland able to compare notes with Jews from Iraq and Jews from
Canada bringing a certain different flavour to Mitzvah observance than Jews from China.
Moshe reviews the Ten Commandments and reminds the Jewish people how special they are – “Has any other nation heard Hashem Himself talk to them?” It was not an individual “prophecy” that we are told to believe; it was an entire nation who heard Hashem communicate with us and with Moshe. We are warned to never forget the day on which we all stood at Har Sinai to receive the Torah.
As we learned in a previous Sidra, there were to be cities of refuge set aside for one who killed unintentionally (G-d forbid). Although Moshe himself was not going to be entering the Holy Land he was still keen to fulfil a Mitzvah and therefore separated three cities on the east of the contains 122 verses, 1,878 words and 7,343 letters.
Jordan to be designated for this purpose.
The Parsha contains the first passage of our declaration of faith – Shema Yisrael and Ve’ahavta. It is noteworthy how many Mitzvot are contained in this relatively small section of the Torah which we are privileged to read twice a day!
Moshe reminds the Jewish people –Hashem did not choose you over other nations due to your strength in number – there are plenty nations with far more people. Rather, you were chosen from the love Hashem has for you and in keeping with His promise to our forefathers to redeem you from Egypt.
The Parsha ends with another fundamental principle of Judaism –Hashem rewards those who are loyal to Him and, sadly, punishes those who are not.
