Parsha Talk Vaethanan 5782 2022

Parsha Talk- with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. This morning I (BC) got up from shivah [the initial 7-day mourning period after a funeral] for my brother, Bruce, z”l [zikhrono livrakhah, may his memory be for a blessing]. What better way to rejoin the world than to sit on Zoom with colleagues and friends, Rabbis Eliot Malomet and Jeremy Kalmanofsky and discuss the parashah? This week’s parashah, Parashat Va-etchanan [Deuteronomy 3:23–7:11] features the Shema/V-ahavta [6:4–9] and a version of the Ten Commandments [5:6–17; cf. Exodus 20:2-14], as well as some verses which were taken into the liturgy.
We began our conversation with a discussion of the Mosaic moment: Moses finds himself rebuffed for the last time in his quest to enter the Promised Land. God does not want to hear any more of this matter, leaving Moses with a crucial question — what should he do now? We follow up on last week’s conversation about Moses as Moshe Rabbeinu, Moses our Teacher, and discuss more precisely how Moshe fulfills this role. We managed to discuss the Shema in the context of both the Ten Commandments and the other appearances of the root-word ahav [to love] in this week’s Torah Reading. As often seems the case, the time is up before we seemed to get anywhere! Give a listen, and let us know what you think! Shabbat Shalom!!