Torah Study - Deuteronomy 33:1-5 March 4, 2017

Verse 1

bade...farewell. Rather, "blessed." (JPS)

man of god. That is, a prophet. This designation suggests that Moses' remarks about the tribes have the power of prophetic predictions and prayers. (JPS)

Verses 2-5 (JPS)

The exordium [of the poem of verses 2-19] describes the Lord's coming to the Israelites and subsequent events....The exordium is extraordinarily difficult to understand.

Verses 2-3. These verses describe the approach of the Lord from the wilderness region south of the promised land. The text bristles with difficulties, but similar descriptions in other biblical poems show its approximate meaning....

Verse 2

from Sinai.

• The places mentioned in verse 2 are not synonymous, but are all located in the areas known today as the Sinai Peninsula and the Negev. (JPS)
• This poem... registers what looks like an early tribal memory that the grand inception of YHWH's relationship with Israel was to the south, in the Sinai peninsula and in a series of associated sites. (Alter)

appeared/shone from Mount Paran.

• Or "beamed." Hebrew hofia' sometimes has the sense of "shine." It is used elsewhere of God coming to battle on Israel's behalf or to punish evildoers. (JPS)
• "shone." This choice of verb, like the preceding "dawned," reflects an early biblical poetic notion of the LORD's powerful appearance in awesome refulgence. (Alter)

Ribeboth-Kodesh.

• It is safest to construe the last term here as an otherwise unattested place-name, though some scholars understand it as "the myriads of Kadesh" or "the myriads of holy ones." (Alter)
• The word kadesh in the expression מרבבות קודש does not refer only to the myriads of angels but to the totality of Torah, and that the experience of holiness by Israel at the time emanated from "right" side of this emanation, i.e. the people experienced what is known in kabbalistic parlance as "a clear undistorted vision." (Sforno)

Lightning flashing.

• The meaning of 'eshdat is uncertain. The traditional interpretation, reading it as two words, 'esh dat, "a law of, or from, fire" is midrashic. (JPS)
• The translation "lightning flashing" reflects an implicit emendation of 'eshdat to 'esh, "fire," plus a second word of which only two letter have survived, such as d[oleke]t, "blazing." This reading is suggested by the motif of God surrounded by radiance.... (JPS)
  • Using the same translation as above, Alter explains that he chose his translation "...since God in biblical poetry, following Canaanite conventions, is often represented coming down to earth hurling lightning bolts as His weapons, this translation embraces" this. ('esh d[oleq]et could be translated as burning, or racing, fire) (Alter)
• Another possibility is to interpret 'eshdat as "slope," the singular of 'ash(e)dot, as in 'ashdot ha-Pisgah, "the slopes of Pisgah..." In that case, "right" means "south" and the clause means "From south of the slope [of Pisgah] [He came] to them," or "From the south [He came] to them at the slope [of Pisgah]," referring to the nearby mountain. The clause would then refer to God coming to Israel at its encampment in Moab, perhaps in anticipation of the coming conquest of the promised land. (JPS)
  • Friedman uses the translation above with "slope." He explains that "In this verse, YHWH shines like the sun coming from the east over Seir and Paran, in which case the slopes of Pisgah would in fact be at His right." (Friedman)
• Finally, it has been suggested that the text originally read "From the southland You proceeded ['isharta] to them." This emendation would make the clause parallel to the preceding ones. (JPS)

Verse 3

The meaning of this verse cannot be determined, and the text may well be damaged. A literal translation might be: "Even the lover of peoples, all its/His hallowed ones [are] in your hand, and it is they who tukku at your feet, he bears/utters your pronouncements."...Despite the fact that verse 2 speaks of God in the third person, it seems likely that He is the one addressed in this verse, although the different pronouns and inconsistent grammatical number of the verbs make this uncertain. The main question is whether the last three clauses in the verse refer to Israel or to God's angels. (JPS)

Lover...of the people.

• ...If this refers to God, it is a surprisingly universalistic statement for a poem about His protection of Israel. The targums and medieval commentators understand "peoples" as the tribes of Israel. (JPS)
• If the reference is to Israel, the phrase is comparable to the description of God as 'ohev 'ammo yisra'el, "who loves His people Israel," in the Jewish liturgy, as well as ancient Near Eastern references to gods and kings as "lover of his people." (JPS)
• Also members of the gentile nations, such as the mixed multitude whom Moses had accepted as converts at the time of the Exodus, and who had done so in order to receive the Torah. God became fond of and accepted them so that they too were included in the camp which His shechinah, benevolent presence, rested over the people. (Rashbam)

Their hallowed are all in Your hand.

• If the last three clauses of the verse refer to Israel, then kedoshayv, literally "its" or "His hallowed ones," refers to Israel's holy ones, the members of the holy people. In that case, the basic idea is that God took Israel protectively in His hand because they followed Him and accepted His authority....If the "hallowed" are the "holy beings" of God's angelic entourage (in which case, translate "His hallowed ones"), the verse continues the description of God's approach from the southland accompanied by holy beings.... Then it would be these beings to whom the third and fourth clauses refer as following or bowing to God and bearing or uttering His pronouncements. (JPS)

They followed in Your steps.

• The main difficulty is the unknown verb tukku. NJPS's "followed" is a surmise based on the next word le-raglekha, "in your steps." Since le-raglekha could also mean "at your feet," tukku might also mean "they bowed." (JPS)
• The word tukku expresses the idea of "they were acted upon" (a passive) -- "they placed themselves right in the middle (toch) between Thy feet". (Rashi)
• Whereas they, the other nations, are lying broken at Your feet...at the footstool of Your throne at Sinai. (Sforno)
• Another interpretation of these words: "in the Holy Temple." The Temple is perceived as God's footstool on earth. His presence manifests itself in and around the Temple. (Chizkuni)
• The letter ת in תכו is instead of the letter ה, which indicated that Moses refers to these people who have been the victims of every conceivable affliction during the forty years in the desert. They endured it all in order to follow God wherever He led them. (Tur HaAroch)

accepting Your pronouncements.

• The phrase translated as "accepting your pronouncements" is also problematic, since Hebrew nasa' does not normally mean "accept." A more likely translation is "bearing Your pronouncements".... Yet another possible translation is "uttering Your pronouncements." (JPS)
• "uttering Your pronouncements" - could introduce verse 4, in which Israel is the speaker. (JPS)
• "they honor your commands." The entire verse as we have it is enigmatic. (Fox)

Verse 4

It is not clear how this verse fits into its context. The NJPS translation construes it as the continuation of verse 3b, indicating when the people followed in God's steps and accepted his pronouncements: it was at the time when Moses conveyed God's Teaching to them. Another possibility is to view the verse in the context of verse 5: after God came from the southland to assist Israel (vv. 2-3), He became Israel's king at an assembly of its tribes (v. 5) and at that time Moses, His emissary, charged Israel with His Teaching. (JPS)

Moses.

• The reference to Moses by other speakers ("us") is puzzling since, according to verse 1, he is the speaker. According to some of the medieval commentators, it is the people who are speaking at this point: Having accepted, or uttered, God's pronouncements (commandments) in verse 3, they declare about them: "This Teaching with which Moses charged us is the heritage of the congregation of Jacob." Some modern scholars believe that the text did not originally mention Moses, but read "When He [God] charged us with the Teaching." In this view "Moses" [m-sh-h] is a partial dittography of the following word, m-v-r-sh-h, "heritage," originally spelled m-r-sh-h. If so, the subject of the verse, like the following one, is God. (JPS)
• Since Moses here is referred to in the third person, the simplest way to understand this without emending the line is an exclamation of the people--hence the quotation marks in the translation. (Alter)

As the heritage of the congregation of Jacob.

• "Heritage" (morashah) refers literally to property, particularly land, transmitted by inheritance. Here it is a metaphor for a spiritual possession. It connotes something vital and cherished....Because this verse is such a pithy expression of fundamental Jewish beliefs--that the Teaching was commanded by Moses, that it is a heritage, and that it belongs to the entire people, not just to an elite group--the rabbis selected it and the first verse of the Shema as the first biblical verses to be taught to a child when it is able to speak. It appears in Ashkenazic prayerbooks as part of a brief morning prayer for young children. In the Sephardic and Middle Eastern liturgy it is one of the verses recited when the Torah is lifted during the Torah-Reading Service. (JPS)
• Had the Jewish people not requested to hear the word of the Torah from Moses instead of from God Himself, Torah would not now be described as an inheritance. (Sforno)
• Our sages pointed out that Moses did not describe Israel here as "the descendants of Yaakov," or as "the house of Yaakov," but as "the congregation of Yaakov." The implication is that when proselytes join the Jewish nation, i.e. they congregate around us, that they too will be so much part of our nation that Torah is their heritage as much as it is ours. Alternately, the reference is to "resident strangers," who have not converted but who desire to live near us even if in a state of semi-servitude. (Tur HaAroch)

Verse 5

He became king.

• This probably refers to God. He became Israel's king after coming to them from the south and delivering them from their enemies. (JPS)
  
• In light of verse 4, several commentators think that verse 5 refers to Moses. In the larger context of Deuteronomy, which sees kingship as a later institution, the verse could not have been understood this way. It would also seem pointless to refer to Moses as king here, since the remainder of the poem describes God as the source of Israel's welfare. Furthermore, Moses is nowhere else called a king, whereas God is in numerous passages. (JPS)
  • Moses had been accepted and hailed as such at the assembly of all the people including the elders who had heard the Torah explained by Moses directly, having heard it from his own mouth. Moses had commanded henceforth this Torah was to be considered as a national heritage of all the people forever more. Seeing that Moses was so outstanding and illustrious, it was appropriate that the Torah he had brought to the people should be embraced with the greatest respect. (Tur HaAroch)
• Refer to the Torah. I.e. that the Torah should rule over Israel like a king, enjoy the same respect and awe. (Tur HaAroch)

Jeshurun. Israel. (JPS)

When the heads of the people assembled.

• As in the coronation of a human king, it is the people or their leaders who acclamation legitimates the king's sovereignty. (JPS)
• The poet clearly envisages a grand assembly of all the tribes--an obviously pre-monarchic event--to confirm God's kingship over Israel. (Jeshurun is of course an epithet for Israel.) This flourish concludes the introductory section of the poem and sets us up for the blessings of the tribes one by one. (Alter)