Parashat Vaetchanan — And I pleaded

וָאֶתְחַנַּן

Torah portion 45 of 54 · Book of Deuteronomy · pronounced vah-et-khah-NAHN

Vaetchanan (וָאֶתְחַנַּן) means "and I pleaded" — taken, as every parashah name is, from the portion's opening words in the Hebrew.

Next read: August 14, 2027 · then August 5, 2028

The Readings

What Happens in Vaetchanan

And I pleaded — vaetchanan — with YHVH at that time: let me go over, please, and see the good land. The answer is a closed door with a mountain view: enough; go up to Pisgah, lift up your eyes — and commission Yehoshua. From that refusal flows the great charge: now, O Yisrael, listen to the statutes and judgments — you shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you take from it. And Israel's obedience has an audience: this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples... for what great nation has God so near to them as YHVH our God is whenever we call on Him? Only take heed, lest you forget the day you stood before YHVH at Chorev, when the mountain burned and you heard the voice of words but saw no form. Therefore no carved image, no worship of sun, moon, or stars; for YHVH your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God — and yet, scattered among the nations, if you seek Him with all your heart and all your soul, you will find Him, for He will not forget the covenant of your fathers.

Moshe then sets apart three cities of refuge east of the Yarden, and repeats the Ten Words to the generation that was young or unborn at Sinai — YHVH did not make this covenant with our fathers only, but with us, all of us here alive this day — with Shabbat now grounded in redemption: remember that you were a servant in Egypt. He recalls the people's terror at the voice from the fire, and God's wistful approval: oh that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments always.

Then the words at the center of Israel's life, morning and evening ever since: Shema Yisrael — Hear, O Yisrael: YHVH our God, YHVH is one. And you shall love YHVH your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. These words shall be on your heart; teach them diligently to your children; talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up; bind them as a sign on your hand, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. When you eat and are full in houses you did not build, beware lest you forget YHVH who brought you out of the house of bondage. And the closing ground of it all: YHVH did not set His love on you because you were more in number than any people — for you were the fewest — but because YHVH loved you, and would keep the oath He swore to your fathers. Know therefore that YHVH your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and chesed to a thousand generations.

Main Themes

The Shema — hear, love, teach, bind, write Loving God with heart, soul, and might Torah as wisdom before the nations Chosen by love, not by merit or size Beware of forgetting in the days of fullness

Key Events

· Moshe's plea and God's refusal

· The charge to keep and teach the commandments

· The cities of refuge east of the Yarden

· The Ten Commandments repeated

· The Shema and V'ahavta

· The warnings against forgetting and idolatry

Key People

Moshe Yehoshua The new generation of Yisrael

Key Verses

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