Parashat D'varim 5769--Words and Power

One of the highlights of my work as a Jewish Educator has been to take groups of high school students to Washington D.C. for a weekend of teenage activism organized by the Religious Action Center, the political arm of the Reform Movement (TIOH 9^th graders go every year!). During this weekend, teens learn what it means to speak truth to power. As they write and deliver speeches to their Senators and Members of Congress, they come to understand that our tradition considers this sort of speaking both a sacred and central part of being Jewish. Yes, we all know, words have power. There is just something especially extraordinary about witnessing a member of our community recognizing that power.

This week, we begin reading the final book of Torah. The ancient rabbis called this book “Mishneh Torah,” or the “Second Law,” (Deuteronomy 17:18), because much of this book focuses on a repetition of the laws Moses had previously delivered to the people. The term Mishneh Torah was later translated into the Greek “Deuteronomy,” “deuteros” meaning second and “nomos” meaning law.” In Hebrew, the book is simply called “D’varim” or “Words.”

The names we attribute to people and things tend to shape the way we understand them.

When we call this book “Deuteronomy,” we suggest that its overarching purpose is a reiteration of law. This shapes the way we read its text. As we read, we bend our ears toward Moses’ repetition of the laws of Torah. I believe that when we call this book “Deuteronomy,” we gloss over its central purpose.

By calling the book D’varim, we come to a deep truth in the text: the last book of Torah holds a similar purpose to the first book of Torah. In Genesis, we witness God creating the world through word. In D’varim, we witness Moses leaving the world through word. This book, then, is wholly about words.

Indeed, there are no laws at all within the words of this week’s Torah Portion, Parashat D’varim. The entire parashah involves Moses standing before the people and retelling their story. This is a parashah of words. In it, Moses retells the triumphs and frustrations of his leadership, the complaints the Israelites made to him, the intricacies of the relationship they have built with God, and the interactions they have had with others along the way. As Moses nears the end of his life, he is compelled to speak, to re-utter, all that happened to him along the way.

A simple lesson: Our words hold enormous power. The words we speak frame the way we (and the people close to us) live our lives. We shape and give meaning to our experiences by the stories we tell and retell. Moses could have just stood before the people and restated law, but instead he poignantly recites his own interpretation of the events of his life and the Israelites’ lives.

When our teenagers go to Washington D.C., they speak truth to power by framing social and political issues within their own experiences and values. When Moses stands before the people, he empowers his own truth, by speaking the story of his life as he knows it to be.

• How might you retell the central stories of our life? (to yourself, to your children, to your community?)
• What is the purpose(s) of your retelling?
  
• What overarching themes or messages emerge?
  
• Who in your life needs to hear these stories?

In my third week at TIOH, I am engaged in what I consider the holiest of work, telling my story and hearing the stories of others. I want to hear your family’s story. Just as Moses’ words shaped the way the Israelites saw themselves, each of your stories shape the TIOH community and the way I will come to see us. I invite you to share your words with me. Sweet or bitter, Torah teaches us, words are the building blocks of creation.