Shabbat Parashat Vaetchanan - 5785

Shabbat Parashat Vaetchanan - 5785

Rabbi Hal Miller

  Only beware for yourself and greatly beware for your soul, lest you forget the things that

  your eyes have seen and lest you remove them from your heart all the days of your life,

  and make them known to your children and your children's children. [Devarim 4:9]

We know that the Torah does not waste words. Yet our portion is full of what seem at first to be repetitions. Our verse uses the word 'shamor' twice in what seem to be very similar circumstances. Three verses back, the same word is used, "you shall safeguard" in the context of performing commandments. Then in 4:15 the same word appears, "you shall greatly beware for your souls". Verse 4:23 begins with the same root, "beware for yourselves lest you forget". 4:40 begins with it again, "you shall guard His statutes". In 5:12, "guard the Sabbath day", in 5:29 "you shall beware to act", and also in 6:2, 6:17 and 7:11. The root appears in many different grammatical forms, but the meaning is always pretty much the same, that Moshe is telling the people repeatedly to ensure they follow the Torah. Why does he need to repeat it so often here?

The commentators try to explain each one in its context to show why that instance is necessary.

Rav Moshe Feinstein, for example, cites Rashi who says that "Moshe defined 'safeguarding' as Torah study" which he explains, "This teaches that although one may sincerely want to observe the mitzvos as he understands them and may wish to emulate others who observe them properly, unless one studies under a qualified teacher, he will almost inevitably err in his judgment of what is right and wrong. Thus Torah study is 'safeguarding'." Rashi's actual stated reason has to do with Israel being a kiddush Hashem, when he says, "through this you will be considered wise and understanding in the eyes of the peoples." Rav Soloveitchik explains "Israel has been charged with revealing God and publicizing His Name. The shechinah awaits Israel's actions. We must take the first step, to open the door and invite the Shechinah into our lives." Onkelos explains the doubled use in our verse, "the first is in the negative, take heed not to do prohibited acts, while the second conveys the positive sense of guarding and performing the commandments."

These and others give us some explanation on an instance by instance basis but do not address our question of why there are so many repetitions of the word to begin with.

Malbim has some relevant thoughts. He lists some of these instances, then says that in verse 6:1, "after the preambles and introductions, the actual substance of the Book of Devarim begins here." Using this approach, we can justify the second set (from 6:1 on) as the details of what was listed before and understand why there are a set of repetitions. This cuts the problem in half, but still leaves the question even if not as glaring. Malbim then seems to support Rashi's reason that although it will appear to the nations that Israel is wise and could have invented all the commandments, we must guard ourselves to ensure our own understanding that it is only from God, not from our wisdom and logic. The repetitions are to ensure we recognize the Divine nature of the Torah in every situation.

Rashi, Ramban, Rav Hirsch and others say that each time we see the word, it is doubled to say that if we guard ourselves in this world, we will gain the benefit in the next world. Rav Soloveitchik and Malbim understand that it is to ensure we are demonstrating the proper understandings to the nations of the world. Sforno sees it only as protecting ourselves from the influences of those other nations.

With so many explanations and reasons, the Torah needed to give us repeated uses of the word so we could learn one lesson from each, as is the usual way of understanding the text.